BAY 



65 



BAY 



the hands of Timur. The conqueror, according to his 

 Persian biographer, Sherif-eddin, received Bayazid with 

 great kindness, assigned him suitable accommodations, 

 and continued to treat him with distinction till he died, 

 A. Hog. 806 (A.D. 1403). D'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orient., 

 art. Timour, .p. 876, edit. 177G) and M. Von Hammer ex- 

 press themselves satisfied with this account, and reject the 

 common report which would charge Timur witrujreat cruelty 

 towards his prisoner. But Sir William Jones (TforAs, vol. v. 

 p. 547) draws our attention to a passage in another contem- 

 porary historian, Ebn Arabshah's life of Timur, which had 

 been overlooked by D'Herbelot, and in which the Arabian 

 author expressly affirms ' that Timur did inclose his captive, 

 Ilderim Bayazid, in a cage of iron, in order to retaliate the 

 insult offered to the Persians by a sovereign of Lower Asia, 

 who had treated Shapor, king of Persia, in the same man- 

 ner ; that he intended to carry him in this confinement into 

 Tartary, but that the miserable prince died in Syria, at a 

 place called Akshehr.' (See Ahmedis Arabsiadse, Vita 

 Timuri, ed. Manger, torn. ii. pp. 225, 276, &c.) 



We will not venture to decide a question on which there 

 is such conflicting evidence ; but we must notice a curious 

 passage of Busbequius, who visited Constantinople as am- 

 bassador from the German emperor about the middle of the 

 sixteenth century, as it seems to have escaped the notice of 

 M. von Hammer. The passage is to the following effect : 

 that Bayazid, after his defeat, became a prisoner in the 

 bunds of Timur, who treated him with great cruelty ; that 

 his wife, who was also made a prisoner, was grossly insulted 

 before his face ; and that from this time till the age of Su- 

 leiman I., who reigned from A.D. 1520 to 1566, the Osman 

 sultans have never married, for fear that the reverses of 

 fortune might expose them to similar insults. (Aug. Gidenii 

 Busbequii Legationis Turcicce Epistola Prima, pp. 26, 27, 

 ed. Lond. 1660, 16mo.) 



Bayazid was succeeded upon the throne of the Osman 

 empire by his son Mohammed I. (Joseph von Hammer, 

 Geschichte des Osmanischen Keichs, vol. i. p. 216, &c. ; 

 Sherif-eddin's Life of Timur, translated by P. Do La 

 Croix.) 



BAYAZID II., the eldest son of the Osman sultan, 

 Mohammed II., was born A.D. 1447, and in 1481 succeeded 

 his father on the throne of the Osman empire, which he 

 occupied till 1512. Bayazid was governor of Amasia when 

 his father died (3rd of May, 1481). Upon receiving the 

 news of his demise he hastened to Constantinople, but had 

 to establish his claims to the throne by a contest with his 

 brother Jem called Zizim or Zizymus, by Caoursin and 

 other contemporary European writers. Jem was defeated in 

 a battle at Yenishehr near Brussa, 20th of June, 1481, and 

 fled to Egypt, where he was kindly received by the Sultan 

 Kaitbai. In the following year Jem was induced, by the re- 

 presentations of his friends in Syria, to venture upon another 

 campaign against his brother; but he was again unsuccessful, 

 and took refuge at Rhodes. Here D'Aubusson, the grand- 

 master of the Knights of St. John, received him with marked 

 attention, but afterwards sent him to France, where he was 

 kept in close confinement till 1488. Towards the end of 

 that year the king of France, Charles VIII., surrendered 

 him into the hands of Pope Alexander VI., by whom he was 

 poisoned (Feb. 24, 1495). 



A considerable part of Bayazid's reign was spent in war. 

 When Mohammed II. died, the Osman empire was engaged 

 in a conflict with Venice. Bayazid found it necessary in 

 1482 to conclude a peace which secured considerable ad- 

 vantages to the republic. In the same year, Keduk Ahmed 

 ]'a-.lia, a military commander to whom the empire owed 

 many important victories, was murdered by Bayazid's com- 

 mand. 



In 1 48"i Bayazid declared war against Kaitbai, the Mamluk 

 sultan of Egypt. Karagcis- Pasha, the commander of the 

 Oxman array, suffered two signal defeats, and in 1491 a 

 peace was negotiated upon terms by no means advantageous 

 or creditable to the Osman arms. In the same year the 

 fortresses of Depedelen and Bayendera in Albania were 

 taken by the Osmang. Bayazid was himself engaged in this 

 expedition, and near Depedelen had a narrow escape from 

 an assassin who had approached him in the disguise of a 

 monk. This incident, M. von Hammer observe*, gave rise 

 to the rule ever since most strictly observed at the Daman 

 court, that no one bearing any weapon is admitted into the 

 presence of the sultan. 



