Heg. 922.

J.C.1516. that their oppreffors were at a diftance, they flaughtered the feeble garrifon which was left them; they chofe from among them a prince called Mahomet-Beg, and declared themfelves tributary to the Ottoman empire. Karakhan (that was the name of the. Perfian fatrap) having discovered the impofition, endeavoured to recover the Diarbekar by force; but the troops which had been fufficiently ftrong to opprefs this province and keep it in obedience to the Perfian, were not enough to recover it. The war became bloody, but always to the advantage of the rebels. The following year, the Heg. 923. emperor of the Turks furnished his new fubjects with fuccours, which affifted them in driving out entirely thofe whom they regarded as their tyrants, and which irrevocably attached them to the Ottoman power.

J.C. 1517.

Selim has

nate the

Selim believed himself indebted to religion a mind to for this conqueft, without confidering, that it Christians. Was the perfecution of the Perfians, rather than the Sunna, which had brought it under his government. In order to thank God for his fuchim from cefs, he refolved to perfecute in his name.

His minif

ters find

means to

diffuade

it.

We

have obferved, that at the taking of Conftantinople, Mahomet II. referved the churches of one entire quarter for the worship of the Chriftians. The fultan faw with grief these stone edifices, fo rare at Conftantinople, occupied by those whom he called Infidels; he was irritated,

that,

Heg. 923.

that, under his eyes, a people of flaves should dare J.C.1517. fhew a horror for his prophet, and treat him as an impoftor. In a fit of zeal,

mufti or chief of the religion.

he fent for the

After the emperor, this is the perfon moft revered in the empire. Whenever the monarch wants to make fome confiderable change, he procures a sentence from this priest, called a fetfa, becaufe, as there is no other written law in Turkey than the Alcoran, the fetfa, which paffes for an interpretation of this pretended divine book, gives a mark of divinity to the edict of the prince. Selim publicly demanded of the mufti, which would be most agreeable to God, to conquer all the Chriftian territories, and to procure, by impofts, the riches of these Infidels, in order to apply them to the glory of Islamism, or to convert to the Mahometan faith a great number of these abused wretches. The chief of the religion replied, without hesitating, that, as the Chriftians could not hope for falvation in the law of Jesus Christ, it would be much more meritorious before God, to convert several of them to the truth and to the lawful worship, than to oppress the whole. Then the emperor, fending for the caimacan, or grand vizier's lieutenant, in that quality governor of Conftantinople, ordered him to take immediately all the churches from the Chriftians, convert them into mofques, and publish in Conftantinople, that all the followers of Jesus Christ were to

get

Heg. 923.

J.C.1517. get themselves circumcised and take the turban within a limited time, upon pain of death. Selim left Conftantinople immediately, in order to give the caimacan an opportunity of executing his orders, for this officer has no authority in the city but in the absence of the grand feignior. This decree, vifibly contrary to the letter, even to the meaning of the Alcoran, greatly afflicted the viziers and the mufti, who never had dreamed that an improper use would be made of his fetfa, but who was not fufficiently courageous to explain it. The grand vizier Ali bashaw was fenfible how prejudicial this falfe zeal would be to the ftate, by the quantity of blood that it would cause to be fpilt, and the number of Greek and Latin Christians, all creditable merchants or industrious artifans, whom it would oblige to leave the empire. Ali bahaw fecretly directed the Greek patriarch, how to conduct himself when the caimacan fhould fignify the grand feignior's order to him. This patriarch, who, as we have feen, received from the emperor the inveftiture of his church, by the pastoral staff and the ring, replied to the chiau, charged with the execution, that he appealed from the order of the caimacan to his highness himself.

The mufti, confulted on this answer, affured Selim, who was at that time at Adrianople, that he could not refufe to hear the patriarch. The

latter

latter was fent for and introduced into the divan, J.C.1517.
Heg. 923.
accompanied by several Greek priests, in presence
of the mufti and all the bafhaws of the bench.
After having bowed three times to the earth at
the foot of the throne, he faid, with a modeft,
confident tone, that the order fignified to the
Christians had been furprised from his highness,
fince it wounded the juftice and text of the Alcoran;
that at the time of the taking of Conftantinople,
Mahomet II. the grandfather of the emperor, had
folemnly permitted the Greeks the free exercife
of their religion, provided they paid tribute
that he had granted them the exclufive right of
all the churches which they ftill poffeffed in vir-
tue of this royal grant; that with respect to the
apoftacy required of all the Christians, it was
not only contrary to the promise of Mahomet II.
but manifeftly interdicted by the text of the
Alcoran, of which he quoted the words: That
no one shall be forced to follow the religion of
Mahomet from the time that he fhall have attained
the age of difcretion, provided he pays annually, by
way of tribute, thirteen drachms of pure filver.

The patriarch having called the mufti to witnefs the accuracy of the quotation and the true meaning of the words, the defterdar effendi, who was his oppofer, was obliged to acknowledge it; but he defied the patriarch to fhew the act which ceded the propriety of the churches to him. The prelate acknowledged, that the paper demanded

Mm

J.C. 1517. demanded had been confumed in a fire, but he Heg. 923. produced three janiffaries, each more than a hundred years old, who affirmed their having been witneffes of the promise made by Mahomet II. Notwithstanding this teftimony, the emperor, who envied the Chriftians their ftone churches, ordered that they fhould be converted into mofques; that the Giaures* fhould preserve the free exercise of their religion, agreeably to the law of Mahomet, and that they should be at liberty to build churches of wood, to fupply the lofs of thofe that were taken from them.

War with the Mam

their fultan, is

The martial Selim could not remain inactive. ' melukes. He was not ignorant of the danger of leaving Gauri, his troops in that fituation; befides, Egypt offered a vaft field to his ambition. The foudan which he Gauri, fovereign of the Mammelukes, had, as lofes near well as the king of Perfia, harboured one of

killed in a

battle

Aleppo.

the fons of Achmet. Though this prince was dead, as well as his brother, the fultan boré a much stronger refentment of it in his heart, because the revenge might be useful and glorious. The relation of the war, which overturned the throne of the Mammelukes, has been written by a Turk, an eye witnefs, who executed the office of cadilefker or provoft in Selim's army. We fhall principally follow this author, whose details appear to us to wear the face of truth. The reader

The Turks call all the Chriftians, Jews, and generally all those whe are not Muffulmen, by this name.

The manufcript is depofited in the king of France's library.