The Emperor, Whilst at Adrianople, Hears Further Intelligence as to the State of the Rebellion in Anatolia
On the 1st of Jemadi I. the emperor went on a hunting excursion to Chetalmah, and thence, in three days, to Adrianople. He was only eight days in this city, where he had begun to distribute favours, when he received intelligence of the state and progress of the rebellion and disaffection which reigned in the province of Anatolia. In consequence, therefore, of the above unpleasant intelligence, he set out from Adrianople, reached the metropolis in six days, and immediately adopted means for curbing the rebellion and for chastising the rebels in Anatolia.
Nesúh Páshá, who last year had been transferred from the government of Haleb, was created commander of the troops employed against the insurgents in Anatolia. Indeed, it was considered of the utmost importance, by the government of Constantinople, that a vezír should be appointed to each of the eastern provinces, in order to check and subdue any spirit of rebellion which might arise, and which, in fact, seems to have been very generally the case with them all. Dávud Páshá, it will be remembered, was appointed to the east, but in consequence of his having evinced some inability or weakness he was laid aside, and Kijdehán Alí Páshá was raised to the government of Anatolia in his stead. He also, it will likewise be remembered, was ordered to join his troops to those of Nesúh Páshá, and after they (i.e. he and Nesúh Páshá) had succeeded in crushing the rebellion in Anatolia, they were then to join Jeghala Zádeh, who acted as commander-in-chief against the Persians.
We have to relate, however, that Nesúh Páshá, and the troops under his command, sustained a serious defeat at the bridge of Bolawadin. At this bridge Nesúh, on the 1st of Rajab, was met by one Túyel, who headed a body of insurgents: the one army was at one end and the other at the other. Nesúh made all the preparations his circumstances could allow for commencing an engagement, putting his foot and horse in order of battle. The sound of his drums and trumpets reached the very parapets of heaven: his artillery was drawn up in regular order, and made to face the enemy. Nesúh thought his formidable appearance would have deterred the insurgents from ever attempting the bridge or river; but he was mistaken. The cavalry of these long-tailed and curiously-turbanned heretics had scarcely begun to move, than they instantly crossed the river or bog and put their swords and spears into immediate requisition against Nesúh’s cavalry. These, as well as the whole of the rest of the Osmánlí army, gave way; most of them were cut to pieces, and those who fell into the hands of these barbarians were dragged into the presence of Túyel, where, for the most part at least, they suffered a more ignominious death: Nesúh himself was indebted to the swiftness of his horse for the safety of his life. He fled, and never checked the bridle of his charger till he reached a place called Bekár-báshí, in the city of Seyed.
Túyel, who was left master of the field, and of the whole baggage of the conquered Osmánlís, set fire to the city of Bolawadin, massacred the whole of its inhabitants with the utmost ferociousness, and desolated the whole of that region from one end to the other.
Nesúh Páshá, after resting himself about two days, went to Kutahia, where Kijdehán, against whom he entertained an old grudge, then was, laid the whole blame of his defeat on his shoulders, and slew the innocent without mercy.
Kijdehán was a man that possessed a bitter and scurrilous tongue, and who spared nobody. To escape, therefore, the reproaches of his tongue, i.e. that he and those of his men who, like himself, had escaped the general carnage, might not be made the subjects of his ridicule and bitter reproach, he slew him. This, also, is asserted in the Fezliké, that, before this, and prior to the defeat he had sustained at the bridge of Bolawadin, he most unworthily, as well as unjustly, traduced the character of the inestimable and highly-respected Mohammed Chávush of Caramania, whom he crucified at Iconium, where he had met with him. This Mohammed Chávush was son to Karah Alí, and was raised to the situation he held in Caramania from the Chávush báshás.
