14 TURKEY IN" ASIA. 



all Greece : and from this time the Turks have been considered as 

 an European power. 



Mahomet died in 1481, and was succeeded by Bajazet II, who car- 

 ried on war against the Hungarians and Venetians, as well as Persia 

 and Egypt. Bajazet, falling ill of the gout, became indolent, was. 

 harassed by family differences, and at last, by order of his second 

 son, Selim, was poisoned by a Jew physician. Selim afterwards or- 

 dered his eldest brother, Achmet, to be strangled, with many other 

 princes of the Othman race. He defeated the Persians and the prince 

 of Mount Taurus ; but being unable to penetrate into Persia, he 

 turned his arms against Egypt, which, after many bloody battles, he 

 annexed to his own dominions, in the year 1517, as he did Aleppo, 

 Antioch, Tripoli, Damascus, Gaza, and many other towns. 



He was succeeded in 1520, by his son Soiiman the Magnificent, 

 who, taking advantage of the differences which prevailed among the 

 Christian powers, took Rhodes, and drove the knights from that island 

 to Malta, which was given them by the emperor Charles V. The reign 

 of Soiiman, after this, was a continual war with the Christian powers, 

 and generally successful, both by sea and land. He took Buda, the 

 metropolis of Hungary at that time, and Belgrade, and carried off near 

 200,000 captives, A. D. 1526, and two years afterwards advanced into 

 Austria, and besieged Vienna, but retired on the approach of Charles 

 V. He miscarried also in an attempt he made to take the isle of Mal- 

 ta. This Soiiman is looked upon as the greatest prince that ever fill- 

 ed the throne of Othman. 



He was succeeded, in 1566, by his son Selim II. In his reign the 

 Turkish marine received an irrecoverable blow from the Christians, 

 in the battle of Lepanto. This defeat might have proved fatal to the 

 Turkish power, had the blow been pursued by the Christians, especi- 

 ally the Spaniards. Selim, however, took Cyprus from the Venetians, 

 and Tunis in Africa from the Moors. He was succeeded in 1575, by 

 his son, Amurath III, who forced the Persians to cede Tauris, Teflis, 

 and many other cities, to the Turks. He likewise took the impor- 

 tant fortress of Raab, in Hungary ; and in 1593, he was succeeded 

 by Mahomet III. The memory of this prince is distinguished by his 

 ordering nineteen of his brothers to be strangled, and ten of his 

 father's concubines, who were supposed to be pregnant, to be thrown 

 into the sea. He was often unsuccessful in his wars with the Chris- 

 tians, and died of the plague in- 1604. Though his successor Achmet 

 was beaten by the Persians, yet he forced the Austrians to a treaty in 

 1606, and to consent that he should keep what he was possessed of in 

 Hungary. Osman, a prince of great spirit, but no more than sixteen 

 years of age, being unsuccessful against the Poles, was put to death 

 by the janisaries, whose power he intended to have reduced. Morad 

 IV, succeeded in 1623, and took Bagdad from the Persians. His 

 brother, Ibrahim, succeeded him in 1640 ; a worthless, inactive prince, 

 and strangled by the janisaries in 1648. His successor, Mahomet 

 IV, was excellently well served by his grand vizier, Cuperli. He 

 took Candia from the Venetians, after it had been besieged for thirty 

 years. This conquest cost the Venetians, and their allies, 80,000 men, 

 and the Turks, it is said, 180,000. A bloody war succeeded between 

 the Imperialists and the Turks, in which the latter were so success- 

 ful, that they laid siege to Vienna, but were forced (as has been 

 already mentioned) to raise it with great loss, by John Sobieski, king 

 of Poland, and other Christian generals. Mahomet was, in 2687, 



