No More Learning

In 1303 Nāşir, Sultan of Egypt, overthrew a
Mongol army at Marj-as-Suffar. But the relations between the two
CH. XX.


## p. 652 (#694) ############################################

652
The Golden Horde
powers were sometimes friendly. The same Nāșir made an extradition
treaty with Abū-Saʻīd, the nephew of Ghāzān, whose army had been
defeated at Marj-as-Suffar. The smaller states which succeeded the
Il-khāns were finally swept away by Tīmūr before 1400.
The descendants of the victorious general Bātu were the famous
Golden Horde or Western Kipchaks. Bātu ruled from Lake Balkash to
Hungary. He was succeeded in 1255 by his brother Bereke, in whose
reign a crusade against the Mongols was preached by the Pope. But the
Mongols carried the war into the enemy's country and invaded Poland
and Silesia. Cracow and Beuthen were captured and vast masses of slaves
were led away. The result of these operations was that the Mongols main-
tained a suzerainty over the Russians. Several European princes and
princesses intermarried with them; they were on friendly terms with the
Sultans of Egypt, perhaps owing to the hostility between the Mamlūks and
the Il-khāns. In 1382 Tuqtāmish sacked Moscow and several important
Russian towns, but the campaign of slaughter was resented by Tīmūr
his overlord, who utterly crushed him. Gradually all these Mongol tribes
were absorbed by Russia or the Ottoman Turks, but from the Uzbegs on
the Caspian Bābur set forth on his journey to India and founded the
Indian Empire of the Moguls, to which Sir Thomas Roe was sent on an
embassy in 1615–1619. The lingering Khanates were crushed by the
expansion of Russia, and either as subjects or protectorates have lost all
independence.


## p. 653 (#695) ############################################

653
CHAPTER XXI.
THE OTTOMAN TURKS TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
It was in 1299 that Osmān (Othmān, 'Uthmān) declared himself
Emir of the Turks, that is, of the tribe over which he ruled. The
Seljūq Turks have been treated in a previous chapter ; but there
were many other Turkish tribes present in the middle and at the end
of the thirteenth century in Asia Minor and Syria, and, in order to
understand the conditions under which the Ottoman Turks advanced and
became a nation, a short notice of the condition of Anatolia at that
time is necessary. The country appeared indeed to be everywhere overrun
with Turks. A constant stream of Turkish immigrants had commenced
to flow from the south-west of Central Asia during the eleventh century,
and continued during the twelfth and indeed long after the capture
of Constantinople. Some of these went westward to the north of the
Black Sea, while those with whom we are concerned entered Asia
Minor through the lands between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea.
They were nomads, some travelling as horsemen, others on foot or with
primitive ox-waggons. Though they seem to have left Persia in large
bodies, yet, when they reached Anatolia, they separated into small isolated
bands under chieftains. Once they had obtained passage through Georgia
or Armenia or Persia into Asia Minor, they usually turned southwards,
attracted by the fertile and populous plains of Mesopotamia, though they
avoided Baghdad so long as that city was under a Caliph. Thence they
spread through Syria into Cilicia, which was then largely occupied by
Armenians under their own princes, and into Egypt itself. Several of
these tribes crossed the Taurus, usually through the pass known as the
Cilician Gates, and thereupon entered the great tableland, three thousand
feet above sea-level, which had been largely occupied by the Seljūms. By
1150, the Turks had spread over all Asia Minor and Syria. These early
Turks were disturbed by the huge and well-organised hordes of mounted
warriors and foot-soldiers under Jenghiz Khan, a Mongol belonging to
the smallest of the four great divisions of the Tartar race, but whose
followers were mainly Turks. The ruin of the Seljūqs of Rūm may be said
to date from the great Mongol invasion in 1242, in which Armenia
was conquered and Erzerūm occupied. The invading chief exercised
the privilege of the conqueror, and gave the Seljūq throne of Rūm to the
CH. XXI.


## p. 654 (#696) ############################################

654 Infiltration of Turkish nomads into Asia Minor
younger brother of the Sultan instead of to the elder. The Emperor in Con-
stantinople supported the latter, and fierce war was waged between the two
brothers. A resident, somewhat after the Indian analogy, was appointed
by the Khan of the Mongols to the court of the younger brother.
The war contributed to the weakening of the Seljūqs, and facilitated
the encroachment of the nomad Turkish bands, who owned no master,
upon their territory. The Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–
1261) had the same effect, for the Latin freebooters shewed absolutely
no power of dealing with the Turks, their energies being engaged
simply in making themselves secure in the capital and a portion of its
European territory. Hūlāgū, the grandson of Jenghiz Khan, captured
Baghdad in 1258 and destroyed the Empire of the Caliphs. He
extended his rule over Mesopotamia and North Syria to the Medi-
terranean. The dispersion of the new Turkish hordes not only greatly
increased the number of nomads in Asia Minor, but led to the establish-
ment of additional independent Turkish tribes under their own rulers,
or emirs, and to an amount of confusion and disorder in Asia Minor
such as had not previously been seen under the Greek Empire. The
chieftain and his tribe usually seized a strong position, an old forti-
fied town for example, held it as their headquarters, refused to own alle-
giance to the Emperor or any other than their immediate chieftain, and
from it as their centre plundered the inhabitants of the towns and the
neighbouring country. The tribes shewed little tendency to coalesce.
Each emir fought on his own account, plundered on all the roads where
travellers passed, or demanded toll or ransom for passage or release. In
this want of cohesion is to be found one explanation of the fact that
though the Turks were defeated one day, yet they emerge with apparently
equal strength a short time after in another place. They had to be
fought in detail in their respective centres or as wandering tribes.
During the thirteenth century many such groups of Turks occupied
what a Greek writer calls “the eyes of the country. ” Even as far south
as Aleppo there was such an occupation by a tribe with a regular Turkish
dynasty. Some such chiefs, established on the western shores of the
Aegean, not only occupied tracts of country, but built fleets and ravaged
the islands of the Archipelago. During the half century preceding the
accession of Osmān, Tenedos, Chios, Samos, and Rhodes fell at various
times to these Turkish tribes. Some of them, who had occupied during the
same period the southern and western portions of the central highland of
Asia Minor, met with great success. Qaramān established his rule around
the city of Qaramān, whose strongly fortified and interesting castle still
stands, a noble ruin, on the plain about sixty-four miles south-east of Qonya.
But the same Qaramān ruled over a district extending for a time to the
north-west as far as, and including, Philadelphia. Indeed, he and his
successors were for perhaps half a century the most powerful Turks in
Asia Minor. Other chiefs or emirs ruled in Germiyān, at Attalia (called


