13 



MAHOMET II. 



MAI, ANGELO, CARDINAL. 



having left Asia Minor, Mahomet's elder brothers Mousa and Soly- 

 man disputed their father's succession between them. Mahomet took 

 no part in their quarrel, but continued to administer his province, 

 and strengthen himself in it, until Mousa, having prevailed against 

 Solyman, put him to death, upon which Mahomet declared war 

 against Mousa, who was defeated and killed, and Mahomet became 

 sole Sultan of the Ottomans in 1413. Mahomet was the restorer of 

 the Ottoman empire, which he found in a state of anarchy. He 

 extended his conquests into Europe, and obliged the princes of Bosnia, 

 Servia, and Wallachia to pay him tribute. He also equipped a fleet 

 to resist the attacks of the Venetians by tea. He died, after nine 

 years' reign, in 1421. He was succeeded by his son Mourad II. 



MAHOMET II., son of Mourad II., wan proclaimed emperor of the 

 Ottomans after the voluntary abdication of his father in 1444 ; 

 Mourad however was obliged by a mutiny of the Janissaries, who 

 objected to his son's youth, to resume the reins of government till 

 his death, which happened at the beginning of 1451, when Mahomet, 

 then twenty-two years of age, commenced his reign. He broke the 

 truce existing with the Byzantine emperor, by building a fort on the 

 European side of the Bosporus, opposite to the fort of Anatoli- 

 Hissar, which his predecessor Bayazid had built on the Asiatic coast 

 of the straits, by which means Mahomet established a complete 

 command of the Bosporus. This led to remonstrances from Con- 

 stantine Palseologiis, the Byzantine emperor, which were received 

 with scorn by Mahomet, who went on subduing the Greek towns on 

 the -Propontis and the Euiine, ravaged Thrace, and invaded the 

 Peloponnesus. At last, having assembled an immense host, stated by 

 tome at 300,000 men, with a formidable artillery, and a fleet of 120 

 sail, Mahomet laid siege to Constantinople in April 1453. After 

 fifty-four days' siege, the Ottomans carried the city by storm on the 

 29th of May 1453. Constantino fell bravely fighting in the breach, 

 covered by a heap of the slain. After three days of plunder and 

 massacre Mahomet restored order, released most of the prisoners, 

 granted to the conquered the free exercise of their religion, and gave 

 them the use of one half of the existing churches ; the remainder, 

 and the best of them, Santa Sophia among the rest, were transformed 

 into mosques, Mahomet remained nearly three years at Constanti- 

 nople, after which he returned in triumph to Adnauople, which was 

 then the residence of the Ottoman sultans. 



In 1456, after invading Servia, he laid eiege to Belgrade, but was 

 opposed and defeated by John Hunnyadea, a gallant Hungarian noble, 

 who was regent of the kingdom in the absence of King Ladislas. 

 This was the first check which the Mohammedan arms encountered 

 in their advance towards Western Europe. At the same time 

 Mahomet's generals were defeated in the mountains of Albania by 

 Scanderbeg. The Turks however took Corinth and the Morea. In 

 1461 they took Trebizond, and put an end to the dynasty of the 

 Comnenes. In 1462 they took Lesbos and other islands of the 

 Archipelago. They next conquered Bosnia, and Mahomet, after 

 promising safety to the prince of that country, had him put to death. 

 In 1465 Mahomet marched against Scanderbeg, but was defeated 

 under the walls of Croia. But Scanderbeg lost all the open country, 

 and dying soon after, left his infant son John Castriot under the 

 guardianship of the Venetian senate. The Venetians attacked and 

 plundered the coasts of Thrace, Asia Minor, and several of the Greek 

 islands. In 1470 Mahomet laid siege to the town of Negroponte, the 

 stronghold of the Venetians in the ^Egtcan Sea. The Provveditore 

 Erizzo, after a gallant resistance, being obliged to capitulate, Mahomet 

 promised to spare his head, but by a barbarous equivocation he -had 

 him tawed in two, saying that he had not promised to spare his 

 sides. The Venetians by means of their commercial agents excited 

 gainst Mahomet, Husun Hassan, shah of Persia, who invaded Asia 

 Minor, and took Tocat in 1472. [CONTAHI.NI, AHBROQIO.] Mahomet 

 hastened to encounter him, and a battle was fought near Trebizond, 

 in which the Turks had the advantage over the Persians, who with- 

 drew beyond the Euphrates. 



