castle, in Asiatic warfare, was esteemed impregnable; and the city of Amasia,* which is equally divided by the river Iris, rises on either side in the form of an amphitheatre, and represents on a smaller scale the image of Bagdad. In his rapid career, Timour appears to have overlooked this obscure and contumacious angle of Anatolia; and Mahomet, without provoking the conqueror, maintained his silent independence, and chased from the province the last stragglers of the Tartar host. He relieved himself from the dangerous neighbourhood of Isa; but in the contests of their more powerful brethren, his firm neutrality was respected; till, after the triumph of Mousa, he stood forth the heir and avenger of the unfortunate Soliman. Mahomet, obtained Anatolia by treaty, and Romania by arms; and the soldier who presented him with the head of Mousa, was rewarded as the benefactor of his king and country. The eight years of his sole and peaceful reign were usefully employed in banishing the vices of civil discord, and restoring on a firmer basis the fabric of the Ottoman nonarchy. His last care was the choice of two vizirs, Bajazet and Ibrahim,t who might guide the youth of his son Amurath; and such was their union and prudence, that they concealed above forty days the emperor's death, till the arrival of his successor in the palace of Boursa. A new war was kindled in Europe by the prince, or impostor, Mustapha; the first vizir lost his army and his head; but the more fortunate Ibrahim, whose name and family are still revered, extinguished the last pretender to the throne of Bajazet, and closed the scene of domestic hostility.

In these conflicts, the wisest Turks, and indeed the body of the nation, were strongly attached to the unity of the empire; and Romania and Anatolia, so often torn asunder by private ambition, were animated by a strong and invincible tendency of cohesion. Their efforts might have instructed the Christian powers; and had they occupied with a confederate fleet the straits of Gallipoli, the Ottomans, at least in Europe, must have been speedily annihilated. But

* Arabshah, loc. citat. Abulfeda, Geograph. tab. xvii. p. 302. Busbequius, epist. 1, p. 96, 97, in Itinere C. P. et Amasiano.

The virtues of Ibrahim are praised by a contemporary Greek. (Ducas, c. 25.) His descendants are the sole nobles in Turkey: they content themselves with the administration of his pious foundations,

the schism of the West, and the factions and wars of France and England, diverted the Latins from this generous enterprise; they enjoyed the present respite without a thought of futurity; and were often tempted by a momentary interest to serve the common enemy of their religion. A colony of Genoese,* which had been planted at Phocæa,t on the Ionian coast, was enriched by the lucrative monopoly of alum; and their tranquillity under the Turkish empire

are excused from public offices, and receive two annual visits from the sultan. (Cantemir, p. 76.) *See Pachymer (l. 5, c. 29), Nicephorus Gregoras (1. 2, c. 1), Sherefeddin (1. 5, c. 57), and Ducas (c. 25). The last of these, a curious and careful observer, is entitled, from his birth and station, to particular credit in all that concerns Ionia and the islands. Among the nations that resorted to New Phocæa, he mentions the English ('Iyyλñvo); an early evidence of Mediterranean trade. For the spirit of navigation,

and freedom of ancient Phocæa, or rather of the Phocæans, consult the first book of Herodotus, and the Geographical Index of his last and learned French traslator, M. Larcher (tom. vii. p. 299). [Consult also Clinton (F. H. i. 119. 228. 234). The most flourishing period of the Phocæans was from 575 to 532 B.C. when they held the empire of the sea. Their colonies are the best evidence of their commercial activity, and among them we find the important ports of Heraclea in Pontus and Marseilles.-ED.] Phocæa is not enumerated by Pliny (Hist. Nat. 35. 52) among the places productive of alum: he reckons Egypt as the first, and for the second the isle of Melos, whose alum mines are described by Tournefort (tom. i. lettre 4), a traveller and a naturalist. After the loss of Phocæa, the Genoese, in 1459, found that useful mineral in the isle of Ischia. (Ismael Bouillaud, ad Ducam, c. 25.) [The alumen of Pliny and the ancients was what we now call vitriol. The art of preparing our present alum was not discovered till the twelfth century, and according to some, at Edessa. The commercial transactions of the Genoese in the East brought it under their notice, and they made it for themselves, first at Phocæa, near the mouth of the Hermus, now Focchia Vecchia (Chishull's Travels, p. 32), or Fokia (Malte Brun and Balbi, p. 647), then in the vicinity of Pera, and in 1459 on the island of Enaria or Ischia. John di Castriot, who had been acquainted with the process during his residence at Constantinople, after the fall of that city, took refuge at Rome, and urged Pius II. to establish alum-works at Tolfa, near Civita Vecchia. These produced so large a revenue, that Julius III., Paul III, and IV. and Gregory XII. placed their alum on a level with their doctrine, and guarded both alike by bulls and excommunications. In 1608, the pale verdure of vegetation about Whitby and Guisborough in Yorkshire, betrayed the presence of the rock to Sir Thomas Chaloner, the tutor of Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. He allured Italian workmen, and in defiance of the most virulent papal fulminations, succeeded in making alum to such an extent, that the

was secured by the annual payment of tribute. In the last civil war of the Ottomans, the Genoese governor Adorno, a bold and ambitious youth, embraced the party of Amurath, and undertook, with seven stout galleys, to transport him from Asia to Europe. The sultan and five hundred guards embarked on board the admiral's ship, which was manned by eight hundred of the bravest Franks. His life and liberty were in their hands; nor can we, without reluctance, applaud the fidelity of Adorno, who, in the midst of the passage, knelt before him, and gratefully accepted a discharge of his arrears of tribute. They landed in sight of Mustapha and Gallipoli; two thousand Italians, armed with lances and battle-axes, attended Amurath to the conquest of Adrianople; and this venal service was soon repaid by the ruin of the commerce and colony of Phocæa.

