Venetian Report on the Ottoman-Safavid Campaign - 1555

The Death of Mustafa; Description of Aleppo; The Sultan's Entrance; The Sultan at Aleppo; The Campaign

This report is pretty long, so I broke it up into sections; the section headers don’t appear in the original report. You can skip the Description of Aleppo and The Sultan’s Entrance sections without losing much context, although I find the Description of Aleppo to be fascinating.

Background

This report is from an anonymous eyewitness. The following background appeared in the original 1840s compilation of Venetian Relaziones.

The readers will not, I hope, be displeased with me for this Relation, which, although not by a bailo [ambassador], nor read in the Pregadi [Senate], being however by a Venetian who was a witness, and perhaps also a participant, in the events narrated, I have thought could be fittingly included; and all the more so as it is rich in curious and important information, and beautiful above all for three descriptions: that of the miserable end of Mustafa, son of Suleiman, that of the city of Aleppo, and that of the pompous entry of the Sultan into said city.

Report

I write of the things which happened in the war that in the year of our salvation 1553 Sultan Suleiman, the present emperor of the Turks, waged against Tahmasp¹, King of Persia and of Armenia, called the Lord Sofi: a task to which I have set myself to pass the time that my business affairs allow me, to refresh my spirit, and also to satisfy, as I hope, the desire of some of my dearest friends who wish to understand and to know these things. It may perhaps occur that to some who read my writings that, according to the accounts of other persons or notices in letters, the things of which I write have been written or reported otherwise than as I will narrate them—which person, if he be a man of judgment, will not for this cause condemn, nor hold to be false, my narration, because every person of sound mind knows very well that oftentimes things reported, in passing from person to the next, become so corrupted that it very often happens that a thing reported by the fourth or fifth who repeats it is so dissimilar from the account of the first who reported it, that not only does it not seem the same, but for the most part contrary. This, I esteem, must arise from the variety of the affections in the spirits of diverse persons, who, as I believe, allowing themselves to be carried away by these, go about in their reporting arranging with words what they have understood in the manner which most pleases their affection, increasing or diminishing that which to their taste renders a better flavor.

He who knows, then, that the handling of important matters by these Turkish lords proceeds in so secret a manner, that until the outcome of things is seen, rarely can those who are not part of these dealings, however great they may be, know beforehand what is to follow, and what is ordered and what is being treated; and that this nation of the Turks holds to this custom, good and convenient for itself, that when anything occurs that is to the detriment of its side, it seeks with all industry to hide it, striving to make it appear to the contrary of what has happened; and he who knows that these people do not follow the style that is used in our parts—that is, of keeping posts and couriers, who from the armies to the cities, and from one city to another, run from hour to hour with news of what is happening—and besides this, that the roads which remain behind the armies, and especially in the parts of Greater Armenia, are so beset by robbers that it is not safe to go forward or backward except in very large companies, so that every day in the cities some news is heard, which is spread not only among the common people but also among great persons; such a one, I say, will recognize that he who writes such information day by day will not be at fault if things do not always turn out to be true.

I write while in the city of Aleppo, in which I dwelt while the war of which I am writing had its beginning and end; which city is so situated that I have had with time great opportunity to penetrate to the truth of those things of which I write, which, before I resolved to write of them, I wished to know and confirm as true by all means that were possible for me.

In this city, the person of the Grand Turk wintered, with all the people of his Porte², and with a great number of other people of his army, for which reason I did not lack diverse means to learn what I desired of the things that had happened before he came; and of the things that happened afterwards, I have had such information through many good channels, that by their corroboration I can hold the account to be true. Now what I have understood, and what in part I have seen, I faithfully write for the pleasure of those who may wish to read this writing; to whom, in order to give a full account of the events of this war, it seems to me necessary first to make clear the borders of the one and the other lord.

I say, then, that from Mount Amanus to the Persian Sea, the jurisdiction of the one and the other lord is divided by the river Tigris, with the western part remaining in the dominion of the Turkish Lord, and that of the east in the power of the Sofi. It is true that some castles in the mountains which divide Mesopotamia, now called Diarbekir, from Greater Armenia, are in the dominion of diverse lords who go by the name of Kurds, and some hold for the Sofi, others for the Turk. Further to the north the Georgian peoples hold dominion, the greater part of whom are Turks.

As the country of the Turks has been described many times by many authors, it is not necessary that I now take upon myself the labor of describing it, especially as it is not greatly needed for the understanding of this war. However, to say something of the country of the Sofi does not seem to me amiss, for the satisfaction of those who, this lord being most remote from our lands, have not heard which countries are subject to him.

I say, therefore, that the country that gives obedience to this lord is bounded on two sides by two seas, the one the Persian Sea and the other the Caspian Sea. The latter marks the northern boundary, and the former the southern. On the east it is enclosed by a chain of mountains called the Caucasus, which extends with one end to the Caspian Sea and with the other to the Persian Sea; on the western side by the river Tigris with the Euphrates, which is the line I have described above, as far as the country of the Kurds and the Georgians. Within these borders are included more than half of Greater Armenia, all of Media, Hyrcania, Parthia, Karamania, Susiana, and part of Assyria; of which provinces, each by itself has held empire, and he who has read the ancient histories will have understood what power each of these possessed, and how great their lords have been, and how much trouble they gave to the power of the Greeks and the Romans. And therefore it will be no wonder if a king who now has dominion over them all offers as much resistance as Tahmasp does to Suleiman, the greatest of the Grand Lords that has yet been of the Ottoman house, who on two previous occasions, with the full force of his power, has attempted to take his kingdom from him³, and now that he had moved against him with the greatest force that ever was, has been compelled to return, having done him, as you will see in my description, little harm.

Before I enter upon the start of this war, it is necessary, so that those who read may see everything more clearly and in order, to begin from an earlier point, by stating the causes which were its origin. I say, therefore, that the Grand Turk, during another expedition which he made against the Sofi in the year of our salvation 1548, having taken the city of Van, and in the following year, being already in those parts, having resolved to abandon that enterprise on account of the affairs in Transylvania and Hungary which troubled him, so as not to leave his own country on the Sofi’s border without a good guard, and to preserve what he had acquired, placed in Van a beylerbey, giving him a company of soldiers sufficient to keep the city well defended. He placed another in Carahamid⁴, which city is situated midway between Van and the river Euphrates. This name, Carahamid, is Turkish, meaning that the place is black, and so it truly seems, for this city is encircled by a wall of black stones: although it should no longer be so called, for the Lord Turk has had it whitewashed all around, in such a way that from black it has been made white. The Lord Turk therefore also placed a beylerbey in this city, and in Erzerum he placed another, with a greater garrison than the other two; and because this place was of greater importance to his affairs and more harassed, he placed there a man of valor, called Scander-Agà, to take care of providing all things of importance for the needs of the army; a man who had always conducted himself in such a way that his every deed met with great favor from Suleiman, who, having recognized his valor, gave him this province to govern, placing under him eight sanjaks, who along with their people were to give him obedience.

The Grand Turk having departed, and the Sofi also having returned deep into his country, this beylerbey of Erzurum, desirous of increasing the dominion of his lord, set about making raids into the enemy’s country, every day laying waste, ruining, and plundering this place and that. And with these raids he treated those borderlands so badly that for a good stretch of the way neither house nor person could be found dwelling there, because some had been killed, some made slaves, and a great part had retreated inland to flee from the evil vicinity of that beylerbey. He, seeing that great expanse of country empty of people, resolved to build a fortress in a place that seemed to him to be a strong and convenient site, in which he desired to install himself with a good garrison so as to more conveniently push the cavalry further forward to raid, thinking by this means to occupy much more enemy country.

This design having been discovered by the Sofi, and he having determined to ensure that this fortress, designed and begun by the Turks, should not be built, he gave, in the year of Our Lord 1552, to a very valiant second-born son of his, who bears the name of his grandfather Ismail, an army of fifteen thousand chosen men on horseback, ordering him what he was to do. Ismail went as he had been commanded by his father; he suddenly assaulted those who were working on the begun fortress, and laid everything to ruin. Guarding them were three Turkish sanjak-beys, who with their people wished to make a defense, but were in a short time put to rout, with the greater part of them killed; many were taken, and among them the three sanjak-beys, whom Ismail had cruelly put to death in various ways: one roasted on a spit, another quartered alive into four pieces, and the other sawn in half.

After this enterprise was done, Ismail pushed further forward with his men, heading towards Erzurum, in which city the beylerbey Scander-Aga was stationed with a number of cavalry. He, having heard of the sudden assault that the Safavids had made upon those who were building the fortress, and not knowing what number of men they were, did not venture out of the city. Ismail, desirous of accomplishing some fine enterprise, set an ambush with the greater part of his men, and with just a few appeared in sight of the city, hoping by this means to draw the beylerbey out of the city and into the open country. He succeeded in what he had planned; for as soon as the beylerbey saw that the men who appeared in sight of the city were few, he came out, so as not to let them damage the country, and of the men he had with him he formed two squadrons, keeping one with himself, and sending the other, under a sanjak, out by another route to catch the Safavids in between—who, when they saw the Turkish forces come out and advance toward them, they put themselves in order to fight; and after engaging in a skirmish, in a short time they feigned flight. The Turks, believing they had routed them, pursued them, and the Safavids drew them on so far that they led them into the ambush. Then the Turks, being caught between so many soldiers, who outnumbered them by a third and were incomparably more valiant, were for the most part cut to pieces. A few prisoners were spared, as was the beylerbey, who fled wounded and badly battered with seven other valiant soldiers, who defended him until they saved themselves by throwing themselves into the city’s moat, because they did not have time to enter by the gate. The Safavids, having accomplished their enterprise, made camp before the city, and seeing afterwards that they could not take it by storm, and seeing winter coming upon them, they set about laying waste to the entire country, where they did immense damage, leaving nothing that was not burned and ruined, and carrying away as many men and animals as they could take. After they had laid waste to that country, they came raiding toward Ardgis⁵, where, as they were around the city, the castle collapsed due to an earthquake, killing many of those within. They likewise laid waste to the country of Van, and raided even further, ruining other places; then when they were near Baghdad they turned back, returning to their own country. This city that is now named Baghdad is, in the opinion of some, Babylon, which was once the royal seat of the Assyrian kings, and some others maintain that it is a modern city built near the ruins of the former, and this opinion they hold to be the better one.⁶ The breadth of country laid waste by the Safavids was more than thirty days’ journey in length, and about eight in width.

The beylerbey of Erzurum, having been apprised of the aftermath of this destruction, and of the damage the Safavids were causing, and likewise of the state of fear in which the people of those frontiers found themselves, and fearing that the Safavids might raid further inland, infesting other parts, and that also with some foray, the countryside being open and trackless, they might trouble the land of Damascus, gave prompt notice to the Grand Signor.⁷ The latter immediately dispatched the Grand Vizier Rustem Pasha,⁸ as well as his son-in-law, from Constantinople with an army of fifty thousand men, giving him for company the Agha of the Janissaries, and sent him towards those parts; who departed from Constantinople in the month of September, if I am not mistaken. But because the desire of the said Pasha had always been not to distance himself from the person of the Grand Signor—which he desired in the hope that, in the event of the latter’s death, one of the sons that the Grand Signor had with the woman now in his favor⁹ would ascend to the dignity of the crown (which by right belonged to Sultan Mustafa, the first-born, who was born of another woman and for various reasons was a great enemy of the said Pasha); for these reasons, the Pasha was so unhurried in his journey, lingering now in one place, now in another, that he barely reached Iconium¹⁰, a city of Lycaonia, in the month of November—which province, together with Cilicia, is now called Karamania, and in this city of Iconium the beylerbeys of Karamania ordinarily reside for a great part of the year.

Two days’ journey before one arrives at Iconium coming from Constantinople, one finds the road that leads to Amasya, a city of Cappadocia, in which Sultan Mustafa, then the first-born of the Turk, resided. When the Pasha reached this pass, the greater part of the army having already passed ahead towards Iconium, the janissaries who were with him said that they wanted to go and pay their respects to Sultan Mustafa, their future lord. The Pasha, immediately understanding the matter and fearing some danger to himself, gave the command that no one should leave him, but that everyone should go with him towards Iconium. But this command did not prevent the janissaries from doing as they had resolved, and so they all set out on the road to Amasya. The Pasha, with the Agha of the Janissaries and with the other people who had remained, set out on the way to Iconium.

