Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659Naima, Mustafa
History
Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659
Naima, Mustafa
Turkey -- History -- 1453-1683
The Waiwoda of Moldavia having marched against Bender, attacked the
emír of that place, and afterwards laid siege to Ak-kirman. But
before the Waiwoda had succeeded in reducing it, he was repulsed by
Adel Gheráí, sent thither with a body of Tátárs by Ghází Khán. The
firmness of the besiegers, on the approach of this horde, was turned
into feebleness. Some of them were killed, some fled, some were made
prisoners, and the whole body was dispersed.
The accursed Waiwoda of Valachia, Michael, formerly mentioned, sent
a body of troops to Ibrail, to distress and reduce that place. The
inhabitants in the villages and suburbs, on the approach of these
barbarians, fled into the fortress, leaving their dwellings to the
rapacity of their invaders, who first subjected them to spoliation, and
afterwards set fire to them. Having accomplished this, they erected
fortifications against the fortress; but a body of about four thousand
Tátárs crossed over the Danube on the ice, destroyed wholly these
fortifications, and slew about one thousand of the Valachian army,
or rather insurgents. These wandering insurgents, amounting to about
twenty thousand naked wretches, collected chiefly out of Hungary,
Transylvania, and Valachia, returned again to lay siege to Ibrail, and
were accompanied by a number of field-pieces. The inhabitants, anxious
to oppose them, went forth to give them battle, but being overpowered
by numbers they returned to the fortress and annoyed them from thence.
In consequence of the ice on the Danube having all melted before this
second visit to Ibrail, and it being impossible to obtain aid from the
Tátárs in sufficient time to stop the progress of these infidels, they
commenced, without further resistance, to batter the fortress and to
explode mines, which so alarmed the besieged, seeing their condition
was desperate, as to lead them to propose a capitulation. Accordingly,
Karah Shawesh Mohammed Beg and Mustafa Shawesh stepped out and met the
Hungarian chiefs, who, according to their religion, swore solemnly that
they should all be allowed to evacuate Ibrail, and retire across the
Danube without molestation or sustaining any injury.
When these followers of Mohammed were on the eve of crossing the
Danube, according to the terms of capitulation, they found themselves
necessitated to leave behind them the greater part of their
property—about one thousand loads, which caused a great out-cry. They
determined, therefore, to take all, and made an effort to remove what
was left; but the perfidious enemy opposed them. They surrounded the
complainants, seized some of the most distinguished Moslems amongst
them, and made them prisoners: others of them they entirely robbed, and
others they murdered on the spot.
When this violence and perfidy was remonstrated against by Karah
Shawesh Beg, the Hungarian chiefs answered by displaying their naked
swords, murdering a number more in cold blood, and driving the
remainder across the Danube.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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