In 1475 Mahomet took the Crimea, the khan of which became his 

 tributary. The Turks invaded also Dalmatia and Frioul in 1478, and, 

 advancing as far as the Tagliamento, obliged the Venetians to sue for 

 peace, which was concluded between them and Mahomet in January 

 1479, by which Venice gave up Scutari and other fortresses in Illyria, 

 Albania, and the Morea. In 1480 a Turkish force landed at Otranto, 

 and spread alarm throughout Italy. In the same year the Turks 

 attacked Rhodes, but were defeated by the Knights of St. John, under 

 their grand-master Peter d'Aubusson. Mahomet was greatly irritated 

 at the news of this defeat ; and while he was making preparations for 

 resuming the attack in person, he died at Teggiar Zair in Bithynia, in 

 May 1481. His remains were carried to Constantinople and interred 

 with the following epitaph : " I designed to conquer Rhodes and 

 subdue proud Italy." 



Mahomet was a successful conqueror. He was cruel, like most of 

 the Ottoman warriors ; but he was not an illiterate or rude barbarian. 

 He knew several languages Persian, Arabic, and Greek ; was fond of 

 poetry, and was a good letter-writer. Several of his letters have been 

 translated into Latin, and published by Landini, Lyon, 1920. Three 

 of hU letters, addressed to Scanderbeg, are found in Melchior Junius's 

 Collection, 1695. He founded two medressds, or colleges, at Constan- 

 tinople. Several stories of his cruelty, such as that against a Greek 



female, Irene, and the story about Bellini the painter, rest upon 

 doubtful authority. [BELLINI, GENTILE.] His bad faith however is 

 fully proved, in the instances of the unfortunate Erizzo, of the Prince 

 of Bosnia, and others. In Turkish history he is styled Mahomet the 

 Great and the Conqueror. 



MAHOMET IIL succeeded Mourad III. in 1595. He began his 

 reign by putting to death all his brothers. Giving himself up to idle- 

 ness and pleasure, he left the government in the hands of his ministers, 

 who were under the influence of his mother. His troops were beaten 

 in Hungary by the imperial troops, and by Battori, prince of Transyl- 

 vania, and they lost Gran and other places. Mahomet, being roused 

 from his apathy, collected a large force, with which he entered Hun- 

 gary and took Agram ; but he soon left the army, and hurried back to 

 his capital. The war was carried on in Hungary by his generals, but 

 with no success to the Ottoman arms. In the meantime revolts broke 

 out, and the Asiatic provinces and the janissaries at Constantinople 

 mutinied. In the midst of all these disorders Mahomet died, in 1603, 

 and was succeeded by his son Ahmed I. 



