from China over Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. The unity of this mighty empire was dissolved by the death of Malik Shah, and while Persia continued subject to the elder branch, the younger dynasties of the house of Seljookee established the kingdoms of Kerman, Syria, and Roum, or Anatolia.

The kingdom of Roum, in which the others eventually merged, extended from the Euphrates to Constantinople, and from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria, with Nice for its capital; and Soliman, its first sultan, had his conquests confirmed to him by a treaty of peace with the Emperor Alexius Comnenus. But his successor was driven from his capital by the arms of the crusaders, and the battle of Dorylæum stript him of all his territories upon the sea-coast from Trebisond to the Syrian gates. After the loss of Nice, the royal residence was removed to Iconium, an obscure inland town above three hundred miles from Constantinople. Here the successors of Soliman continued to reign for nearly a century and a-half, engaged in almost incessant hostilities with the Greek emperors, until Anatolia was overwhelmed in the general wreck by the ravages of Jenghis Khan and his successors. The sultan of Iconium, after a feeble resistance, fled for refuge to his former enemies, the Greeks of Constantinople, and the fragments of the Seljookian monarchy were seized by the emirs or governors of the cities and provinces, who continued to exercise an independent dominion until their territories became gradually and imperceptibly incorporated with the Ottoman empire.

One of these emirs was Othman, from whom the Ottomans derive their name. His grandfather Soliman, who, with other Turkman chiefs, had attached himself to the fortunes of the sultan of Carizmé, after the dispersion of the Carizmean army by the Moguls, directed his course towards the west, and perished while attempting to cross, on horseback, the waters of the Euphrates. Orthogrul, the eldest of his sons, led his forces into Anatolia, and having obtained a grant of territory from Aladdin, the sultan of Iconium, he established a camp of 400 tents at Surgut, on the banks of the Sangar. Placed on the verge of the Byzantine empire, he made constant incursions into its territory; and, being appointed generalissimo of the army of Iconium, he persevered for half a century in preserving and extending his conquests in that Othman succeeded to the lordship of Surgut, and continued to be the subject and soldier of Aladdin II. the last monarch of the house of Seljookee, till the death of that prince, when he and the other chiefs, as has been already mentioned, seized each of them a share of the dominions of Iconium.

The territory of Othman was but of small extent compared with the other governments which surrounded him. Caraman, from whom the modern Caramania derives its name, had seized upon the city of Iconium, Celicia, part of Lycaonia, Pamphylia, Caria, and the greater Phrygia, as far as Philadelphia, and the city of Antioch. Aidin held the greater part of Mysia with part of Lydia;

and the chief parts of the latter province with part of Mysia, Troas, and Phrygia, submitted to Caras. The sway of Sarukham extended over the maritime provinces of Ionia, as far as the city of Smyrna; and Pontus and Paphlagonia, comprising many important cities upon the Euxine, formed the principality of the sons of Omer. The small lordship of Surgut, with some strong holds which he had won from the Christians, was all that acknowledged the sway of Othman, but it formed the nucleus of a mighty kingdom, which embraced within its limits extensive dominions in each of the three quarters of the old world.

The vicinity of Othman to the Greeks opened to him a wide field of enterprise; and the civil broils between the elder and younger Andronicus, which at this period agitated the Byzantine empire, leaving their Asiatic subjects to their own resources, they became an ease prey to the first invaders. Othman having established his residence at Neapolis, about 20 miles from Nice, now began to assume the prerogatives of royalty by coining money, and commanding his name to be used in the public prayers; and, taking advantage of the weakness of his enemies, pushed his conquests over the greater part of Bithynia. The Christian princes, alarmed at his progress, united their forces, and endeavoured, by one decisive effort, to crush the rising power of the ambitious Turk. The hostile armies met on the confines of Phrygia and Bithynia, but Othman was victorious; and the city of Brusa, a few years after, submitted to his son Órchan, who made it the seat of the Ottoman government. The policy of Othman was equal to his military skill; and what he won by his valour, he secured by wise and salutary regulations. By the impartial administration of justice and mercy, he reconciled the conquered Christians to his government; and many, who fled before his arms, returned to enjoy safety and repose under his powerful protection.

