old uncle opposed the enterprise; and urged the danger of provoking by such ambitious aggrandisement all the neighbouring princes, Turkish as well as Greek, to league against them for the destruction of their tribe. Enraged at the chilling caution of the grayheaded man, and, observing probably that others were beginning to share in it, Othman met the arrows of the tongue by the arrows of the bow. He spake not a word in reply, but he shot his old uncle dead upon the spota bloody lesson to all who should harbour thoughts of contradiction to the fixed will of so stern a lord. The modern German historian, who recounts this scene, well observes that "This uncle's-murder marks with terror the commencement of the Ottoman dominion, as the brother's murder that of Rome; only the former rests on better historical evidence. Edris, justly esteemed the most valuable historian of the Turks, who, at the beginning of his work, openly declares that, passing over in silence all that is reprehensible, he will only hand down to posterity the glorious deeds of the royal race of Othman, relates among the latter the murder of Dundar, with all the circumstances detailed above. If then such murderous slaughter of their kindred be reckoned by the panegyrists of the Osmanlies among their praiseworthy acts, what are we to think of those which cannot be praised, and of which their history is therefore silent?"

Keprihissar was attacked, and fell; and numerous other strongholds in the vicinity of Nice soon shared the same fate. In 1301, Othman encountered for the

* Von Hammer, i. p. 78.

first time a regular Greek army, which was led against him by Muzaros, the commander of the guards of the Byzantine Emperor. This important battle took place at Koyounhissar (called Baphoum by the Greeks) in the vicinity of Nicomedia. Othman gained a complete victory; and in the successful campaigns of the six following years, he carried his arms as far as the coast of the Black Sea, securing fortress after fortress, and hemming in the strong cities of Brusa, Nice, and Nicomedia, (which yet were retained by the Greeks), with a chain of fortified posts, where his garrisons, under bold and skilful chiefs, were ever on the watch for the chance of a surprise or the material for a foray. It was in vain that the Byzantine court sought to avert the pressure of this ever-active enemy, by procuring a Mongol army to attack Othman's southern dominions. Othman sent his son Orchan against the invaders, and the young prince utterly defeated them. Age and infirmity began now to press upon Othman, but his gallant son filled his place at the head of the troops with undiminished energy and success. In 1326, the great city of Brusa surrendered to the Ottomans. Othman was on his death-bed, at Sægud, the first town that his father Ertoghrul had possessed, when his son effected this important conquest; but he lived long enough to hear the glad tidings, and to welcome the young hero. The Oriental writers narrate the last scene of Othman's life, and profess to record his dying advice to his successor. The fair Malkhatoon had gone before him to the grave; but the two brave sons whom she had borne him, Orchan and Alaeddin, and a few of his

veteran captains and sages, were at the monarch's death-bed. "My son," said Othman to Orchan, "I am dying; and I die without regret, because I leave such a successor as thou art. Be just; love goodness, and show mercy. Give equal protection to all thy subjects, and extend the law of the Prophet. Such are the duties of princes upon earth; and it is thus that they bring on them the blessings of heaven." Then, as if he wished to take actual seisin of Brusa, and to associate himself with his son's glory, he directed that he should be buried there; and advised his son to make that city the seat of empire. His last wishes were loyally complied with; and a stately mausoleum, which stood at Brusa until its destruction by fire in the present age, marked the last resting-place of Othman, and proved the pious reverence of his descendants. His banner and his sabre are still preserved in the treasury of the empire and the martial ceremony of girding on that sabre is the solemn rite, analogous to the coronations of Christendom, by which the Turkish Sultans are formally invested with sovereign power.

Othman is commonly termed the first Sultan of his race; but neither he nor his two immediate successors assumed more than the title of Emir. He had, at the time of his death, reigned as an independent Emir twenty-seven years, and had been chief of his tribe for thirty-nine years of his life of sixty-eight. His carcer fully displays the buoyant courage, the subtle watchfulness, the resolute decision, the strong common-sense, and the power of winning and wielding the affections

* Von Hammer, i. p. 86.

VOL. I.

and energies of other men, which are the usual attributes of the founders of empires. And, notwithstanding his blood-guiltiness in his uncle's death, we must believe him to have been eminently mild and gracious for an Oriental sovereign, from the traditional attachment with which his memory is still cherished by his nation, and which is expressed at the accession of each new Sultan by the formula of the people's prayer, May he be as good as Othman."

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CHAPTER II.

ACCESSION OF ORCHAN-HIS VIZIER ALAEDDIN'S LEGISLATION -THE JANISSARIES-CAPTURE OF NICE AND NICOMEDIA— DESCENT ON EUROPE-CONQUEST OF SOLYMAN PACHAHIS DEATH AND ORCHAN'S DEATH.*

EMIR OTHMAN now slept at Brusa, and Emir Orchan reigned in his stead. Fratricide was not yet regarded as the necessary safeguard of the throne; and Orchan earnestly besought his brother Alaeddin to share with him his sovereignty and his wealth. Alaeddin firmly refused to consent to any division of the empire, and so contravene the will of their father, who had addressed Orchan only as his successor. Nor would Alaeddin accept more of the paternal property than the revenues of a single village, near Brusa. Orchan then said to him, "Since, my brother, thou wilt not take the flocks. and the herds that I offer thee, be thou the shepherd of my people; be my Vizier." The word "Vizier," in the Ottoman language, means the bearer of a burden; and Alaeddin, in accepting the office, took on him, according to the Oriental historians, his brother's burden of power. Alaeddin did not, like many of his successors in that office, often command in person the armies of

* See Von Hammer, books 3, 4.