## p. 655 (#697) ############################################

Ertughril
655
Satalia by the crusaders), at Tralles, now called after its emir Aidīn,
and at Magnesia. The shores of the Aegean opposite Lesbos and
large strips of country on the south of the Black Sea were during
the same period under various Turkish emirs. The boundaries of the
territories over which they ruled often changed, as the tribes were
constantly at war with each other or in search of new pasture. Needless
to say, the effect of the establishment of so many wandering hordes of
fighting men unused to agriculture was disastrous to the peaceful
population of the country they had invaded. The rule of the Empire in
such districts was feeble, the roads were unsafe, agriculture diminished,
and the towns decayed. The nomad character of these isolated tribes
makes it impossible to give a satisfactory estimate of their numbers on
the accession of Osmān. The statements of Greek and Turkish writers
on the subject are always either vague or untrustworthy.
Three years before Osmān assumed the title of emir, namely in 1296,
Pachymer reports that the Turks had devastated the whole of the country
between the Black Sea and the territory opposite Rhodes. Even two
centuries earlier similar statements had been made. For example, William
of Tyre after describing Godfrey of Bouillon's siege of Nicaea in 1097
says the Turks lost 200,000 men. Anna Comnena tells of the slaughter
of 24,000 around Philadelphia in 1108; four years later a great band of
them were utterly destroyed. Matthew of Edessa in 1118 describes an
“innumerable army of Turks” as marching towards that city. It would
be easy to multiply these illustrations. The explanation is to be found
in the nomadic habits of the invaders, and in the fact already noted
that there was a constant stream of immigration from Asia.
The tribe over which Osmān ruled was one which had entered Asia
Minor previous to Jenghiz Khan's invasion. His ancestors had been
pushed by the invaders southward to Mesopotamia, but like so many
others of the same race continued to be nomads. They were adventurers,
desirous of finding pasturage for their sheep and cattle, and ready to sell
their services to any other tribe. The father of Osmān, named Ertughril,
had probably employed his tribe in the service of the Sultan ‘Alā-ad-Dīn
of Rūm, who had met with much opposition from other Turkish tribes.
According to Turkish historians, he had surprised Maurocastrum, now
known as Afyon-Qara-Hisār, a veritable Gibraltar rising out of the
central Phrygian plain about one hundred miles from Eski-Shehr (Dory-
laeum)? Ertughril's deeds, however, as related in the Turkish annais,
are to be read with caution. He became the first national hero of the
Turks, was a Ghāzī, and the victories gained by others are accredited
to him. They relate that he captured Bilijik, Āq-Gyul (Philomelium),
Yeni-Shehr, Lefke (Leucae), Aq-Hisār (Asprocastrum), and Givē
(Gaiucome).
1 Jorga, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 1. p. 51.
CH. XXI.


## p. 656 (#698) ############################################

656
Accession of Osmān
A romantic story which is probably largely mythical is told of the
early development of the tribe of the Ottoman Turks. It relates how
Ertughril found himself by accident in the neighbourhood of a struggle
going on to the west of Angora (Ancyra) between the Sultan of the
Seljūqs, Kai-Qubād, and a band of other Turks who had come in with
the horde of Jenghiz Khan, neither of whom were known to him.
Ertughril and his men at once accepted the offer of the Seljūqs, who were
on the point of losing the battle. Their arrival turned the scale and
after a three days' struggle the Seljūqs won. The victors were generous,
and the newly arrived tribe received a grant from them of a tract of
country around Eski-Shehr, a hundred and ninety miles distant from
Constantinople, with the right to pasture their flocks in the valley of the
Sangarius eastward towards Angora and westward towards Brūsa.
Whatever be the truth in this story, it is certain that the followers
of Ertughril obtained a position of great importance which greatly
facilitated their further development. Three ranges of mountains which
branch off from the great tableland of western Asia Minor converge
Eski-Shehr. The passes from Bithynia to this tableland meet there. It
had witnessed a great struggle against the Turks during the First Crusade
in 1097, in which the crusaders won, and again in 1175 in the Second
Crusade. Its possession gave the Turks the key to an advance north-
wards. It commanded the fertile valley of the Sangarius, a rich pasture
ground for nomads. Ertughril made Sugyut, about ten miles south-east
of Bilijik, now on the line of the Baghdad railway, and about the same
distance from Eski-Shehr, the headquarters of his camp.
near
Ertughril died at Sugyut in 1281, and there too his famous son
Osmān was born. The number of his subjects had been largely increased
during the reign of his father by accessions from other bands of Turks,
and especially from one which was in Paphlagonia. Osmān from the
first set himself to work to enlarge his territory. He had to struggle for
this purpose both with the Empire and with neighbouring tribes. The
Greek historians mention two notable victories in 1301 gained by the
Greeks over the Turks, in the first of which the Trapezuntines captured
the Turkish chief Kyuchuk Aghā at Cerasus and killed many of his
followers, and in the second the Byzantines defeated another division at
Chena with the aid of mercenary Alans from the Danube. Neither of these
Turkish bands were Ottomans; the second belonged to a ruler whose head-
quarters were at Aidīn (Tralles) and who had already given trouble to the
Empire. One of the last acts of the Emperor Michael Palaeologus (1259
-1282) had been to send his son Andronicus, then a youth of eighteen,
in 1282 to attack the Turks before Aidin, but the young man was unable
to save the city for the Greek Empire. Andronicus II in his turn despatched
his son and co-regent Michael IX (1295-1320) with a force of Alans to
Magnesia in 1302 to attack other Turks, but they were in such numbers