The year 1490 is remarkable in Turkish history for the 



first treaty concluded between the Osman government 

 and that of Poland ; and in 1495 we find recorded the first 

 diplomatic relations between the sultan and the czar of 

 Moscow. 



In 1499 another war broke out between the Osman em- 

 pire and Venice. A Venetian fleet was defeated in a battle 

 near the island of Sapienza, July 28, 1499 ; and Lepanto 

 (Naupactos), Modon, Coron, and Navarino, were besieged 

 and taken by the Osmans, while Iskandar Pasha, with a 

 land army, invaded and laid waste the country along the 

 river Tagliamento in the north of Italy. A combined 

 Venetian and Spanish fleet took possession of ^Egina and 

 Cephalonia, and captured twenty Turkish galleys. By the 

 treaty of peace, which was concluded in December, 1502, 

 the Venetians were obliged to leave the island of Santa 

 Maura in the hands of the Turks, but they kept possession 

 of Cephalonia, and obtained the privilege of appointing a 

 consul at Constantinople, and of trading in the Black Sea. 



Bayazid was induced to yield a peace upon such conditions 

 by the rapid rise of the Persian power on the eastern frontier 

 of his dominions, under Shah Ismail, the founder of the 

 Safawi (commonly called the Sofi) dynasty. Shah Ismail 

 had encroached upon the Osman territory near Tokat, and 

 when forced to retreat by the governor of the province, had 

 taken possession of Merash. About the same time, Korkud, 

 Bayazid's eldest son, disgusted at the contemptuous treat- 

 ment which he experienced from Ali Pasha, the grand vizir, 

 quitted the empire and went to Egypt. Ahmed, though 

 younger than Korkud, had been appointed by Bayazid his 

 successor on the throne. Selim, a younger brother of 

 Ahmed, dissatisfied with the preference thus given to the 

 latter, revolted against his father (1511), at the same time 

 that an alarming rebellion, headed by Kuli Shah, also 

 named Sheitan Kuli, broke out in Asia Minor. Kuli Shnh 

 was soon obliged to retire, and his adherents became dis- 

 persed ; but the conflict between the princes, Korkud, Selim, 

 and Ahmed, continued, till at last Selim prevailed. Bay- 

 azid was obliged to resign the government in his favour, and 

 Selim, supported by the Janissaries, and the great mass of 

 the people of Constantinople, ascended the throne April 25, 

 1512. Bayazid quitted the capital, in order to spend the re- 

 mainder of his life in peaceful retirement at Demitoka, his 

 birth-place ; but he died on his journey thither at Aya, near 

 Hassa, May 26, 1512. 



(Joseph von Hammer's Geschichte des Osmanischen 

 Reichs, vol. ii. p. 250, &c.) 



BAYAZID, a town of Turkish Armenia, situated at the 

 base of Mount Ararat, in 39 24' N. lat., 44 20' E. long. ; 

 50 miles S.S.W. from Erivan, and about 180 miles E. of 

 Erzerum. It is governed by a pasha of two tails, whose autho- 

 rity extends over a surrounding district of considerable extent, 

 but its limits are not distinctly defined. Kinneir assigns to 

 the place a population of 30,000, of whom the great ma- 

 jority are Turks ; but Stocqueler says that the population is 

 estimated at 3000, the greatest proportion of whom are 

 Armenians ; and French writers estimate the population at 

 10,000. Whatever be the number, the majority are, un- 

 doubtedly, Armenians ; and our own information inclines us 

 to consider the French estimate of the population to be 

 nearest the mark. 



The town is built on a declivity, the summit of which is 

 said by the inhabitants to be strongly fortified; but they do 

 not like to allow the fortifications to be inspected. The city 

 itself is also surrounded by walls and a rampart. Bayazid 

 has a very uninteresting appearance. The houses are small, 

 and, for the most part, inconveniently built. Were it not 

 for the pasha's palace, which is covered with white plaster 

 and rises high above the rest of the town, it would be diffi- 

 cult to distinguish it from the craggy elevation on the side 

 of which it is built, for the houses are composed of the -same 

 material as the rocks, and the soil affords not an inch of 

 verdure. There are three mosques, two Christian churches, 

 and a monastery of considerable celebrity in Armenia. Little 

 business is carried on at Bayazid. The inhabitants have no 

 encouragement to attempt manufactures, because Russian 

 articles of a much better quality than they can make, and 

 at a much cheaper rate, are obtained from Erivan. (Seo 

 Kinneir's Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire; 

 Morier's Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia 

 Minor; Stocqueler's Pilgrimage through Khuzistan and 

 Persia.) 



BAYER, JOHN, was born at the town of Rhain 

 (Rhainn Biorum; it is called lihain by Kastner, and appears 



NO. 213. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPAEDIA.] 



VOL. IV. K 