Orchan prosecuted with vigour the ambitious designs of his father. He defeated the Christians headed by Andronicus in person, who was wounded in the engagement near Philocrene; and, having taken Nice and Nicomedia, extended his dominion to the Hellespont. In the civil war, which succeeded the death of Andronicus, between the Empress Anne and John Cantacuzene, for the regency of the empire, the latter solicited the aid of the Turkish emir, and secured his friendship and services by bestowing upon him in marriage his daughter Theodora. The services of ten thousand horse led by Soliman, the son of Orchan, repaid the obligation; but, by the admission of these auxiliaries into Europe, the empire received a deep and deadly wound which succeeding emperors in vain endeavoured to heal. The Turks, as the friends of Cantacuzene, had seized upon the fortresses of Thrace; and though their restitution was demanded, and a ransom paid, they still held the most important; and Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, was peopled by a Turkish colony.

At the same time that Soliman was securing a footing in Europe, and had opened a gate by which he could enter at will into the empire, his father

had brought many of the neighbouring emirs by force or by fraud to seek his protection, and resign their independence. But while he was enlarging his dominions and cementing his power, his death was hastened by the intelligence that his favourite son Soliman was killed by a fall from his horse. Orchan is extolled by his countrymen for his justice, clemency, and liberality to the poor. He adorned the city of Brusa with a magnificent mosque, hospital, and academy, and was the first of the Turks who assigned regular pay to their troops while on duty.

Amurath succeeded to the sceptre, and wielded with dreadful effect the scymetar of his father. He overran the whole of Thrace from the Hellespont to Mount Hæmus, and established Adrianople as the capital of his European dominions. From the numerous Christian captives which he carried off in this war, he selected the stoutest and most personable, whom having instructed in the Mahomedan faith and disciplined to arms, he formed into a body of infantry called Janissaries (Yengicheri, new soldiers.) These troops continued the firmest and most faithful supporters of the Ottoman throne, and to them he was indebted for many of his most important victories. He was, however, recalled from his European conquests by disturbances in Asia. Aladdin, sultan of Caramania, who had married a daughter of Amurath, and was the most powerful of the Turkish emirs, by his influence with the minor princes of Anatolia, had collected a numerous army, and, taking advantage of the absence of his father-in-law, invaded his dominions. Amurath hastened to repel this aggression. They engaged on the plains of Dorylæum, and, after a wellcontested field, the Caramanians fled, and Aladdin shut himself up in the city of Iconium. At the intercession of his queen, who was dear to her father, Aladdin was again received into favour, and had his kingdom restored to him. In this expedition war was prosecuted with comparative mildness, both parties being Mahomedans; and a proclama tion was issued by Amurath, prohibiting his soldiers, upon pain of death, from using violence towards the peaceable inhabitants, to show to the world that he made war upon his brethren, not for the sake of aggrandizement, but to repel unmerited injury and wrong; and he punished severely some Christian auxiliaries for transgressing his orders. These auxiliaries had been sent by Lazarus, prince of Servia, who, being informed of their treatment, was so offended that he broke off his alliance with the Ottoman, and having formed a confederacy of the neighbouring tribes, appeared at the head of a mighty army, consisting of Bulgarians, Macedonians, Bosnians, Wallachians, Hungarians, &c. Amurath having collected his tributaries, hastened to meet him on the plains of Cassova. The battle was long and doubtful, until the Turks, pretending to give way, threw the Christian ranks into disorder. A dreadful slaughter ensued, when the confederates fled, leaving the field to the victorious Ottomans. Lazarus fell in the engagement; and the triumph of Amurath was but short-lived,

for, while walking over the field of battle and view. ing the heaps of slain, a Servian, starting from the ground, pierced him in the belly with a fatal wound. This prince was fortunate in all his enterprises, and was a more zealous promoter of religion and learning than any of his predecessors. He encouraged an impartial administration of the laws, and submitted to the reprimand of the mufti, who rejected his evidence as unworthy of credit in a court of justice, because he never joined in common prayer with his brother mussulmans. The erection of a spacious mosque at Adrianople was the consequence of this challenge, and as an atonement for his former neglect in this respect. (See AMURATH, Vol. I.)