## p. 657 (#699) ############################################

The Catalan Grand Company
657
that no attack was made, and Michael indeed took refuge in that
city while the nomads plundered the neighbouring country.
To add
to the Emperor's difficulties, the Venetians had declared war against him.
His mercenaries, the Alans, revolted at Gallipoli, and the Turkish
pirates or freebooters, fighting for themselves, attacked and for a time
held possession of Rhodes, Carpathos, Samos, Chios, Tenedos, and even
penetrated the Marmora as far as the Princes Islands. The Emperor
Andronicus found himself under the necessity of paying a ransom for
the release of captives. Taking advantage of the preoccupation of the
Empire in fighting these other Turks, Osmān had made a notable advance
into Bithynia. In 1301 he defeated the Greek General Muzalon near
Baphaeum, now Qoyun-Hisār (the Sheep Castle), between Izmid and
Nicaea, though 2000 Alans aided Muzalon. After this victory Osmān
established himself in a position to threaten Brūsa, Nicaea, and Izmid,
and then came to an important arrangement for the division of the
imperial territories with other Turkish chieftains. He was now “lord of
the lands near Nicaea. "
It was at this time that Roger de Flor or Roger Blum, a German
soldier of fortune of the worst sort, took service with the Emperor (after
August 1302). The latter, was, indeed, hard pressed. Michael had made
his way to Pergamus, but Osmān and his allies pressed both that city and
Ephesus, and overran the country all round. At the other extremity of
what may be called the sphere of Osmān's operations, in the valley of
the Sangarius, he ruled either directly or by a chieftain who owed alle-
giance to him. One of his allies was at Germiyān and claimed to rule
all Phrygia; another at Calamus ruled over the coast of the Aegean
from Lydia to Mysia. It was with difficulty that Michael IX succeeded
in making good his retreat from Pergamus to Cyzicus on the south side of
the Marmora. That once populous city, with Brūsa, Nicaea, and Izmid,
were now the only strong places in Asia Minor which had not fallen into
the possession of the Turks. It was at this apparently opportune moment,
when the Emperor was beset by difficulties in Anatolia, that Roger de Flor
arrived (autumn 1303) with a fleet, 8000 Catalans, and other Spaniards.
Other western mercenaries, Germans and Sicilians, had come to the aid
of the Empire both before and during the crusades. But great hopes
were built on the advent of the well-known but unscrupulous Roger.
His army bore the name of the Catalan Grand Company. Roger at once
got into difficulties with the Genoese, from whom he had borrowed
20,000 bezants for transport and the hire of other mercenaries.
One of Roger's first encounters in Anatolia was with Osmān. The
Turks were raiding on the old Roman road which is now followed by the
railway from Eski-Shehr to Izmid, and kept up a running fight with the
imperial troops, and Roger, defeating them near Lefke, in 1305 took
possession of that city.
The Catalan Grand Company soon shewed that they were dangerous
C. MED. H. VOL. IV. CH. XXI.
42


