The Grand Turk Read online

  Uzun Hasan sent an army into Anatolia in the late summer of 1472 under the command of his beylerbey Emir Bey and his nephew Yusuf Mirza, who took with them the Karamanid princes Pir Ahmet and Kasım Bey, as well as Kızıl Ahmet, the son of the dispossessed Türkmen emir of Sinop. Caterino Zeno, the Venetian ambassador in Tabriz, also accompanied the expedition with a force of 500 Croatian cavalrymen. Zeno estimated the size of the Akkoyunlu army to be 50,000 men, while other estimates range up to 100,000.

  The Türkmen troops commanded by Emir Bey and Yusuf Mirza captured and sacked Tokat. Uzun Hasan then reinstated Pir Ahmet as emir of Karaman, where Prince Mustafa was provincial governor. Prince Mustafa, who at the time was with Gedik Ahmet Pasha on campaign in southern Karaman, received instructions from his father not to engage the Akkoyunlu forces until he had joined forces with Daud Pasha. Mehmet then personally led the main Ottoman army into Anatolia, whereupon he ordered Prince Mustafa and Daud Pasha, who now commanded an army estimated to comprise 60,000 troops and cavalry, to attack the Akkoyunlu. The two forces met near Carallia on the south shore of Lake Beyşehir, a battle described by Tursun Beg.

  The Ottoman prince Mustafa, who was at the time in charge of the province of Karaman, advanced against them with a contingent of the Anatolian forces and subjected them to a defeat, taking Mirza Yusuf and two hundred other influential begs prisoner. Some of those who attempted to escape were put to the sword while others who managed to escape the Ottomans were taken prisoner by the Varsak tribe. Out of an army of twenty thousand men, scarcely a thousand escaped with their lives. The captured begs were sent to Fatih [Sultan Mehmet]. The Sultan threw Mirza Yusuf, the son of Uzun Hasan’s sister, into jail, and the others were put to the sword.

  Uzun Hasan was undeterred by this defeat, and in the autumn of 1472 he widened the conflict by sending an army to invade the territory of the Mamluk sultan Kaitbey in south-eastern Anatolia. The Akkoyunlu army captured Malatya and then went on to attack Aleppo, where it was defeated by the Mamluk emir Yashbak and forced to withdraw, ending the invasion.

  Mehmet took advantage of the invasion to send an envoy to Yashbak, offering to form an alliance against Uzun Hasan. The Egyptian chronicler Ibn Iyas records that the emir Yashbak responded by sending an embassy to Istanbul ‘bearing copious gifts and letters, so that friendship should be established between the Ottoman and Mamluk Sultans, on account of Uzun Hasan’.

  Mehmet was now determined to crush Uzun Hasan once and for all, and so early in September 1472 he restored Mahmut Pasha as grand vezir, realising that he ‘was the most valiant and practical man that he had in his court’. At the same time, Mehmet summoned the Ottoman troops of Rumelia to muster in Edirne on 20 September, and then on 12 October the sultan and his pashas led the army across the Bosphorus to Üsküdar, ready to march eastward to attack Uzun Hasan. But at the last moment Mahmut Pasha persuaded Mehmet to postpone the expedition till the following spring. The Turkish chronicler Hoca Sadeddin paraphrases the arguments that Mahmut Pasha presented to the sultan: ‘The violent winter season of the land of Karaman is approaching… The victorious army is not prepared. What is fitting to do is to wait until spring and prepare the victorious army and the equipment for the campaign, and now send to the beylerbeyi of Anatolia an order to hurry for the annulment and extinguishing of the fire of the disorders of these villains.’

  The Ottoman campaign against Uzun Hasan finally got under way the following spring, when Mehmet crossed over into Anatolia with his army. Mehmet’s youngest son, Prince Jem, who was then only fourteen, was left with a small force to defend Edirne in case of a European incursion.

  A letter written by an Italian diplomat on 15 May 1473 notes: ‘The beylerbeyi of Rumeli [Hass Murat Pasha] crossed from Istanbul to Gelibolu with all the host of the Grand Turk, and on Palm Sunday, the Grand Turk, with all his court crossed from Istanbul to a place called Anichvari.’ Mehmet had entrusted overall command of the expedition against Uzun Hasan to his young favourite, Hass Murat Pasha, with the grand vezir Mahmut Pasha serving as his adviser.