When the janissaries arrived in Amasya they went to kiss the hand of Mustafa, by whom they were very well received and cherished, and they received many provisions from him, and a gold ducat for each one; then the following day they set out for Iconium, in which place, upon arriving, they found the Pasha with all the rest of the men, who had arrived some time before. During this time, he had received letters from Constantinople with the news that Sultan Suleiman was gravely ill, and in such a condition that there was little hope for his recovery. Sultan Mustafa likewise received this news, and as soon as he heard it, he prepared what he would need to ride forth in the event that the death of his Lord Father should follow. It was said that he had a hundred thousand men at the ready, and that with one sound of a trumpet they would have mounted their horses to follow him; nevertheless, this was not the truth. But it was a rumor raised by order of Rustem Pasha, who from this took the grounds to procure the death of the unfortunate lord, who at that time did not have with him more than five thousand men on horseback, but all of the finest quality, who were worth three times their number.

It is quite true that the entire army that was with Rustem Pasha would have followed him, and neither the Pasha nor the Agha of the Janissaries would have been able, either with gifts or with promises, to prevent all the men from doing so; because Mustafa was so beloved by all the soldiers of this empire that everyone desired nothing but a swift opportunity for the empire to fall to him. This sentiment proceeded from nothing other than the rare virtues possessed by that lord, through which he compelled the souls of people to esteem him, love him, and revere him, and especially because of his great liberality, and of his great humanity, with which he had made every soldier his slave. And certainly, neither the favor of the mother of the other brothers, which is very great, nor their own presence, nor the favor and help of Rustem Pasha, who is most powerful in money, which in his long time as Grand Vizier he has striven to accumulate by every means, both direct and crooked, would have been sufficient to cause the other brothers to offer him the slightest opposition, let alone take the kingdom from him.

The Pasha, who saw the commotion of the janissaries, and who well perceived the entire army to be fond of this lord, feared that some sinister accident might befall himself, and so he resolved not to remain in Iconium. Concealing what he had in his mind, he had it announced in the army that the Safavids were more powerful than he, and that for this reason he did not wish to go further until he had first sent notice of this matter to the Sublime Porte, and until a reply had returned from it with a command of what he should do. And he wrote, and the reply returned with a command, that he with the entire army should return to Constantinople. And because it was not suitable, with the Safavids under arms and powerful in the field, and upon the lands of this Grand Signor, to remove an army from those parts, leaving the country empty of men, it can perhaps be clearly understood that in the letter he wrote to Constantinople, something else was conveyed than what he had announced he had written, and perhaps with these letters he began to have a hand in the shedding of the blood of him who will be spoken of further on.

I shall leave this discourse for now to continue my narration. The Pasha returned to Constantinople, where the Sultan improved and recovered his health. What the Pasha discussed with him at that time, I do not believe there is any man who knows.

It is certain that some Vlachs¹¹ were immediately dispatched—who are those sent with celerity here and there for important matters—with orders containing what had been commanded to be done. Said Vlachs came to these parts of Aleppo, organizing the people here, and giving orders for those preparations that were to be made, and most principally that all the frontiers be supplied with a great quantity of grain, imposing a levy for it upon the peoples of the country, beginning from the furthest parts of Syria which border Egypt, up to the parts of Greater and Lesser Armenia. This levy was imposed in this manner: that for every so many heads, they should pay for a camel’s load of barley and wheat, including the entire expense of its transport to the assigned places. One of these loads here in Aleppo was then worth, including the entire expense of transport, about twenty-five gold ducats, for the payment of which fifteen heads were assessed. The more distant places had a greater expense to pay, for which I believe a greater number of persons was assessed. Everything that was ordered was carried out, and a great sum of grain was placed in Erzurum, in Van, and in all the places of importance.

After this, the Grand Signor in Constantinople had war proclaimed against the Sofi, to which he said he wished to go in person; and perhaps this was designed to produce another effect. Before he set out, he settled his affairs with the King of the Romans¹² through an agreement of truce.

The Sofi of Persia, who understood very well that the Turk wished to make war on him, had prepared for his defense with all diligence; and to delay the Turk’s affairs, he sent a Turkish sanjak, whom he held prisoner, to Constantinople to treat for peace. The Lord Turk gave his attention to this, and sent the sanjak back to the Sofi with the request that he should send a man with the authority to treat for said peace and bring it to a conclusion—not, however, ceasing to make provisions for war. The Turkish sanjak reached the Sofi, who, having heard the Turk’s request, immediately sent an ambassador to Constantinople, giving him an honorable present to offer to the Turk and to his entire Porte. This ambassador arrived in Constantinople on the 19th of the month of August; he made his present, and kissed the hand of Suleiman, and was graciously received by him; but he was given no time to treat of any matter, save that he told the lord pashas for what cause he had come. On the 28th of the said month, Sultan Suleiman departed in the manner and pomp with which he is accustomed to depart when he is about to go to war, and crossed over to Anatolia to a place called Scutari, which is opposite Constantinople; in which place, by his prior command, all the men of his Porte, and those of Europe together, were assembled. On the 29th, he set out with the entire army, giving the order to winter in Aleppo, a city in Syria, so as to be, in the new season, more proximate to the enemy Sofi; and having reached the pass that leads to Amasya, he sent some of his chaushes to summon his son Mustafa, informing him of his intention to send him on the expedition against the Sofi by way of Erzurum.

The poor and unfortunate lord, having received his father’s letter and understood the request, made it known to his dearest confidants, who advised him that by no means should he go; this came to the ears of his mother (who, since this son of hers had left the seraglio, had always dwelt near him) and she was of the same opinion as all the others, and advised him against this journey. But for all the counsel he was given, he would not refrain from going where destiny drew him, saying that in all things he wished to obey his father. And having resolved to do so, and having prepared an honorable present for the aforementioned Grand Signor his sire, he set out on his way.

I must not fail to tell of the unhappy omen that two of his horses gave him at the hour he wished to mount to depart. Having ascended a platform an arm’s length high from the ground, of the kind these lords are accustomed to use to mount a horse more comfortably, his miriacuba¹³ sought to lead before him a very beautiful horse that he was often accustomed to ride; which, as if foreseeing what was to befall its master, would not approach the place where he had ascended, nor did the great efforts of several of his grooms avail to make it draw near. When Mustafa saw that the horse could in no way be made to approach, he ordered that one of the others, which were saddled to be led by hand, be brought to him; which reacted in the same manner as the first. Seeing this, the poor lord dismounted from the platform, and approaching the horse that was held by his grooms, he vaulted upon it, and set out on the 6th of the month of October, and came to the camp, which was encamped on this side of Iconium in a place called Arach.

There his pavilions were pitched two miles away from those of the Lord his father; and as soon as the walls of the pavilions were raised, an arrow was shot from the camp, to which was attached a written note, warning him that he should not present himself to his father, for he intended to have him killed. Nevertheless, he was determined to go, judging this to be a ruse by Rustem Pasha, designed to make him fall into disgrace with his father. His closest servants, who had heard everything, did not fail to tell him that he ought to consider the matter more carefully, and that if he truly wished to present himself to his father, he should do so on horseback in the open field, where he would be seen by everyone, for then the Grand Signor would not have been able to do him any harm, as he could easily do within his enclosed pavilions, into which none of his own men would enter with him, who might have given him aid had he needed it. The unwary lord would not assent to any of this counsel, and said to those who advised him that he knew of no wrong he had committed against his father for which he should be put to death, and that he would never believe that anyone could have made him so hated by the one who had begotten him that he would have him killed. And he said: “If it is indeed true that my father wishes to take my life, he who gave it to me may also take it away.” And having fully resolved to go, he at once sent his present ahead, which consisted of some fur linings, several very beautiful horses, and other honorable things befitting his station. Then he himself set forth, dressed in white and silver above, and in crimson satin below, upon a magnificent horse all adorned with jewels; and as both he and the horse were splendidly turned out, and he himself most handsome in body and countenance, he was a very fine sight to behold.

When the unfortunate Mustafa arrived at his father’s pavilion, he dismounted from his horse, leaving it in the hands of his miriacuba, which in our language means master of the stable, and then he unbuckled his sword, leaving it in the first pavilion; this he did because no one is permitted, when going to kiss the hand of the Great Lord, to approach with arms at his side. From the first pavilion, he passed into the second, in which he found no one, and then entering the third he found the capigiler chietcudascì, who said to him: “Wait, my lord, for you shall now enter.” He did not wait long before he was bidden to enter. Having entered the fourth pavilion, he saw his father, who was seated and held a loaded bow in his hand, and he made him reverence, to which his father responded, saying, “Ah, dog, you still have the heart to greet me!” And at the same time he turned away, which was the sign he had given to those whom he wished to kill him. Immediately the capigiler laid his hands on his throat, saying: “Do not move, for I do what I do by order of the Great Lord.” And all at once three mutes, who were present, fell upon him, throwing a bowstring around his neck to strangle him—which cord broke as they tightened it, and in the meantime the poor wretch slipped from the hands of those who had seized him, some of whom he had thrown to the ground, and he turned to flee. But in doing so he tripped over the front of the robe he wore, which entangled his feet, and he was about to fall to the ground; and at that same moment the capigiler seized him by a foot and brought him crashing down. The Great Lord, who saw this, had the others close in on him, who, assailing him with another cord in hand, placed it around his neck; but he put his arm between the cord and his neck at the front, so that as the cord was tightened he could not be strangled. The Sultan then said: “Take the cap from his head, for as long as it is on his head you will never be able to kill him”—which this lord said, because the Turks wear a certain kind of small cotton cap, which they keep under their turbans, with written characters, which they are persuaded by their superstition to be of such virtue, that while these characters touch a man’s flesh, he can never be violently killed. The capigiler then tore it from his head and handed it to the Grand Signor, who placed it to one side of the pavilion, and the mutes threw the third bowstring around the neck of the unfortunate one, and it was the last they had, because they had one each, from which the poor soul defended himself by drawing his beard to his chest. But they raised his head by force and made the cord fall upon his neck; with which, tightening, they took the life of him who was of such promise that, in everyone’s judgment, he would have surpassed in virtue and valor every other scion of the Ottoman house, because he was adorned with all those good qualities that befit royal and imperial majesty, nor did he lack anything to be a perfect king and emperor except for the faith of our lord Jesus Christ.

As soon as the capigiler had performed the said office, he left the pavilion of the Grand Signor weeping and was seen by many, who judged what had been done. Immediately then, the Grand Signor sent to take the royal seal from the hand of Rustem Pasha the First Vizier, and sent it to Ahmed Pasha, who sat in the second place, making him sit in the first, and at that same time he sent word to his own miriacaba that he should take the horse of his dead son and lead it to his stable, where the other royal horses were—who with his own hands took it by the reins from the hand of the dead man’s miriacaba, and through the midst of the army led it to the royal stable.

When the men of the army saw the horse of the unfortunate dead lord being led away, a very great uproar arose in the camp, for all at once they ran out of their pavilions to see that spectacle, which was an indication of what had occurred. The Grand Lord, so that the janissaries would not make some disturbance on the belief that Mustafa was still alive, immediately had the body of his dead son placed outside the pavilions upon a carpet, in a place where everyone could see it. Before the body of the dead man was placed outside the pavilions, there was found in his pouch the letter that had been shot to him in the pavilion with an arrow, which the Grand Lord read then immediately sent word to depose Cardar Pasha-Vizier; for which reason some have later judged that the Grand Lord suspected that Cardar had written that letter. But they are mistaken, for if he had fallen under such suspicion, he would have lost his head. Afterwards, two guards led the dead man’s miriacaba and his chief standard-bearer before the pavilions of the Grand Lord, and there their heads were cut off. These were the lords whom Sultan Mustafa held most dear and in greatest affection.

The chief standard-bearer was a Venetian gentleman of the House of Michiel; who, being a cabin boy on a galley, was captured along with the galley by the Turkish fleet during the last war that the Turk waged with the Most Serene Republic of Venice, which was in 1538. This man was the chief among all the other slaves of Mustafa.

The funeral rites for the dead man were performed throughout the camp by order of the Sultan, and afterwards the body was placed upon one of the royal carts, and the other two likewise in two others, and they were carried to Bursa to be buried. All the people of the army were in greatest sorrow for this death, and more than all the others the Janissaries grieved, who spoke very loudly against the Grand Signor, blaspheming and cursing him, and with injurious words blaming him for having done this unjustly—which they said with such loud voices, and being so near to his pavilions, that he himself could hear them. And because it was the common opinion among all that Rustem Pasha had been the author and counselor of this death, his life was on the verge of being lost, because the Janissaries wanted to kill him. But the Grand Signor freed him from this imminent danger, by giving out that he wished to put to death four of the principals of his Porte, among whom the Janissaries judged that Rustem Pasha must be, who had already been deposed as Pasha; and therefore they made no other sound, remaining suspended in this hope. But when night came, Rustem departed with some of his men, nor did the Janissaries know of it until the next day, when they saw that some were taking down Rustan’s pavilions. Some Janissaries approached them, and seeing them empty, they cut the ropes that held them up, as a sign of their intention to do the same to him whom they had hoped to find within them.

