360 SANJAR-END OF THE SELJUKIAN EMPIRE. were made prisoners, and all his baggage was plundered. He escaped with a few followers to Khorasan, where he was reminded by a flattering poet, that “the condition of God alone was not liable to change." The monarch whom he thus consoled was reserved for still greater misfortunes. The Turcoman tribe of Ghuz had withheld their usual tribute of forty thousand sheep. Sanjar marched against them to compel the payment. A battle ensued, in which he was defeated and taken prisoner. At first he was treated with respect, but soon he was exposed to every hardship and insult that barbarity could inflict. The savage Turcomans placed him during the day upon a throne, and at night shut him up in an iron cage. the goodness as well as the greatness of Malek Shah. | his army was almost entirely cut to pieces, his family On coming out of a mosque, before he fought a battle with his brother, who disputed his title to the crown, he asked Nizam ul Mulk what he had prayed for. "I have prayed," replied the minister, " that the Almighty may give you a victory over your brother." "And I," said the sultan, "that God may take my life and crown, if my brother is worthier than I to reign over the faithful." A noble sentiment, which was crowned by the success it sought, as the reward of superior piety and virtue. But the character of this prince is marked with a stain which all his glories cannot efface. He listened to the enemies of Nizam ul Mulk, and disgraced that old and virtuous minister, who soon after fell by the dagger of an assassin. The fortunes of Malek Shah appeared to decline from this hour; and a nation which for half a century had revered the sage whom he destroyed, saw, without regret, the changed lot of his ungrateful pupil. Malek Shah survived his minister only a few months. Being attached to the city of Badgad, he desired to make it his capital, and attempted to persuade the khalif Mochtadi to remove to another place. A delay of ten days was requested by the latter, and within that period the sultan was attacked with an illness which terminated his life, (A. D. 1092.) Few monarchs have attained to the glory and power of Malek Shah; and there is no other instance, in the history of Persia, of so long a period of tranquillity as that country enjoyed under his reign, or more properly under the administration of Nizam ul Mulk, in whom, till within a few months of his death, the sultan implicitly confided. The country was greatly improved during this period; many colleges and mosques were built, and agriculture was promoted by the construction of canals and watercourses. Learning was also encouraged, and an assembly of astronomers from every part of Malek Shah's dominion, were employed for several years in reforming the calendar. Their labors established the Jellalean, or glorious era, which commenced on the fifteenth of March, 1079. It was named Jellalean, in honor of the sultan, one of whose titles was Jellaledeen, or the Glory of the Faith. This great work is a striking proof of the attention given in the Seljukian empire to one of the noblest of all sciences. From the death of Malek Shah to the elevation of Sultan Sanjar, the empire was distracted by civil wars. The four sons of the deceased monarch all attained to power in their turn. Sanjar, one of these, held the government of Khorasan at the time of his father's decease, and took little share in the troubles that ensued; but from the period of the death of his brother Mahmood, (A. D. 1140,) he may be regarded as the reigning sultan. He always resided in Khorasan, and from that centre extended his power in one direction beyond the Indus, and in another to the Jaxartes. He compelled Byram Shah, a monarch of the race of Ghizni, whose capital was Lahore, in the Punjaub, to pay him tribute. To render his magnificence more complete, the kingdom of Khorasan was bestowed on the chief cup-bearer of Sanjar, which has led the flatterers of the sultan to say that he was served by kings. But Sanjar, after a long reign marked by singular success and splendor, was destined to experience the most cruel reverses. He undertook a distant expedition into Tartary, to attack Ghour Khan, the monarch of Kara Khatay, in which he suffered a signal defeat; During his long confinement of four years, the dominions of Sanjar were ruled by his favorite sultana, at whose death Sanjar made an effort to escape, and was successful; but he lived only a short time after regaining his liberty. The desolate and deplorable situation of his territories, the greater part of which had been ravaged by the barbarians of Ghuz, preyed on his spirits, and plunged him into a melancholy from which he never recovered. This