T U R 
suffered himself to be persuaded, that if Zizim was in his hands, 
he should be able to unite all the powers of Europe against 
the Turks-, he therefore demanded him of Charles VIII. The 
unfortunate Zizim, after travelling from the east to Europe, 
and from Rhodes to the extremity of Auvergne, was deli¬ 
vered to the emissaries of the Pope, who conducted him to 
Rome, where he was received as a sovereign, and had apart¬ 
ments assigned him in the Vatican. But some time after¬ 
wards, on the death of Innocent VIII., Zizim, contrary to 
the law of nations, in spite of the oath sworn to him and to 
the king of France, was confined to the castle of St. Angelo, 
by command of the infamous Borgia. The new Pope dis¬ 
missed the faithful Knights of Malta, who composed Zizim’s 
guard, acquainted Bajazet with what he had done, and 
agreed to take forty thousand ducats a-year for the detention 
of his brother. Charles VIII. king of France, a young, 
powerful, and ambitious monarch, warmly interested him¬ 
self for the preservation of Zizim, and entered Italy with an 
army of thirty thousand men. The Pope, trembling for his 
fate, applied for succour to Bajazet, assuring him that it was 
the intention of the king of France to take from him Zizim. 
The Turk tendered a still higher price for the murder of his 
brother; but the Pope, reluctant to lose the annual stipend 
paid for the detention of Zizim, deferred the execution of 
this infamous treaty. Meanwhile the king of France had 
reached Rome, without having occasion to draw bis sword. 
The cowardly Borgia shut himself up in the castle of St. 
Angelo, employed the immense treasures which he had 
amassed in corrupting the king’s ministers, and succeeded in 
opening a negociation and concluding a treaty, which sti¬ 
pulated, among many other articles of equal importance, that 
Zizim should be placed in the hands of the king; but the 
wretch, before he delivered up the Ottoman prince, caused 
him to be poisoned. (1495.) 
Relieved from the anxiety occasioned by the existence of 
Zizim, Bajazet turned his arms against the Venetians, de¬ 
feated them at sea, took the town of Lepanto, and those of 
Modon and Coron, in the Morea, laid waste the Friule and 
reduced Durazzo. While Persia was convulsed by a reli¬ 
gious revolution, the shocks of which caused that country 
to assume a new face, Bajazet resided at Constantinople in 
perfect repose, if that term may be applied to an effeminate 
and voluptuous life, the excesses of which had brought upon 
him many disorders. Tormented by painful infirmities, he 
resolved to abdicate the empire in favour of his eldest son, 
Achmet; but the soldiers preferred to Achmet his youngest 
brother, named Selym. Emboldened by the public favour, 
the latter raised an army, marched against his father, and was 
at first beaten: but the janissaries urged him to fresh efforts, 
promising to join his standard. Selym arrived before Con¬ 
stantinople at the head of the European troops, and Bajazet 
beheld his son, the people, and the army at once arrayed 
against him. He now thought of nothing but relinquishing 
a sceptre of which his indolence had long been weary; and 
set out for the purpose of retiring to Adrianople. Selym 
accompanied him with feigned respect to the place agreed 
upon for their separation. There, throwing himself at the 
feet of his father, he begged his blessing; but no sooner had 
he left him, than on some trivial pretext, he ordered him to 
be poisoned. This took place in 1512. Timid, cruel, super¬ 
stitious, and addicted to wine, Bajazet II. was nevertheless, 
according to the Turkish historians, a patron of learning and 
the sciences. He built several mosques and repaired the walls of 
Constantinople, which were half overthrown by an earthquake, 
that lasted ten days, and buried thirteen hundred persons. 
