LXIV.

CHAP. fought in perfon fourteen battles; and fuch was his activity, that he led his cavalry in feventeen days from Teflis to Kerman, a march of a thoufand miles. Yet he was oppreffed by the jealousy of the Moslem princes, and the innumerable armies of the Moguls; and after his last defeat, Gelaleddin perifhed ignobly in the mountains of Curdiftan. His death diffolved a veteran and adventurous army, which included under the name of Carizmians or Corafmins many Turkman. hords, that had attached themfelves to the fultan's fortune. The bolder and more powerful chiefs invaded Syria, and violated the holy fepulchre of Jerufalem: the more humble engaged in the fervice of Aladin, fultan of Iconium; and among thefe were the obfcure fathers of the Ottoman line. They had formerly pitched their tents near the fouthern banks of the Oxus, in the plains of Mahan and Nefa; and it is fomewhat remarkable, that the fame fpot should have produced the first authors of the Parthian and Turkish empires. At the head, or in the rear, of a Carizmian army, Soliman Shah was drowned in the paffage of the Euphrates his fon Orthogrul became the foldier and fubject of Aladin, and established at Surgut, on the banks of the Sangar, a camp of four hundred families or tents, whom he governed fiftyReign of two years both in peace and war. He was the Othman, father of Thaman, or Athman, whofe Turkish name has been melted into the appellation of the caliph Othman; and if we defcribe that paftoral chief as a fhepherd and a robber, we must feparate from those characters all idea of ignominy

A. D.

1299 1326.

LXIV.

and bafenefs. Othman poffeffed, and perhaps CHAP. furpaffed, the ordinary virtues of a foldier; and the circumstances of time and place were propitious to his independence and fuccefs. The Seljukian dynasty was no more; and the distance and decline of the Mogul khans foon enfranchised him from the control of a fuperior. He was fituate on the verge of the Greek empire: the Koran fanctified his gazi, or holy war, against the infidels; and their political errors unlocked the paffes of mount Olympus, and invited him to defcend into the plains of Bithynia. Till the reign of Palæologus, these passes had been vigilantly guarded by the militia of the country, who were repaid by their own safety and an exemption from taxes. The emperor abolished their privilege and affumed their office; but the tribute was rigorously collected, the custody of the passes was neglected, and the hardy mountaineers degenerated into a trembling crowd of peafants without fpirit or difcipline. It was on the twentyfeventh of July, in the year twelve hundred and ninety-nine of the Chriftian æra, that Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia *°; and the fingular accuracy of the date feems to difclofe fome forefight of the rapid and destructive growth of the monster. The annals of the twenty-feven years of his reign would exhibit a repetition of the fame inroads; and his hereditary troops were

40

40 See Pachymer, l. x. c. 25, 26. 1. xiii. c. 33, 34. 36.; and concerning the guard of the mountains, 1. i. c. 3-6.: Nicephorus Gregoras, 1. vii. c. 1. and the ist book of Laonicus Chalcondyles, the Athenian.

VOL. XI.

Ff

multiplied

CHAP. multiplied in each campaign by the acceffion of LXIV. captives and volunteers. Instead of retreating to

Reign of

Orchan,

the hills, he maintained the most useful and defenfible posts; fortified the towns and caftles which he had firft pillaged; and renounced the paftoral life for the baths and palaces of his infant capitals. But it was not till Othman was oppreffed by age and infirmities, that he received the welcome news of the conqueft of Prufa, which had been furrendered by famine or treachery to the arms of his fon Orchan. The glory of Othman is chiefly founded on that of his defcendants; but the Turks have tranfcribed or compofed a royal teftament of his laft counfels of justice and moderation “1.