Bajazet, the son of Amurath, introduced the unnatural and inhuman custom of securing his own elevation by the murder of his brother, an example which has been too invariably followed by his successors. During the whole of his reign, he was incessantly engaged in hostilities alternately in Asia and Europe, and obtained the surname of Ilderim, or lightning, from the energy and rapidity of his movements. Following up the victory of Cassova, he took the cities of Cratova and Widin, and stripped of their hereditary possessions the emirs of Aidin, Sarukham, and Caras. In the same year he overran the whole of Moldavia, and defeated prince Stephen on the banks of the Siret. The fugitive prince was refused admittance into the fortress of Nemza by his own mother, who branded him with cowardice, and exhorted him to return and retrieve his honours. Having collected 12,000 of the dispersed Moldavians, Stephen fell upon the Turkish army while intent on plunder, and routed them with great slaughter. The haughty Bajazet with difficulty escaped with a few followers to Adrianople. More enraged than discouraged by this disaster, he delayed his revenge until his return from Asia, whither he was summoned to quell an inroad of the Caramanians. These he scattered at the first onset; and having put their prince to death, seized his dominions, and thus annexed the whole of Anatolia to the Ottoman sceptre.

On his return to Europe, Bajazet conquered what remained of Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly, and stationed a fleet of gallies at Gallipoli to secure his communication between the two continents, and to intercept the Latin succours to Constantinople, which city he was now resolved to reduce. But the capital was saved by the intelligence that an army of 100,000 Christians, led by Sigismund, king of Hungary, and the bravest knights of France and Germany, had taken Widin and besieged Nicopolis. Bajazet opposed them with 60,000 Turks, when the confederates were almost annihilated, few escaping the Turkish scymitar, and the waters of the Danube. All the prisoners were put to the sword, except the Count of Nevers and four and twenty Lords, who, after a harsh captivity, were released for an exorbitant ransom.

Bajazet returned to the siege of Constantinople, but the fate of this city was once more delayed by the appearance of another conqueror upon the scene

the mighty Timour. The oppressed princes, who had been driven from Anatolia, repaired to the court of Samarcand, and solicited the countenance and assistance of its sovereign in recovering their patrimonial dominions. Timour at first hesitated to interrupt Bajazet in his pious occupation of humbling the Christians, and extending the religion of the prophet; but he at length despatched an ambassador to the court of Brusa, who was instructed to demand the restoration of the exiled emirs, and to offer the robe of vassalage to its monarch, who was exhorted to testify his submission by substituting the name of Timour for his own upon the coinage, and in the public prayers. The haughty Ottoman, who acknowledged no superior, rejected with scorn the degrading compromise, and threw back his defiance in the most insulting terms that his pride and indignation could dictate. Equally confident in their own resources, each prepared for the decisive struggle; but while Bajazet flew with the speed of lightning to satiate his revenge, Timour proceeded with a cautious alacrity, which his opponent compared to the crawling of a snail. The defeat and captivity of Bajazet was achieved on the plains of Angora; but the Ottoman survived his disgrace only nine months. (See BAJAZET, Vol. III.)

Of the five sons of Bajazet, Mustapha was said to have fallen at Angora; Soliman escaped from the field of battle to Adrianople, and preserved the Ottoman sceptre in Europe; Musa was invested by the conqueror in the circumscribed kingdom of Anatolia, with the ruins of Brusa for his capital; Isa held a small territory in the neighbourhood of Angora, Sinope, and the Euxine; and Mahomet kept the government of Amasia, which had been entrusted to him by his father. Eleven years of civil discord, which period in the Turkish annals is considered an interregnum, were consumed by the sons of Bajazet in mutual endeavours to supplant his brothers. Soliman, having driven Musa from his throne, united for a time the governments of Adrianople and Brusa; but he, in his turn, was surprised by Musa in his capital, and, as he fled towards Constantinople, was overtaken and slain. Musa and Isa both fell before the valour and policy of their younger brother, so that the dominions of Bajazat were reunited under the Ottoman sceptre in the hands of Sultan Mahomet.

The labours of this prince were directed chiefly to consolidate his power, and to preserve the tranquillity of his dominions. He maintained inviolate his friendly engagements with the Greek emperor during the whole of his reign; and his treatment of the Christian ambassadors from Servia, Wallachia, Bulgaria and Greece, showed his anxious desire to cultivate a good understanding with his neighbours. They were admitted to eat at his own table; and after being entertained with great kindness and hospitality, he dismissed them, saying, "Tell your masters that I offer them peace, that I accept of that which they offer me, and I hope that the God of peace will punish those who violate it." His last care was to provide two able counsellors, Bajazet and Ibrahim, to guide the youth of his son

Amurath; and he assigned his two younger sons to the guardianship of the emperor Manuel.

