It was refolved to fend J.C. 1716. feeking to divide them in order to beat them Death of the vaild The news of these preparations of war arrived at Conftantinople when the fultan was overcome fultanefs. with grief at the recent death of the valid fultanefs, whom he had always greatly loved. Curdifca had enjoyed under two fultans her fons, Mustapha and Achmet, the greatest advantages which a woman can think of enjoying in Turkey; for the most beloved affaky may have more influence, but never fo much authority as the mother of the emperor. Curdifca had had a great deal of both, and had made rather a good ufe of it. The riches which the valids difpofe of, and which they often throw away in profufions and prodigalities, ? prodigalities, were employed by Curdifca in building caravanfaries and hofpitals, and in digging wells in the deferts around Mecca, for the relief of pilgrims. It was not her fault, as we have feen, that her fon Achmet did not powerfully affift Charles XII. king of Sweden. The reputation of this fultanefs was more extensive in the Ottoman empire, than that of all the fultanefs mothers, who 'till then had been known, only by the factions which they had promoted and the commotions that they had occafioned without knowing why. C. 1716. mans de against the Achmet had not yet gotten the better of his The Ger. grief, when the refident of the emperor of Ger- clare war many fignified to the reis effendi from his master, Turks. that if, by the 15th of May at furtheft, an Ottoman minifter did not arrive on the frontiers of Hun.. gary, charged with a promife from the grand feignior to accept of the mediation of the emperor Charles VI. between the republic of Venice and him, the emperor of the West was determined The emto declare war against the Porte. The divan had already made great preparations. been repaired with great expence and quickness, as there was reafon to expect that this would be the the complace first attacked. All the troops that were to the grand compose the army marched from different places to Adrianople, where the grand feignior reviewed them; and having committed his fleet to the charge of the captain bashaw, to attempt the Conqueft of the isle of Corfu, he put a hundred Temefwar had and eaft puts a mand of vizier. Heg.1128. 1.C.1716. and fifty thousand men under the command of his grand vizier, who had never commanded, nor even ferved in any fubaltern rank. But the favor and profperity of Coumourgi had perfuaded him that he was invincible. A cadilef ker depofed ing against the war. It was even against the wishes of the ulema for fpeak- thet he undertook this war. The effendis of the court faid publicly, that it was infringing a folemn treaty which the Germans had no way broken; that God would not give his bleffing to arms turned against a nation which had not merited to be looked upon as an enemy. These clamours became fo common, that the grand vizier thought it neceffary to ftifle them. He affembled the divan, where he introduced all the mollacs of Adrianople. Having demanded of the mufti, with a tone of authority, if he would not give his fetfa to approve of the war against Infidels who prefumed to protect the declared enemy of the Porte, the chief of the law replied with fubmiffion, and in a very few words, that his fetfa was ready, and he read it immediately. As no one was in hafte to approve or blame it, Coumourgi ordered the premier cadilefker to give his opinion on what he had just heard. This cadilefker was a venerable old man, whose uprightness and perfect knowledge of morality had raised him, after much time, to the fecond place in the ulema. Mehemet effendi (that was his name) replied, that the Alcoran forbade the violation of treaties, and that the Muffulmen had always given the Giaurs the example Heg.1128. example of fidelity in this refpect; that the em- J.C. 1716. peror of Germany juftly demanded the execution of the treaty of Carlowitz, and that he offered to enter into an examination whether the Venetians or the Ottomans had first broken it, in order to render a neceffary juftice to thofe whom this treaty had made allies; that if it were thought the Germans were enfeebled and ruined by their long wars with France, it fhould be likewife believed that God would punish ambition and rapacity; that the old Ottomans had enlarged the bounds of their empire, by employing their arms in none but just wars; that the true Believers not being excufed from that fidelity to the Giaurs which they required from other people, they might be chastised by the arms which they had already found fo formidable, as the Giaurs had formerly been chaftifed by them. The grand vizier, whom this difcourfe greatly enraged, endeavoured to juftify the war; but Mehemet effendi having conftantly combated him with fubftantial reasons, the prime minifter was reduced to use authority, the fole advantage which he had left, to impofe filence on equity and juftice. The old cadilefker was depofed, and all the ulema remained in that profound filence which fear impofes. The grand feignior caufed his troops to be Manifefto pre- of the ceded by a kind of manifefto, which he fpread fultan. through all the provinces, the object of which was, to perfuade that he was not the first infringer VOL. IV. Gg of 1 1.C. 1716. of the treaty of Carlowitz. It faid, that he had Heg.1128. fent an ambassador to Vienna, to affure that court, that all the preparations which he was making menaced the Venetians only; that it was true the German refident had then offered the mediation of his mafter; that prince Eugene, the prefident of the council of war, had likewife of fered it, as well as the English and Dutch ambaffadors that of their nations; but that, though all of them had beeen accepted, the Venetians had nevertheless continued hoftilities; that their fleet had wintered at Corfu, a town about two miles from the coaft of the frontiers of the Ottoman empire; that at length on the intelligence which arrived from the confines of Hungary, of the extraordinary preparations which the emperor of the Weft was making, fuch as levies, affembling troops, establishing magazines, and building veffels on the Danube, the resident had been again preffed to declare himself; a fresh delay of thirty days had been given him to make a precise reply, and that, after two months' filence, he had thought fit to fay verbally, that the minifters of the Porte had not given him any pofitive reply to the offer which he had made of the mediation of the emperor, or to the letters remitted by prince Eugene to the aga Ibrahim; that he had added feveral reafons equally weak, the conclufion of which had been, that the emperor having ancient engagements with the Venetians, he was obliged to fupport their interefts; that at length he had faid, that |