Szigetvar - "History of the Turkish, Or Ottoman Empire" by Mignot, 1787

History of the Turkish, Or Ottoman Empire

From Its Foundation in 1300, to the Peace of Belgrade in 1740. To which is Prefixed An Historical Discourse on Mahomet and His Sucessors, Volume 2

Translated from the French of Vincent Mignot,
By A. Hawkins, Esq.

London., 1787

Source 


The severity of Solyman was a new proof of his losses. Since this prince had been free from the government of women, the mufti had gotten possession of his confidence. He was unceasingly repeating to him, that the crimes of the people which he had suffered too long were the sole cause of the ill success of his arms. In consequence, the sultan ordered a thundering edict to, be published against the drinkers of wine, and still more terrible against those who should dare sell it; an other against those who should neglect to attend public prayers; and a third against blasphemers. He ordered that every omission should be punished by a fine; and all impiety, in the number of which the use of wine was the greatest, first by a severe bastinade, and lastly by death. His zeal, or rather natural inclination, inspired him likewise with a desire to persecute the Christians. Some Mussulmen believe that they not only ought to employ every mean to propagate Islamism, but even that they are not obliged to keep their word with Infidels. It is thus they term all those who are not Mussulmen; and this dogma, though reprobated by all who have an upright mind and a just heart, has been greedily received  by some princes who sought a pretext to satisfy their avidity.

One of the isles of the Archipelago, called Scio or Chio, inhabited by Latin and Greek Christians, and governed by an aristocracy under the protection of the grand Seignior, to whom it was tributary, felt the effects of his rage. This island, as fertile as Malta was barren, was inhabited only by husbandmen and traders. Instead of citadels they had manufactures; the inhabitants used iron only in the cultivation of their fields and the manufacture of their silks; and they knew no other way of defending themselves against the Mussulmen, than by giving them part of those riches which were the fruits of their industry. A great many Genoese families were settled in the isle of Scio. Solyman seized on all those that had any part in the government, and banished them to divers places in his dominions. He delivered the people to the rapine of a bashaw, whom he established in the island contrary to the faith or treaties. Daramont, the French ambassador who had protected the knights of Malta at the siege of Tripoli, regarding all the Christian inhabitants of these barbarous climates as countrymen, complained loudly of this injustice to the grand vizier Mustapha. France, as we have already said, is the almost necessary ally of Turkey. Daramont's complaints were attended to; the exiles were established in their country; and if the state of this island did not become as free as it had been, its inhabitants were at least eased of one part of the load which oppressed them.

The sultan indeed had reasons for keeping on good terms with France; for his uneasiness and chagrin at not having succeeded at Malta, soon incited him to attack the house of Austria. The occasion was natural. Stephen Zapoli, prince of Transylvania, whom Solyman had formerly protected, implored his assistance against Maximilian, king of Hungary, become emperor of the West after the death of Ferdinand his father. This prince refused to give his sister in marriage to Zapoli, though the treaty concluded with Ferdinand expressly said, that the prince of Transylvania should marry the Austrian princess, as soon as she should be marriageable.

The sultan sent forces to the bashaw (pasha, governor) of Buda, with orders, to ravage Hungary, which he thought badly defended. This officer took indeed some castles; but count Serin, who commanded for Maximilian in lower Hungary, obliged the Turks to raise the siege of Sigeth after great loss. Count Salm, another Austrian commander, took the town of Vesperin by surprise, the garrison of which the bashaw had imprudently weakened. Several other places belonging to the Turks followed this example. These misfortunes determined Solyman to put himself once more at the head of his janissaries, though he was seventy-six years of age and loaded with infirmities, which his licentious life had brought on him. Neither his courage nor ambition was abated: he ordered the beglerbeg of Asia to send troops to Europe, and appointed the plains of Adrianople for the rendezvous of his army. The mufti published a fetfa (fatwa, fetwa), which granted those who should march to this war the absolution of all their sins. Numbers eagerly gave in their names; and besides the janissaries, bostangis, and fpahis, who, to the number of fifty thousand, were to form the principal force of this army, more than a hundred thousand timarians or asaps followed Solyman.