Amurath II. was only eighteen years of age when he began to reign; and immediately the peace of the kingdom was disturbed by the pretensions of Mustapha, the eldest son of Bajazet, who was supposed to have been slain in the battle of Angora. This impostor, for so he is termed by the Turks, had appeared in the former reign supported by the prince of Wallachia; but Mahomet having routed the Wallachians, and compelled them to submit to an annual tribute, Mustapha sought refuge in Constantinople. Upon the accession of Amurath, his claim was renewed under the sanction and with the support of the Greek emperor, in revenge for the refusal of the sultan to deliver up his two brothers according to their father's will. The Turks under the vizier Bajazet were routed and their leader slain; and Mustapha enjoyed for a time the throne of Adrianople. There, in possession of the inestimable treasures and harem of Amurath, he abandoned himself to voluptuousness. He was soon, however, roused from his dream of pleasure by the intelligence that Amurath was in the field; and, after a short campaign, Mustapha, deserted by his friends, exchanged a splendid throne for an ignominious gibbet. The Greek emperor raised up another competitor for the Ottomon sceptre in the person of the remaining son of Mahomet, a child only six years old, who had escaped from the hands of Amurath while his brother was murdered, but the gates of Nice, whither he had been conveyed, yielded to the golden key of Amurath, who ordered him to be strangled and his guards slain.

Relieved now from every legitimate rival, and incensed by the encouragement given by the Greeks to the claims of his brother and pretended uncle, Amurath resolved to direct the whole strength of his empire against the capital; but he was continually diverted from his purpose by the rebellions of the Caramanian emirs on the one hand, and the incursions of the Hungarians on the other. The former were easily reduced, but the Hungarians, led by John Huniades, proved a more formidable foe; and Amurath was compelled to retire with disgrace from before Belgrade after a siege of six months, during which he lost many troops, "not only by the plague," says a Greek historian, "but by engines, cast in the form of tubes, which by means of a dust, composed of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal, shot out balls of lead, five or ten together, each as big as a walnut." The resistance of the Hungarians led to a truce of ten years, in which it was stipulated that neither nation should cross the Danube for the purposes of war. Amurath, however, conquered a great part of Greece, took Thessalonica by storm, putting the garrison to the sword, and carrying the inhabitants into captivity; and compelled the emperor to deliver up the cities which he held upon the Black Sea, and become his tributary.

The Ottoman dominions being now in profound peace, Amurath resigned his sceptre into the hands of his son Mahomet, a youth of only fifteen years of age, and retired to Magnesia, a beautiful resi

dence not far from Smyrna. Scarcely, however, had he begun to taste the sweets of retirement, when the restless Caramanians, who had been so often subdued, and as often pardoned, taking advantage of the present juncture, invaded Anatolia. Ladislaus, king of Hungary, also instigated by the pope, and in defiance of a most solemn treaty, passed the Danube with a numerous army composed of various christian nations, and commanded, under the king, by the valiant Huniades. The young sultan, surrounded with enemies, and without experience, yielded to the advice of his counsellors to entreat his father to resume the reins of government, and to defend the throne at this alarming crisis. Amurath reluctantly complied, hastened to Adrianople, and led his troops by forced marches to the shores of the Euxine, where the christian army lay encamped. The battle of Varna deprived Ladislaus of his army and his life, a just retribution, say the Turks, for the violation of his word and oath. The Ottoman monarch shortly after again withdrew from the cares of royalty to his solitude at Magnesia; but the feeble hand of his son was unable to restrain the licentiousness of the janissaries. Adrianople became a prey to domestic faction, and Amurath again resumed the sceptre, which he held until his death. During his latter years he was engaged in constant hostilities with George Castriot, called Scanderbeg by the Turks, the prince of Albania, who had been educated at the court of Adrianople, and had served for many years in the Turkish army; but before the battle of Varna had raised the standard of revolt in his native province, and now commanded the army of the states of Epirus. The valour and experience of Amurath were foiled by the Albanian chief. His mighty army was driven with shame and loss from the walls of Croya, the residence and capital of the Castriots; and for twentythree years Scanderbeg resisted the undivided force of the Ottoman empire. The Hungarians, under Huniades, were again routed with great slaughter on the plains of Cassova; but the reduction of Albania he left as a legacy to his successor, saying with his dying breath, after urging him to the conquest of Epirus, "Wherefore, my son, thou shalt receive from me this sceptre and these royal ensigns; but above all things, I leave unto you this enemy."