From the conqueft of Prufa, we may date the true æra of the Ottoman empire. The lives and

41 I am ignorant whether the Turks have any writers older than Mahomet II. nor can I reach beyond a meagre chronicle · (Annales Turcici ad Annum 1550), tranflated by John Gaudier, and published by Leunclavius (ad calcem Laonic. Chalcond. p. 11-350.), with copious pandects, or commentaries. The Hiftory of the Growth and Decay (A. D. 1300—1683) of the Othman empire, was tranflated into English from the Latin MS. of Demetrius Cantemir, prince of Moldavia (London, 1734, in folio). The author is guilty of ftrange blunders in Oriental Hiftory; but he was conversant with the language, the annals, and inftitutions of the Turks. Cantemir partly draws his materials from the Synopfis of Saadi Effendi of Lariffa, dedicated in the year 1696 to fultan Mustapha, and a valuable abridgment of the original hiftorians. In one of the Ramblers, Dr. Johnson praises Knolles (a General History of the Turks to the prefent year. London, 1603) as the first of historians, unhappy only in the choice of his fubject. · Yet I much doubt whether a partial and verbofe compilation from Latin writers, thirteen hundred folio pages of fpeeches and battles, can either inftruct or amuse an enlightened age, which requires from the hiftorian fome tincture of philofophy and criticism.

poffeffions

LXIV.

A D. 1369.

1326

poffeffions of the Chriftian fubjects were redeemed CHAP. by a tribute or ranfom of thirty thousand crowns of gold; and the city, by the labours of Orchan, affumed the aspect of a Mahometan capital; Prufa was decorated with a mofch, a college, and an hospital, of royal foundation; the Seljukian coin was changed for the name and impreffion of the new dynasty: and the most skilful profeffors, of human and divine knowledge, attracted the Perfian and Arabian ftudents from the ancient fchools of Oriental learning. The office of vizir was inftituted for Aladin, the brother of Orchan; and a different habit diftinguished the citizens from the peasants, the Moflems from the infidels. All the troops of Othman had confifted of loofe fquadrons of Turkman cavalry; who ferved without pay and fought without difcipline: but a regular body of infantry was firft eftablished and trained by the prudence of his fon. A great

number of volunteers was enrolled with a fmall ftipend, but with the permiffion of living at home, unless they were fummoned to the field: their rude manners, and feditious temper, difpofed Orchan to educate his young captives as his foldiers and those of the prophet; but the Turkish peafants were ftill allowed to mount on horfeback, and follow his ftandard, with the appellation and the hopes of freebooters. By thefe arts he formed an army of twenty-five thoufand Moflems a train of battering engines was framed for the ufe of fieges; and the firft fuccefsful ex- His cons periment was made on the cities of Nice and qft of Bithynia, Nicomedia. Orchan granted a fafe conduct to A. D. all who were defirous of departing with their

1326

1339.

LXIV.

CHA P. families and effects; but the widows of the flain were given in marriage to the conquerors; and the facrilegious plunder, the books, the vafes, and the images, were fold or ransomed at Conftantinople. The emperor Andronicus the younger was vanquished and wounded by the fon of Othman 42: he fubdued the whole province or kingdom of Bithynia, as far as the fhores of the Bofphorus and Hellefpont; and the Chriftians confeffed the justice and clemency of a reign, which claimed the voluntary attachment of the Turks of Afia. Yet Orchan was content with the modeft title of emir; and in the lift of his compeers, the princes of Roum or Anatolia +3, his military forces were furpaffed by the emirs of mong the Ghermian and Caramania, each of whom could bring into the field an army of forty thousand Their dominions were fituate in the heart of the Seljukian kingdom: but the holy warriors, though of inferior note, who formed new principalities on the Greek empire, are more confpicuous in the light of history. light of history. The maritime country from the Propontis to the Mæander and the isle of Rhodes, fo long threatened and fo often pillaged, was finally loft about the thirtieth

Divifion of Anatolia a

Turkish

1

emirs, A. D. 1300, &c.

men.

43

42 Cantacuzene, though he relates the battle and heroic flight of the younger Andronicus (1. ii. c. 6, 7, 8.), diffembles by his filence the lofs of Prufa, Nice, and Nicomedia, which are fairly confessed by Nicephorus Gregoras (1. viii. 15. ix. 9. 13. xi. 6.). It appears that Nice was taken by Orchan in 1330, and Nicomedia in 1339, which are fomewhat different from the Turkish dates.

43 The partition of the Turkish emirs is extracted from two contemporaries, the Greek Nicephorus Gregoras (1. vii. 1.) and the Arabian Marakeschi (de Guignes, tom. ii. P. ii. p. 76, 77.). See likewife the first book of Laonicus Chalcondyles.

year