161 
T U R 
and Tekeli, being accused of treason against the Porte, was 
secured, loaded with chains, and sent to the castle of the 
Seven Towers at Constantinople. 
The Turks had no better luck against the republic of 
Venice, which had formed an alliance with the Morlachians 
in Dalmatia and the Mainots in the Morea, who had shaken 
off the yoke of the Porte. The people of the capital were 
thunderstruck on receiving this unfavourable intelligence. 
The vizir was deposed; the capitan-pacha atoned for his 
defeats with his life, and count Tekeli was liberated. Peace 
was earnestly desired, but the negociations were not success¬ 
ful. General discontent prevailed ; the sultan was charged 
with effeminacy, debauchery, and disregard of the interests 
of the empire. 
The campaign of 1687 was as disastrous as the preceding. 
Morosini took Patras, Lepanto, Misitra, Corinth, and Athens, 
and reduced the whole of Attica. Cornaro, another Vene¬ 
tian general, was victorious in Dalmatia; he penetrated 
into Bosnia and took Castel Nuovo, the strongest place in 
that country. The Poles gained ground on their side; they 
reduced Slavonia and Transylvania. The Turkish army at 
length revolted : Mahomet tottered on his throne: he never¬ 
theless made reforms in his harem and removed the mufty, 
who had authorised by his fetva the war in Germany. The 
army, the seraglio, and the city, were exasperated against 
the emperor. Mahomet now hoped by means of a crime 
which he had previously several times contemplated to 
ensure his authority. He gave orders for the death of his 
brothers; but Kiuperly, the caimacam, son and grandson 
of the two grand-vizirs who had shed such glory on the 
commencement of Mahomet’s reign, and the bostandjy- 
bachi, to whom the execution of these orders was delegated, 
not only refused to comply, but even provided for the safety 
of those princes. Meanwhile the army, having arrived at 
Constantinople, secured the different gates of the city and 
the port. The attempt made by Mahomet, excited the 
public indignation, and on the 9th of November, 1687, 
deputies were sent to the sultan to inform him of his deposi¬ 
tion. They then proceeded to the apartments of prince 
Soleiman, aged forty-six years, who affected a reluctance 
to accept the proffered sovereignty. In spite of his refusal, 
he was invested with the insignia of royalty and conducted 
to the divan, where the chief officers of the empire took 
the oath of allegiance to him. The dethroned prince was 
shut up in the prison which his brother had just quitted ; in 
this rigorous captivity he passed five years, and ceased to 
live in the month of January, 1693. 
1687—'1691.— Soleiman II.—The janissaries seemed 
to have assented to the elevation of Soleiman to the throne, 
merely that they might indulge in all those excesses which 
they knew this emperor would be too weak to repress. Dis¬ 
satisfied with the vizir, who was preparing to reduce them 
to their duty, they attacked him in his palace, where, after 
a long defence, he was obliged to yield to numbers: his 
residence was pillaged and the seclusion of the harem vio¬ 
lated. The people, incensed against barbarians who trans¬ 
gressed all the laws of the Koran and of modesty, fell 
furiously upon the janissaries, and made a great carnage 
among them, which could not be stopped but by unfurling 
the standard of the Prophet. 
Since the deposition of Mahomet, affairs had gone on 
worse and worse in Hungary. The emperor Leopold had 
caused his son to be proclaimed hereditary king of that 
country. The imperialists made themselves masters of the 
strong places ; the duke of Bavaria took Agria on the 28th 
of November, 1687, and reduced Belgrade, after a long 
siege, on the 6th of September, 1688. At the same time 
the Venetiaus pushed their conquests in Dalmatia. Poland 
alone made no progress. The divan therefore concluded it 
to be high time to make peace. 
Maurocordato, a Greek, interpreter to the Porte, and a 
man of great address, was sent to propose a suspension of 
arms to the Germans ; but as this negociation failed, the 
grand-signor issued orders for public prayers; he even 
Vol. XXIV No. 1634. 