There has been seen throughout the whole army a general great sorrow for this death of Mustafa, proceeding from the great love that all generally bore him, which was of such a sort, that some great men of the army who depended on neither one side nor the other have assured me that if poor Mustafa had come out alive from his father’s pavilions, when he escaped from the hands of those who wished to kill him, the greater part of the army would have gone to his aid against the Grand Signor his father.

After these things were done, the Grand Signor commanded that the army should break camp at Arach and set out towards Caisarieh, which was formerly called Caesarea Magna, which city is distant from Arach by a two days’ journey; and having arrived in this place, he had the ambassador of the Sofi summoned, and through Cardar Pasha he had him told the articles he required for making peace with the Sofi, the tenor of which was that the Sofi should cede to him the province of Sirvan, and that he should remove those who in his kingdom continually blasphemed and cursed the name of Ali, whom the Safavids hold for a heretic, and that he should have the doctrine of this man read and preached in the mosques, and have it observed, promising that if the Sofi would consent to these conditions, in his view most just, he would then show him such great courtesy that a greater one had never been heard of one lord showing to another; but that should he be unwilling to consent, he promised him war until he had driven him from his entire kingdom. The ambassador, having heard the articles, said that he had no authority to conclude peace on these conditions, but that he would return to his lord and report to him what he had heard from the lord pashas in the name of the Grand Signor, who would then make the decision for war or for peace. With this he was dismissed, and given an honorable present, and was made to understand that he should return with the decision to Aleppo, in which place the Lord Turk intended to spend the winter.

After some days had passed, he had the army depart from that place, setting out with his Porte and a good number of other fighting men towards Aleppo, and the rest of the troops he arranged in various places to winter. He had already sent the Beylerbey of Anatolia towards Erzurum with sixty thousand horse and two thousand Janissaries, and the Beylerbey of Greece to the parts of Caesarea and neighboring countries with another like number of men on horseback, that they might winter there. The Agha of the Janissaries and all the other people of the Porte remained with his person.

Sultan Selim has always followed him, never being more than two days’ journey from the person of the Grand Signor his father, who sought many times before he came to Aleppo that he should come into his presence; but he would never come until after the Grand Signor was in Aleppo, as will be recounted in its proper place. Many were of the opinion that he did not wish to do this fearing lest what had happened to Sultan Mustafa should befall him.

With the Grand Signor has always been Sultan Cihangir, the fifth-born, who was a hunchback and much loved by his father who, after the death of Sultan Mustafa, wished to give him the sanjak of Amasya, where he had resided, but Cihangir refused it, saying that he did not wish to leave his father’s person until he died at his feet, as later came to pass. But he refused to leave his father’s person for no other reason than the hope he held of succeeding him in the kingdom, which, had he found himself beside him at the moment of his father’s death, would have easily come to pass for him, his other brothers being far away, and he being loved by the soldiers and by the Janissaries much more than his other, older brothers; and this because he was of a very easy and pleasant nature, and sought with fine manners to please everyone.

Selim, who is now the first-born, and to whom the empire is due, is of a harsh, terrible nature, and without any good manners to endear himself to others.

Sultan Bayezid, then, is of a melancholic nature and professes to be devoted to study, and because until now he has done little to win the soldiers’ affection, he is therefore held in little account among them.

Fate did not wish for Sultan Cihangir to be put to the test of acquiring the kingdom, for he died, as we shall say in its proper place. It was said that he grieved beyond measure at the end of his brother Mustafa, and that when he received the news he was about to take his own life, which is very hard to believe; for besides life being most precious—such that we see men every day, in order to preserve it, care little for the lives of their fathers, mothers, and children—for him, with his brother’s death, a very great hope of ruling this very great empire opened up.

Description of Aleppo

Now let us cease to speak of this matter, and return to our subject. The Grand Lord arrived with the aforementioned troops near Aleppo; which city, according to the common opinion, is situated in the province of Syria, and in the opinion of some in that part of it which is called Commagene, and by some others in the part called Cyrrhestica, which two parts are divided by Ptolemy¹⁴ with the river Singas, which leaves Commagene to the north and Cyrrhestica to the south, and they say that Aleppo is the city that Ptolemy named Heropolis. There are some others who would have it that Aleppo was anciently called Ispernia, and others, leaving aside both of these opinions, say that this city was built by Alappius, a captain of Tiberius Caesar, in Commagene, and that he gave it his own name. If this were so, it would be necessary for those who travel from Aleppo to Tripoli to cross the river Singas in some place; but I, who have made this journey many times, have never found any other river that I needed to cross, save for the river Orontes, which passes through the middle of the city of Hama, which is closer to Tripoli than to Aleppo, and therefore it must be said that the city of Aleppo is not in Commagene. As for those who say this is Ispernia, I hold that they should not be heeded, since in no author, historian or cosmographer, have I ever seen any mention made of any city of such a name; therefore I will say nothing of this opinion, save that it may be they are mistaken in the name of the city, because six or eight miles distant from the city are the vestiges of a ruined city which the people of this country call Old Aleppo, and they say that a great number of years ago it was ruined by the Tartars, who, descending from Scythia, came to ruin these parts, and that after the Tartars had withdrawn, those remnants of people who had saved themselves from the ruin by flight, returned to the nest and set about building the city of Aleppo that is seen today.

And I believe that its first founders chose this site, where they have made it, as a stronger site than that other, where the first city was; because in its middle is seen a small mound one and a half times higher than the tallest towers that are beside the mosques, where the talismans cry their prayers, which are very high. Around which mound there is a moat at least fifteen paces wide, which is man-made and carved with the chisel, because the mound with its moat and the outer bank are seen to be of a single mass of rock, which like tuff is soft to cut. Upon this mound, where the castle now stands, I believe the building of this city was begun, and at that time I believe the place was sufficient for the dwelling of those who began to build, but that later, due to the convenience of the site and its location, many people gathered to live there, who, unable to fit within the castle, went about making houses around it, and little by little these grew in such great number, that it was then necessary, for the safe living of their inhabitants, to enclose all those houses with walls, and make them into a great walled city, as is now seen.

In its beginning, neither nearby nor inside did the water that now runs there flow, but to live they made use of water from hand-dug wells, of which the whole city is full; but after it had grown, they have brought the waters that are now seen inside and out, which are brought from the north and descend to the south, one part by a small man-made river that runs outside the city, and another part through another conduit that enters the city underground, and serves a great number of public and private fountains, with pipes that carry the water everywhere. These waters are taken three or four days’ journey from the city from a watercourse, which descends from some hills that lie to the north of this city; which water forms another branch that goes eastward toward the river Euphrates, and it could be that this is the river Singas; but then one would be forced to say that Ptolemy had erred concerning the origin of this river, since it would not rise from Mount Pietra, which is near Alexandretta.

This city, as I have said, is encircled by a high wall with its towers at intervals, which watch one another, and for hand-to-hand combat would make an honorable defense. Three hills, besides the fourth upon which the castle stands, are enclosed within these walls; in which walls there are eleven gates that serve the suburbs and the roads of the territory. The suburbs are large, among which there is one that is a third of the size of the city. In the middle of it, as I have said above, is the castle, which is half a mile or a little more in circumference, and it is furnished all around with a wall of mountain stone, with some small towers, now larger and now smaller, according as it seemed fitting to those who built it. One enters it through a single gate of a small turret, which is at the beginning of the moat, and then by a bridge that is on an incline, which is built upon seven vaults that are high but not very wide. Near the gate there is a great tower, which is built outside the castle walls and goes down almost to the moat, and on the other side of the said castle, diametrically opposite this one, there is another like it, which one enters from the castle by a covered way. These great towers and the walls are furnished with artillery throughout, and to guard the castle there is an agha with two hundred janissaries, who performs the office of the castellan; and besides these, the number of other people who live in the said castle can be up to the sum of two thousand.

The number of people in the city, together with that of the suburbs, is great, and I intend to explain it in no other way than by saying that in the year 1555, more than one hundred and twenty thousand people died in the town and in the suburbs in three months of plague; nor for this, afterwards, once the disease had passed, was any great sign of such a lack of people seen. And let no one think that I dare to affirm that so many died by my own judgment, though I was present, nor by the judgment of others who might judge it so; but I say it with true knowledge, because of all the bodies that were then carried to be buried each day, the kadi and the beylerbey wished to have an account, and to this effect they kept men at the gates of the city and of the boroughs who each day made a particular note of them, which I have seen, and therefore I know what I say to be the truth. By this sign, therefore, one may judge that the number of inhabitants of this city is very great.

The city is not adorned with public edifices except for mosques, of which some are quite beautiful, with their towers as high as our bell towers. The structures of the houses are made of hewn mountain stone, and all the inhabited houses are of one story, covered with stone vaults, and made in a very beautiful form, with many ornaments of gold and fine stones within, with floors worked with stones of diverse colors, with a beautiful pattern and arrangement of clusters, and with designs made in the arabesque style. The other household furnishings of persons of some condition are very rich, and all the others, according to their rank, are accustomed to having their houses adorned with beautiful furnishings. Only the Turks who are in this city in the service of the Grand Signor are an exception, since they must always be ready to go where their lord commands them; who gives them their offices in such a way that the term is never determined, and whenever he has the will to remove them from one place and put them in another, he does so without any regard. For this reason, therefore, the Turks, not knowing if their stay in this or that part is fixed, are not accustomed either to keeping the buildings in good state, nor the rooms well adorned with furniture; nay, the greater part of the houses inhabited by the Turks are falling into ruin. The Turk’s moveable property is nothing other than slaves, arms, and horses with their furnishings, and for the rest he has only what he wears, and the money he has in cash.

There is in this city of Aleppo a very great number of fondachi¹⁵, which in that language they call cavi, which serve as dwellings for the many foreigners who flock there for the great commerce that is carried on; these are all built of vaulted living stone, with their corridors running all around the inside, both on the ground floor and on the one above, for they are built on two stories: in the middle there is a courtyard, and inside, all the lodgings are furnished with some care. The place where all the merchandise is sold is completely covered, and is locked up at night, and in their language they call it a bazaar, which is the same as market in our language. Similarly, the streets that pass among the shops that sell foodstuffs are covered, and in these shops is kept everything that is needed for human sustenance—which was done at first for the convenience of the foreigners, who cannot make use of inns, for there are none. Every household, however, cooks its own food, except for bread, which no one makes at home, but all use what is bought. Provisions there are most abundant, so that nothing is ever lacking, and the abundance that existed in the said year when the army wintered here made clear the ready availability of victuals; this abundance was such that not a single thing became more expensive with the arrival of so many people than what it was accustomed to be worth at other times. The wheat that grows in this country is in great abundance and very good, since it makes a bread similar to that which is made in the Paduan region; the wine is most excellent and wholesome, but a little dear. Around the city are very large and very beautiful gardens and vineyards, which must be watered in the summer, for in that season it never rains.

Those gardens that are on the riverbank have easier access to water, which they draw from the river with certain wheels turned by the strength of animals. Those that are far from the river are watered with contraptions, drawing water from wells, which they have dug by hand, with the strength of animals. A great abundance of figs, peaches, pears, and plums also grows there, among which are some of a goodness the like of which I have not tasted in Italy. Pistachios and melons grow there in great abundance, and the best watermelons in the world, also in very great abundance, which are sent all over the world. The grapes are most marvelous. All the fruits, however, are very expensive compared to other things, and this is because all the people of the country eat a very large quantity of them.

The air there is light, and as healthy as can be; the winter is cold, but not harsh, and does not last long, and it provides a sufficient amount of rain. The summer brings great heat, which is tempered by the sweetness of a most healthy air that blows from the west and the southwest, but it never rains. Everyone, small and great, old and young, from the beginning of September sleeps in the open air, and for all that a man suffers from the heat of the day, he is restored by the coolness of the night. The dew that falls is of no consequence and is not harmful; but one must, both in summer for the sun and the night air, as in winter for the cold, keep one’s head well covered, for otherwise one suffers, and especially in the eyes.