## p. 658 (#700) ############################################

658
First entry of Turks into Europe, 1308
auxiliaries. Roger at various times defeated detached bands of Turks,
and made rapid marches with his band into several districts, but his men
preyed upon Christians and Muslims with equal willingness.
The first thirty years of the fourteenth century were a period of chaotic
disorder in the Empire, due partly to quarrels in the imperial family
and partly to struggles with the Turks and other external foes. But of
all the evils which fell upon the state the worst were those which were
caused by the Catalan mercenaries. The imperial chest was empty. The
Catalans and other mercenaries were without pay, and the result was that,
when they had crossed the Dardanelles at the request of the Emperor
and had driven back the enemy, they paid themselves by plundering the
Greek villagers, a plunder which the Emperor was powerless to prevent.
Feebleness on the throne and in the councils of the Empire and the
general break-up of the government opened the country to attack on
every side. The so-called Empire of Nicaea, which had made during half
a century a not inglorious struggle on behalf of the Greek race, had
ceased to exist. The city itself, cut off from the resources of the
neighbouring country and situated in an almost isolated valley ill-
adapted for the purpose of commerce, became of comparatively little
importance, though its ancient reputation and its well-built walls still
entitled it to respect. The progress of the Ottoman Turks met with no
organised resistance.
In 1308 a band of Turks and of Turcopuli, or Turks who were in the
regular employ of the Empire, was induced to cross into Europe and
join with the Catalan Grand Company to attack the Emperor Andronicus.
This entry of the Turks into Europe, though not of the Ottoman Turks,
is itself an epoch-making event. But the leaders of the Catalans were
soon quarrelling among themselves. Roger had killed the brother of the
Alan leader at Cyzicus. He was himself assassinated by the surviving
brother at Hadrianople in 1306. The expedition captured Rodosto on
the north shore of the Marmora, pillaged it, and killed a great number
of the inhabitants, the Emperor himself being powerless to render any
assistance. One of the Catalan leaders, Roccafort, however, shortly
afterwards delivered it to the Emperor. In the same year Ganos, on
the same shore, was besieged by the Turks, and though it was not
captured the neighbouring country was pillaged, and again the Emperor
was powerless to defend his subjects. In the year 1308 another band of
Turks, this time allied with Osmān, captured Ephesus. Brūsa was com-
pelled to pay tribute to the Ottoman Emir. The Turks who had joined
the Catalans in Europe withdrew into Asia, while their allies continued
to ravage Thrace.
Osmān took possession of a small town, spoken of as Tricocca, in the
neighbourhood of Nicaea. In 1310 the first attempt was made by him
to capture Rhodes, an attempt which Clement V states to have been due
to the instigation of the Genoese. The Knights had only been in posses-


## p. 659 (#701) ############################################

Progress of Osmān
659
sion of the island for two years. It was the first time that the famous
defenders of Christendom, who were destined to make so gallant a
struggle against Islām, met the Ottoman Turks.
An incident in 1311 shews the weakness of the Empire. Khalil, one
of the allies of Osmān, with 1800 Turks under him, had agreed with the
Emperor that they should pass into Asia by way of Gallipoli. They
were carrying off much booty which they had taken from the Christian
towns in Thrace. The owners, wishing to recover their goods, opposed
the passage until their property was restored. Khalil took possession of
a castle near the Dardanelles, possibly at Sestos, and called other Turks
to his aid from the Asiatic coast. The imperial army which had come
to assist the Greeks was defeated, and Khalīl in derision decked himself
with the insignia of the Emperor.
The struggle went on between the Greeks and the Turks with varying
success during the next three or four years, the Turks maintaining their
position in Thrace and holding the Chersonese and Gallipoli. In 1315
the Catalan Grand Company, after having done great injury to the
Empire, finally quitted the country.
The struggle between the young and the old Emperor Andronicus
increased in violence and incidentally strengthened the position of Osmān.
Both Emperors, as well as Michael IX who had died in 1320, employed
Turkish troops in their dynastic struggles. The young Andronicus, when
he was associated in 1321 with his grandfather, had the population on
his side, the old Emperor having been compelled to levy new and
heavy taxes in order to oppose the inroads of the Turks who had joined
his grandson's party. Shortly afterwards the partisans of the young
Emperor attacked near Silivri a band of Turkish mercenaries and
Greeks who were on his grandfather's side. They disbanded on his
approach and this caused terror in the capital. The mercenaries refused to
defend it, and demanded to be sent into Asia. Chalcondyles states
that Osman slew 8000 Turks who had crossed into the Chersonese.
Thereupon the old Emperor sued for peace.
In addition to the dynastic struggles and those with the Turks, the
Empire had now to meet the Serbs, Bulgarians, and Tartars. The Tartars
made their appearance in Thrace, having worked their way from South
Russia round by the Dobrudzha. Young Andronicus III in 1324 is reported
to have defeated 120,000 of them.
While in the last years of the reign of Osmān the Empire was un-
able to offer a formidable resistance, Osmān himself was making steady
progress. He never lost sight of his main object, the conquest and
occupation of all important places between his capital at Yeni-Shehr
(which he had chosen instead of Eski-Shehr) and the Marmora with the
straits that lead to it from north and south. Two points are noteworthy
in his campaign of conquest: first, that he trusted largely to the isolation
of the towns which he desired to capture; secondly, that he made great
CH. XXI.
42-2


## p. 660 (#702) ############################################

660
Capture of Brūsa
use of cavalry. Every Turk under him was a fighter. They continued
their nomad habits and many of them almost lived on horseback. The
result was that they moved much more quickly than their enemies, and
this mobility, combined with the simple habits of others who travelled
readily on their simple ox-carts, which served them as dwellings, greatly
favoured Osmān's method of isolating a town. By pitching their tents
or unyoking their oxen in a neighbourhood from which cavalry had
driven away the inhabitants, they reduced the town by starvation.
Osmān had now during nine or ten years applied this method to the
capture of Brūsa. His son Orkhān (born 1288) was in command of his
father's army, and in 1326 the position of Brūsa was so desperate that,
when the Emperor was unable to send an army to break the blockade,
the inhabitants surrendered the city.
The surrender of Brūsa to Osmān's army in November 1326 marked
an epoch in the advance of the Ottoman Turks. He had gained a most
advantageous position for attacking the Empire from the Anatolian side.
Once in the hands of the Turks, who already held the country between
it and the passes concentrating near Eski-Shehr, its situation rendered it
secure from the south. The Bithynian Olympus immediately in its rear
made it inaccessible from that side, while its commanding natural
position on the mountain slope rendered it strong against an army
attacking it in front. While itself occupying an exceptionally strong
natural position, no other place was so good a centre for operations
against an enemy on the Marmora. It dominated Cyzicus, and was not
too distant to serve as a defensive base against an enemy attempting
to cross from Gallipoli to Lampsacus. On the other side it threatened
Nicaea and facilitated the capture of Izmid.
Henceforth it became the
centre of operations for the Ottoman Turks, and when immediately
afterwards in November 1326 Osmān died, his historian could truthfully
note that while he had taken many strongly fortified places in Anatolia,
and in particular nearly every seaport in the region on the Black Sea
between Ineboli and the Bosphorus, his greatest success, the most impor-
tant to the race which history was to call after him Osmanlis or Ottomans,
was the surrender of Brūsa.
Osmān was at Sugyut, the capital chosen by his father, when the news
was brought to him of the success of his son at Brūsa. He was then
near his end and died in November 1326 at the age of sixty-eight. The
expression of his desire to be buried in Brūsa marks the value which he
attached to its possession. His wish was complied with; and the series
of tombs of the early sultans of his race, which are still shewn to
visitors to the city, mark its importance during the following century
and a half.
Osmān rather than Ertughril is regarded as the founder of the Otto-
man nation. His successors on the throne are still girt with his sword.
The Turkish instinct in taking him as at once their founder and greatest


