the trenches before Baghdád, but it being the middle of winter, he was obliged to raise the siege and to retreat to Hella and Mosúl. He was then deposed, and his office was given a second time to Háfiz Ahmed Páshá, whilst he himself was executed at Tokút. Rajab Páshá was made grand vezír; and the defterdár Mustafá Páshá was hanged with his head downwards in the At-maidán. Háfiz Ahmed Páshá was stabbed in the Sultán’s presence, and cut to pieces. The Aghá of the Janissaries, Hasan Khalifeh, and Músá Chelebí the emperor’s favourite, were both put to death. Yassí Mohammed Páshá was created a vezír in 1041 (1631). Sultán Murád had a dream in which he received a sword from the hand of Omar, with which he slew the Shaikh al Islám Husain, and then with a bismillah (in the name of God) fell upon the rebels and killed them all. In 1044 Sultán Murád marched to Eriván, and took Tabríz and the town of Eriván in seven days; he left Murtezá Páshá with a garrison of 40,000 men, and returned to Islámbol. His entrance was celebrated in 1045 (1634) by a festival of seven days. The ill-favoured Sháh (of Persia) however returned and laid siege to Eriván, which being left without sufficient strength, after a siege of seven months fell into the hands of the infidels, who put the whole of the garrison to the sword. Sultán Murád, on receiving the melancholy news, took the seals from Mohammed Páshá and appointed him governor of Silistria. The seals were transferred to Bairám Páshá, who however died soon after, and was succeeded by Tayyár Páshá. To him was entrusted all the necessary preparations for the expedition against Baghdád, which was undertaken by the emperor in person. Tayyár Páshá was killed during the siege, which lasted forty days. He was succeeded by the Kapúdán Kara Mustafá Páshá. Melek Ahmed Páshá, late salihdár, or sword-bearer of the Sultán, was appointed to the command of Díárbekr, and Kúchúk Hasan Páshá to that of Baghdád, with a garrison of 40,000 men. By the decree of God, when after the fall of Baghdád a great number of Kizilbáshes (red-heads or Persians) had assembled and were preparing to make an attack at one of the gates, a large powder magazine exploded, and thus the blood of the true believers which had been shed at Eriván was fully avenged. Kara Mustafá Páshá the grand vezír, and my lord Melek Ahmed Páshá, were sent to Derneh and Derteng, to conclude the treaty with the Persians, and to fix the boundary lines. Sultán Murád Khán, next went to Díárbekr, where in one day he put to death the daughter of Kímájí Ma’án Oghlí, and the Shaikh of Rúmieh. He then returned to the Porte of Felicity (Constantinople), on which occasion seven days were spent in general festivity. About this time Sultán Murád, having repented of his wine-drinking propensity, by way of expiation, resolved upon an expedition against the infidels of Malta, and ordered five hundred galleys, two large máonas, and one admiral’s ship (báshtirda) to be built.