The merchandise trade that is conducted in this city is very great and marvelous, and such that only those who have seen it can imagine it. This is because the site of this city is in such a place that it is convenient to all the east, the west, the south, and the north, from each of which parts people are seen almost every day, coming or returning. Our Venetian nation brings there every year, at the least, goods from the west to the value of three hundred and fifty thousand ducats, and brings back an equal value of goods from the east. The French nation brings every year a value of eighty thousand to one hundred thousand ducats, and takes away as much. From Cairo and Egypt, every year the merchants of those parts bring goods to a value of two hundred thousand ducats, and take away goods of as much value, carrying them away by sea. Every year, from the said city is taken the value of one hundred thousand ducats of silk work made there, and other goods to the value of five hundred thousand ducats. An equal value in diverse sorts of goods used to be brought from Baghdad; but now that that route is in ruin, only a value of eighty to one hundred thousand ducats’ worth is brought. If that route were restored to its former state, the profit of Aleppo would grow greatly, because this route corresponds to the goods of the Indies, from whence come all the spices, which are one of the primary foundations of the trade in our parts. Furthermore, as I understand, from the places subject to the Safavid come silks to the value of three hundred and fifty thousand ducats a year, and drugs, musk, rhubarb, and other things to the value of forty thousand ducats a year, and all this is traded in Aleppo. From Turkey come goods to the value of sixty to seventy thousand ducats, and are traded here; and a much greater sum’s worth is taken away bound for those parts.

In this city and in this territory, soaps are made to the value of two hundred thousand ducats a year, and all of it is sold to foreigners, who carry it throughout both the Armenias and to Turkey, and to Persia, supplying a great quantity of countries that make use of them. Good woolens are made and in such number in this city, and in this territory, that every year the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand ducats’ worth is sold. The art of silk is great, and beautiful, and they make crimson velvets, most beautiful cloths of gold, and of silk, worked in many colors, and in great abundance, and worked better than those that are made in other parts. Of other arts the city is well supplied and in such abundance as is needed for a large and populated city, such as this one is, for a comfortable life.

I have wished on this occasion to make this little digression concerning the conditions of this city, because it seems to me to be a thing worthy of being understood by every person who desires to understand the worthy things that exist in the world.

The Sultan’s Entrance

But returning to our subject, I say that the Turkish Grand Signor reached this city of Aleppo, stopping a little way off, on the 4th of November, and on the 5th he made his entry. It may occur to many who will read what I write, that when they reach this passage, a desire may arise in them to understand the order of this entry, judging it a most celebrated thing, and worthy of being understood; whence if I were not to make mention of it, I might by such people be blamed. Therefore, so as not to give occasion to anyone to complain on this account, with the forbearance of those to whom the reading of such a thing might bring tedium, I will say of it that which I have seen.

On the 5th of November, as I have said above, in the morning, before the rays of the sun had yet appeared, this entry was begun by men on horseback from the prince’s squadron, the order of which is called the silictari, and whose number might have been about two thousand. This order of men is large, and of a much greater number, but they did not all appear together then, however, because the greater part of that order had already entered and taken up its quarters.

These two thousand marched without any formation, and the majority seemed to be travelers: however, a few of them appeared armed, whose armor I shall describe for the understanding of those who may not know the manner in which these people arm themselves. The majority of them, for body armor, wear coats of mail, and there are some who wear a round iron plate before the chest, and another behind, which are attached together with mail, and this mail arms the rest of the body. Some wear iron vambraces¹⁶ with something of a pauldron¹⁷, and on their heads they have a great sallet, which is round and ends in a sharp point, and covers the nape of the neck, the ears, and a good part of the cheek-guards. On the front, they have no other guard for the face, save for an iron bar half a finger thick and one wide, which is so arranged that they can raise it or lower it as they wish, fastening it with some other iron pieces made for this purpose; this bar comes straight down from the helmet over the nose. Next to this bar, they have a plume-holder, in which the majority of them wear a very large plume; and in place of a targe¹⁸, all the peoples of Asia carry a rather large round shield, made of Indian canes full of pith, of the thickness of a little finger, arranged in a circle one next to the other and bound tightly with a silk weaving that holds them very securely. These round shields have in the center a piece of very well-tempered iron in the fashion of a small buckler, on which, when they fight and must parry, they strive to receive the blow, because on any other part they could not withstand it, and for defense against arrows they are said to be very good. For offensive arms, they carry the lance, which for the most part is of very thick Indian cane, and those who do not have one of cane carry one of wood of the same thickness. They have at their side the scimitar, and the dagger which they call a khanjar, the iron mace, the bow, and arrows; and many, in addition to these, also carry a German-style estoc¹⁹. In this manner are all the peoples of Asia armed. Those of Europe arm themselves in the same way for the body, but the majority of them carry a very thick wooden lance, and carry a larger targe, which covers almost their entire person.

Behind these silictars were the slaves of the Pasha-Viziers, who are called councilors, who made a very fine show of themselves, and would have made a finer one had they been in formation. These men wear on their heads a hat or cap very similar to that of the Janissaries, covered in red felt, the length of which might be a span and a half, or a little more; and from the part where it is put on the head up to where it begins to form the crest, it is entirely round with drawn gold thread, worked in such a way and with one thread joined to the other that nothing but gold is seen, and it is of a respectable thickness. On the front, they have a gilded silver plume-holder, which is as long as the hat, in which they wear a plume. This cap may be worth from one hundred to two hundred ducats. They all wore garments of silk, some with gold. In their hands they carried the wooden lance, with a small red and yellow pennant at its tip, and at their side the scimitar and the khanjar, completely fitted with silver and with a very good blade, so that at times they are worth a very good price. They also wore a belt entirely covered in silver, a quarter of a braccio wide, some more, and some less, and all were upon good horses; and it is judged that as these slaves ride, they have on them more than a thousand gold scudi, and their number was four hundred and fifty.

Behind these began to enter the squad leaders of the Janissaries, called butuc-bascì, who may have numbered about four hundred, all on horseback, with lance in hand, with the red and yellow banderole at the tip, and the scimitar and the khanjar at their side. On their heads they had a hat like that of the Janissaries, different only in not having the felt that hangs down behind, and the top being pointed and not round. On which top they wear a plume of white feathers a braccio long. The front of the hat, and so all around, is worked with drawn gold, like that of the pashas’ slaves. Along with these were the Kapicis of the Grand Signor, who are the gatekeepers, who on their heads wear a cap like that of the Janissaries, differing in no other way except that the felt thing that hangs down behind them is somewhat narrower and shorter. Behind them walked five sanjaks with their slaves, all on horseback, well-ordered, without armor, who all together may have numbered about three hundred. After them was the beylerbey of Karamania with his slaves, who may have numbered about sixty; and behind him the beylerbey of Aleppo, who is the son of a sister of Sultan Selim, the father of Sultan Suleiman, who appeared in better order, and better dressed than him, and his people with all the others could have been about three hundred men on horseback in good order. Behind these walked a squad of forty leaders of the Solak²⁰, called Solak-bascì, all dressed in silk and gold, with the lance on their thigh, and all packed closely together, making a most beautiful squadron; for besides being very well-ordered, they were all chosen men of very fine appearance. Behind them were the Janissaries, all on foot, who walked in a mass, without any order of file. Some of them had polearms, that is, pikes, halberds, billhooks, and spontoons, and others had the arquebus: each one had the scimitar and the khanjar at his side, and under his belt. Their number was eight thousand, and in such a great number there was not even one who had his match lit; still less is it to be believed that they had their arquebus loaded. In the last rank, which may have numbered about three hundred, all had very large plumes on their heads, some of one sort, some of another, which made them a most beautiful sight. They say that all those who perform some fine deed in war are permitted to wear this great plume, and to stand in this part of the rank as the most valiant, and that to the others such a license is not given. Behind all of them was their Agha upon a most beautiful bay horse, dressed in crimson velvet, and he walked somewhat apart from the others. Behind him was Sultan Cihangir, son of the Grand Signor, who graciously went about greeting the people on one side of the street or the other whom he saw paying him reverence.

Behind them were the grooms of the Grand Signor, fifty in number, whose attire is different from all the others. They wear a silk robe, short in the front so that it reaches just below the belt, and in the back extending to the knee, and underneath a multi-colored silk shirt that reaches below the knee; and on their legs they have cloth hose, and on their heads a cap a third of a cubit in length, made of hammered silver plate and all gilded, with a plume-holder in which they wear a white plume. All of these had scimitars, the khanjar, a battle-axe, and a few arrows in a small sheath. Their captain was richly attired, that is, dressed in gold, with his cap all adorned with jewels, and likewise his scimitar. Behind these were the huntsmen of the Grand Signor with their dogs beside them, numbering forty, and behind these was the fine squadron of the Silahdars²¹, all on foot, who are four hundred armed men, who on their heads wear a hat like that of the squadron leaders of the Janissaries, with a large plume on top of the same sort of feathers as worn by the Solak-bascìs, but made in such a way that they are distinguished from the others. They wear a long tunic of white cloth reaching to their feet, but they had tucked it under their belts so that their legs were not impeded by the fabric. Underneath they had a white silk shirt that went below the knee, and on their legs, cloth hose. For arms they carry the scimitar, the bow, and a few arrows in a small sheath which they tuck under their belts. This squadron always marches on foot, and whenever the prince marches with the army, it stands as his personal guard. Their order is to march closely packed and without any rank or file.

After these had passed, from one side and the other of the road came the chaoushes of the Grand Signor, all on horseback, with their iron maces resting on their thighs, and many of them had silver ones, as were the saddles of the horses and all the trappings. The robes they wore were all of silk and many of gold, with fine fur linings. These were one hundred and thirty in number, and they made the people clear the road so that it would be spacious for the passing of the Grand Signor. In the midst of the solaks were four on horseback who each carried a staff in his hand with a horse’s tail attached, and behind these were another four who carried a mace of an umbrella, or rather a baldachin, all of gold, covered in red cloth. Then came twelve men on horseback, each leading a horse by his right hand, all very richly furnished with jewels and pearls.

Behind these were Ibrahim Pasha²², and all four of the kapici-basci²³, who are great men. Behind them was the mirahor, who is the master of the stables, after whom walked Ahmed Pasha dressed in crimson velvet, lined with lynx fur. Immediately behind him was the Grand Signor upon a black horse, adorned with jewels and pearls which were worth a treasure, and he was dressed in crimson and gold satin, with a small cap on his head, and a white handkerchief at his neck, which these lords wear as a sign of a cuirass. His countenance was so wan that he seemed rather ill than well, and perhaps it was so because of the melancholy over the death of his son. As he passed along the road, he inclined his head somewhat toward the people who on both sides were making reverence to him. Around him were four Solaks dressed all in gold, two of whom walked one on each side at the horse’s head, and two behind on each side of the horse’s rump.

Behind these, a little apart, were three young men on horseback most magnificently dressed in gold, with a lock of hair hanging from their temples, reaching below the ears, and the rest of their heads shaved; one of these carries the Grand Signor’s sword, another carries the bag with cloths for changing, and the third a vessel to give him drink: all three are sons of great men, but Christians, who were taken as boys.

Behind these followed seven men on horseback, each with a standard in his hand, three of which were unfurled and four furled; and then followed the players of the army’s martial instruments, of which there are three hundred in all, but not all were in this procession, where there were only thirty, of which ten at a time were playing. Some played castanets, some a drum made in their fashion, some steel plates, and some played shrill trumpets. Then followed a squadron of chosen men, indeed of the highest rank of all, called the muteferica, which is an order subject to none but the Grand Lord.

Some distance from these were three eunuchs on horseback, abreast of one another, not at all out of line, but so far from one another that they took up the whole street, in which ten horses could have comfortably ridden abreast. Behind these was the Kapi Agha²⁴, who holds a higher rank than all others of the Porte, except for the Pasha Vizier²⁵. He was in the middle, having on his right hand the caznadar-bascì, who is the great treasurer, and on his left the odà-bascì, whose office is to always be with twenty youths in the service of the Grand Lord. Behind these three great men was a squadron of two hundred youths aged eighteen to twenty years, there being not one who was younger or older, all dressed like the three who went behind the Grand Lord, with the same headdress and with a white plume in their plume-holder; and they were upon very fine horses and marched in a tight mass, which made a most beautiful sight. These youths are those of the Grand Lord’s seraglio, who are so raised and trained that many of them leave that place as great men. This squadron made a most beautiful sight, and had behind it about twenty falconers with falcons on their fists, with whom the order of this entry concluded.