The emperor wanted to bring his son Selim to this war; but that prince, accustomed to the indolence and pleasures of his haram, feared fatigue. He refused to follow his father; and not having taken care to dissemble the reasons of his refusal, Solyman thought them so disgraceful that he would not believe them. This prince, too much accustomed to mistrust his children, believed or feigned to believe that Selim was tired of seeing his father live so long. Solyman would rather suspect his son of rebellion than cowardice: he deferred for some time his departure for Hungary, carefully watching the actions of a prince not worth the pains taken about him. At length when the profound indolence, the in capacity even of Selim, had removed his father's fears he left Constantinople at the head of the janissaries and bostangis of his guard, to join at Adrianople the Asiatic troops which were gone takes the thither.

Solyman affected great magnificence in this numerous armament. His departure from Constantinople was more like a triumph than the march of an army. . Gold sparkled on the arms of all the officers;' the beauty of the horses, the richness of their trappings, and the splendor which raised to envy all those that wished to please the emperor, seemed to elevate the courage of the Turks while it humbled their enemies. Amidst all this pomp, the sultan appeared so pale and lean, that the people presaged they should never see him again in the capital of his empire. The grand seignior joined the Asiatic troops at Adrianople, where they were just arrived; he marched at their head towards Buda, where he was to meet those of Europe. The prince of Transylvania, the cause or rather pretext of the war, came to Buda at the head of a thousand chosen horse, to pay homage to his protector and carry him rich presents. The emperor of the Turks received Stephen Zapoli on his throne, with the haughtiness of a Mahometan monarch, who would not lose the opportunity of humbling a Christian prince obliged to implore his succour. Solyman not having the same reasons for concealing the faults of the bashaw of Buda, he had fancied he had for not punishing the generals who had raised the siege of Malta, the unfortunate bashaw was strangled almost under the eyes of his master. Immediately after this cruel proceeding, the emperor marched towards Belgrade; and as he learned there that his adversary was obliged to assemble the diet of the western empire to obtain succours, he resolved to besiege Sigeth, hoping to carry that place before Maximilian could assemble forces sufficient to defend it.

Sigeth, situated between two rivers, was divided into an upper and lower town, defended sigeth. by good fortifications and a citadel said to be very strong. There were but three thousand regular troops in the castle and two towns. With this weak garrison count Zrinski, who had thrown himself into Siget, resolved to stop the whole Ottoman army a sufficient time to put it in his master's power to “defend Hungary. He spoke to his troops with great energy, describing to them the horror of falling into the hands of these barbarians, who respected neither the laws of' war nor of humanity: he gave them hopes that the succours of Maximilian would soon relieve the place; and having exacted from every soldier an oath that he would sooner die than surrender, he had a gallows erected in the public, square to punish those who should dare perjure themselves. The town was well stored with ammunition and provisions; it could not be approached by land but by one narrow side defended by several works: the two rivers formed a peninsula of it. The spahis and janissaries attempted to throw over bridges for a long time without success. Solyman, who had no idea of sparing human blood, and who was exasperated that three thousand Christians should stop a hundred and fifty thousand Ottomans, was continually undertaking new works, which were as soon demolished by the batteries from the place, and which destroyed thousands of men, either by the water or the fire. At length constancy and number prevailed. After a great deal of blood spilt, the janissaries reached the curtains of the lower town, the breaches of which, being become practicable, made them soon fear an assault.