MAHOMET IV., son of Ibrahim I., succeeded his father, who was 

 strangled in a meeting of the Janissaries in 1654, when Mahomet was 

 seven years of age. His mother assumed the regency ; but a fresh 

 revolt of tho Janissaries soon overthrew her power, and she also was 

 put to death. Mahomet Kuperli, or Kupruli, was now raised to the 

 post of grand vizir, or prime minister. Like many other officers 

 who have distinguished themselves in the annals of the Ottoman 

 empire, Kupruli was an Albanian. He and his son Achmet after him 

 were the ruling ministers during the greater part of the reign of 

 Mahomet IV., who troubled himself little with state affairs, being 

 chiefly engrossed with the sports of hunting and other pastimes. The 

 two Kuprulis spread a last ray of departing glory over the decline of 

 the Turkish state. The elder Kupruli, after repressing by severe 

 measures the spirit of insurrection within, formed a new fleet to 

 oppose the Venetians, who, under the two gallant brothers Mocenigo, 

 threatened to force the passaje of the Dardanelles in 1657. He also 

 sent fresh troops to carry on the war in the island of Candia. Mean- 

 time the war was raging in Hungary between the Turks and the 

 Emperor Leopold I. The Turks advanced as far as Neuhausel, which 

 they took, spreading alarm to the gates of Vienna ; but they were 

 defeated by Montecuccoli, general of the imperial forces, at the battle 

 of St. Gothard (1663), after which peace was concluded. The same 

 year Mahomet Kupruli died, and his sou Achmet Kupruli became 

 grand vizir. In 1667 Achmet went in person to Candia, and the siege 

 of the capital town of the same name began in real earnest. The 

 Venetian general Moroeini directed the defence. In September 1669, 

 Morosini, after a most gallant resistance, having exhausted all his 

 resources, made an honourable capitulation, and at the same time 

 concluded a treaty of peace between Venice and the Porte upon terms 

 more favourable than might have been expected. 



In 1671 war broke out between the Turks and Poland, and 

 Mahomet IV. led his army in person ; but he was surprised in his 

 camp at Bndchaz by John Sobieski, grand-marshal of Poland, and the 

 sultan was obliged to seek safety in flight. In the following year 

 Sobieski took the fortress of Kotzim, and drove the Turks to the 

 south of the Danube. In 1675 a formidable Turkish host, com- 

 manded by the pasha of Damascus, who for his bravery had earned 

 the name of " Shaitan " (the devil), entered Poland. Sobieski, who 

 was then king, resisted all their efforts with a handful of men, and at 

 last obliged them to ask for peace, which was concluded in 1676. 



In 1683 the Turks, after seven years' preparation, put into motion 

 the most formidable army which Europe had seen for a long time. 

 They swept over Hungary like a storm, and marched direct upon 

 Vienna. It is generally admitted that Louis XIV. was privy to their 

 plans. The Emperor Leopold and his family left their capital, and 

 Germany and Italy were thrown into consternation. On the 15th of 

 July Vienna was invested by the grand vizir Kara Mustafa (Kupruli 

 was dead), at the head of 300,000 men, Turks and Tartars. On the 

 morning of the llth of September Sobieski and Charles duke of 

 Lorraine, at the head of their combined forces, 40,000 strong, reached 

 the summit of the Calemberg, from which they beheld the Austrian 

 capital, and the wide-spread glittering tents of the Ottomans. On the 

 following day Sobieski attacked and drove the Turks to their 

 formidable entrenchments, against which, at five o'clock in the after- 

 noon, he (led a general assault, carried everything before him, and 

 obliged the vizir to fly, leaving his camp, his baggage, and his artillery 

 in the hands of the Christians. The Turks subsequently lost Hungary. 

 In consequence of these disasters the Janissaries at Constantinople 

 revolted in 1687, Mahomet IV. was deposed, and Solyman III. was 

 raised to the throne. Mahomet died in confinement in 1691. 



MAHON, LORD. [STANHOPE, EARL OF.] 



MAI, ANGELO, CARDINAL, and Prefect of the Vatican Library, 

 was born at Schilpario, a mountain village of the province of Ber- 

 gamo, on the 7th of March, 1782. He received his early education 

 in the village school, and his first master in the higher studies was 

 the ex-Jesuit Father, Lewis Mozzi do' CaspitanL In 1799, Mozzi, 

 struck by the taste and capacity for classical learning which Mai 

 displayed, selected him, along with four other youths of the village, 

 to enter the novitiate of the Jesuit society, which, although elsewhere 

 suppressed, tho Duke of Parma, with the sanction of Pius VI., was 



