The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire (30 page)

Louis XI sent envoys to Rome to discuss the situation with Pope Sixtus. The king offered to contribute 200,000 ducats a year for the crusade, and if the Pope permitted him to tax the benifices of the clergy in France ‘he would add another 100,000 ducats’. Louis estimated that Italy could easily contribute 40,000 ducats annually for the crusade; Germany, 200,000; ‘all the Spains’, an additional 200,000; ‘and the king of England, who is so powerful and has such rich benifices, 100,000 ducats’. He had been informed ‘that the Venetians are willing to declare themselves against the Turks, provided that they are assured that all Italy is going to join in and will not leave them in the lurch’. His envoys were authorised to commit their king to his pledge of 300,000 ducats annually, provided that he was allowed to tax the clergy, and that the other states of Europe support the crusade to the amounts ‘of which mention is made above’. Louis also noted his desire for assurances of peace from his neighbours to the east, ‘and in making the aforesaid offer he does not discount the fact that he must be safe from the king of England through the duration of the war [against the Turks] and for one year thereafter’. He said that the King of England was ‘as good a friend as he had in the world’, but the Pope had to realise the responsibilities that Louis had to maintain the security of his own kingdom.

Meanwhile, Emperor Frederick III and King Matthias Corvinus were waging war on one another in Austria. At the same time Turkish
akincis
were raiding in Croatia, Carniola, Carinthia and Styria, some of them even penetrating into Friuli, despite the peace treaty between the Ottomans and Venice.

The Neapolitan army finally went on the offensive during the winter of 1480-1, putting Otranto under siege and containing the Ottoman forces within their beachhead in Apulia. Then in March 1481 the Neapolitan fleet defeated an Ottoman naval force in the Adriatic, cutting off the Turkish garrison in Otranto from the sea and thus intensifying the siege.

On 8 April 1481 Pope Sixtus issued a bull proclaiming a new crusade, summoning all the princes of Europe to arms against the Turks. He imposed a three-year peace on Christendom, beginning on 1 June 1481, lest ‘western Europe go the way of Constantinople and the Morea, Serbia and Bosnia, and the empire of Trebizond, whose rulers (and peoples) had all come to grief’.

But a general fear prevailed that, once again, nothing would come of this effort. The classical scholar Peter Schott, canon of Strasbourg, wrote later that month from Bologna that he had gone to take a last look at Rome ‘before the Eternal City was taken by the Turks’.

14

Death of the Conqueror

Sultan Mehmet spent the winter of 1480-1 sequestered in Topkapı Sarayı, from where rumours leaked into Istanbul that he was in poor health. Then early in the spring of 1481 he began mustering his army on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus in Üsküdar. He had told no one of the goal of the expedition that had taken him out of his sick bed: some thought it would be another attempt to take Rhodes, while others believed that Mehmet intended to conquer the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

On 25 April Mehmet crossed the Bosphorus in his imperial caique to the Asian shore at Üsküdar, after which the grand vezir Karamanı Mehmet Pasha ordered his troops to get under way. The army marched slowly down the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara, gathering additional forces as it proceeded. By 1 May the army had only reached Gebze, at the head of the Gulf of Nicomedeia (Iznik), where a halt was made at a place called Hünkâr Çayı, or Emperor’s Meadow. This was where Hannibal had taken his own life in 183 BC when he was trapped by the Romans, and where the emperor Constantine the Great had died in AD 338, though Mehmet, despite his deep interest in the lives of great conquerors, would hardly have been aware of the historical significance of his campsite.

Mehmet had called a halt here because he had been stricken by severe abdominal pains. His Persian physician, Hamiduddin al-Lari, administered medicine that only made matters worse, and so Mehmet’s old Jewish doctor Master Iacopo was called in. Iacopo concluded that the pain was caused by blockage of the intestines, but despite his frantic efforts he was unable to do anything more than alleviate the sultan’s agony with powerful doses of opium.

Mehmet lingered on until late in the evening of 3 May 1481, when he passed away at ‘the twenty-second hour’, according to Giovanni-Maria Angiolello. The sultan was forty-nine when he died, having reigned for more than thirty years, most of which he had spent in war. As Tursun Beg wrote of Mehmet: ‘Besides the gracious gift of the conquest of Constantinople, Fatih wrested twenty or more independent lands from the enemies of His High Estate.’