Amurath has received encomiums, both from Greek and Turkish historians. He was a just and valiant prince, moderate in victory, and ever ready to grant peace to the vanquished. He was not only learned himself, but a great encourager of learning and science in others. Strictly religious, he was never known to violate his word, and his charity was liberal and extensive. "Every year," says Cantimir, "he gave 1000 pieces of gold to the sons of the prophet, and sent 2500 to the religious persons at Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem."

Mahomet II. commenced his reign with the murder of his two infant brothers; and the first object of his ambition was the capture of Constantinople. That city with its suburbs comprised the dominions of Constantine Palæologus, its reigning empeIts inhabitants were distracted by religious

ror.

divisions. Some were anxious for their union with the Romish church, while others declared that they would rather see the turban of Mahomet in the church of St. Sophia than the pope's cap; and when Constantine sent ambassadors to Rome to demand succours, and complete the union of the two churches, the pope, suspecting his sincerity, refused all assistance. The eastern empire was thus abandoned to its fate, and Christendom beheld its fall with indifference.

The site of the city of Constantinople forms an equilateral triangle, having on the south the sea of Marmora, and on the north-east the gulf of Keras, which forms the port or harbour. On the land side it was defended by a double wall and a ditch 100 feet deep, and 200 wide; and the harbour was secured by a strong chain drawn across from the Fair-gate to Galata, and protected by eight large ships. Had this city been garrisoned according to its capability, it might have defied every attempt for its subjugation; but out of 100,000 inhabitants scarcely 5000 could be found willing to man the ramparts in defence of all that was dear to them. These, with a reinforcement of 2000 Latins under John Justinian, a noble Genoese and a skilful warrior, formed its sole defence against 250,000 Moslems, instigated by religious fanaticism and the hopes of plunder. But the heroic valour of Constantine was worthy the best days of Rome, and though almost hopeless of success, he resolved to die in the cause of religion and honour. Anxious, however, to save the lives of his people, and desirous of peace upon any conditions short of the surrender of his capital, he proposed to pay whatever tribute the Moslem might impose. But Mahomet could too well appreciate the situation of Constantinople as the centre of a mighty empire, and his ambition would be satisfied with nothing less. He offered the Morea as an equivalent to the emperor, and to the people a free toleration or a safe departure. Constantine rejected the degrading compromise, and answered with firm resignation and heroic resolution, "My trust is in God alone; if it should please him to mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change; if he delivers the city into your hands, I submit without a murmur to his holy will. But until the judge of the earth shall pronounce between us, it is my duty to live and die in the defence of my people."

The Turkish army extended from the Propontis to the harbour, and all the genius and valour of Mahomet were employed in the attack; but they were met by the little garrison with equal skill and bravery, and who made such an obstinate resistance that all his efforts on the land side were unavailing. In order, therefore, to make a double attack, and as the barrier to the harbour was impenetrable, he formed the wonderful project of transporting by land his lighter vessels and military stores from the Bosphorus to the higher parts of the harbour. A road was opened behind Galata, through brush-wood and over hills; and seventy gallies, drawn forward by the power of men and pullies, were launched into the shallow waters of the harbour, where the heavy vessels of the Greeks

could offer no molestation. Being thus provided with the means of attack against a more vulnerable part of the city, and having opened several breaches in the wall by his enormous cannon, Mahomet prepared his army for a general assault. He inspired his troops by setting before them the joys of paradise if they fell, and the certainty of plunder if they survived. "The city and its buildings I claim for my own; but I resign to your valour the captives and the spoil; and the intrepid soldier who first ascends the wall, will I reward with the government of the fairest and most wealthy province of my empire." The decisive attack commenced at daybreak on the 29th of May 1543. Mahomet on horseback, and with an iron mace in his hand, encouraged his soldiers to enter the breach, which was bravely defended against fearful odds by the emperor and Justinian. The latter being wounded retired from the fight, and Constantine fell in the breach, covered with heaps of slain. His death spread con. sternation among the Greeks, who fled towards the city, pursued by the victorious Turks, and Constantinople was irretrievably lost to the christians. The sultan, attended by his pachas and guards, passed in triumph through the gate of St. Romanus. The inhabitants were devoted to slavery or ransom, and their treasures became the lawful spoil of the conquerors. All the public buildings were preserved, and the principal churches stripped of their images and ornaments, were transformed into mosques by worship and purifications.