In every rank of people there was a silence so great and solemn that not a single person could be heard speaking. All the people who entered took the same route, entering through the Banchessa gate, and walking towards the house that was prepared for the dwelling of the Grand Lord, which is a palace situated below the city’s castle, in front of which is a small square that widens out below the castle for a good space. In this place, all the people who entered formed two wings, between which the Grand Lord was to pass; who, as he appeared in view of the castle, was saluted from it with fifty cannons, and having reached the square he entered between the two wings that the people had formed; where, as he passed, he was saluted and revered by all, and he, turning from one side to the other, answered the salute by bowing his head. So too did Sultan Cihangir, who had passed before, and at the passing of the one and the other all the people, saluting them, bowed to the very ground to pay reverence.

Before the gate of the palace courtyard, all the sanjaks, the beylerbeys, and all the great men who had passed before the person of the Grand Signor, dismounted hastily from their horses, running ahead around the court, and accompanied the Grand Signor to the palace gate, where he dismounted from his horse, and having paid him reverence, they departed. The Grand Signor then went to sit upon his seat, and as soon as he was there, he declared Mehemet, beylerbey of Aleppo, to be beylerbey of Cairo, in place of Ali Pasha who had been in that post but had now been chosen to be his Pasha Vizier at the Porte. At once, one of his slaves carried this nomination to the beylerbey of Aleppo, who gave him a gift of five hundred gold scudi. Afterwards, all departed, each going to his own dwelling. The miriacuba mounted the horse that the Grand Signor had ridden, and on it went to his lodging. Then entered eighteen of the prince’s carriages, which are made like the coaches of Italy, with scarlet covers, and one of a blue silk cloth.

Before the Grand Signor had entered the city, many soldiers had entered, and many entered afterwards—the number of whom, including those in the procession, from what can be judged by the lodgings that were prepared, might have been from twenty-five to thirty thousand. In the villages near the city, some twenty thousand may have been lodged. The number of animals, then, for the service of the men of this war, was so great that to lodge them the city of Aleppo was not sufficient, nor that of Amasya, and it was necessary to send them as far as Tripoli, which is a good five days’ journey from Aleppo.

The Sultan at Aleppo

On the 19th of November, the most illustrious Luigi Malipiero, who was then residing in Aleppo as consul for our Venetian nation, went to make reverence and kiss the hand of Sultan Suleiman, and he took with him four of the principal men of the nation, among whom it fell to me to be one. His Magnificence brought an honorable present of forty robes of both gold and silk of different kinds and colors, and we went accompanied by our entire community on the day that the public audience is given, for at no other time is one permitted to go for such a purpose. We entered the court where audience was given very early in the morning; and before we were admitted to the Grand Signor, dinner was given to the lord pashas, to all those attending the audience, and to everyone who was in the court. The tables that were set up for the pashas, for the kadiaskers, and for the other grandees, were prepared upon wooden benches ordinarily used for sitting; and the victuals were roasted hens cut into pieces, boiled mutton, rice soup made in three ways, and bread. And there were some who served water to drink, carrying it in leather skins. At the pashas’ table were the kadiaskers, the tefterdars, who are the governors of the revenues, and he who signs the commands of the Grand Signor. Outside the audience hall, all the others ate; those who were of rank, at tables laid out like those of the pashas, and the others standing, or sitting upon their heels. And in a moment, all had finished eating. Afterwards, food was brought to the Grand Signor. Twelve men dressed in gold, who in their language are called chilergi, which is to say table-servants, each took a dish from the prince’s kitchen, in which nothing is cooked but his own food, and one after another they brought the dishes to the Grand Signor. They were all of silver, but covered so that I could not see what was inside them.

As soon as the Grand Signor had finished dining, we were led in to him—the most illustrious consul, the dragoman and ourselves; the others remained outside. When we reached the door of the room where the prince was, two capigì-bascì took up the most illustrious consul, each holding him by an arm, and led him before Sultan Suleiman, whose hand he kissed, and then they set him aside; they did likewise to the dragoman; then they came to us, and in the same manner led us before the Grand Signor, who was seated at the head of a not very large room upon a chair wrought all of gold, and furnished with many jewels, and it was so large that three men, side by side, could have sat upon it comfortably. Near him the pashas were standing, not very far off, and throughout the room there were very beautiful carpets of silk and gold upon the floor. None of us remained inside; but as one exited, another was led in by the capigì-bascì, who held each of us by an arm, but in such a way that they barely touched us, and they led us to the feet of the Grand-Signor, where, bowing to the ground, we took the hem of his robe and placed it to our foreheads or in our mouths, and in returning, we went with our faces always turned toward the Grand Signor. Afterwards, when we had finished entering and exiting, the dragoman said: “Sovereign Lord, this is the bailo whom the Most Illustrious Signor of Venice, confederate of Your Majesty, keeps here in Aleppo, who on behalf of the said Most Illustrious Signor has come to pay reverence and to greet Your Majesty, and prays the Lord God that He may make you ever happy.” He did not move, nor did he answer anything. Then the most illustrious consul, having performed his reverence to him, exited, and we all came out into the court, and all together we returned to our house.

That same day, an ambassador of the Tartars came to kiss his majesty’s hand, who brought as a present some sable furs; and as far as was understood, he had no business that was pertinent to this war.

On the 29th of the said month, Sultan Cihangir died. His malady was a sharp pain in the side, which finished him in four days; and because outside of the seraglio nothing was known of his illness, when the news of his death came out, it was thought that the Grand Signor had died, and this news spread in such a way that it was believed in various parts of the city, wherefore in some places looting began. The bazaars, which are the places where merchandise is kept, were all in turmoil, and the matter was about to go from bad to worse if Ibrahim Pasha, departing from his dwelling and riding in haste, had not gone to the Grand Signor to inform him of the importance of the matter, requesting that he come out to show himself to the Janissaries who were already rioting. The Grand Signor, just as he was, went out immediately, and stopped at the door of the house with a stick in his hand, upon which he was leaning. When the Janissaries saw him, they grew quiet, and thus the tumult made by the many people who had run to the prince’s house to learn the certainty of the matter proceeded no further. And all the chaushes were dispatched to various places in the city to quiet the tumult that was still being made there. For us, the affair began with great fear, for we feared losing our property and our lives, but it suddenly came to a quick end with very little harm to anyone, because many of those who had taken things returned them, so that very little was lost.

The same day after the midday meal, the funeral rites of the dead sultan Cihangir were held in a small mosque that is near the prince’s house, into which the body was carried on a bier, supported at the front by the two Pasha Viziers, Ahmed and Ibrahim, at the back by the two kadiaskers, and in the middle by the Agha of the Janissaries and the master of the horse. Behind the bier were all the other great men of the Porte who accompanied the Grand Signor, who himself also followed the dead man on foot together with the others. Having entered the mosque, several ulema performed the prayers customary for the dead, and after the Grand Signor and the others had left the mosque, the body was placed in a coffin, and that was placed upon a carriage of the prince, and with a small company, by order of the Grand Signor, it was carried to Constantinople.

Some days later, ambassadors arrived from Queen Isabella, who had been the wife of King John of Transylvania²⁶, sent by the said queen and by King Stephen²⁷ her son; who, having appeared in the presence of the Grand Signor, set forth their embassy, the tenor of which was that, in the name of the aforementioned queen and king, they requested aid from his majesty to conquer the country that the King of the Romans²⁸ had taken from them, narrating how the said king and queen, having been expelled from their kingdom, had no supply of money, nor of anything else pertaining to war, save for the good spirit of the barons and peoples of their kingdom, who, not content with the dominion of the King of the Romans, called upon them, exhorting them to take aid from His Majesty; which aid they requested, supplicating that he not deprive them of it on so fine an occasion, promising him that, having recovered the kingdom, they would give him that obedience and that tribute which they had agreed to with his majesty at other times: and they then added that he should write to the King of Poland (the brother of the said queen), urging that he should hold her in reverence. These ambassadors obtained all that they had requested, and with celerity several Vlachs were dispatched with commands to the remnants of the people left in Greece, and to those of Hungary, and to those of Wallachia, and of all the borders in those parts, that with celerity, at the new grass²⁹, they should ride into Transylvania to undertake this enterprise; and an order was given that one of the cities that the Grand Signor holds in Transylvania should be given to the queen and the king for their habitation.

A few days later Sultan Selim came to pay reverence to his father; who was conducted by the beylerbey of Damascus, whom the Grand Signor had sent for that purpose. The day he arrived in Aleppo, the Grand Signor went out to a garden a short distance away, in which Sultan Selim came to kiss his hand, accompanied only by three of his own men, having sent ahead a present of greyhound dogs and falcons. Having come before the Grand Signor and made his reverence, he was received by his father as a son, nor did he wish him to depart until he had been with him in the city for some days, where they came together, and he was given a separate chamber.

In these days, the Grand Signor resolved to go to Jerusalem, and the day of departure having been appointed, on the day before, Vlachs arrived, sent by the beylerbey of Van, who by his letters sent word of how Ismail, son of the Sofi, with eight thousand horse had made a sudden assault on Van, and had taken many men, and killed many of those who were found outside the city, and that after having sacked the nearby villages and done great damage, feigning to turn back, he had placed himself in an opportune spot to assault those who might come out of the city to attack some of his men, who seemed to be scattered throughout that territory. This, he said, had not succeeded for him, because six of those stragglers were taken, from whom the design of the Sofi’s son had been learned; Ismail, seeing then that those of the city would not come out, had departed. Together with the said Vlachs, he sent two of the stragglers he had taken, so that from their own mouths the Grand Signor might understand what his letters contained.

I found myself present in the house of Ahmed Pasha when the Vlachs and the two prisoners came, whom the Pasha had brought before him and interrogated as to what he wished to know; and they spoke in such a way that it seemed they made little account of being prisoners, or of their lives. The Pasha, out of contempt, had the red cap they wore on their heads taken from them, which extends half an arm’s length from the head, and is of red cloth, and so thick that it may be squeezed in one hand. Then he had them taken to the Grand Signor, who was outside the city in a garden, who, having them brought before him and having spoken with them, gave the order that they be led into the camp and there have their heads cut off, and so it was done. And with that, the hope which all had that the ambassador of the Lord Sofi would return with peace, failed; indeed, it was learned from these prisoners that upon the arrival of the news of the death of Sultan Mustafa, all the Safavids had held a great feast, and celebrated with much revelry for eight continuous days; and of the demands which the Turkish Lord then made for the conclusion of peace, they had made great mockery, saying that they would never make peace unless the Turk first gave them Van, Erzurum, and Baghdad, and they also said that the Sofi was preparing with all diligence to make war come the new season, wherefore it was judged that the Grand Signor, on account of this news, would have to postpone the journey to Jerusalem.

Nonetheless, the Grand Signor departed on the appointed day to go to Jerusalem, and along with him Sultan Selim and all the people commanded for this journey, and they set out. But on the second day it snowed so much that all the fields were filled with snow, and for this reason the journey was postponed, or it was pretended to be postponed, converting it into a hunt that lasted for about twenty days; and after the hunt was finished, the Turkish Lord returned to the city, and with all diligence both the pashas, and all the people, set themselves to the preparation of the campaign. Wherefore the soldiers, who until then had held it as a certainty that peace would be made, and that the Grand Signor did not care to make war, lost their hope of returning home, and the travails of making preparations to go to war increased, to which there was not even one in such a great number who did not go unwillingly. By order of the Grand Signor it was publicly announced that on the 9th of the month of April his person would take to the field, and that all the other people should have left their lodgings and set out on the road to Bir³⁰, and that on the twentieth of the said month a bridge should be made at Bir over the Euphrates for the entire army to cross to the other bank.

Shortly before the Grand Seignior came to this city of Aleppo, some of our merchants received news by way of a ship that had arrived in Cyprus, that a Turkish personage had been seen in the Gulf of Venice, passing himself off as an ambassador of Sultan Mustafa, who had let it be understood that his lord, seeing the great illness of his Most Serene Father was such that he judged his life must be short, and desiring that the peace which the Most Illustrious Signor has maintained with him be preserved with himself, was sending him to Venice to confirm it in perpetuity with the same terms and conditions with which it is now observed. This thing had placed in the minds of some of our countrymen a certain fear that it might result in some harm for the fatherland, they judging that the Grand Signor must come to know of all the handling of this affair, either by way of the same man who had gone, or indeed by means of letters. And upon this matter, several of them on more than one occasion set to discoursing and reasoning; among whom one always held the conclusion that for such a cause nothing sinister could ever befall the fatherland, basing this on the judgment and wisdom of those most distinguished senators who govern our republic, who, being of such wise foresight, this one judged that they would have foreseen everything that could have occurred in any case, and that therefore with their prudence they would have conducted themselves in such a manner, that even if, either through the man or through letters they had written to Sultan Mustafa, the Grand Signor came to know what they had done, he would not have found anything to displease him, and similarly they would have satisfied Sultan Mustafa. In this, this man was not at all mistaken, because the same man who went to Venice was taken, and the letters that the Most Illustrious Signor was writing to Sultan Mustafa were found, and were sent by the governor of Constantinople to the Grand Signor; which arrived one morning when I had gone into the divan (for so the place of audience is named) on some business of my own; and these letters were presented into the hand of the Pasha, who, as soon as he had read the letter from the governor of Constantinople, (who was the brother of Rustem Pasha), rose from the audience, and going in to see the Grand Signor, informed him of the matter. They immediately sent to find Ibrahim Bey, the chief interpreter of the Grand Signor, so that he might read the Signor’s letter. This he read to the Grand Signor, who was most pleased with its tenor, as I later learned; and all our countrymen who had been in doubt took great comfort that this affair had come to such a conclusion.