  The various contingents of the Ottoman army assembled near Amasya, the total force numbering more than 260,000, according to the Turkish chronicler Kemalpaşazade. Hass Murat Pasha was in the vanguard with the Rumelian army, Prince Beyazit on the right wing with the troops from the province of Sivas and Amasya, Prince Mustafa on the left with those from Karaman, and Daud Pasha in the rear with the Anatolian army, while Mehmet himself, with some 30,000 troops, was in the centre.

  The situation in Uzun Hasan’s camp is known from a letter written by Caterino Zeno to the Doge of Venice on 12 July 1473, in which he writes that ‘at present we are in the district of Erzincan. According to the most recent roll-call, there are 300,000 in the field…and the lord intends to have 500,000 by the end of the month.’ He goes on to write that ‘forty camels laden with money’ had arrived from Tabriz, ‘wages were paid…and all are in good spirits to go against the common enemy’. The numbers seem to have been inflated, for when Uzun Hasan first caught sight of the Ottoman army, on the opposite bank of the Euphrates, he saw that it was as large as his own, and Zeno heard him exclaim: ‘Son of a whore, what an ocean!’

  Tursun Beg describes the first battle of the campaign, which took place near Tercan on 4 August 1473, when Hass Murat impetuously crossed the Euphrates with the vanguard of the Ottoman army, only to be ambushed by Uzun Hasan.

  Mahmud Pasha asked Hass Murad Pasha to gather his forces at a given place and wait. He himself decided to attack the enemy in their hiding place. Hass Murad’s soldiers, complaining that, should the enemy attack be turned back, Mahmud Pasha would get all the credit, broke ranks again and charged their horses against the enemy. Thereupon Uzun Hasan suddenly attacked Mahmud Pasha from his hiding place. A fierce and closely fought battle began. Mahmud managed to withdraw with great difficulty to the place where Hass Murad’s troops had been but was unable to join up with them again. Hass Murad had fallen on the battlefield; and Fenarıoğlu Ahmed, Turahanoğlu Ömer and Aydın Beyoğlu Hacı Beg were all taken prisoners.

  The news of Uzun Hasan’s victory reached Venice through two letters written in October 1473, one from Ragusa and the other from Lepanto, both of which exaggerated the extent of the Ottoman defeat, the former even saying that Mehmet himself had been killed. The letter from Ragusa says: ‘At this time came a man from Edirne, who secretly told me about the Grand Signor, how he was defeated and about his death. It is not known for certain about the Pasha [Mahmut], and very bad things are said about the Sancakbeys. I believe that maybe it was worse for them than we think.’ The letter from Lepanto states: ‘It is said that the son of the Turk was routed and several Sancakbeys, the Beylerbeyi of Rumeli and Ömer Bey were killed, and fifty thousand men died, all the flower of the camp of the Turk. And all these bands of Turkey were in great terror, may God, in his mercy, confound them totally.’

  The two armies met a week later at Otluk Belli, in the mountains north of Erzincan. The Ottoman army, led by Mehmet himself along with Mahmut Pasha and Daud Pasha, utterly defeated the Akkoyunlu, commanded by Uzun Hasan’s sons Ughurlu Mehmet and Zeynel, forcing Uzun Hasan to flee for his life. The Akkoyunlu are estimated to have lost some 10,000 men, the Ottomans only about 1,000. Both Turkish and Venetian chroniclers agree that the Akkoyunlu lost because of their lack of artillery, which they had never before encountered.

  Meanwhile, Prince Jem had been holding the fort in Edirne, under the supervision of his advisers Nasuh Bey and Karıştıranlı Süleyman Bey. At one point during the campaign against the Akkoyunlu there was no word from Sultan Mehmet for forty days, and the rumour spread that he had been defeated and killed by Uzun Hasan. When Jem heard this he decided to usurp the throne, but then when he learned that his father was alive and had defeated Uzun Hasan he fled from Edirne. When Mehmet returned to Istanbul he forgave Jem for his rash action, probably because he saw in him something of the impetuosity that he himself had often exhibited in his youth. He put the blame on his son
’s advisers, severely punishing Nasuh Bey and Karıştıranlı Süleyman Bey, while Jem himself was sent to Kastamonu as provincial governor.

  Mehmet also dismissed Mahmut Pasha as grand vezir, replacing him with Gedik Ahmet Pasha. Mahmut Pasha then retired to his estate at Hasköy, a place that Hoca Sadeddin says ‘he made the envy of towns, having built a mosque and medrese there’. The sources give various reasons for Mahmut Pasha’s dismissal, one being that Mehmet blamed him for the death of Hass Murat. According to Angiolello: ‘The Turkish Signor was angry that Mahmut Pasha withdrew…and did not give help to Murat, and it was suspected that he had done that on purpose, because he was not his friend.’ Another possible reason is that that he had advised the sultan not to pursue Uzun Hasan after the Battle of Otluk Belli, which allowed Mahmut Pasha’s enemies to accuse him of being in league with the enemy.