The capture of Constantinople seemed only to whet the appetite of Mahomet for farther dominion, and his ambition grasped at all the territories which formerly owned the first Constantine as their lord. Servia acknowledged his power by an annual tribute; but he was repulsed from Belgrade by John. Huniades, with the discomfiture of his army and the destruction of his fleet. In this engagement Mahomet was severely wounded, and carried for dead into his tent; and Huniades survived his victory only about a month.

The defeat before Belgrade did not check, but only made the Ottoman sultan diverge a little from his course, and he turned his arms towards Greece. Demetrius and Thomas, the surviving brothers of the emperor Constantine, held the sovereignty in the Morea; but partly by force and partly by fraud he extinguished the authority of the Paleologi in that country; and the emperor of Trebisond, overcome with terror, resigned, at the first summons, his capital and kingdom into the hands of Mahomet, for which submission he was rewarded by an untimely death.

In Scanderbeg however, the hated enemy of his house, Mahomet found a foe whom neither promises nor threats could detach from his love of national independence, and whose undaunted valour and military skill have stamped him as one of the greatest champions of his time. Year after year the Turkish armies were routed and dispersed in the mountains of Albania. Baffled in every attempt to overcome his enemy by force, Mahomet endeavoured to get rid of Scanderbeg by assassination. This design however, having also failed, he marched in VOL. XVIII. PART I.

person into Albania, and invested Croya with 200,000 men; but fearing to be disgraced before it as his father Amurath had been, he left Balbanus, one of his pachas, with 80,000 men, to prosecute the siege, and returned to Constantinople. In a sally of the garrison, Balbanus was shot through the neck, which so discouraged the Turks that they deserted their camp, and were afterwards routed with great slaughter. In the following spring Mahomet made a similar but equally fruitless attempt at the subjugation of Croya, but had scarcely reach. ed Constantinople when he received the welcome intelligence of the death of the Albanian prince, who had been carried off by a fever at Lyssa, in the 63d year of his age. So great was the dread with which Scanderbeg had inspired the Turks, that upon the taking of Lyssa about nine years after, his remains were dug up, and happy was the Turkish soldier who could procure a fragment of his bones, which being set in gold or silver, was worn as an amulet, with the superstitious impression that the wearer would inherit the good fortune of its former

owner.

Mahomet being now freed from his most formidable foe, overran Epirus and Albania; took from the Venetians the city of Negropont, then the strongest walled town in Europe; wrested the Crimea from the Genoese, and at last invaded Italy, and captured the city of Otranto, which he strongly fortified and victualled for eighteen months, with the intention of prosecuting his conquests in that country. But Italy was saved by the death of Mahomet, who was carried off by a violent fit of the gout, while leading his forces against the king of Persia.

His

This sultan is renowned for his military talents, and was fortunate in most of his enterprises. dominion extended over all the provinces which formed the eastern division of the Roman empire in Europe; over the whole of Asia as far as Mount Taurus, and his authority was acknowledged by the Tartars on the north of the Euxine from the Dneister to the Cuban. He received the surname of fatih or vanquisher, having subdued, according to the Turkish historians, two empires, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred fortified cities. He was also accomplished in all the learning of his age, and such was his love of justice that he ordered his oldest son Mustapha to be strangled for ravishing the wife of one of his pachas. He was, however, ambitious, implacable, and a dissembler, and endeavoured by every means to perpetuate in the hearts of his subjects a national and religious antipathy to the christians.

BAJAZET II. was projecting a pilgrimage to Mecca when he received intelligence of his advancement to the throne. His piety however was proof against the suggestions of worldly policy, and he declared that he would rather forfeit the empire of the whole world than leave his vows unperformed. But he recommended his son Korkud as his substitute until his return, which happened about nine months after, when Korkud dutifully resigned the sceptre, and while he led Bajazet to the throne, thus addressed the chief officers of state: "This is indeed

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