At the beginning of the new year, Ottoman, the beylerbey of Baghdad, went out into the field with his people, all chosen men, resolved to launch an assault on a castle that lies between Greater Armenia and Diyarbakir; but he then had no means to do what he had in mind, because the castle’s defenders became aware of it with enough time to be found ready. Seeing that his plan had not gone as he desired, he resolved to lay siege to the place; and because he knew that some of the defenders had gone out to raid a Turkish hamlet, he decided to take them by deception, lying in ambush to wait for them to fall into his trap—which likewise did not succeed according to his design, because those men had notice of what he was planning; and accompanied by some others of their faction, who are in those mountains, they came to assault him, having first charged one of their own to go to the place where the said Ottoman was, telling him that the son of the most serene Sofi was coming with eight thousand horsemen to the aid of those in the castle, and that he was shortly to arrive in that place. Ottoman gave faith to the words that the man spoke to deceive him, and thus he immediately took to flight, leaving behind the pavilions and all the baggage within, and riding in single file as fast as he could, he hastened to get out of the narrow passes of those mountains, which were poorly known to him, in order to save himself; through which passes those people I mentioned, falling upon him, cut off his path and battered many of his men. The beylerbey saved himself, although he was among the last to flee, but from the grief of this rout he fell into an infirmity, which then took his life in midsummer.

Meanwhile, from various parts, news arrived daily of some damage that the Sofi’s people were doing on the Most Serene Turk’s borders. It was likewise understood in various quarters that the Sofi had made such preparations to sustain the war that in the new season he would field an army of one hundred thousand men, all select troops; and by letters written by Scander-Aga, the beylerbey of Erzurum, who was on his way to Van, all this was confirmed—with the addition that the Sofi, whenever the Turk should approach his lands to damage them, would come to do battle with him.

In the month of March, Ali Pasha, who came from Cairo, arrived in Aleppo. Believing that the persuasion of Rustem Pasha upon Sultan Suleiman had been what had driven him to put his own son to death, he suspected that due to the long-standing enmity between the two of them, Rustem had also advised the Sultan to do the same to him; whence he came with some fear that the Grand Signor would have him put to death. And so before he reached the Porte, he had made his will and arranged his affairs. Having arrived in Aleppo, he sent the Sultan the most honorable present that anyone ever made, which I will not describe so as not to be tedious. This present was received by the Grand Signor with good will, and he held it in great esteem. The pasha came after the present into the divan, and sat himself down in the third place of a Pasha-Vizier, awaiting the hour to enter and kiss the hand of the prince, as is the custom for all those who come from such a place. But the divan was dismissed without his being given a chance to enter before the Grand Signor, and he returned to his pavilions which he had pitched outside the city. Because of this unusual act, he spent all that day and the following night in very low spirits. The second day he likewise went to the divan, and just like the first he returned without being given a chance to enter. The third day he likewise came to the divan, and finally at the proper hour he was made to enter, where at the feet of the Grand Signor, having placed himself with his knees on the ground, he said: “Behold, Sovereign Lord, at your feet is your most faithful Ali, who has governed, in the name of Your Majesty, Cairo and all the province of Egypt with that faith and love that a most faithful servant ought to show. Command, Lord, what is to become of him, and if he is to serve Your Majesty, command what place is to be his.” To which words the Grand Signor replied: “You are welcome, and know that I am as glad to see you as you have been faithful in serving me in the charge I have given you. Of you I ordained, before you departed from me, that upon your return you should sit as my pasha: now why do you ask me what your place is to be?” The pasha replied: “I ask, Lord, because when I came here with this intention of sitting as Pasha in the service of your majesty, as you had ordained, upon arriving at your happy Porte, I was placed in the spot where the Pashas of your majesty sit, but I did not know myself to be a Pasha, because I was not given a way to come into your presence, as do the others who come for your service; whence I feared I had lost your grace, which is so dear to me that I could never have lost it through any fault of my own in not having served with a good heart, but the malignity of my enemies, for the hatred they bear me and for the envy they have that my service is pleasing to Your Majesty, could well contaminate it by falsely accusing me that I have not served you well, and that I am not faithful to you. But if Your Majesty will diligently inquire into the truth, you will find that in me there has always been true faith and true love towards you, my lord. I am here at your feet, do with my head what pleases you, but do me this grace of first seeking the truth, so that then you, my Lord, may know that whoever has spoken ill of me to you has not told you the truth, and in your mind may remain clear the spirit of the faith with which your most faithful servant Ali has always served you.” To which words the Grand Signor replied: “I have always held you to be a good servant; and because I have loved you as a son, and as a son I have always esteemed you, it would therefore seem a strange thing to me if you were not faithful to me, as I know you are.” And all at once he embraced him, and kissed him on the forehead, raising him from the ground. How welcome this act and these words together were to the pasha, let him judge who can know how welcome it is to snatch one’s life out of where one expected death.

The pasha afterwards withdrew to his place where the other two pashas were, and the Grand Lord entered into discussion with them concerning the matters of the war, and they concluded that the enemy’s country should be assaulted from three sides in this manner: that the beylerbey of Anatolia should enter the province of Shirvan, the beylerbey of Greece should enter that part which lies between Shirvan and Tabriz, and that the Grand Lord should push toward Tabriz from the direction of Van. This deliberation they made in order to cause the Sofi to divide his forces, sending part to one place and part to another for their defense, so that they might then be able, in some way, to trap one of these separated parts and cut it to pieces. This being established, it was also decided that on the 9th of the month of April the person of the Grand Lord should take to the field, as had previously been announced to the troops. They also decided that two thousand janissaries should be sent to the beylerbey of Greece, so that he too might have some, like the beylerbey of Anatolia had; and these departed with the greatest celerity. On the appointed day, the person of the Prince took to the field with the pomp and ceremony that he observes when he goes forth to war. Upon his exit from his palace, the janissaries saluted him with their muskets, and likewise the castle with fifty cannons, and seven standards were unfurled, which seven men on horseback carried behind his person; one of which was all white, and was in the midst of all the others; on the right side were three: one green, one red, and one red and green; on the other side the other three: one green, one red and green, and one red and yellow. For the rest, the procession was the same as that seen at the entry.

When the Sultan arrived at his pavilions, the direction that the army was to take was announced, and having remained until the twentieth day to gather the troops, the Sultan set out, heading towards Bir (which is a place three days’ journey from Aleppo), where a bridge was conveniently built for the passage of the troops—which they feared they would lose because of the great force of the waters at that time, which had swollen on account of the melting snows. Before the Sultan departed from the pavilions, he ordered that Ibrahim Pasha, with the greatest possible diligence, should go to Constantinople, giving him orders as to what he wished him to do; this pasha departed the day after the Sultan departed.

Four days later, the Sieur de Codignac, ambassador of the Most Serene King of France, arrived in Aleppo, and after resting for three days, he set out again to find Suleiman and to complete his embassy—whom he reached on this side of the city of Carahamid, and on the way went to kiss his hand. He was received by him with great humanity, and then, having heard the king’s request, who asked him for the fleet against the Emperor, for the coasts of the Kingdom of Naples and for the other coasts of Italy and of Corsica, he granted all that he had asked; and men were immediately dispatched with diligence to Constantinople, with orders to the captain of the fleet, who was Dragut, as to what he was to do.

The Campaign

Having arrived at the city of Carahamid, the Grand Signor did not wish to enter it at all, but stopped outside for some days until all the troops could gather together, and when the time seemed opportune to him, he had the army set out marching in formation, which until this place it had not done. A day’s march ahead of the camp marched a squadron of five thousand horsemen, with whom were the pavilions of the Grand Signor, of the pashas, and of all the great men, and those who designated the places for all ranks of persons when the camp was to be lodged; and when they arrived at the place that was designated for the camp to halt, the pavilions of the prince and of the other great men were erected by those who were charged with erecting them; who had another set, which, while the said great men were in their lodging, they sent ahead for the lodging of the following day; and thus it was done every day for the great men. The others then had but a single set, and when they lodged they pitched it in the place that had been designated for them, and when they struck their pavilions they carried them behind, but outside of the formation. The camp marched in an order of three squadrons: in the first were twenty thousand men on horseback, all very well ordered and a most fine company, under a green banner; after whom, but outside of the formation, were twelve thousand adventurers who ranged ahead. The second squadron was of six thousand janissaries on foot with the artillery, who marched in a square formation; and behind that formation was a squadron on the right flank of four thousand horsemen, all in arms and very good men, who marched under a yellow banner. These accompanied the very fine squadron of the Solaks, with which was the person of the Grand Signor, who too had his sword at his side, and arrows like the others. On the left flank was another squadron of four thousand horsemen, similarly as good as the first, who marched also under a yellow banner. In the third place then was another squadron of twenty thousand men on horseback under a yellow and red banner; and after, outside of this formation, were the slaves and the boys with the baggage and the horses, which carried the things that were necessary for the army.

Having marched the first day, and made the first camp, the Grand Lord ordered that on the following day they should not march; and having had a very large open pavilion prepared for that day, he had the pasha lords and all the principal men assembled, both of the horsemen and of the Janissaries and Solaks, and being seated upon a chair that had been placed under that pavilion in an eminent place, where he could be seen by everyone, he began to speak, saying: “Now, as you can see, we have arrived at a place where little of our own land remains for us to walk upon, and very soon we shall enter the country of the perfidious Tahmasp, enemy of God and also of us, against whom I have not been moved to make war either by an ambition that I have to rule his country, or by a lust for glory, which many hold to be the ultimate prize for the toils of war and for the dangers that are run in battles. By the grace of the Lord God, under my empire are so many kingdoms, so many provinces, so many cities, and so many peoples give me obedience, that I ought rather to be content with what I have, enjoying it in peace, than to seek to take that of others with war; which if it must be troublesome to anyone, to me it must be most troublesome, because I am now grown so old and so burdened by infirmities that my soul desires rest and quiet much more than new dominions with toils, with travails, and with wars. I would repute it a greater glory for myself, if this little life that remains to me I could pass in peace, with the grace of our Lord God, preserving the empire in that state in which it is, and you with the riches you possess, and with the security that you and your children might long possess them, than to conquer in battle a king set in the narrowest corner of Armenia, who under him has nothing but deserted mountains, woods, and for the most part a country empty of people and wild. But it is not lawful for me to remain in peace, tolerating that the most cruel Tahmasp, ever more perfidious in his perfidy, should continue in his offenses against God; nor is it honorable that I should suffer him to go about every day like a thief, raiding along the borders of our empire, damaging by plundering of property, by burning of houses and possessions, and by killing of our subjects. It is not fitting that I, who am your Prince, to whom it belongs to guard you and avenge you upon your enemies, and especially upon those who seek nothing other than to sate themselves on your blood, should endure any longer that he who in the past has inflicted every sort of cruelty upon the blood of your brothers, and with every effort seeks to sate himself on yours, should remain in power. Since it is neither lawful, nor honorable, nor fitting that I should endure such a thing in order to live in peace, I am moved to make this war, in which I hope to be victorious if you will resolve to do your duty as well. There is no man, however great or small, who does not owe such a debt to the Lord God that he is not obligated to spend his possessions, his blood, and his life in defense of His honor; but you who are illuminated by Him, through His clemency, with the true faith, by means of that great prophet of ours, through whose goodness He has promised to make us enjoy all the good of the next life, and in this one has placed us in such good fortune that every other nation envies us, you are more obligated to Him than all other men who are on earth. Will you then be so ungrateful, taking no account of the many blessings He has given you, that you would not willingly undertake a little hardship for the defense of His honor? I shall never believe that of the debt you owe Him, you would not now wish to repay with me a minimal part; all the more so since in doing this you will also defend the dignity and majesty of your Prince, who, loving you all as children, has ever sought to do you good on every occasion, and seeks to do so now more than ever. And furthermore, you will take vengeance for your own blood, and you will free yourselves from the affliction that your enemy could bring upon you, were he to remain in his power and station. All these things ought to move you to undertake this enterprise with me willingly, and all the more so since I desire this undertaking to be dispatched with the least possible inconvenience to you. I have taken care that you shall not lack those things which you most need; and you need not doubt that you will lack for grain, for such provision has been made that it will last us for the entire time we are to be in the field, the cost of which will not rise to a price that any man cannot comfortably bear. Nor should you fear a lack of money; for I have brought with me from my own treasury, for your service, as you can see here, a hundred loads of gold. And all of it is for your service, and I hold it as your own, ever at your command; therefore, let any among you who now has, or in the future shall have, need of money, come and ask me for it, and he shall be supplied by my treasurers with all that he may require. Having therefore cast aside the fear that you should lack the necessities for this enterprise, with good courage prepare yourselves, and prepare the others who are under your command, for all to do their duty, so that we may avenge the injuries done to God, defend the blood of our brothers, and all free ourselves from the tribulations of this perfidious enemy, against whom our Lord God will be with us, who with His favor will make every difficult enterprise easy and light for us, and in the end will give us the victory; of which you will reap every fruit, since I desire nothing other than your love. Yours will be the spoils, yours the lands, because from among you will be elected those leaders who will govern the provinces, and you will enjoy their fruits, and to God alone will be the glory.”