## p. 661 (#703) ############################################

Orkhān: capture of Nicaea
661
national hero is right. While rejecting most of the stories regarding him,
we may fairly conclude that he was a ruler who recognised that to obtain
the reputation of a lover of justice was good policy. His merits as
a warrior-statesman rest on a surer foundation. There is reason to believe
that the advance of his people from the time he ascended the throne
until the capture of Brūsa was in accordance with a general plan. While
occasionally finding it necessary to carry on war to the south of the
mountain ranges which on his accession formed the southern boundary
of his territory, he never lost hope of an advance to the straits and the
Marmora. In making an advance in that direction he increased the
number of his own immediate subjects by allying himself with other
Turks; and, by gaining the reputation of a ruler who might be safely
followed, and under whose protection Christians might find security
both from other Turks and from the exactions of their own Emperor, he
drew even Christians to accept his rule.
ORKHĂN (1326-1359).
לל
Osmān had been a successful conqueror. It remained for his son to
extend his father's conquests on the lines which he had laid down, and to
organise the administration of his government. Orkhān offered to share
the government with his brother ‘Alā-ad-Dīn, who refused, but consented
to be his Vizier or “burden-bearer. ” To him quite as much as to Orkhān
is due the organisation of the army which is one of the main features of
the reign. As the Turkish writers report the matter, while Orkhān
occupied himself with the conquest of new territories, 'Alā-ad-Dīn gave a
civilised form to the government.
The line of advance of the victorious tribe from Brūsa was clearly
indicated. Izniq, the name by which the Turks know Nicaea,“the city of
the creed,” is not more than a day's journey for an army from Brúsa.
Izmid, or Nicomedia, is only a few hours farther off. It was to these
strongholds that the new Emir directed his attention. Nicaea, which had
been occupied at least twice by bands of Turks, though not by Ottomans,
was attacked by Orkhān. Although surrounded by good walls, its resources
would not allow of a long defence, and the inhabitants were about to
surrender when they learned that the Emperor, young Andronicus, with
Cantacuzene, who afterwards in 1341 was associated as joint-Emperor,
were coming to its relief. In the late spring of 1329 they arrived with a
hastily-gathered army, met the Turks, and defeated them. But a band
of too impetuous Greeks endeavoured to follow up the victory, and the
Turks, employing the ruse which continued for centuries to give them
success, simulated flight. When the band had thus well separated them-
selves from the main body of the army, the Turks turned and attacked.
The Emperor and Cantacuzene then intervened. In the battle which
ensued the Emperor was himself wounded, and the result of the struggle
CH. XXI.


## p. 662 (#704) ############################################

662
Capture of Nicomedia
was indecisive. Shortly afterwards, however, a panic followed, and the
Turkish troops took advantage of it to capture the city and pillage
the imperial camp.
The capture of Nicaea was effected in 1329. Its wealth was probably
still great. After the recovery of Constantinople in 1261, its importance
had at once lessened, but it was still the store-house of Greek wealth in
Asia Minor. Orkhān decreed that tribute should be exacted from
every
place in Bithynia, and this cause, combined with the knowledge of its
wealth, probably led to the pillage of the city by the Turks in 1331.
The next stronghold of the Empire which Orkhān attacked was Izmid,
formerly Nicomedia. Situated at the head of the gulf of the same name
which stretches forty miles into Asia Minor from Constantinople, its
position was always an important one. Diocletian had selected it as the
capital of the Empire in the East. Instead of being landlocked as is
Nicaea, which at the time of the First Council (325) was for a while its
rival, it is on the sea at the head of a noble valley through which the
great highway leads into the interior of Asia Minor. In 1329 Orkhān
sat down before its great walls. But the Emperor Andronicus III, now the
sole occupant of the throne, had command of the sea, and hastened to its
relief with so strong a force that Orkhān was compelled to abandon the
siege and make terms. A few months passed and Orkhān once more
appeared before its walls. Once more the Emperor hastened to its relief
and the siege was raised. But Orkhān pursued the plan already mentioned
of starving the inhabitants into surrender by devastating the surrounding
country. The Emperor was unable to furnish an army sufficiently strong
to inflict a defeat upon the elusive hordes who were accustomed to live
upon the country, and in 1337 Nicomedia surrendered.
In 1329, and during the next ten years, attacks by the Turks suggest
unceasing movement on their part. In that year the Emirs of Aidin and
Caria, jealous of the conquests of the Ottomans, arranged with the
Emperor for his support. An army sent by Orkhān against them by sea
was destroyed near Trajanopolis. In the following year the Greeks were
still more successful: 15,000 Turks were defeated and destroyed in
Thrace.
In 1333 Omar Beg, the Emir of Aidin, sent an expedition to Porus in
Thrace, which was defeated and compelled to retire. Another band of
Turks was destroyed at Rodosto, and again another at Salonica, both
in the same year
In 1335 we hear of the Turks as pirates in various
parts of the Mediterranean, and of the Emperor's vain attempts to com-
bine his forces with those of the West to destroy them. His territory
on the eastern shore of the Aegean was in constant danger from the
Turkish emirs established there. In 1336 Andronicus was compelled
to ally himself with the Emir of Magnesia and other local Turkish chief-
tains in order to save Phocaea. A struggle with the Turks continued
in the same neighbourhood for two years. In the spring of 1338 a great


