Hájí Ibrahím Páshá Defeated by Kara Yazijí (Scrivano)
We have already had occasion to notice the conduct of the notorious rebel, Kara Yazijí, and how in consequence of intrigue and false representation, he was appointed to the sanják of Chorum. In consequence of this odious rebel’s having returned to his former doings, Ibrahím Páshá was sent from Constantinople with communications to Hájí Ibrahím Páshá, a vezír of the sixth rank, who was to conduct an army against the rebel, and who also had been appointed commander-in-chief in room of Hasan Páshá, who had been removed from the government of Baghdád. In the event of Hasan Páshá’s prolonging his stay at Baghdád, he was further instructed to proceed with the Anatolian troops, and endeavour by every effort he could employ to get the above-mentioned rebel and his brother, Delí Husein, into his power. Hájí Ibrahím Páshá, accordingly, went with his army in search of these men, and fell in with them at Cæsarea, at the head of twenty thousand insurgents, where he offered them battle, and which they did not decline accepting. The contest was severe and bloody, and Ibrahím was finally obliged to seek his safety in retreat. The victorious insurgents pursued him with an ardour worthy of a better cause, slew fifteen officers, and more than one thousand janissaries in the pursuit. It was with much difficulty that Ibrahím escaped into Cæsarea, and those of his followers who had not been so successful, fell victims to the fury of the insurgent army.
This event which we have here recorded is said, in some histories, to have occurred in 1008 of the Hijrah; but most of them place it among the events of the year we are now noticing, i.e. 1009. Besides, the orders which government had issued respecting this infidel, and which were sent to the inhabitants of Cæsarea, are dated on one of the first ten days of Rabia II., 1009 of Hijrah.
The story concerning Gira, the Jewess and her children, before noticed, is mentioned in the Fezliké of Hájí Khalífeh as having taken place last year, but the author of the history we have followed in relating the account, and Kara Chelebí Zádeh Azíz Effendí, place it where we have placed it. One of the sons of this infamous Gira, however, embraced the Moslem faith, and thus escaped the death which the whole of the rest of his family suffered. He went under the name of Iksák (lame) Mustafa Chávush. He died in the khán or inn of Devlet Sultání Ibrahím. The whole of the effects of Gira were confiscated by the government, and it is said they amounted to a very great sum. Her wares, independent of her jewels and estates, were sold for more than five hundred yúks of money.
The káímakám, or governor of Constantinople, Khalíl Páshá, on account of some connivance he had with the Jewess whose tragic end we have related, met with strong opposition from the spáhí tribe, and was therefore removed from his high office, and was succeeded in it by Khádem Háfiz Páshá, in the month of Shevál of this year; but who ten days after was succeeded by Yemishjí Hasan Páshá. The reason for this last change must now be explained.
During the time the Moslem army lay before Kaniza, Dimoo, the messenger of the odious Michael, arrived at the Moslem camp with proposals to the Ottoman government respecting the fortresses of Yanwah and Lipovah, and was forwarded by the commander-in-chief to Constantinople; the reïs-effendí was also sent along with him, bearing communications from the commander in-chief.
The káímakám, Khádem Háfiz Páshá, remembering the stratagem which Michael had practised on Háfiz Ahmed Páshá at Nicopolis, by means of this said Dimoo, as before related, the anger of the Páshá was raised to a high degree when he saw this messenger of deceit, and consulted the mufti concerning him. The mufti gave it as his judgment that no proposals whatever ought to be received from the odious Michael, nor any agreement entered into with so infamous a wretch, who, along with his deceitful ambassador, ought to suffer death. The káímakám, after hearing the judgment of the high priest, and without further ceremony, took summary vengeance on this satellite of mischief, by binding him to a tree and punishing him according to the nature of his crimes. Besides this act of summary justice exercised upon the person of Michael’s messenger, and which was construed into an act of contempt manifested towards the grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Ibrahím Páshá, who had forwarded Dimoo to Constantinople, the káímakám, at the very time Ibrahím was carrying on the siege of Kaniza, sent off a chávush with orders to make inquiry about matters on the frontiers, without once manifesting any regard to the authority of the commander-in-chief, to whom all these affairs properly belonged. This instance of open contempt awakened the displeasure of the grand vezír, which, no doubt, was heightened by the conduct of the káímakám towards Dimoo, whom he had sent to court, led him to seek revenge. The chávush he confined in prison at Belgrade, and immediately wrote to the queen-mother, and to the ághá of the sublime court, a statement of the káímakám’s conduct, pointing out to them the evils that would result from the plan pursued by Khádem Háfiz Páshá, both as it respected themselves and the enemy. No messenger, he maintained, if such a method as the one above described was to be pursued, would either come from the enemy to them, or go from them to the enemy. In short, no consultation whatever, he insisted, could be entered into, if the persons of messengers were not to be respected. It was as much as to say, at least in the instance adverted to, that no confidence whatever was to be placed in either the sayings or doings of the commander-in-chief, or any trust in his majesty’s minister-and much more to the same purpose. His statement was laid before the throne, when immediately Khádem Háfiz Páshá was turned out of office, and Yemishjí Hasan Páshá appointed in his stead.
The new káímakám was no sooner installed in office, than a royal letter, no less fitted to embalm the heart than it was to console the mind, was sent to the exalted serdár, Ibrahím Páshá, in return.