When the prince’s address was finished—which had brought great wonder to everyone, because these Turkish lords are not accustomed to making any public address—Ahmed Pasha, and then Ali Pasha, and so the others in turn, all offered themselves to him, ready in this enterprise and in any other to willingly spend their blood and their lives. And afterward each chief, having returned to his post, made the Prince’s words known to all those of his order, so that, the speech having spread throughout the army, great voices were heard from every side, crying out on high, lauding the Prince for the work he wished to do, and they thanked him for having well provided for the needs of his soldiers.

Afterwards, the Grand Signor made a gift to the entire army of a thousand silver aspers per soldier, which is as much as seventeen and a half gold ducats; which gift was in addition to the ordinary pay. On the appointed day, the money was distributed to the chiefs of every order of soldiers, and the chiefs then made the division among the soldiers. The army then set out towards Van, which army, in the manner that it marched, could not make that journey from Carahamid to Van in less than twenty-five or thirty days. But they did not continue the journey to Van, and keeping to the left, after some days’ journey they came to a place full of springs of fresh water, where the army rested for several days, and afterwards set about to cross a mountain by a narrow, difficult, and arduous path, on which many animals perished, and those that passed it suffered greatly, wherefore it was necessary to rest the army another time. After leaving that place, they set out towards Erzurum, which is far off the road they were taking, because as their journey was from west to east, they turned, proceeding from south to north. The reason they did so was that they learned that the Sofi, having heard of the coming of the army—in which was the person of the Grand Signor—towards Tauris by way of Van, had sent his son Ismail, a very well-disposed and valiant youth, with fifteen thousand horsemen toward some mountains. These mountains lie between the road the Grand Signor was to take and that which the Beylerbey of Greece was to take. By holding the middle ground of these mountains, they, knowing the passes very well, could conveniently move against either army, and with few men and little effort, prevent one army from giving aid to the other; and the Sofi, in the meantime, was preparing to confront whichever of these armies he pleased. Wherefore the Turks, fearing that the Sofi might do to them what they had planned to do to him, changed their purpose, and resolved to join together and proceed united against the enemy, who let it be known that he wished to give battle. And since the Turkish army could be better supplied with victuals, fodder, and other necessities from the direction of Erzurum than from that of Van, the Grand Signor therefore resolved to go and unite with the others, rather than have them come to unite with him.

This, then, was the cause for which they changed from the road to Van and took that to Erzurum. In which place, by command of the Grand Signor, the other two armies had already joined together before he arrived. Upon the arrival of the Grand Signor, the entire army set out together, and after two days’ march halted in a valley surrounded on all sides by hills, resembling a theatre; in which valley the whole army encamped, covering it completely with men, animals, tents, and pavilions, which was a stupendous sight to behold.

I have spoken with a friend of mine who, to feast his eyes on so beautiful a marvel, climbed one of those hills from which the whole army could be seen, so that he could conveniently view it well; he told me that it is impossible for a man to imagine the greatness of so numerous an army, which resembled four cities as large as Constantinople, all full of men, animals, and the things necessary to maintain them. And because this person is a man of judgment, every detail he related is worthy of account. And truly, whoever considers well the things that must be considered, will find that the number of this army could not have been less than what I heard this man say it was; for he said that it exceeded eight hundred thousand persons. It is known, in fact, that for this enterprise one hundred and twenty thousand horsemen had been commanded, who are called spahis, who have their income from lifetime estates, which they call timars, which incomes are assigned in greater or lesser amounts according to the merit and condition of the men to whom they are given. The poorest of these has three horses and one slave; very many are those who have four horses and two slaves, and great is the number of those who have six horses and four slaves. Then there are the men of rank who have many slaves and many horses each. There is the squadron of the Grand Signor, which is the fortress and stronghold of the army, in which there are forty thousand horsemen, ten thousand janissaries, the solaks, the kapicis, and the others of the Porte, who amount to a great number; along with them in this army were eighty thousand adventurers. There were also fifteen thousand sappers and a great number of muleteers, for every six camels requires at least one man, and the like for every three mules. Then there were the merchants who brought the things necessary for the army, whose number may be judged by those who can judge the number of the others, for the number of merchants must be as great as is needed to serve the greatness of the rest. He who discourses on this with judgment, and who knows how these armies are ordered, will find that the judgment of this man I mentioned above was not mistaken, and if he made an error, it was in saying less than the truth.

The Grand-Signor in this place, before he departed, once again spoke to the captains and the men of rank, as he had done at Carahamid, striving to encourage the soldiers for the enterprise, offering them what he had offered before, and likewise he gave them another donative of one thousand aspers each; which donative was only for those who drew daily pay, for to those who have the timars he gave nothing at all. Afterward he wished to ensure that the provisions, which were sent from Cappadocia to the camp, would suffer no hindrance. And because the Georgians and the Kurds, each time the army moved away from Erzurum going into the country of the Sofi, could easily block all his provisions, which would have been of great danger, either causing the army to be lost or forcing it to turn back immediately, it seemed to him that an opportune remedy was to leave a guard in that region. And so he arranged that several sanjaks with a large squadron of men should remain there. Besides this, it seemed good to him to inquire again as to the Kurds’ loyalty; and therefore he sent some of his men to receive from them an oath of fealty, and they received it from a great many of them; and to do the same with the Georgians he sent a man of standing with a sufficient number of horses to this effect.

At this time Ibrahim Pasha, who it was said above the Grand Signor had sent to Constantinople, having arrived in Bursa, once the capital of Bithynia, had the son of the dead Mustafa taken, who was there with his father’s mother, and had him strangled, and afterwards buried near his father’s tomb; he then set out towards Constantinople. Having arrived in that place, it has not been heard that he has made any changes. The cause for which the Grand Signor had ordered the death of the son of Sultan Mustafa is not known to be other than that in the army, the soldiers who were fond of Sultan Mustafa were saying that, although Mustafa was dead, his son remained alive, who, in spite of those who did not wish it, would be their prince; which words were spoken without any respect, and were publicly discussed everywhere.

Once the Grand Signor had received the allegiance of many of those Kurdish lords, and hoping to receive it similarly from the Georgians, so as not to lose time while this was being obtained, he set out with the army, making his way towards the Sofi. He, having heard of the coming of the whole army, moving at the same time from the interior of his states, had marched for five days towards the Turkish camp, having with him eighty thousand horsemen divided into three squadrons, of one of which his son was the leader, and he himself of the second, and a very valiant captain of his of the third. The Turks, having made several days’ journey through the enemy’s country, which was all deserted, had already fallen into a scarcity of fodder. A horse’s provender was worth twenty aspers, which is as much as a third of a gold ducat; a small loaf of wheat bread was worth four marchetti³¹, and the men were already feeling the effects, fearing that from day to day the price would become greater. Partly responsible for this increase were those who sent the provisions from Cappadocia, because they did not use due diligence; the Grand Signor later had their heads cut off.

When the Sofi reached a great river, he sent word to the Turk that he should not trouble himself to come with such haste as he was making to find him, because as soon as he had crossed that river, he would come to face him; and he had already made one of his squadrons cross the river, not truly because he intended to do what he appeared to want to do, but to hold up the Turkish army, which for its part was marching in formation as if it had to fight at that very moment. Its vanguard was led by the Beylerbey of Anatolia according to his custom, because every time the Turkish Lord rides with the army in the parts of Asia, the vanguard falls to the Beylerbey of Anatolia, and every time he rides in the parts of Europe, it falls to the Beylerbey of Greece. As the army marched, this was the order: on the left wing was quartered the Beylerbey of Anatolia with all the horsemen of Asia, and on the right the Beylerbey of Greece with all the horsemen of Europe. Between these two beylerbeys, that is, at the front, was quartered Scander-Agha, the Beylerbey of Erzurum, with twenty-five thousand horsemen, who hold their timars in Greater and Lesser Armenia: behind them was the artillery guarding the Janissaries, who followed in a square formation. Behind the Janissaries was quartered the Most Serene Great Lord with the guard of the Solak, around which were the elite squadrons of four hundred armed horsemen each, and on both sides, and likewise behind, were all the spahi and silictari of the Sultan’s squadron, in which on the right side was Ali Pasha, and on the left Ahmed Pasha.

This entire squadron of the Prince, and likewise the artillery and the Janissaries, was enclosed all around by a double iron chain, which a great number of camels carried, which upon setting it down, would halt in the very place where the chain was laid out. Behind the prince’s squadron was then the countless number of camels and other animals that carried the baggage and other things necessary for the army. The caznà, that is, the treasury of the Grand Lord, was placed under the guard of the Janissaries; and the watch of the army by night was given to the Beylerbey of Damascus and to Scander-Agha, who took it for one night each, and as one was on guard, the other was quartered in the army in his place—which place was at the front, as I have said before. All the adventurers were divided, one part under the Beylerbey of Anatolia, and the other under the Beylerbey of Greece. The artillery was arranged in such a way that it could be used in every direction, and orders were given to the squadrons as to how and when they should open ranks, to give it room to perform its function.

The man who had gone to the Georgians to receive their oath of fealty in the Turk’s name, as was said above, obtained what he had sought; but on his way back, having reached a forest on those borders, he was attacked by forty unknown men who killed him. Nor did they do any harm to those who were in his company, from whom they only took the letters that the lord of the Georgians had written to the Turk. When the Turk heard this news, he began to suspect, as was indeed the case, that the Georgians would create some hindrance for the provisions coming from Cappadocia, and so he sent another beylerbey with some sanjaks and a good number of horsemen into the land of the Georgians, commanding them not to do any damage, but only to remain on those borders. This he did so that the Georgians, for fear that those men would damage their country, would not dare to make any new move. He, however, continued to march with the army, heading towards the Sofi, hoping to soon come to a day of battle, in which he had placed all his hope for a swift end to the war. This did not happen, because the Sofi, who understood his disadvantage in battle very well on account of the artillery, of which he was deprived, did not wish by any means to fight or come to a feat of arms. But seeing that the enemy’s army was enormous, he judged that there was no better way to fight it than to draw it into a place where it would suffer such a lack of provisions that it would be forced to turn back, or else die of hunger, and by keeping it continuously troubled with hardships, making it keep constant watch, and march along difficult, tiring, and deserted roads, where no comfort could be found, so that, as indeed happened, various sorts of infirmities entered the ranks and consumed them. The Turk had provided against the first difficulty before he departed from Erzurum, for he had caused enough barley, wheat, and flour to be placed in the army to suffice for two months; which things had not been touched until they departed from Cappadocia.

The Turk arrived at the great river that the Sofi’s squadron had crossed, as was said before, and found that the Safavid troops had already re-crossed, and had withdrawn all together, and positioned themselves in an open plain, making it known that they wished to engage in battle there with the Lord Turk; which the Turkish army learned from some villagers whom it had found in a hamlet near the said river. The Turkish army crossed the river and set out towards the plain where the Sofi was encamped, and upon arriving there, found that the Safavids had already departed two days before, and had gone further on, heading between west and south, wherefore the Turks set about to follow them. And having arrived at the place where the Safavids had been encamped, drawing closer to their army each day, they thought for certain to reach it in two days and engage it in battle, but this they never managed to do, and for more than twenty continuous days one army encamped in the evening in the lodging that the other had left in the morning; and no matter how much the Turks hastened each day to march more quickly, to set out earlier, and to make longer day’s marches, they never managed to reach even a single man of the Safavid camp; nor did one army ever see the other, although many times they were but half a day’s journey from one another.