## p. 663 (#705) ############################################

Orkhan styled Sultan: the Janissaries
663
invasion of Thrace by the Tartars compelled the Emperor's attention.
They attacked the Turks who were still in that province and exter-
minated them, but as the Emperor was unable to pay for their services
they captured 300,000 Christians? . Other Turks, however, came the
following year, and devastated even the neighbourhood of the capital.
Being now in possession of the chief port in Bithynia, the head of all
the great roads from Anatolia to Constantinople, and of Brūsa, well fitted
by its natural strength to be the capital of a race of warriors, Orkhān
turned his attention to the organisation of his government. He had
from his accession been conscious that he had succeeded to the rule
of a greatly increased number of subjects and of a larger extent of
territory than his father, and judged that he was entitled to abandon the
title of Emir and to assume the more ambitious one of “Sultan of the
Ottomans. " Hitherto the coinage current was either that of Constanti-
nople or that of the Seljūqs; Orkhān with his new sense of sovereignty
coined
money
in his own name.
Besides having greatly increased the number of his Muslim subjects,
he had to rule over a large number of Christians. Most of them were
the inhabitants of conquered territory. Many of the peasants, however,
from neighbouring territories sought his protection; for, as the Greek
writers record, his Christian subjects were less taxed than those of the
Empire. He saw that it was wise to protect these rayahs. He left them
the use of their churches, and in various ways endeavoured to reconcile
them to his rule. This policy of reconciliation, commenced on his
accession, was continued during his reign and did much to set his army
free for service in the field. He took a step, however, with regard to his
Christian subjects, of which he could not have foreseen the far-reaching
‘results. In this he was at least greatly aided by his brother 'Alā-ad-Dīn
and by Khalil, a connexion of his family. He formed a regiment of
Christians who were kept distinct from the remainder of his army. The
men were at first volunteers. The inducements of regular pay, of
opportunities of loot and adventure, and of a career which was one for
life, appealed to many amid a population which had been greatly harassed
and impoverished by his army. The experiment was a new one, and
when Hājji Bektāsh, a celebrated dervish, was asked to give a name
to the new corps, the traditional story is that he laid the loose white
sleeve of his coat over the head of one of them, declaring that this
should be their distinctive head-dress, and called them New Troops or
Janissaries. Under this name they were to become famous in history.
The special feature which has attracted the attention of Europeans,
namely that they were tribute children, probably did not apply to
them in the time of Orkhān. Von Hammer follows the Turkish
1 In this and other cases I give the numbers captured or slain as they are
stated by the writers quoted. Needless to say that they are often greatly ex-
aggerated and incapable of being checked.
CH. XXI.


## p. 664 (#706) ############################################

664
Organisation of the army
authors who claim that Khalil, called Qara or Black Khalil, suggested
that Christian children taken into military service should be forcibly
brought up as Muslims. But the first mention of compulsory service by
Christians made in the Greek authors is attributed to the first year
of the reign of Orkhān's successor Murād in 1360. They relate that one-
fifth of all Christian children whose fathers were captured in battle
were regarded as ipso facto the property of the Sultan, and that
Murād caused his share of the boys to be taken from their parents and
brought up as Muslims to become Janissaries. It may be noted, how-
ever, that not all Janissaries were soldiers. A large proportion, perhaps
even' one-half, were educated for the civil service of the State. The
seizure and apportionment of the children and other property of Chris-
tians in resistance to the Sultan was in accordance with Islāmic law.
Orkhān and his brother ‘Alā-ad-Dīn organised the army. In the early
stages of their history the Ottomans had possessed only a tribal organi-
sation. Every Turk continued to be a fighter and was always liable to
serve,
but now classification had become necessary. We have various ac-
counts of how this was accomplished, all agreeing that the army under
Orkhān was organised on the basis of a militia associated with land
tenure, but that there were, in addition, paid troops who constituted
a standing army, of which the Janissaries soon formed the most notable
division. The general lines of the organisation of the Ottoman army as
laid down in this reign provided that the first and most important portion
should consist of men who held their lands from the Sultan and were
liable to well-defined military service. The second portion was formed
of men who were paid for their services. The first, military tenants,
were the “nerves and sinews of the Empire. ” These tenants received
various names in accordance with the rent they paid for the crown lands
and the services required of them. The Timariots held lands by title-
deeds or teskeres, either from the Sultan's land-courts for which they paid
any rent up to 20,000 aspers annually, or from a beglerbey on paying
annual rent up to 6000 aspers. Each Timariot had to furnish himself
with a small tent when on campaign, and was required to carry three or
four baskets for making earth works and trenches. Those who paid rent
higher than 20,000 aspers were known as Zaʻīms. If the rent were above
100,000 aspers the Za'īm became a pasha or sanjakbey, and if above
200,000 he was a beglerbey. The Zaśīms had not only to render personal
service, to find their own tents, needful utensils for campaigning, stabling
etc. , but for every 5000 aspers at which the Zafim was rated he had to
bring one horseman into the field. The Za'im might be called upon
to supply up to nineteen men. The organisation recalls the feudal
service in Western Europe with its tenants of the crown and their re-
tainers.
The second portion of the army consisted of men who were paid for
their services. It consisted first of the Janissaries who served for life, and