remarkable proof of his sensibility to the condition of his subjects, disposes us to believe the justice of the high eulogiums of the Eastern authors on Sanjar, who is as much celebrated for his humanity and equity, as for his valor and magnificence. After the death of Sanjar, in 1157, Persia continued for forty years to be distracted with the wars between the different branches of the Seljukian dynasty. The last, who exercised power, was Toghrul III., who, after overcoming most of his rivals, and defeating a conspiracy of his nobles, gave himself up to every species of excess. The ruler of Khorasan, who, after the death of Sanjar, became an independent monarch, was invited to invade Persia by the discontented nobles. He defeated and slew Toghrul, who is said by some to have shown great valor in the action in which he lost his life. The same authors state, however, that he went forth to battle flushed with wine, and was unhorsed and killed by the monarch of Khorasan, as he was singing with a loud voice some stanzas from the Shah Nameh of Firdusi, which describe the prowess of a victorious hero opening a passage for his troops amid the dismayed ranks of his enemies. Hubbeel ul Seyur, a Persian historian, thus describes the death of Toghrul. "He sung from the Shah Nameh thus: When the dust arose which attended the march of my enemies, when the cheeks of my bravest warriors turned pale with affright, I raised on high my ponderous mace,' &c. The drunken monarch lifted up his mace, as he sung these verses; but it descended not like that of the hero in Firdusi, on the head of his enemy, but on the knee of his own horse, which fell to the ground, and Toghrul was slain as he lay there, not by the king of Khorasan, but by one who had formerly been his subject. With the death of Toghrul III. terminated the line of Seljukian monarchs in Persia. They had reigned from the time of Toghrul I. through a period of one hundred and fifty-eight years. A branch of this family, which ruled over the province of Kerman, the ancient Carmania, had assumed the title of sultan; but they exercised little more power than that of viceroys, and paid homage, or withheld it, according to the strength or weakness of the paramount authority. OTTOMAN EMPIRE-SOLYMAN. 361 Jakush, the king of Kharism, who conquered Toghrul | monarchy were seized by the emirs or governors of the III., was a descendant of the prince of that country cities and provinces. These continued to exercise an who had been cup-bearer to Sultan Sanjar. At his independent authority, till their territories became graddeath, he left his kingdom to his son Mahomet, whose ually and imperceptibly incorporated with the Ottoman reign, at its commencement, was splendid and success- empire, the rise of which we are now about to notice. ful But his fortune fell before that great destroyer of Solyman, the chief of a Turkish tribe, named the the human race, Zingis Khan, and after his armies had Oguz, perhaps the same with the ancient Ouigoors and been defeated, his countries pillaged, and almost all modern Ogres, had attached himself to the fortunes his family made prisoners, he died of a broken heart, of the sultan of Kharism. When the Kharismian on a small island in the Caspian Sea. His son Jellal u power was overthrown by the Mongols, Solyman fled Deen, the last of this dynasty of kings, long bore up with his followers to the west. The fugitives were with exemplary fortitude against the torrent that had accompanied by their wives and children, and their overwhelmed his father; but at last he sunk under the sheep and cattle. They first sought an asylum in Arvicissitudes of fortune. He fled before the Mongols, menia; but after seven years' residence in this countook refuge among the hills of Kurdistan, and was try, thinking the storm of war overblown, they seized slain by a barbarian whose brother he had before put a favorable opportunity of returning to their native to death, (A. D. 1250.) land. In crossing the Euphrates, their leader, Solyman, was drowned. The command of the tribe fell to his four sons, who divided their followers among them. In consequence of this, great numbers dispersed into the deserts; but about four hundred families remained attached to one of them, named Ortogrul, or Ertogrul, who immediately determined to march westward, and seek his fortune in Asia Minor. The chieftains who then ruled over the fragments of the Seljukian empire were harassing each other with mutual wars, and could not be persuaded to combine either against the Mongols or the crusaders. Consequently a band of adventurous warriors might reasonably hope to obtain advancement and fortune in so distracted a country. The Seljukians had extended