On account of the fatigue of the march, and the hardships, and the excessive heat, and the foul waters they drank, the men of the Turkish army contracted grave illnesses, and especially fluxes of blood, whereof many died. Wherefore the Turk, seeing these illnesses advance further each day, and the number of the dead and the sick grow ever greater, and being unable to reach the Safavid camp, resolved to pursue it no longer, and ordered that the army should set out towards Nakvan. Having arrived at this city, they found it entirely empty—not even a single man was within, and all had departed, having carried everything with them. Nor was anything left but the empty houses, which were for the most part ruined. This the Safavids had done on purpose, so that the Turks might not do worse. The ruins they had made were such: they had caused the beams of the houses to fall, upon which beams they use much packed earth for a covering, in such a way that the waters cannot pass through it; this earth, having fallen together with the beams, had buried the ruins so that they could not be seen. This they did to save them from fire, as indeed happened, since the Turks did not set fire to the ruined houses, but rather to those that were whole. After having therefore commanded that fire be set to the houses that were whole, the Great Lord sent the army towards Erivan, but first he sent a beylerbey towards Sirvan with the order that he should go to Kors and see if that place could be built up and made into a fortress. He went, and having found the place destroyed, made it known to the Great Lord, who commanded that he should return to the army. The beylerbey arrived at Erivan, where the Great Lord with the whole camp had arrived first, and finding the city in the same state as Nakvan, he likewise had fire set to it there, which burned it all down.

The men of the army diminished more each day, and the Turk, seeing that a very great famine of victuals and of all things had already come to pass, at a time when he had found nothing in those two cities with which to refresh the army, as he had thought he would, and that winter was already drawing near, resolved to return to his own country. But before he departed from there, news was brought to him that Ismail, son of the Sofi, with a great number of Georgians, had attacked three thousand camels laden with victuals which were coming to the camp from Cappadocia, and had carried them all away, and cut to pieces all those who were guarding them. This news was most bitter to the Turks, who with these provisions might have been somewhat restored from the hunger they had endured for many days. At this news, the Grand Signor fell into such a rage that he was on the point of turning the camp toward the country of the Georgians, from whom he well knew all that harm had come, because the cavalry that was with Ismail was all, or the greater part, Georgian; nor did he refrain from doing so for any other reason save for the great nearness of winter, which in those parts is exceedingly cold; and as a better course, he resolved to return to Cappadocia to winter there, planning in the new season to take his revenge on the Georgians before undertaking any other enterprise.

Thus he had the camp set forth towards his borders, where before he entered them, an old Safavid man presented himself in his camp, and from his appearance, he seemed to be a man of high station, who said that he wished to speak to the Majesty of the Prince on a very important matter. He was conducted into the presence of the lord pashas, to whom he said that he did not wish to speak with anyone but the majesty of the Grand Signor, with whom he had to discuss very important matters. The lord pashas made the man’s request known to the Grand Signor, who had him brought before him. When the Safavid was before him, having kissed his hand, he began to speak most ornately in the Persian tongue, which is very well understood by Suleiman, first magnifying the Ottoman house, and one by one he named all those lords of it who for some great work had been made most illustrious, and more than all the others he magnified the deeds of Suleiman himself, making mention of all those enterprises that he had happily accomplished; and then he turned his speech to religion, and with admirable feeling stated all the qualities that ought to be found in a perfect prince, and all the actions that it was necessary for him to do, and those from which it was necessary that he abstain, among which he placed as the worst of all that it was not lawful for a prince of the Mohammedan sect to destroy the men of that sect, nor to ruin the cities that are dominated and inhabited by them, affirming this with the authority of the writings of the prophet, and of his learned men; and he continually presented a book, in which he said was written all that he alleged, affirming that not only in those writings was it forbidden for princes to do this, but it was commanded that they do the very opposite; and in this his discourse he made mention of the many ancient and modern writers who said how through non-observance of these commandments many great misfortunes had occurred, and he said that to Suleiman himself, so long as he observed all these precepts, everything had succeeded happily, but since he had set himself to ruin Persia many misfortunes had occurred in his own family, and in his own blood; and he said these words with such art that he induced Suleiman to weep. At the end of his discourse he exhorted him to make peace with Tahmasp, King of Persia, in so fine a manner that Suleiman decided to desire peace; and he asked him if he had authority to make peace with him. He replied that religion, which he had professed all his life, had moved him to exhort both of their lordships that they lay down the arms taken up one against the other, so that they might be used for the increase of the Mohammedan sect, and not to its detriment; and he said that before he had come to his majesty he had been with Tahmasp, with whom he had performed the same office, and that he had found him most disposed to make peace—provided, however, that the dignity of Persia was not offended—and he offered to use his influence with him so that, should Suleiman be of a mind for it, Tahmasp would send him an ambassador with authority to bring the peace to a conclusion. After this, the Safavid treated of the terms of the peace. Suleiman, to preserve the Turkish reputation, desired certain conditions by which the dignity of Persia would not be preserved. In the end, this man argued so well that he persuaded Suleiman that the Turkish reputation and the dignity of Persia would both be preserved if the peace were made on the condition that each of these lords should keep what he possessed at the beginning of this last enterprise, and on the condition that all the subjects and tributaries of the one be respected by the other. And so Suleiman gave his word, and he especially pledged that neither now nor after the peace was made would he give any trouble to the Georgians.

This decision having been made, the Safavid promised Suleiman that within a month, Tahmasp would send him an ambassador with authority to bring the peace to a conclusion, and with this he took his leave of Suleiman, to whom he gave the book he was holding in his hand while he spoke with him, the value of which is said to have been sixteen thousand gold ducats. In return, Suleiman gave him double the value. The Safavid having departed for Tauris, Suleiman moved the army, sending it towards Amasya in Cappadocia, where he had ordered that the ambassador of the lord Sofi should come. When he arrived in Erzurum, he sent word throughout the province announcing his return, and that peace with the Sofi was about to be concluded, and for this reason in Aleppo there was celebration day and night for eight continuous days. When Suleiman arrived in Amasya, he dismissed the greater part of the Janissaries, who all returned to Constantinople, and likewise for all the men from the provinces hereabouts, that is, of Lesser Armenia, and of Syria, and of other nearer and more distant provinces, he arranged where they were to be quartered until the peace was concluded; and he with the rest of his Porte took up his own quarters in Amasya, awaiting the embassy as had been ordered. He also gave orders that all the troops should be provided with everything, so that if it came to pass that a new campaign had to be undertaken, should the peace fail, everyone would be ready to ride at the first command.

The month’s time that the Safavid had given for the Sofi’s ambassador to come to the Turk passed, and not only had he not come, but no news of his coming was heard: the cause of this were two Turkish beylerbeys, one of Van and the other of Baghdad, who, after Suleiman had turned back, moved from their positions, each with a band of horsemen, and entering the enemy’s country, they plundered and raided for a great distance. Whereupon the Sofi, being informed of this, wished to prevent them from doing greater damage, and so he on one side, and his son Ismail on the other, each with a good number of men, went to oppose the enemies. As soon as they had news of what their lord had decided, they returned to their lands, and sent their men to inform Suleiman of what they had done, excusing themselves by saying that they had gone to damage the enemies before they had news of the peace talks. Their excuses were accepted, and in good time, because the Sofi did not fail to send men to the Turk to inform him of what these men had done, and to ascertain if they had done so on his orders. These men made it known to him that the ambassador would not come unless Suleiman first promised that arms would be suspended on all sides, which he did, and he strongly urged that the ambassador be sent to him. He did not come, however, until the month of March in the year of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1555.

This much-awaited and desired ambassador came, and when he arrived in Erzurum he found those whom Suleiman had sent to meet him, who told him that he was to come to Constantinople after Suleiman, in which place the peace would be concluded. But the ambassador made it known that he had no more than twenty-five days’ time to return to his lord, wherefore if Suleiman wished to conclude the peace, it was necessary to wait in Amasya, and conclude it there. Suleiman desired to bring this ambassador to Constantinople to show him his splendors, because he had remained in Amasya with few men; and in the days just before, a terrible fire had broken out in that city which engulfed a great quantity of its houses, so that the city being more than half ruined by the fire, it did not seem to him a fitting place to receive such a personage, who was one of the greatest men of Persia. But when Suleiman understood the Safavid’s resolve, he welcomed him in Amasya. To receive him, as great a number of men as could be gathered rode out to meet him, and together the three pasha-viziers went half a day’s journey to meet him. At the entrance of the city, along the entire street through which this ambassador passed, a wooden wall was built on both sides, so high that a man on horseback could not see over it, and this was done so that the ruins of the city would not be seen. This ambassador appeared with eighty other men on horseback very superbly dressed, and as a present they brought to the Turk a very beautiful field pavilion, superbly worked in gold and silk, with the pole that supports it worked in gold and jewels, and with it a set of carpets and cushions of gold full of jewels, which these Turks use for the furnishings of their rooms.

In that same hour that he entered the city, he went to pay reverence to Suleiman and to kiss his hand, and thereafter he was led by the pashas to a lodging that had been prepared for him, outside of which neither he nor the others ever went, except when they departed. Two days later the peace was concluded with the conditions mentioned above: that is, that each should keep what he had, and the tributary and confederate subjects of the one and the other were to be understood as included in the same peace. Two days later the ambassador departed, very richly dressed with all his men, and with an honorable present; nor did another two days pass before Suleiman set out on the road for Constantinople, but with such slowness that he arrived in Constantinople only at the time of his festival, which was held at the beginning of the moon of the month of August.

And this is the end of the great motion of war that Suleiman made in the year of our salvation 1553, to free himself from the complaints his subjects made regarding the damages they received from the Safavids, or rather to free himself from the suspicion he had conceived that this man could be the one who might, with less difficulty than any other, take the empire from him. Which thing, as far as one can judge with sound judgment, would be a work permitted by Our Lord God to deliver Christendom from an extreme ruin that threatens it in the future, and perhaps also to debase the spirits of these Turks, so terrible to our people, who for many years now have always broken us in battle, or put us to flight, so that the Turkish name has become so formidable that at its very sound the entire West seems to be dismayed. And indeed we must not forget to consider our own affairs, because the spirit of Suleiman is such that, should he see an open opportunity to advance his own affairs through the discord of the two greatest princes of Christendom, he will not fail himself nor his own interests, and all the more so now that he is free from suspicion of his own people, and from wars with people of his own sect, which have always kept him in such suspicion that when he has in person undertaken other enterprises and led great armies in diverse parts, he has always had need to keep a watchful eye on those regions. Now that he has no one else to deal with but our own people—against whom he will be able, whenever he wishes, and free from all other cares, to lead the greater part of his forces—I do not know who will be able to resist him, with Christendom so divided, and so embittered within itself that not only does it not seek to cover and defend itself from the blows of its cruel enemy, but, uncovering itself, it does not care about being wounded by him, being intent only on striking some fine blow upon itself.

1. Shah of Safavid Iran from 1524-1576

2. The “Sublime Porte” was the name of the Ottoman royal court

3. 1532-1534 and 1548-1549

4. Modern-day Diyarbakır, Turkey

5. Erciş, Turkey

6. We know now that Babylon was actually located on the Euphrates, whereas Baghdad is located on the Tigris

7. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, reigned 1520-1566

8. In office since 1544

9. Roxelana

10. Konya, Turkey

11. Christians from the Balkans

12. Holy Roman Emperor

13. Groom; master of the horse

14. The Greco-Roman geographer of the 2nd century AD

15. A trading outpost; a combination of a market, warehouse, and hotel

16. Armor for the forearm

17. Armor for the shoulder

18. Round shield strapped to the shoulder

19. Long thin straight sword designed for use against mail or plate armor

20. Archers of the Sultan’s guard

21. Palace guards

22. Not to be confused with the former Grand Vizier of the same name, who was executed in 1536

23. Palace gatekeepers

24. Chief White Eunuch

25. Grand Vizier

26. John Zápolya, King of Hungary 1526-1540

27. John Sigismund Zápolya, King of Hungary 1540-1551

28. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I

29. That is, next spring

30. Birecik, Turkey

31. Small Venetian coin worth one soldo