If Timour had generously marched at the request, and to the relief, of the Greek emperor, he might be entitled to the praise and gratitude of the Christians.* But a Mussulman, who carried into Georgia the sword of persecution, and respected the holy warfare of Bajazet, was not disposed to pity or succour the idolaters of Europe. The Tartar followed the impulse of ambition; and the deliverance of Constantinople was the accidental consequence. When Manuel abdicated the government, it was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the ruin of the church and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days; and after his return from a western pilgrimage, he expected every hour the news of the sad catastrophe. On a sudden, he was astonished and rejoiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the overthrow, and the captivity, of the Ottoman. Manuelt.

produce of that district soon amounted to six thousand tons in the year. Beckmann, History of Inventions, (Bohn) i. 180. Gough's Camden, iii. 81.-ED.] * The writer who has the most abused this fabulous generosity, is our ingenious Sir William Temple (his works, vol. iii. p. 349, 350, octavo edition), that lover of exotic virtue. After the conquest of Russia, &c. and the passage of the Danube, his Tartar hero relieves, visits, admires, and refuses the city of Constantine. His flattering pencil deviates in every line from the truth of history; yet his pleasing fictions are more excusable than the gross errors of Cantemir. For the reigns of Manuel and John, of Mahomet I. and Amurath II. see the Othman history of Cantemir (p. 70-95), and the three Greeks, Chalcocondylas, Phranza, and Ducas, who is still superior to his rivals.

immediately sailed from Modon in the Morea; ascended the throne of Constantinople; and dismissed his blind competitor to an easy exile in the isle of Lesbos. The ambassadors of the son of Bajazet were soon introduced to his presence; but their pride was fallen, their tone was modest; they were awed by the just apprehension, lest the Greeks should open to the Moguls the gates of Europe. Soliman saluted the emperor by the name of father; solicited at his hands the government or gift of Romania; and promised to deserve his favour by inviolable friendship, and the restitution of Thessalonica, with the most important places along the Strymon, the Propontis, and the Black Sea. The alliance of Soliman exposed the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Mousa; the Turks appeared in arms before the gates of Constantinople; but they were repulsed by sea and land; and unless the city was guarded by some foreign mercenaries, the Greeks must have wondered at their own triumph. But, instead of prolonging the division of the Ottoman powers, the policy or passion of Manuel was tempted to assist the most formidable of the sons of Bajazet. He concluded a treaty with Mahomet, whose progress was checked by the insuperable barrier of Gallipoli; the sultan and his troops were transported over the Bosphorus; he was hospitably entertained in the capital; and his successful sally was the first step to the conquest of Romania. The ruin was suspended by the prudence and moderation of the conqueror; he faithfully discharged his own obligations and those of Soliman, respected the laws of gratitude and peace; and left the emperor guardian of his two younger sons, in the vain hope of saving them from the jealous cruelty of their brother Amurath. But the execution of his last testament would have offended the national honour and religion; and the divan unanimously pronounced, that the royal youths should never be abandoned to the custody and education of a Christian dog. On this refusal, the Byzantine councils were divided; but the age and caution of Manuel yielded to the presumption of his son John; and they unsheathed a dangerous weapon of revenge, by dismissing the true or false Mustapha, who had long been detained as a captive and hostage, and for whose maintenance they received an annual pension of three hundred

*

thousand aspers. At the door of his prison, Mustapha subscribed to every proposal; and the keys of Gallipoli, or rather of Europe, were stipulated as the price of his deliverance. But no sooner was he seated on the throne of Romania, than he dismissed the Greek ambassadors with a smile of contempt, declaring, in a pious tone, that, at the day of judgment, he would rather answer for the violation of an oath, than for the surrender of a Mussulman.city into the hands of the infidels. The emperor was at once the enemy of the two rivals, from whom he had sustained, and to whom he had offered, an injury; and the victory of Amurath was followed, in the ensuing spring, by the siege of Constantinople.t

The religious merit of subduing the city of the Cæsars attracted from Asia a crowd of volunteers, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom; their military ardour was inflamed by the promise of rich spoils and beautiful females; and the sultan's ambition was consecrated by the presence and prediction of Seid Bechar, a descendant of the prophet,‡

* The Turkish asper (from the Greek άσπρòç) is, or was, a piece of white or silver money, at present much debased, but which was formerly equivalent to the fifty-fourth part, at least, of a Venetian ducat or sequin; and the three hundred thousand aspers, a princely allowance or royal tribute, may be computed at two thousand five hundred pounds sterling. (Leunclav. Pandect. Turc. p. 406-408.) [It is very difficult to ascertain the value of money at this period. The pension allowed to Mustapha cannot have been equal to the tribute paid by Manuel to the sultan, which, as will be seen in the next page, was also 300,000 aspers. According to Finlay (ii. 613, note) the last were a larger coin, ten of which are said by Ducas to have made a gold byzant. But the genuine money of this last denomination, or perpers (see note, p. 29) were worth much more than the debased current coin. If the data be correct, which are afforded by Finlay in the above cited note, and in another at p. 494 of the same volume, the pension amounted to 13,500l., and the tribute to 93,750l, sums which appear to be probable.-ED.]

For the siege of Constantinople in 1422, see the particular and contemporary narrative of John Cananus, published by Leo Allatius, at the end of his edition of Acropolita (p. 188-199). [Gibbon's statement of two hundred thousand men having been employed in this siege, appears to be an exaggeration. According to Von Hammer (Geschichte der Osmanen, ii. 235), the number was only twenty thousand.-ED.]

Cantemir, p. 80. Cananus, who describes Seid Bechar without naming him, supposes that the friend of Mahomet assumed in his