their conquests not only over Persia, but over nearly all Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. But when the families of the generals who subdued these countries had obtained power, they threw off even the show of duty to their former masters, the sovereigns of Persia. The dynasties of Iconium and Aleppo were brought into contact with the armies of the Christian nations, which engaged in the crusades; but both these governments fell before the victorious career of "Sultan Saladin, whose deeds will be related in another part of this history. man CHAPTER CXC. A. D. 1000 to 1326. Solyman of Rise of the Ottoman Empire Solyman, the first sultan of this kingdom, established his seat of government at Nice, the capital of ancient Bithynia, and his territories were confirmed to him by a treaty with the Greek emperor Alexius Comnenus. But his successor was driven from his capital by the crusaders, (A. D. 1097,) and by the loss of the battle of Dorylæum, he was stripped of the greater part of his maritime territories. The capital was removed to Iconium, an obscure inland town, three hundred miles from Constantinople. Here the successors of Solyman continued to reign for nearly a century and a half, engaged in almost incessant hostilities with the Greek emperors, till all the west of Asia was overwhelmed by the irruption of the Mongolian Tartars, under Zingis Khan and his successors. The sultan of Iconium, after a feeble resistance, fled to his former enemies, the Greeks of Constantinople, and the fragments of the Seljukian An accidental encounter, upon this march, was attended by highly important consequences. One day, the tribe, being on their journey, fell in with two armies engaged in a fierce combat. Ortogrul, without waiting to learn the character of the combatants, or the cause of the war, took the chivalrous resolution of joining the weaker party. He struck into the thickest of the fight, and this unexpected aid changed the fortune of the day. The conqueror proved to be a Seljukian chief, named Aladdin. He rewarded the adventurer, who had rendered him this timely service, by the present of a rich silk robe, which was a gift of honor in the East, and a grant of a mountainous district on the borders of Bithynia and Phrygia, where there was abundance of pasturage for the flocks and herds of the wandering Oguz. The first permanent establishment of these people was a camp of four hundred tents, at Surgut, on the banks of the River Sangar, (A. D. 1280.) Ortogrul, being thus placed on the frontier of the Byzantine empire, made constant invasions into the territories of the Greeks, and being appointed general-in-chief of the armies of the sultan of Iconium, he persevered for half a century in preserving and extending his conquests in that quarter. He had three sons, the youngest of whom, named Othman, or Osman, gave his name to the Turkish empire which subsists at this day :- he is generally regarded as its founder. On the death of Ortogrul, he was chosen to succeed him, in preference to his two elder brothers, on account of his superior bravery and enterprise. The new emir was in high favor with Aladdin II., the last Seljukian sultan of Iconium, who gave him a castle, with an addition of territory, and granted him the privilege of holding as his own any Christian states which he might conquer. The young warrior did not fail to profit by this permission, and gradually extended his acquisitions on every side till he was lord 362 OSMAN 1.-OSMAN II.-ORCHAN. CHAPTER CXCI. A. D. 1326 to 1380. Establish Orchan Reign of Osman II. ment of the Janizaries — Character of the Turkish Conquests - Amurath I.- Wars with the Hungarians. of a large territory. The growing power of Osman | rial capital of Constantine, which, at the conflux of excited the jealousy of many of the neighboring emirs, two seas and two continents, like a diamond set beand numerous stratagems were formed to destroy him. tween two sapphires and two emeralds, forms the On one occasion, he was invited to attend a wedding most precious centre-stone of the ring of universal at the castle of distinguished chief; but before the empire. day arrived, he discovered that a plot was laid to murder him at the entertainment. He concealed his knowledge of this design, and sent presents to the bride, according to the custom of the East. He despatched likewise a message, stating that his mother designed to be present on the joyful occasion, and having received a courteous reply, he thus planned his revenge. It was customary for females of rank, when they paid visits, to be attended by a train of women, who were all closely veiled. Osman disguised a number of his bravest soldiers in female attire, and sent