Well aware that his conduct and ill fame would eventually reach the ears of the emperor, and that his displeasure might easily be excited against him, so as to make him the object of his vengeance, he, in order to prevent these results, determined on going to Constantinople. Accordingly he set out for Scutari, and thence to the Sublime Porte: went to the royal palace, and caused it to be announced that he had come from Anatolia to implore further aid to be sent to that quarter. Having been called to enter the royal presence, he gave such a representation of the state of matters as actually succeeded in inclining the emperor to cross over into Anatolia and take a personal share in the war with the insurgents. He, therefore, called together the khoaja effendí, the reverend mufti and the vezírs, and confronted them with Nesúh Páshá, in order to converse on the subject with him. At this interview with Nesúh, however, there was much disputing and great contention. All were opposed to the emperor’s determination; but he himself remained inflexible. The emperor’s best friends used their utmost efforts to dissuade him from the purpose he had formed, by endeavouring to point out to him a variety of dangers; but all in vain, and the consequence was, when they saw he could not be moved from his resolution, they all withdrew very much displeased. The vezírs, however, commenced making the necessary preparations for the emperor’s intended journey, but at the same time used a variety of methods, such as representing to him that the fleet had not arrived, and that at any rate the season for safe sailing was fast passing away, in order, if possible, to induce him him to alter his mind; but all to no purpose. The emperor, notwithstanding all the efforts which had been employed to dissuade him from his undertaking; notwithstanding, also, that the winter had fully set in, and the roughness of the sea, he continued bent on proceeding. A royal firmán was sent off to Nukásh Hasan Páshá to have the palace at Brúsa in a state of complete preparation for the arrival of his majesty, and Dervísh Aghá, bostánjí báshí, who was afterwards created a vezír, but subsequently assassinated, was appointed commandant of Istámbol.
In the meantime, however, the empress-mother took her journey to the other world, and her remains were conducted by her royal son and the great men of the state, to St. Sophia, where the funeral service was performed. They were afterwards interred in the tomb of Sultán Mohammed III., on which occasion charities and alms deeds were attended to in behalf of the deceased.
It was thought that the death of his mother might have so affected the sultán as to cause him to give up all thoughts of his intended expedition into Anatolia; but it had no such effect. On the seventh day after his mother’s decease, he became quite impatient, ordered the only three galleys which were then in the harbour to be held in readiness, and on the 2d day of Rajab he set sail for Brúsa. On the day after his arrival in Brúsa, he summoned his vezírs, the military judges, and other magnates, to assemble in council in the royal palace of that place, where he himself was. Súfí Sinán Páshá, the káímakám, who had taken no active hand in making preparations for the emperor’s expedition, was not called, or if called, did not attend. Dávud Páshá and Nesúh Páshá had both been previously sent to keep possession of two places on the frontiers. Mohammed Páshá, son of Ové Páshá, likewise made no movement towards Brúsa, but he wrote to the emperor’s chaplain, informing him that he had twenty thousand troops in full readiness. “If I shall be called,” said he, in his communication to the royal chaplain, “to be exalted to the vezírship, without either the aid of troops or apparatus from the government, I will go, and to the utmost of my power, endeavour to reduce the insurgents.” The title of vezír, and the appointment to the chief command, was forthwith sent him, and he was invited to wait on his majesty in his palace at Brúsa, in order that his majesty might confer with him respecting the enemy against whom he was to proceed. Mohammed, however, acknowledged neither the one nor the other of these royal intimations; nor did he think it worth his while to come to Brúsa to wait on his benefactor; or to proceed a single step against the insurgents. On the contrary, he went to Gúzel Hisár, where he gave himself up to every variety of pleasure. The reverend tutor felt disgrace and grief at the shameful way the cunning páshá had duped him, and, in fact, poor Khoaja Effendí, in consequence of this, most completely lost his influence with the emperor.
On the 14th of the last mentioned month (viz. Rajab), about four or five thousand spáhís, who had fled to Anatolia to escape the vengeance of Yemishjí Hasan Páshá, which had been excited against them in consequence of the tumult which the spáhí legion had raised in Constantinople in the days of the late emperor, and for which many of their superiors had been put to death, returned to their obedience, and were again received into favour. These spáhís were as great rebels as any in Anatolia, and committed every species of robbery and spoliation. On making their submission they appeared armed and accoutred before Súfí Sinán Páshá, the vezírs and the military judges, and preferred the grounds on which they conceived they had been aggrieved, and which had led them to act as they had done. Their case was laid before his majesty, who not only forgave them, but also restored their officers to their former situations, rewarded them with tokens of favour by conferring robes on them, distributed to them their pay, and dividing them into two bodies sent one division to Kutahia to remain under the orders of Dávud Páshá, and the other under Nesúh Páshá.
Dervísh Aghá, who had been appointed in his majesty’s absence to the commandership of Constantinople, was forbidden to exercise any further authority in that capacity, on account of some misconduct which he had been guilty of. Mustafa Páshá, one of the vezírs, was sent back to act in his stead.
On the 16th his majesty, after having paid a visit to the sepulchres of his ancestors, and the tombs of the venerable saints, returned and bathed himself in a fountain. On the 19th he set sail from Modanieh, and arrived in the imperial city on the same day.