The grand vezir Karamanı Mehmet Pasha tried to keep the sultan’s death a secret, and he warned the doctors and all others in attendance to say nothing about it under pain of death. Others outside the imperial tent were told that the sultan was ill and was being taken back to Istanbul for treatment, and so the royal carriage was readied and the horses saddled for the grand vezir and others in his party. Mehmet’s body was bundled up and placed in the carriage, and the small caravan headed back to Istanbul in the dead of night surrounded by the sultan’s bodyguard.

The Turkish chronicler Nesri was with Mehmet’s army when they stopped at Hünkâr Çayı, and after evening prayers he had bedded down near the imperial tent and fallen asleep. But in the middle of the night he was awakened by the sound of wagon wheels and neighing horses, only to find ‘the wind whistling where the sultan’s tent had been pitched’.

Mehmet’s death left Prince Beyazit, the older of the sultan’s two surviving sons, as his obvious successor, though there were some who favoured Prince Jem. At the time Beyazit was thirty-three and serving as provincial governor in Amasya, while Jem, who was twenty-one, was governing in Konya, the capital of Karaman. Karamanı Mehmet was one of the few in the uppermost level of the Ottoman government who supported Jem as the successor to the throne. Gedik Ahmet, now the captain-pasha of the Ottoman navy, was sympathetic to Jem and despised Beyazit, but he was at Valona in Albania with the Turkish forces that had captured Otranto. Most others in the government were on the side of Beyazit, including the vezirs Ishak Pasha and Daud Pasha, the
beylerbey
of Anatolia, Sinan Pasha, the
beylerbey
of Rumelia, Hersekzade Ahmet Pasha, and the commander of the janissaries, Kasım Ağa.

Before starting back to Istanbul, Karamanı Mehmet sent three of his slaves on fast horses to Konya with instructions to inform Jem of his father’s death, and to urge him to rush back to Istanbul to claim the throne before his brother Beyazit. But Sinan Pasha had ordered checkpoints to be set up on all the roads leading into Konya, and the grand vezir’s couriers were intercepted before they could reach Jem. At first the couriers would say nothing, but after Sinan Pasha had one of them impaled the other two revealed the message they were carrying. Sinan Pasha then sent his own courier to inform Beyazit in Amasya, advising him to hasten back to Istanbul to seize the throne before Jem.

By that time Karamanı Mehmet had brought Mehmet’s body to Topkapı Sarayı in Istanbul, where he had it packed in ice in a meat locker in the palace kitchens. The army had returned to Üsküdar, where some janissaries seized rafts and crossed over to Istanbul and stormed the palace. After they discovered the sultan’s body they beheaded the grand vezir and paraded through the streets of Istanbul with his head on a pike, shouting ‘Long live Beyazit!’. The janissaries then took advantage of the absence of authority to sack the Christian and Jewish quarters of Istanbul, before they were finally subdued by Ishak Pasha, who had been left in charge of the city.

Ishak and Davud Pasha then summoned the other members of the government and met at the palace with Beyazit’s young son Korkut, who had been living with his mother in the harem of Topkapı Sarayı. Korkut, who was then eleven years old, was raised to the throne as regent for his father, who was expected to arrive in Istanbul soon; meanwhile, the pashas secured the loyalty of the janissaries and other elements of the army by promising them higher pay.

Beyazit was indeed en route, riding westward from Amasya at top speed with a bodyguard of 4,000
sipahis
. At Izmit he paused in his journey and sent a trusted slave ahead to Istanbul, fearing that he might be riding into a trap. The slave reported that he had seen the sultan’s remains, and that Beyazit’s son Korkut had been made regent and was waiting to turn the throne over to his father.

Thus reassured, Beyazit proceeded on to Üsküdar, where he arrived on 20 May, having donned a black robe as a sign of mourning for his father. At Üsküdar Beyazit was formally greeted by the pashas and conducted across the Bosphorus in the imperial caique, escorted by a flotilla of galleys and barges. But when he reached the European shore he was confronted by a mob of janissaries and
sipahis
, who demanded that he confirm the promises made to them by the pashas in the name of his son Korkut. Beyazit placated the soldiers by promising them
bahşiş
, or a bribe, as well as a permanent raise in pay, an increase that he had to give to all other units of the army as a result of a second confrontation with a mob of troops near the palace. He was also asked to promise that in the future he would appoint his vezirs only from among the janissaries,
sipahis
and
içoğlan
, the imperial pages, for the soldiers wanted to prevent the rise to power of palace favourites such as Karamanı Mehmet Pasha from the
ulema
, or learned class. Again Beyazit agreed, but when the soldiers made still another demand, that they be given amnesty for their recent sack of the Christian and Jewish quarters, he remained silent and continued on his way to the palace.