them, thus muffled up, to the castle of his enemy. The gates being thrown open, the disguised warriors passed through them; and immediately throwing off their veils, they drew their swords, and after a desperate fight, slew the wardens, and gained possession of the castle. The chief was absent, having gone with most of his people to meet the bride. In the mean time, Osman went with another band of soldiers to intercept the lady, whom he made prisoner, together with her father and relations. By this time, the disappointed bridegroom had received intelligence of the capture of his castle. He instantly set out in pursuit of Osman, met him, and was slain fighting hand to hand. The lady whose nuptials had been so tragically interrupted, became the wife of Osman's son Orchan, and was the mother of Sultan Amurath I. Osman is a favorite with the Turkish writers, who have adorned his history with many fables and romantic exaggerations. One of these describes him as seeing-prefigured in a vision-the future glories of the Ottoman empire, and the establishment of its metropolis at Constantinople. This invention shows much poetic spirit and imagination. It is as follows: On the death of Aladdin II. without children, his dominions were seized upon and divided by his emirs. Nearly the whole of Bithynia fell to the share of Osman II., who assumed the title of sultan, (A. D. 1326.) He was fortunate in winning the friendship of a young Greek, who embraced Mahometanism to please his patron, and instructed the Turkish prince in the art of government. From this renegade descended the family of Mikalogli, which so often appears conspicuous in the Turkish annals. Osman was chiefly indebted for the supremacy which he speedily acquired over his rivals, to the information which he obtained from this Greek. His vicinity to the capital of the Byzantine empire opened to him a wide field of enterprise, and the civil broils between the elder and the younger Andronicus, which at this period distracted Constantinople, left the Asiatic subjects of the empire to their own feeble resources; in consequence of which, they became an early prey to the first invaders. The Christian princes, in this quarter, alarmed at the progress of Osman, united their forces, and endeavored by one decisive effort to crush the rising power of the ambitious Turk. The hostile armies met on the confines of Phrygia and Bithynia; but Osman was victorious, and the city of Prusa, the ancient capital of Bithynia, fell into his hands, and became the Turkish metropolis, under the slightly altered name of Brusa, which it retains at the present day. The policy of Osman was equal to his military skill; and what he gained by his valor, he secured by wise and salutary regulations. By the impartial administration of justice and mercy, he reconciled the conquered Christians to his government; and many, who fled before his arms, returned to enjoy safety and repose under his powerful protection. At midnight, a wondrous vision opened a view of the scenes of futurity to Osman. As he lay reclined in slumber, the crescent moon appeared to rise above the horizon. As she waxed, she inclined toward Osman; at her full, she sunk, and concealed herself in his bosom. Then from his loins sprang up a tree, which grew in beauty and strength ever greater and greater, and spread its boughs and branches ever wider and wider, over earth and sea, stretching its shadow to the utmost horizon of the three parts of the Orchan, the son and successor of Osman, prosecutworld. Under it stood mountains like Caucasus and ed with vigor the ambitious design of his father. He Atlas, Taurus and Hamus, as the four pillars of the defeated the Christians headed by the emperor Anboundless leafy pavilion. Like the four rivers from dronicus in person, captured Nice and Nicomedia, and the roots of this tree of Paradise, streamed forth the Ti- extended his dominion to the Hellespont. In the civil gris, the Euphrates, the Nile, and the Danube. Barks war which followed the death of Andronicus, between covered the rivers, fleets the seas, corn the fields, and the empress Ann and John Cantacuzene for the rewoods the mountains. From the last sprang fountains gency of the empire, the latter solicited the aid of the in fertilizing abundance, and murmured through the Turkish sultan, and secured his friendship and services rose and cypress thickets of these Eden-like lawns by giving him his daughter Theodora in marriage. and groves. From the valleys towered up cities, with Orchan assisted him with a body of ten thousand cavdomes and cupolas, with pyramids and obelisks, with alry, which, under the command of his son Solyman, minarets and turrets. On the summits of these glit- crossed