Count Zrinski, despairing of defending that quarter, would not lose soldiers there who could be more useful to him elsewhere. He ordered a bridge to be broken down which formed the communication between the two towns, and took the precaution of setting fire to the place which he abandoned, The love of booty caused a number of Turks to perish in the fire, which they endeavoured to extinguish. As the garrison was intrenched behind large, deep ditches, Solyman would fain convey the water from it; this enterprise cost him still dearer than the first. Count Serin's soldiers became more terrible as the attacks drew nearer.  After two months of the most; determined resistance, this brave chief had no more than fix hundred men left, when he thought it requisite to retire to the citadel in order to withstand the enemy with greater effect, having less ramparts to defend. Humanity would not permit him to set the new town on fire, as he had done to the other quarter; he would not have had room enough in the citadel to receive the few inhabitants who had exposed themselves with him to the hazards of the siege. We shall abridge the particulars of this, lest the too frequent recitals of those military expeditions should fatigue by the repetition of circumstances which must often resemble one another. It suffices to say, that the brave count Zrinski, determined to sacrifice his life for his country, thought only of delaying that immolation in order to render it more serviceable. He made use of every thing that constancy and talents can do in war, with intention to give Maximilian time to assemble his army. Rare as such examples are in history, they are less astonishing in commanders than soldiers. The same spirit animated all the defenders of Sigeth; the certainty of not being succoured made no impression on their courage. Without aspiring at the glory of being mentioned in future ages, when they saw themselves reduced to the number of two hundred and fifty, they renewed their promise of dying all together; and in order to disguise this terrible resolution under an appearance of joy, they drank large cups of wine in sight of the besiegers, as much with intention to defy them, as to strengthen their union by this fort of libation: they said to one another, embracing, that it was better to die free and like brave men, than to live slaves to these barbarians. Whilst they were exhorting each other to think no more of life but with intention to fell it dearly, count Zrinski received a note from Solyman, which a soldier had found fastened to an arrow. The grand seignior, who without doubt was ignorant of the number to which the besieged were reduced, offered the count the principality of Croatia to prevail on him to surrender. "My friends," cried Zrinski, after having read aloud the contents of this letter, "I had no more paper left to ram down the charge of my pistol with, this scrap comes very seasonably." The sultan had assaults made under his own eyes every day, and as often were his janissaries repulsed. The resistance of the besieged enraged him to such a degree, that having seen his janissaries thrown down headlong from the top of a steep breach a hundred different times, crushed under pieces of rock, burnt with boiling oil and other preparations which the besieged were continually throwing down, he returned to his tent full of despair, where an apoplectic fit carried him off in a few moments.

His vizier, Mehemet, thinking it necessary to conceal this event, caused a Jewish physician and some slaves who had seen the sultan expire, to be strangled. He published in the camp that Solyman was indisposed, and took care to have the emperor's dinner carried every day, according to custom, with pomp and to the found of instruments, to the tent where he concealed the dead body from all eyes, whilst a chiau was dispatched to Iconia to Selim for him to come and take possession of the throne.

Mehemet, notwithstanding, pressed the operations of the siege in the name of Solyman, whose reproaches the janissaries dreaded. In spite of every effort, the castle held out four days more. The resistance of the besieged would have been longer, if a magazine had not taken fire, with such violence, that the two hundred men who remained in the garrison were insufficient to defend the place and extinguish the flames. In this extremity, count Zrinski again exhorted his men to render their end memorable; he dressed himself in his richest clothes, and took with him some pieces of gold, to pay, as he said, the person that should give him interment. All the Hungarian soldiers renewed their promise of not asking any quarter nor giving it. As the fire began to approach them, the count ordered the gates to be opened: when he and his men precipitated themselves into the midst of the janissaries who had run to see this fire.

The despair of the Hungarians served them so well, that they had difficulty to find that death which they carried every where. At length the janissaries, recovered from their astonishment, seeing that these furious men answered only by blows those who called on them to surrender, received them in close battalion on the points of their pikes. All perished, as they had resolved, except two soldiers, who, having been left for dead on the place, were some hours after brought to life, which they ended in slavery.

The janissaries, who believed their emperor sick in his tent, were no way surprised at not seeing him enter the castle at their head. The grand vizier, Mehemet, instead of continuing the expedition, ordered the troops to return towards Belgrade in the name of Solyman, whose litter was carried at the head of the army.

This prince died the 30^th of August 1566,  aged 76 years. The Turks consider his reign, which was forty-six years, as one of the most glorious in the Ottoman dynasty. Solyman, though very warlike, was as weak as sanguinary, particularly given to women, and governed by all that knew how to flatter him. He had his children put to death on the most vague suspicions and through a sentiment of base jealousy. There were, notwithstanding, in the bottom of his heart, the feeds of virtues which would have shewn themselves, if he had commanded others than slaves.

He was a lover of glory, order, and even justice, of which he had not a sufficient knowledge. To become a great monarch he wanted men to teach him to be so, and a people that knew when to applaud and when to blame. Solyman was a proof, that the vices of princes proceed oftener from what surrounds them, than from their own natural inclinations.”

Excerpt From: Vincent Mignot. “The History of the Turkish, Or Ottoman Empire,.” iBooks.