  Uzun Hasan, despite his defeat at Otluk Belli, had lost little territory, and he sent an envoy to tell the Venetians that he fully intended to continue his war against the Ottomans. He also sent an emissary to Pope Sixtus IV, with a message asking ‘that the Christians attack the Turks with a land army, and promises, if this is done, that he will again descend upon the Turk with a powerful army, and that he will not give up the war until the Turk is destroyed’.

  The Pope wrote to Lodovico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, on 2 October 1474, appealing to him to send an envoy to confer in Rome with representatives of the other Italian states, to whom he had sent a similar message concerning the financing of another expedition against the Turks. Sixtus said: ‘And would that we could bear this weight alone, because we would burden no one. Our resources are not sufficient however, and therefore it is necessary that we have recourse to your Excellency and other Italian powers.’ He urged that plans should be made quickly, ‘so that we may know how to give a definite reply to the [Türkmen] envoy and his prince’.

  Lodovico answered on 23 October, saying that he was appointing his son, Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, as his envoy concerning the anti-Turkish expedition. Similar responses were received from other Italian states, but the expedition never materialised.

  Uzun Hasan refused to admit defeat, and he sent a message to the Signoria in Venice proposing that they should ‘ride against the Ottomans together’. At the same time he sent Caterino Zeno back to Venice, with a message to the princes of Christendom that he had not abandoned his war against the Ottomans, but would muster a powerful army the following spring to march against Mehmet.

  The Signoria responded on 10 December 1473 by sending Ambrogio Contarini as an envoy to Tabriz, with a message telling Uzun Hasan that Venice would commit its fleet to an expedition against the Ottomans, and urging him to attack Mehmet as soon as possible. Contarini, who served as Venetian ambassador at Tabriz in the years 1474-6, describes Uzun Hasan’s appearance at the time: ‘The king is of a good size and very lean, with a pleasant countenance, having somewhat of the Tartar appearance, and seemed to be about seventy years old. His manner is very affable, and he conversed familiarly with every one around him, but I noticed that his hands trembled when he raised the cup to his lips.’

  Contarini goes on to write: ‘His eldest son Ughurlu Mehmet was much spoken of when I was in Persia, as he had revolted against his father.’ When news of this rebellion reached Istanbul, Mehmet knew that he no longer had to fear an invasion by the Akkoyunlu. Uzun Hasan died in Tabriz on 6 January 1478, and with his passing the Akkoyunlu literally disappeared from history, the domains of their tribe absorbed by those around them, leaving the Ottomans as the supreme power in the region.

  11

  Conquest of the Crimea and Albania

  Mehmet remained in Istanbul throughout the year 1474, taking his ease in Topkapı Sarayı after the rigours of his victorious campaign against Uzun Hasan. His three sons were all serving as provincial governors in Anatolia, with Mustafa residing in Konya, the capital of Karaman, while Beyazit was in Amasya and Jem in Kastamonu.

  Mustafa spent the autumn boating on Lake Beyşehir and hunting in the surrounding countryside. Towards the end of the year he sent his officer Koçi Bey to attack the mountain fortress of Develi Karahisar, south-west of Kayseri, which was still held by the Karamanid. The garrison commander refused to surrender to Koçi Bey, insisting that he would negotiate only with Prince Mustafa himself. Mustafa had in the meanwhile become seriously ill, and he was able to reach Develi Karahisar only with great difficulty. His condition then deteriorated to the point where his advisers decided to take him back to Konya, sending a courier to inform Sultan Mehmet of the situation.

  Mehmet immediately ordered Gedik Ahmet Pasha to Develi Karahisar with an army of 30,000, while at the same time he sent his Jewish physician Maestro Iacopo to Konya to treat Prince Mustafa. But Mustafa died en route at Bor, near Niğde, probably in June 1474, according to Giovanni-Maria Angiolello, who was in the prince’s entourage at the time. Mustafa’s companions embalmed his body and brought it to Konya, where it was laid out in a mosque while a courier was sent to Istanbul to inform Sultan Mehmet.

  When the news of Mustafa’s death reached Istanbul the only one who had the courage to inform the sultan was Hoca Sinan Pasha, Mehmet’s old tutor. Hoca Sinan dressed in black robes and obtained an audience with Mehmet, who realised at once that he was death’s messenger. Angiolello describes the sultan’s inconsolable mourning for Mustafa, who had always been his favourite son.