The following day Beyazit took turns with the pashas and
ağas
and other dignitaries in carrying the coffin of his father to Fatih Camii, the Mosque of the Conqueror. There Mehmet was laid to rest in the splendid tomb that he had built for himself behind his mosque, the turban that he had worn to his last day placed at the head of his catafalque. The noted cleric Şeyh Vefa then led Beyazit and a crowd of 20,000 mourners in prayer for the repose of Mehmet’s soul, many of them continuing their devotions until dawn.

The following day the Ottoman court assembled at Topkapı Sarayı, where the regent Prince Korkut handed over power to his father, who ascended the throne as Beyazit II, the eighth sultan of the Osmanlı dynasty. Beyazit sat enthroned just outside Bab-üs Saadet, the Gate of Felicity, the entryway to the Inner Palace. There he received the homage of the court in the ceremony known as
Biat
, or Allegiance, during which all the notables and functionaries of the empire filed past to kiss the hem of the sultan’s robe and swear fealty to him. This was followed by a meeting of the Divan, the Imperial Council, at which Beyazit announced the appointment of Ishak Pasha as grand vezir and of Daud Pasha and Hersekzade Ahmet Pasha as first vezirs. Messengers were sent to governors and other officials throughout the empire to inform them of the new appointments, and all judges were ordered to publish the news of Beyazit’s accession.

Some days later Beyazit proceeded to the suburb of Eyüp on the upper reaches of the Golden Horn, where Mehmet had built a mosque and shrine around the tomb of Eba Eyüp, Companion of the Prophet Mohammed. There Beyazit was girded with the sword of his ancestor Osman Gazi, in a ceremony equivalent to a coronation, performed by the Nakib-ül Eşraf, Chief of the Descendants of the Prophet. Following this he visited Mehmet’s tomb to offer up his prayers, a pilgrimage that thenceforth became customary for all new sultans upon their accession. He then returned to the palace in a procession lined with the entire populace of Istanbul, who cheered their new ruler with shouts of ‘Long live Sultan Beyazit’, while he distributed largesse to the crowd as he passed by. When the procession reached Topkapı Sarayı, Beyazit announced an additional increase in pay for the janissaries, the
bahşiş
known as
Cülus Akçası
, or Accession Money, which was now customary for a new sultan to pay to his elite troops before they would agree to serve him. Only then did Beyazit retire to the Inner Palace to receive the congratulations of the women in his harem, which was now headed by his mother Gülbahar, who had become the
valide sultan
, or queen mother.

Jem had by this time learned that his father had died and that his brother had succeeded as sultan. After consulting with his advisers at Konya, he decided to contest the succession. He assembled a mixed army of Anatolian
sipahis
, irregular infantry known as
azabs
, Türkmen warriors from Karaman and from the tribes of Warsak and Turgud, together with dervishes and men of the
ahi
, the craft guilds of Konya and other cities in central Anatolia.

Jem led his forces westward by way of Akşehir, Afyon, Kütahya and Eskişehir. On 27 May his advance guard reached the outskirts of Bursa, where he was joined by a large number of
sipahis
and feudal troops known as
timarcis
, who originally had been mustered to join Mehmet’s final campaign, now aborted. This brought Jem’s force to about 20,000 troops, which he marshalled below the
kale
, or citadel, of Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire. The janissaries who garrisoned Bursa refused to open the gates of the
kale
to the rebels, fearing the wrath of Beyazit if they capitulated, and Jem was forced to camp outside the city to the west around the Beyazidiye, the hilltop mosque complex built by his great-great-grandfather Beyazit I.

Beyazit had anticipated that his brother would contest the throne and attempt to establish himself at Bursa, and so he sent orders to all the European provinces to send troops to join the forces he was mustering in Istanbul. He also ordered the Ottoman navy to stop transporting troops to Valona in Albania, where Gedik Ahmet Pasha was waiting to reinforce the Turkish garrison at Otranto. At the same time he ordered the pasha to return to Istanbul with his army to join the imperial expedition against Jem.