Concerning Mohammed Gheráí
On the very day of Osmán’s inauguration Mohammed Gheráí Khán, who had been incarcerated in the Seven Towers, found means of escaping from his place of confinement, and with a small party of Tátárs absconded. When this fact was noised abroad the káímakám, Mohammed Páshá, dispatched Hájí Súbáshí by water and Iskander Páshá by land in search of the fugitive. Hájí Súbáshí steered his course towards Varna, and happened to reach it before Iskander Páshá, who had directed his steps to the same place. Hájí apprized the inhabitants of the purport of his visit to Varna, and put them all on the alert. On the afternoon of the same day Mohammed Gheráí also reached it, and halted underneath a large tree in the fields. This was no sooner discovered than the inhabitants made an attempt at surrounding him and his party. Mohammed Gheráí, however, was determined not to allow himself to fall into their hands without making a struggle in his own defence, and therefore prepared to offer resistance. With an arrow from his bow he shot one of the janissaries, but afterwards yielded the contest and entered the City; when Iskander Páshá, who by this time had arrived at Varna, took him under his own charge, and conducted him back to Constantinople; and he was again confined within the Seven Towers, from which he had so lately made his escape. Iskander Páshá, it is to be observed, showed him nevertheless the respect due to his birth and rank.
Hasan Beg Zádeh relates this account somewhat differently, but the difference is not so great as to render it necessary to give his version of the story. It has been also said, that Mohammed Gheráí’s brother, Sháhín Gheráí, had fled to the court of Persia, but that when the sháh had told him of Osmán’s inauguration, he resolved on returning home. When Sháhín Gheráí was on the eve of setting out on his return to his own country, the sháh, it has been said, did him the honour of holding his stirrup and bridle till he mounted his horse. After taking his leave of the sháh, the latter called him back, and asked him if, in the event of the Osmánlí commanding general employing him against him, he would obey. “By all means,” was the reply. “Will you draw your sword and fight against my troops?” asked the sháh again. “Without doubt I will,” returned the undaunted Tátár prince. On hearing this heroic reply, the sháh shook his head at him. But the whole of this story seems to have been a sort of pleasant raillery. We must now return to the affairs of Khahíl Páshá’s expedition.
When the spring season arrived Khalíl Páshá removed from Diárbeker, where he had wintered; and, after collecting his forces in the plains of Choluk, directed his march towards Tabríz, by the roads of Bedlís and Wán. The sháh was stationed at Ardabíl. The khán and his Tátár army, leaving their winter-quarters, joined the grand army at Wán, where, after holding a council of war, it was agreed to march without delay upon Ardabíl. It is necessary to observe here, however, that sometime before this Karchúgheráí Khán had driven the whole of the people in the country towards Ardabíl, with the view of saving them from the advancing Osmánlí army.