the Hellespont in 1358, and made themselves tered the crescent. From their galleries the muez- masters of Gallipoli. By the admission of these zim's call to prayer sounded through the concert of a Turkish auxiliaries into Europe, the Byzantine emthousand nightingales, and a thousand parrots who pire received a deep and deadly wound, which sucsung and chattered in the cooling shade, the countless ceeding emperors in vain attempted to heal. The leaves of which were formed like swords. Then Turks, as the friends of Cantacuzene, seized upon the arose a prevailing wind, and drove all the points fortresses of Thrace; and though their restitution was against the cities, and particularly against the impe- | demanded, and a ransom paid, they still held the most JANIZARIES-AMURATH I. important of these places; and Gallipoli, the key of | the Hellespont, was peopled by a Turkish colony. Orchan was the founder of the order of the janizaries, a famous body-guard of soldiers, who were long the support of the Turkish throne, and who abused, to a mischievous extent, the power with which they were invested. They were originally composed of young Christian captives taken in the wars with the Greeks, and were placed in military colleges, where they were instructed in the Mahometan religion and the Turkish military discipline. To augment their numbers, a law was made that the Christians living under the Turkish government should give up all their male children born in every fifth year, to be educated in the military schools, where they were taught to speak the Turkish language, to shoot with the bow, and to wrestle. As they grew up, some were appointed to attend the sultan, and guard the palace; the rest were formed into companies, and constituted a disciplined army. They received the name of janizaries from a dervis, who was commanded by the sultan to bless and consecrate the new army. Being drawn up in order, this dervis threw the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost soldier, and said, "Let them be called janizaries — a word signifying new soldiers. May their countenances be ever bright, their hands victorious, and their swords keen. May their spears hang always over the heads of their enemies; and wherever they go, may they return with a shining face." 363 feudal title, each proprietor being obliged to keep a horse, and a number of men for military service, proportioned to the size of his estate. The lands were generally cultivated by the conquered people, mostly Greeks, who paid to their new landlords a certain portion of the produce- generally one tenth. This practice was so common, that a Turkish soldier would not accept of land in a province where the population had been destroyed or expelled, as the people were of more value than the land. These estates were not hereditary, and might be taken away from the holder at the pleasure of the sultan. On the death of Orchan, his son Amurath I. acceded to the throne, and wielded, with terrible effect, the cimeter of his warlike father. He carried his arms into Europe, and overran the whole of Thrace from the Hellespont to Mount Hæmus. He removed the seat of the Turkish government to Adrianople, where it remained till its final transfer to Constantinople, in the ensuing century. He was, however, recalled from his European conquests by disturbances in Asia Minor. Aladdin, the emir of Caramania, who had married a daughter of Amurath, and was the most powerful of the Turkish chieftains in that quarter, had taken advantage of the absence of his fatherin-law to invade his dominions. Amurath hastened to repel this aggression. The two armies engaged on the plains of Dorylæum, and after a well-contested fight, the Caramanians fled, and Aladdin shut himself up in the city of Iconium. At the intercession of his wife, he was pardoned, and had his dominions restored to him by Amurath. 66 not While Solyman was securing a footing for the Turks in Europe, his father had brought many of the neighboring emirs, by force or fraud, to seek his protection and resign their independence. In the midst of his Amurath now bent the whole force of his arms prosperity, a catastrophe befell him in the loss of his against Constantinople, but his attempts to reduce this son, who was killed by a fall from his horse while capital were perpetually disturbed by the rebellions of hunting. The sultan did not long survive this bereave- the emirs of Asia Minor, and the incursions of the ment. He died A. D. 1360. Orchan is extolled by Hungarians. The former were easily quelled; but the his countrymen for his justice, clemency, and liberality Hungarians, led on by John Huniades, proved a more to the poor. He adorned the city of Brusa with a