  The carpets which were spread on the ground were lifted, and standing on the dirt, he was lamenting his son. He gathered the dust and placed it over his head, as a sign of great sorrow. And he was beating his face, his chest and his thighs with his palms, and he groaned greatly. And he remained this way for three days and nights… The entire city was filled with loud lamentation because Mustafa was especially beloved of his father and of all those who had dealings with him.

  Mehmet had Mustafa buried in the Muradiye at Bursa, in a magnificent türbe that he erected for him near the tomb of Murat II. Angiolello writes of the extraordinary eulogy delivered by Mustafa’s daughter, Princess Nergiszade, whom he calls Herzisdad.

  [Her funeral oration] lasted more than an hour, in which she praised his virtues and mentioned by name some of the people who had been brought up with him, saying that, had he survived, the world would have known much better his good will towards his followers; and that death was the common lot of all. She said many other things which made her hearers all to weep. Even Herzisdad herself was obliged to stop and weep at suitable moments, which she did with very decorous movements and gestures, showing at the same time a great audacity. For all that she said and did she was much praised, as much for her wisdom as for her erudition in Arabic literature and expert knowledge on every subject pertaining to a woman of her condition. So that her fame spread as far as Constantinople, and even in other countries people talked of the qualities and virtues of this young woman.

  Mehmet then transferred Jem from Kastamonu to Konya, to replace Mustafa as provincial governor of Karaman, where he would remain for nearly a decade.

  The death of his beloved son apparently embittered Mehmet against Mahmut Pasha, whom he seems to have held responsible for Mustafa’s death, according to both Western and Turkish sources. All the sources agree that there was deep enmity between Mahmut and Mustafa, though they differ on the reason for this hatred. Several sources suggest that Mustafa had seduced or raped Mahmut’s wife, and some say that the grand vezir took his revenge by poisoning the prince. The Turkish poet Muali, in his epic Hünkârname, writes that Mustafa’s dying words were a request that Mehmet be told who was responsible for his death: ‘My last request from my father is this: let him ask Mahmut Pasha about this disaster that befell me. He did this evil to me because of his enmity. Let the truth be known to you.’

  According to Muali, Mahmut Pasha went from his place of retirement in Hasköy to offer his condolences to Sultan Mehmet at Topkapı Sarayı, although his old tutor Kürt Hafız advised him not to go. At the palace gate Mahmut met his for
mer slave Teftin Ağa, who gave him the same advice. But Mahmut went ahead and shed tears for Mahmut in Mehmet’s presence, wearing black robes as was customary for mourners. His enemies told the sultan that Mahmut was only feigning grief, and that he had been in good humour shortly afterwards, as Hoca Sadeddin writes in his chronicle: ‘The spy that they sent entered suddenly and unexpectedly in the gathering of the honorable Pasha [Mahmut] and he saw the Pasha dressed in white, seated in a cheerful gathering and playing chess. He took off the mourning clothes before the Sultan and the army did.’

  Shortly afterwards Mehmet had Mahmut Pasha arrested and taken to the Castle of the Seven Towers in Istanbul, where he was executed by strangulation on 18 July 1474. According to Muali, the sultan justified the execution by saying: ‘It is impossible that Mustafa’s enemy should remain alive.’

  Such was the end of Mahmut Pasha, who by all accounts was the greatest of all the early Ottoman grand vezirs. Kritoboulos, in praising Mahmut Pasha, writes: ‘From the time that he took charge of the affairs of the great Sultan, he gave everything in this great dominion a better prospect by his wonderful zeal and his fine planning as well as by his implicit and unqualified faith in and goodwill toward his sovereign. He was thus a better man than them all, as shown by his accomplishments.’

  Gedik Ahmet Pasha, who had replaced Mahmut Pasha as grand vezir, was sent on an expedition into Anatolia to regain all the places in Karaman that had been lost by the Ottomans during the war with Uzun Hasan. He recaptured Ermenek and Minyan on the central plateau, as well as Silifke and other coastal fortress towns to its east that had been taken by the Christian allies of Uzun Hasan. He then called all the Türkmen tribal chieftains of Karaman to a meeting, at which he entertained them with a great feast before having almost all of them killed, enslaving their families and followers. Only a few of the Türkmen chiefs escaped to their remote mountain fortresses, where they continued to hold out into the early sixteenth century before they were finally conquered by the Ottomans.