148 
TURKEY. 
which served as a bulwark to Macedonia ; he then attacked 
and subdued the despot of Servia, but showed him favour, 
and purchased the hand of his daughter with the sacrifice of 
a province. He reduced several Mysian and Triballian 
princes; and imposed a capitation tax on such of his new 
subjects as adhered to Christianity. Those who, after bear¬ 
ing arms, turned Mahometans, were enrolled among the 
spahys. The sultan granted lands to some others, on con¬ 
dition of their maintaining, in time of war, a horse and a 
number of soldiers proportionate to the value of their land. 
These military grants, called tymars , conferred by Amurath 
and his successors, devolving to the eldest son upon the 
same condition only as was imposed upon the father, are so 
completely in the power of the prince, that he can take them 
away from the tymariots as easily as a daily pay. The sultan 
next directed his attention to the formation of his infantry, 
which he justly considered as the strength of armies. In 
1361 he established the famous corps of janissaries, by 
taking one-fifth of the prisoners who embraced the religion 
of Mahomet. The number of this body, at first fixed at 
ten thousand men, was in the sequel considerably aug¬ 
mented. 
Coutuz, one of Amurath’s sons, and Andronicus, son of 
Paleologus, after defeating, an army of neighbouring con¬ 
federate nations, at the head of the janissaries, spahys, and 
some Greek troops, were inflated with their success, and 
rebelled against their fathers, who were then engaged in 
Asia. The two monarchs crossed the strait. The presence 
and address of the legitimate sovereigns introduced desertion 
into the camp of the rebel princes, who retired to Didimo- 
tica, and in spite of their resistance and a great effusion of 
blood, fell into the hands of the inexorable conqueror Amu¬ 
rath, who ordered his own son’s eyes to be put out, and 
insisted that Paleologus should inflict the like punishment 
on Andronicus and his grandson. Manuel, the brother of 
the latter, was declared his associate in the empire: like him 
he conspired against the sultan, and retired to Thessalonica, 
but destitute of succour, he delivered the place to the general 
of Amurath, before whom he appeared as a supplicant. The 
sultan pardoned him, well pleased at having been furnished 
with an occasion to make himself master of Thessalonica 
without striking a blow. 
The policy of the sultan was not less serviceable to him 
than his arms, and procured him several provinces in Asia, 
by alliances and negociations. He returned to Europe to 
oppose the Prince of Servia, who, with a formidable army 
of Wallachians, Hungarians, Dalmatians, and others, at¬ 
tempted to check the progress of the Mahometan arms. In 
the year 791 of the hegira, (1388-9) he engaged and defeated 
him in the plains of Kosowah. The sultan, alighting from 
his horse, walked over the field of battle, the theatre of his 
glory, and remarked with astonishment that almost all his 
foes, with whose bodies it was covered, were beardless 
youths. “ Prince,” said one of his generals, “ none but hot¬ 
headed boys dare to cope with Mussulmans.” While he was 
speaking, a wounded Triballian, extended on the ground 
near them, raised himself, recognized the sultan by the 
respect paid to him, gave him a mortal blow, and was him¬ 
self immediately cut in pieces. 
Amurath lived seventy-one years, of which he reigned 
thirty, feared by his enemies and by his subjects. His seve¬ 
rity in the administration of the army and of justice, was ex¬ 
cessive. The respect which he affected for religion, caused 
him to be respected in his turn. He founded several useful 
establishments, such as public schools and hospitals. 
1389—1403.— Bajazet (properly Bayazyd) I.—Amu¬ 
rath’s eldest son was proclaimed emperor by the army. The 
first days of his reign manifested his ambition and his san¬ 
guinary disposition. He fell upon the dominions of a prince 
of Phrygia, whose daughter he had married, and banished 
his father-in-law to Ipsala, whence, to withdraw himself 
from the sultan’s cruelty, he fled to Persia. Bajazet engaged 
in several wars, in which he was so successful as to gain 
immense territories. Sigismund, king of Hungary, uneasy at 
his progress, represented to the princes of Christendom the 
necessity of opposing a bulwark to the sultan’s conquests. 