## p. 665 (#707) ############################################

Orkhan in alliance with Cantacuzene
665
secondly of Sipāhīs who were cavalry, armourers or smiths, gunners, and
mariners. All in this second division were hired for the campaign only,
and though, like all Ottoman subjects, liable to serve at all times, in the
interval between campaigns they returned to their homes and pasturage.
It was in forming an army mostly of infantry and retaining the services of
all his male subjects that Orkhān is credited with having formed the first
standing army of modern times. The infantry were known as Piyādē.
Subsequently the name Piyādē was restricted to such infantry as had
lands apportioned to them. Those who had no such lands were known
as 'Azabs, and resembled the irregulars who at a later period were known
as Bashi-bazuks. Corresponding to them, with the exception that they
were cavalry, was a body of light horsemen known as Aqinji, who also
were without regular pay and dependent on plunder. It was Orkhān
who first gave Turkish soldiers a distinctive uniform. The general
remark must, however, be made that modern authors, in describing
the organisation of the Turkish army, credit Orkhān with the later
organisation. Only the general outlines of this can safely be attributed
to Orkhān.
The last twenty years of Orkhān's reign were years of less active
aggression. But the Sultan found abundant occupation for his army.
The facts justify us in assuming that he never lost sight of his father's
intention to extend his empire northwards so as to encroach on that of
Constantinople.
The ravages of the Turks who had been called into Thrace to resist
the Tartars continued during two years. Then until 1344 we hear of
fewer troubles with them in Thrace, though in that year they were
before Salonica in the west and before Trebizond in the east of the
Empire, while still another band attacked the Knights of Rhodes, who
once more defeated them. It was probably shortly after the capture of
Nicaea that Orkhān took possession of Gemlik, formerly called Civitot,
and of almost all the south coast of Marmora.
In order to attach Orkhān to his side, the Emperor Cantacuzene in
1344 promised his daughter Theodora in marriage to the Ottoman
Sultan. The offer was accepted, and Orkhān sent 6000 troops into Thrace.
Perhaps the most noteworthy fact during the dynastic struggle, which
went on in the imperial family during Orkhān's reign, was that two
opposing bands of Turks were preying upon the country and thus
impoverishing the Empire.
In the midst of the civil war Cantacuzene gave another daughter in
marriage to the young Emperor John Palaeologus, aged fifteen, who had
been associated with him. Orkhān came to Scutari to congratulate his
father-in-law in 1347 on thus effecting a reconciliation, though Canta-
cuzene asserts that the object of his visit was to kill the young Emperor,
whom he regarded as the rival of Cantacuzene or of a son that he
himself might have by his wife Theodora.
CH. XXI.


## p. 666 (#708) ############################################

666
Venetian versus Genoese influence
The Serbs had now developed into a formidable nation. Orkhān
sent 6000 Ottomans against Stephen Dušan. The Turks defeated the
Serbs, but then recrossed into Asia with their booty. Two years
later, in 1349, Orkhăn sent 20,000 of his horsemen against the Serbs,
who were attacking Salonica. Matthew, the youngest son of Can-
tacuzene, was with the Ottomans. In 1352 the Tsar of Bulgaria
united with Stephen Dušan to support the young Emperor Palaeologus,
who was now quarrelling with his father-in-law. Much of the fighting
centred about Demotika, in the neighbourhood of which in the same
year Sulaiman, the son of Orkhān, defeated the Serbs. Orkhān himself
refused to assist in attacking his brother-in-law.
In these later years also, the struggle between the Genoese and the
Venetians disturbed the Empire and assisted in furthering the advance
of the Ottomans. On more than one occasion the Venetian fleet had
successfully resisted the Turk; for the fleet of the republic, like that of
Genoa, often made its appearance in the Aegean, and penetrated even to
the Euxine to protect the trade of its subjects. As the two States were
at this time almost constantly at war, it was practically inevitable that
in the civil war raging during the time of Cantacuzene one or both of
them should be invited to take sides. The Genoese were already estab-
lished in Galata, and they had strongly fortified it with walls which may
still be traced. In 1353 fourteen Venetian galleys fought at the
entrance to the Bosphorus against the combined Greek and Genoese
fleets, and their passage through the Straits was intercepted. In the
following year Cantacuzene had to take a decided line between the two
powers. He refused to ally himself with the Venetians, who had sent a
fleet to invite him so to do, probably because of his unwillingness to give
offence to Orkhān. His conduct, however, was of so dubious a character
that the Genoese declared war against him. The Venetians and the fleet
of the King of Aragon went to his assistance. Fighting took place once
more in the Bosphorus, and the Genoese persuaded Orkhān to come to
their aid. Thereupon Cantacuzene was compelled to come to terms
with the Genoese; he granted them an extension of territory beyond
the then existing walls of Galata, doubling in fact its area, and sur-
rendered to them the important towns of Heraclea and Selymbria
(Silivri) on the north shore of the Marmora. Cantacuzene, however,
had fallen into disfavour with the citizens of his capital, who sus-
pected that he was prepared to hand over Constantinople itself to Orkhān.
It was when he proposed to place the fortress of Cyclobium around the
Golden Gate in Orkhān's possession, for so went the rumour, that the
old Emperor resigned, and assuming the habit of a monk retired to a
monastery at Mangana; but a different version is given a century later
by Phrantzes.
Orkhān now assumed an attitude of open hostility to the Empire.
The year 1356 marks an epoch in the progress of the Ottoman Turks.