formidable foe. Amurath was compelled to retire magnificent mosque, a hospital, and an academy. He with disgrace from before Belgrade, after a siege of was the first of the Turkish sovereigns who assigned six months, during which he lost many troops, regular pay to the troops, while on duty. There was only by the plague," says a Greek historian," but by a great variety of costume and weapons in the Turkish engines cast in the form of tubes, which, by means armies at this period. Some of the soldiers wore iron of a dust, composed of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal, helmets, and coats of armor, made of felt or cloth, shot out balls of lead, five or ten together, each as big quilted and stuffed with cotton, with shoulder and neck as a walnut.” This is one of the earliest descriptions pieces of iron. Gunpowder was hardly yet known. of the use of gunpowder, to be found in any history. The janizaries wore the long gown and tunic, common The resistance of the Hungarians led to a truce of among the Turks, and a red cloth cap, the back of ten years, during which, according to the terms stipuwhich was formed like a sleeve, and hung down be-lated, neither nation was to cross the Danube for the hind, in memory of the dervis who gave them their purposes of war. Amurath, however, conquered a name. When on service, the gown of the janizary great part of Greece, took Thessalonica by storm, put was changed for a jacket, worn over his large trousers. the garrison to the sword, and carried the inhabitants Their boots were of red leather. All wore long beards, into captivity. He also compelled the Greek emperor except the cavalry, who shaved their chins and wore to deliver up the cities which he held upon the Black mustachios. All the Turks, from the time of Osman, Sea, and to become his tributary. The Ottoman doshaved their heads, with the exception of a single lock minions being now very much enlarged and settled in on the crown. This custom has given plenty of em- profound peace, Amurath resigned the sceptre into the ployment to the barbers, who are very numerous in all hands of his son Mahomet, a youth of only fifteen the Turkish towns. years of age, and retired to Magnesia, a beautiful residence near Smyrna. The institutions of the Turks were well calculated to nourish a military spirit. By the laws of Mahomet, every true Mussulman is a soldier, and a third of all the conquered land belonged to the army. In the time of which we speak, these conquests had become so extensive, that every Turk held an estate of his own directly from the sultan, who now claimed a right over all property. He granted these lands under a sort of Scarcely, however, had he begun to taste the sweets of retirement, when the restless Caramanians, who had repeatedly rebelled against him, and as often been subdued and pardoned, took advantage of the conjuncture, and again rose in arms. The Hungarians also, instigated by the pope, and in violation of a solemn treaty, passed the Danube with a numerous 364 BAJAZET DEFEATED AND TAKEN PRISONER BY TIMOUR. army, composed of various Christian nations. The Bajazet, the son of Amurath, succeeded him, and young sultan, surrounded with enemies, and destitute of experience, yielded to the advice of his counsellors, and entreated his father to resume the throne. Amurath reluctantly complied, hastened to Adrianople, put himself at the head of the Ottoman armies, and by a series of important victories, saved the empire from an overthrow. Amurath, shortly after, withdrew again from the cares of royalty to his solitude at Magnesia, but the feeble hand of his son was unable to restrain the licentiousness of the janizaries. Adrianople became a prey to domestic faction, and the aged sultan again resumed the sceptre. This sovereign has been the subject of encomiums both from Turkish and Greek historians. He was a just and valiant prince, moderate in victory, and ever ready to grant peace to the vanquished. He was not only learned himself, but a great encourager of learning in others. "Every year," says the historian Cantemir," he gave a thousand pieces of gold to the sons of the prophet, and sent twenty-five hundred pieces to the religious persons at Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem." He founded many colleges and hospitals, built many mosques and caravanserais, and added much to the magnificence of the cities and towns of his empire. CHAPTER CXCII. A. D. 1380 to 1453. Death of Amurath I. - Reign of Bajazet In the war with Aladdin, hostilities were carried on with comparative mildness, both parties being Mahometans. A proclamation was issued by Amurath, prohibiting his soldiers, upon pain of death, from using violence toward the