Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Seventeenth Century, Vol. IEvliya Çelebi
History
Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the Seventeenth Century, Vol. I
Evliya Çelebi
Caucasus, South -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Turkey -- History
Ja’fer Páshá resigned the office of Bostánjí Báshí for that of Kapúdán
Páshá in 1043 (1633). He spread terror amongst the infidels. That same
year, on the Feast of Victims, he met three English men-of-war in the
Mediterranean, between the castles of Kesendreh and Kolúz. The English
being fire-worshippers, according to the sacred text, “They were burnt
and the men drowned;” they set fire to two of the vessels. The third,
with two hundred guns, was taken before they could set fire to it, and
was brought with immense booty to Sultán Murád.
After Ja’fer Páshá, Delí Husain Páshá was made Kapúdán Páshá, in which
capacity he took the field against Eriván. He was afterwards appointed
governor of Egypt.
His successor was Kara Mustafá Páshá, an Albanian by birth, and
educated a Janissary. During the siege of Baghdád, he was the deputy
of Píáleh at the Ters-kháneh (arsenal), and cruised in the Black Sea
with two hundred ships of the imperial fleet. In this expedition he
encountered two hundred Cossack boats, of which he captured seventy,
with the hetman. The rest made their escape during the night, and
secured themselves, in the reeds and marshes of the river Kúbán.
Píáleh Páshá pursued them, and closed the entrance of the river; but
the infidels carried their boats overland, whilst Píáleh waited for
their appearance in vain. At last he was informed by Khoajeh Kana’án
Páshá, the governor of Oczakov, and by the khán of the Tátárs, of the
scheme of the infidels; upon which he weighed anchor, came round to
the island of Tamán, and shut up the channel by which the Cossacks had
intended making their escape. Being now surrounded on land by Khoajeh
Páshá, and the Tátár Khán, the Cossacks made a camp with their boats
in the mouth of the river, and defended themselves for seven days and
nights. This battle is even now memorable by the name of Adakhún.
Finally, not one of their boats escaped, but they were all carried
in triumph to Constantinople, with the crosses of their flags turned
downwards, and the whole fleet anchored opposite the arsenal. The news
of this victory gave fresh courage to the troops engaged at the siege
of Baghdád.
The other Kapúdán Páshás were, Salihdár Mustafá Páshá, and Síávush
Páshá. The latter was an Abází by birth, and being a man of the
strictest honour, he was disliked by the people of the arsenal, and was
consequently dismissed from office.
_The Muftís and Ulemá during the Reign of Sultán Murád._
Yehiyá, the son of Zekeríá, was Sheikh al Islám when Sultán Murád
ascended the throne; in the year 1034, he was succeeded by Khoajeh
Zádeh Isa’d Efendí, and in 1041 by Husain Efendí, who was slain in the
rebellion and thrown into the sea. Yehiyá was then made Sheikh al Islám
a third time. I was then the first Mu’azzin at the mosque of the eunuch
Mohammed Aghá, when he appointed me his reader of the Na’át, in which
capacity I attended him every Friday.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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