## p. 667 (#709) ############################################

The Ottomans in Europe
667
They and other Turkish tribes had frequently found themselves in Thrace,
either to help one of the parties in the civil war, or to assist the Empire
to repel Serb or Bulgar or Tartar invaders. But now Sulaimān, the son of
Orkhān, succeeded in crossing the Straits simply with the intention of
conquering new territory. A boat was ferried across the north end of the
Dardanelles, a Greek peasant was captured who assisted the Turks in
making rafts united by bullocks' hides, and on each raft forty horsemen
were ferried across to Tzympe, possibly at the foot of the hill on which
the castle of Sestos stands. In three nights thirty thousand men were
transported to the European shore, either in boats or, as seems more
likely, on a bridge supported on inflated skins. This was the real entry
of the Turks into Europe.
Shortly afterwards the Ottoman army, now under the command of
Murād, the second surviving son of Orkhān, took possession of three of the
most important towns in Thrace, Chorlu on the direct line to Hadrianople,
Epibatus, and Pyrgus? . In 1357 the Ottomans pushed on to Hadrianople,
which they captured and held as their European capital until Con-
stantinople fell into their hands. The capture was made by Sulaimān,
who, however, died shortly afterwards. A few weeks later Demotika,
which had had various fortunes during half a century and which was near
the Bulgarian frontier, fell into the hands of the Ottomans. To have
obtained possession of Hadrianople and of Demotika, and to be able to
hold them, was the greatest Ottoman advance yet made in Europe.
An incident occurred in the last year of Orkhān's life which is in-
structive as shewing how much influence the fear of his power had in the
Empire. His son Khalil, by Theodora the daughter of Cantacuzene, was
taken prisoner by pirates, probably Turks under the Emir of Magnesia,
and sent to Phocaea at the head of the Gulf of Smyrna. The Emperor,
with whom Matthew the son of Cantacuzene was associated, went him-
self with a fleet to capture the city, but returned without having
accomplished his object. After some weeks spent in the capital, Orkhān
insisted that he should return to set Khalil free. The request was in the
nature of a command, and was obeyed. The Palaeologus met his fleet
returning. Negotiations went on, but for a while without effect. Finally
in 1359 Khalil was ransomed by the Emperor, brought to the capital,
made governor of Bithynia, and took up his quarters at Nicaea. Previous
to his arrival the Emperor had agreed with Orkhān to give his ten-year-
old daughter to Khalil. The agreement was made at Chalcedon; the
betrothal was celebrated at Constantinople with great pomp and amid
the rejoicing of the people, who believed that by the marriage and the
signature of a treaty of perpetual peace they would have rest.
Orkhān died a few months afterwards at Brūsa in 1359, two months
i Cantemir makes this statement, though there is nothing to shew whether he
means the Bulgarian Burgas, or a place of the same name about fifteen miles west
of Constantinople but not on the coast.
CH. XXI.


## p. 668 (#710) ############################################

668
Murād I
after the death of his son Sulaiman. He had consolidated the realm
over which Osmān had ruled, and had largely extended it. The Turkish
writers claim that he had captured nearly every place between the
Dardanelles and the Black Sea, including the shores of the gulfs of
Gemlik and Izmid. The claim is exaggerated, for though he had
harassed all the neighbourhood he had not taken possession of it. If,
instead of speaking of his taking possession of these places, it is said
that he claimed sovereign rights from the Dardanelles to the Black
Sea, the statement would be correct. On the European side also he had
acquired many places in Thrace and, most important of all, had cap-
tured Hadrianople, which was to serve as the chief centre of attack on
the Empire by his successors.
MURĀD I (1359–1389).
The thirty years' reign of Sultan Murād marks a great advance of
Ottoman power. On his accession, the Ottomans were already the most
powerful division of the Turks in Asia Minor. With two or three
exceptions, such as Karamania, little attention had to be given to the
Turks in the rear, that is, to the south and east of the territory the
Ottomans occupied. The greater body was constantly attracting to
itself members of the smaller bodies.
The attention of Murād was devoted at the beginning of his reign
mainly to the development of the important territory his people had
already acquired, extending from the north of the Aegean eastward to
Ineboli on the Black Sea. This territory, though for the most part con-
quered in the sense that it paid tribute and contained no population
able to revolt, was ill-organised, and it was the business of the new
sultan to complete its organisation for the purpose of government. But
the great object of Murād's life was to make a still further advance into
Europe. Indeed the remark may be made once for all that the Ottomans
were never prosperous except when they were pushing forward to obtain
new territory. Times of peace always shewed the worst side of the race.
Inferior in civilisation and intelligence to the races they conquered, they
resented their inferiority and became oppressors. Religion at this early
stage of their history was not a powerful element in their character, but as
they had adopted Islām the difference in religion between the conquerors
and conquered tended to become more and more the distinguishing
mark between them, with results which became increasingly important
as time went on. Various Greek writers note the commencement of a
religious persecution by Murād, and attribute it to the influence of a mufti.