KEY. 
expressed a desire to put himself at the head of the troops. 
It was not long, however, before this timid prince changed 
his mind, and sent in his stead the seraskier Rejeb, who had 
formerly desolated Asia as a chief of banditti, and knew 
nothing of the military profession. He sustained, in con¬ 
sequence, several defeats, and on his return he was strangled, 
because, contrary to the law of Mahomet, he had consulted 
a magician. 
The Mainots meanwhile revolted against the Venetians, 
and returned to their allegiance to the Turkish emperor. 
At length the third Kiuperly, who had preserved Sole'iman’s 
life, before his accession to the throne, was elevated to the 
post of vizir. This minister, inheriting the talents of his 
father and grandfather, won the confidence of the people, 
restored order in the finances, eradicated great abuses, ad¬ 
ministered j ustice without respect of persons, protected the 
different religions, and ordered even the erection of a church 
in a village inhabited exclusively by Greek Christians; and 
by these means afforded general satisfaction. The divan 
was desirous of peace; Kiuperly ventured to promise it 
victory. His first campaign was as glorious as that which 
preceded it had been calamitous. The janissaries, recovering 
their ancient valour, retook Belgrade and several other towns 
in 1689, and gained a signal victory over the Germans, 
near Essek, the siege of which it was nevertheless found 
necessary to raise, on account of the approach of winter. 
Kiuperly was received at Constantinople with all the honors 
of a triumph. The infirmities of the sultan, degenerating 
into dropsy, prevented the grand-vizir from returning in the 
spring to Hungary, according to his intention. Proposals 
were privately circulated for placing on the throne one of 
the sons of Mahomet IV. Kiuperly advocated the rights 
of Achmet, the emperor’s brother, the eldest of all the 
princes of the house of Othmau. The firmness of this 
minister disconcerted the intrigue, and on the death of 
Soleiman, which happened on the 22d of June, 1691, 
not an individual durst raise his voice in behalf of Mahomet, 
who was still a captive, or his children, 
1691-—1695.— Achmet (Ahhmed) II.—The new em¬ 
peror, as incapable of governing as his predecessors, had 
more humanity than they. The first thing he did, was to 
visit his brother Mahomet IV. in prison ; where he cheered 
him and sent several slaves for his amusement. 
While Kiuperly was intent on promoting the public wel¬ 
fare, envy conspired the downfall of that minister. The 
officers of the seraglio, whom he held in dependence, repre¬ 
sented him as a rebel and an usurper to the feeble monarch, 
whose destruction also they had secretly determined upon. 
The minister, informed of the scheme by a mute, immediately 
assembled the principal officers of the different corps, and 
communicated to them the intelligence he had received. 
They were all filled with indignation; the troops ran to arms, 
surrounded the seraglio, and demanded the heads of Kiu- 
perly’s enemies, which they obtained without difficulty of 
the imbecile sultan. 
The success of the late campaign had revived the courage 
of the Ottomans, who considered themselves as invincible 
under the vizir. He arrived at Belgrade with one hundred 
thousand men, and learned that the prince of Baden was 
below Peterwaradin, with an army little inferior in number 
to his own. He crossed the Saave, hastened to meet the 
enemy, and defeated his advanced posts: but no sooner had 
the two main armies engaged, on the 19th of August, 1691, 
than Kiuperly, struck by a ball in the temple, fell from his 
horse, and though all possible assistance was rendered, no 
sign of life could be discovered in him. This event spread 
consternation and terror among the Turks: they fell into 
confusion, and were completely routed. They left thirty 
thousand slain on the field of battle, and never rallied till 
they reached Belgrade, under the walls of which they formed 
an entrenched camp. 
A general peace was now expected. Maurocordato, 
bribed by France, insisted that Austria, drained of troops 
and money, was incapable of prosecuting the war much 
2 T longer. 