1512—1520.— Selym I.—From the moment of his ac¬ 
cession to the throne, Selym deserved by his sentiments, and 
still more by his actions, the surname of Yavus, the fero¬ 
cious. Determined to rid himself of all those who gave him 
umbrage, he decreed the death of his two brothers. Achmet, 
the elder, notwithstanding his love of peace, resolved to sell 
his life and rights at a dear rate; while his brother, Korat, 
who was less courageous, wandered from cavern to cavern, 
in order to conceal himself. The latter was betrayed, and 
KEY. > 151 
Selym caused him to be strangled before he marched against 
Achmet, who, having only fifteen thousand men to oppose 
one hundred and fifty thousand, was vanquished and 
- strangled on the field of battle. 
Selym subdued all Egypt, and put an end to the dominion 
of the Mamelukes, and appointed two pachas to govern 
Egypt and Syria in his name. 
The finances being exhausted by these two long wars, 
the sultan found means to fill his coffers by cutting off 
the heads of the wealthiest individuals and the great officers 
of the empire. The destroyer was at length arrested in 
the course of his cruelties, when preparing to march against 
Persia. An acute disorder seized him in a village near Adri¬ 
anople, the very place where his father had been murdered 
by his command, and he died a few days afterwards, on the 
22d of September, 1520, reproaching himself, it is said, for 
the blood which he had shed in such abundance. 
1520-—'1566.— Soleiman I., Selym’s son, made it his 
first care to quell the insurrection of the pacha of Syria. 
Having left troops in Asia, and sent a squadron of obser¬ 
vation into the Archipelago, he turned his attention toward 
Hungary, blockaded Belgrade, and made himself master of 
that city, which was the key of the country, meditating a 
still more important conquest for the following year. 
The election ofVilliersde l’lsle-Adam to the honourable 
post of grand-master of Rhodes gave rise to intrigues. One 
of the candidates, enraged at his failure, resolved, says an 
historian, to deliver the island to Soleiman, who soon found 
a pretext for violating treaties, and the knights prepared to 
sustain a new siege. 
Deserted by the Christian potentates, they held out long, 
but at last capitulated on the 22d of December, 1522. So¬ 
leiman made his entry into the city on Christmas day; and 
the knights, after an equally sanguinary and memorable 
siege of six months, prepared to quit that sovereignty which 
they had possessed for two hundred and twenty years, with 
such glory and advantage to the commerce of all the nations 
of Christendom. 
Soleiman was endowed with an elevated soul. The re¬ 
sistance of the knights; though it inflamed his anger, excited 
his admiration. He treated the grand-master with kindness, 
raised his valour, and even endeavoured to engage him in 
is service; but de l’lsle-Adam replied, that he should be 
unworthy the sultan’s favours if he were capable of accept¬ 
ing them. The excesses which are the usual couseqnences 
of victory, were repressed. Soleiman, to secure the tranquil¬ 
lity of Rhodes, determined to visit the city in person; and, 
on entering the palace of the grand master, observed:— 
“ It is not without pain that I am obliged to turn this 
Christian, at his age, out of his house.” 
After making sure of the departure of the knights, Soleiman. 
returned to Constantinople, to attend to the cares of the 
government; and made ordinances regulating as well the 
administration of justice as that of the finances. The col¬ 
lection of these judicious ordinances, known by the title of 
the Canons of Soleiman, still has high authority in the 
divan and among the ulemas. This monarch committed 
the custody of the seraglio to his bostandjys, or gardeners, 
with whom he formed a military corps. This institution 
caused an insurrection among the janissaries; and the em¬ 
peror was convinced that, for the sake of his peace as well 
as his glory, it was necessary to find employment for this 
restless soldiery. Hungary offered a wide field for his am¬ 
bition, since Belgrade was in his power. Louis II. king of 
that country, only twenty-two years of age, had neither 
experience nor resources sufficient to defend his dominions, 
Soleiman had no difficulty to reduce Peterwaradin, Saliuk, 
and Ozek. On the 29th of August, 1526, he engaged and 
defeated the Hungarians near Mohars. This victory opened 
to him the gates of Budaon the 10th of September, 1526. 
He plundered that city as well as the rest of Hungary; and 
on the approach of winter led back his soldiers to Constanti¬ 
nople loaded with booty. 
Hostilities were soon renewed in Hungary. After the 
death 