One hundred thousand Christians assembled under his com¬ 
mand. Bajazet, with sixty thousand men, marched to meet 
and dispersed them. 
The Greek empire would now have been annihilated had 
not an unexpected defender checked the course of Bajazet’s 
prosperity. Tymur-lenk, commonly called Tamerlane, a 
descendant of Jhengis-khan, having found means to disci¬ 
pline the Tartars, conquered with incredible rapidity Asiatic 
Sarmatia, Persia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, and compelled 
the city of Bagdad to open its gates to him. The sultan, 
being informed that the Tartar conqueror was advancing into 
Asia Minor, marched to meet him, and a battle ensued on 
the 30th of June, 1402, in the plains of Ancyra. The 
Turks, not half so numerous as the Tartars, performed pro¬ 
digies of valour. Bajazet found all his efforts ineffectual, 
and having seen his eldest son Mustapha slain by his side, he 
ordered his vizir to fly to Prusa with his younger son So- 
leiman, in order to preserve a remnant of Othman blood. 
Soon afterwards Bajazet was made prisoner. Notwithstand¬ 
ing the kind treatment which the sultan received at the 
hands of the Tartar prince, grief shortened his life, and he 
died on the 9th of March, 1403, in the train of his conqueror, 
who ordered magnificent obsequies for him, and sent his 
remains to Prusa, to be deposited in the tomb of his an¬ 
cestors. 
The story of the iron cage, in which Bajazet is reported 
by some writers to have been confined by Tamerlane, we 
have rejected; but Gibbon, who, in his history, sums up 
the authorities on both sides of the question, thinks that 
it was not wholly without foundation. Tamerlane with¬ 
drew from all his conquests, and restored the Ottoman em¬ 
pire into the hands of Bajazet’s sons. While these were 
settling their disputes by the sword, an interregnum of ten 
years occurred. After which, Mahomet I. mounted the 
throne. This sultan restored to Manuel the city of Thessalo¬ 
nica, and all the fortresses on the shore of the Euxine Sea. 
He gave a favourable reception to the envoys of Wallachia, 
Bulgaria, and Moldavia, and accepted the tribute which 
they offered him. Mahomet was acknowledged in Asia as 
well as in Europe, after he had subdued and rendered tri¬ 
butary Caraman Oghly, son of a prince of the same name 
whom Bajazet had put to death, and seized the dominions 
of the prince of Castamouny, his confederate. He reduced 
Sineis, pacha of Smyrna, and received the homage and 
tribute of several Greek princes, who had for a moment 
fancied themselves independent. The sultan was not so 
fortunate by sea. The republic of Venice, then very power¬ 
ful, engrossed all the commerce of Europe, and its posses¬ 
sions extended from Capo d’lstria to Constantinople. In¬ 
censed at the piracy of the Turks, the Venetians sent their 
galleys into the Hellespont, where they destroyed the Turk¬ 
ish fleet, but durst not attempt a landing. About this time 
an upstart, named Perciglia, began to preach with vehemence 
against the Mahometans, whom he denounced as blasphem¬ 
ers and infidels. All those whom he could not persuade he 
put to death. His proselytes having become very numerous, 
Mahomet sent his son Amurath, who was scarcely twelve 
years old, with sixty thousand men against this pretended 
apostle of God, who was taken and crucified. This sect oc¬ 
casioned the spilling of much blood, contrary to the wishes 
of Mahomet, who was more sparing of human life than any 
of his predecessors. Soon afterwards another impostor, who 
exactly resembled Mustapha, Mahomet’s elder brother, who 
fell in the battle of Ancyra beside their father Bajazet, laid 
claim to the throne. He was acknowledged by some mal¬ 
contents, at the head of whom was the same Sineis on whom 
Mahomet had bestowed his favour, and even the government 
of Nicopolis, and who thus repaid his bounty. He collected 
some troops, and had the temerity, with a weak and con¬ 
temptible army, levied in haste, to wait for Mahomet under 
the walls of Thessalonica; but the janissaries and spahys 
quickly dispersed the rebels. Sineis and his pupil escaped 
the carnage, and sought an asylum with the Greek emperor, 
who refused to give them up, and obtained the sultan’s con¬ 
sent 