peaceable inhabitants, in order to show the world that he made war upon his brethren, not for the sake of aggrandizement, but to repel unmerited injury and wrong. He punished severely some Christian auxiliaries for transgressing these orders. These forces had been sent by Lazarus, prince of Servia, who, being informed of their treatment, took such offence that he broke off his alliance with the sultan, and raised a confederacy of the neighboring nations against him. The Servians, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Bosnians, Wallachians, Hungarians, and others, combined their forces, and formed a great army. Amurath hastened to Europe, and met his enemies on the plain of Cossova. The fight was long doubtful, until the Turks, pretending to give way, threw the Christian ranks into disorder. A dreadful slaughter ensued; the confederates fled, leaving the field to the victorious Ottomans. Lazarus fell in the engagement: but the triumph of Amurath was cut short in an unexpected manner. As he was walking over the field of battle, he stopped to look at some wounded men, when one of them, a fierce Croat, just breathing his last, made a sudden spring at him, and with a short sword which he still held in his hand, gave the sultan a mortal wound, after which he fell back, and expired, (A. D. 1387.) secured himself on the throne by the murder of his brother, which unnatural custom became the settled policy of succeeding Turkish sultans. He was, by nature, ferocious and cruel, and crushed all the petty sovereigns in Asia Minor, either putting them to death or driving them into exile. During the whole of his reign, he was incessantly engaged in wars, alternately in Asia and in Europe; and he obtained the name of Ilderim, or Lightning, from the rapidity and energy of his movements. His victories in Europe were so extensive, that very little more remained to the Greek emperor than the city of Constantinople. This place was several times besieged by the Turkish armies, but it was saved for the present by the appearance of a new conqueror on the scene. The princes who had been driven from Asia Minor by the usurpations of Bajazet, repaired to Samarcand, where Timour, or Tamerlane, the fierce and powerful Tartar conqueror, had now fixed his court. They solicit ed the aid of this chieftain in recovering their dominions. The Tartar at first hesitated to interrupt Bajazet in his pious occupation of humbling the Christians, and extending the religion of the prophet; but he was, at length, persuaded to interfere. He despatched an ambassador to Bajazet, demanding the restoration of the exiled emirs. He required, also, that he should submit to him as his vassal; and he exhorted him to testify his submission by substituting the name of Timour for his own upon the coinage and in the public prayers. The haughty Ottoman, who acknowledged no superior, rejected with scorn the degrading demand, and threw back his defiance in the most insulting terms that his pride and indignation could dictate. Equally confident of success, each prepared for the decisive struggle. Michael Palæologus, the reigning emperor of Constantinople, was at this time engaged in a war with his nephew who had laid claim to the throne. Being thus distressed by enemies on all sides, he proposed terms of peace to Bajazet. This proposal was most opportune for the Turkish sultan, who greedily em braced it, and a treaty was concluded, by which one of the streets of Constantinople was appropriated for the residence of Turkish merchants, who were to be allowed to carry on their trade with the Venetians and Genoese. A mosque was also to be built for them in the city at the emperor's expense; and they were to have a cadi residing among them, to settle their differ ences according to the Mahometan laws. All these terms of the treaty were fulfilled. Timour put his armies in motion, and the progress of these fierce barbarians was irresistible. They overran, with hardly any resistance, Persia, Armenia, Syria, Georgia, and the greater part of Asia Minor. Before Bajazet could lead his troops to the scene of action, the most of his Asiatic territories had been given up to fire and slaughter by the conquerors. At the capture of Sivas, the ancient Sebaste, the bravest warriors of the garrison were buried alive, for their courageous defence, by the ferocious victors. Damascus was next captured and laid completely waste; a solitary tower being all that was left standing to mark the spot where a great city had once ex isted. At length the armies of Bajazet and Timour met on the plain of Angora, in Galatia. An obstinate battle ended in the total defeat of the Turks, and the capture of their sultan, (A. D. 1407.) Bajazet was |