Internal troubles in Asia Minor, defeats in Hungary, and a long, troublesome war with the Sultan of Egypt brought the warlike enterprises of Bajesid to an end. The Sultan’s sons through their dissensions darkened the close of his reign; all three rebelled. Of the three, the most successful in opposing his father’s power was Selim, who won the Janitschars over to his side, and through their interference was able to enter Constantinople in triumph, and there enforce his own conditions. Bajesid first offered large sums if Selim would withdraw to the Asiatic province, of which he was governor; finally he consented to accept him as heir and co-regent on the throne; but Selim had secured the influence of the troops, and they demanded the Sultan’s immediate abdication. Bajesid was obliged to accede to their request, and only asked that he might be allowed to withdraw to die at Demotica, the place where he was born. The third day after his abdication he died. Because of its suddenness, his death, as was so often the case in those days, was said to be due to poison. Selim’s path after his accession was anything but smooth; the troops were not amenable to discipline, and there were a host of brothers and nephews, who were in no mood to accept him as their lord. Besides his own son, Souliman, there were ten princes who stood near the throne. All were taken and murdered. Though Selim affected to explain their executions as due to reasons of state, his acts were severely judged by his contemporaries. The Turks called him “The Inflexible,” while in the West he was entitled “The Savage.” Foscolo, the Venetian, described him as the cruelest of men, “a man who dreams only of conquests and wars.” He was a well-educated man who favored the pursuit of literature, and it was said that the only individual who was ever able to induce him to revoke a death sentence was the grand mufti, Ali Djemali. His viziers felt the implacable nature of their master; seven of them were executed, for whenever the soldiers were restless the vizier was made a victim of the Sultan’s discontent. According to an old report one of them only agreed to accept the dangerous office after Selim had beaten him with his own hands. Intractable at home, Selim, so far as Europe was concerned, proved a pacific prince, his name being recorded only in connection with one expedition against the Christians. His Christian vassals, too, were left undisturbed; all that he exacted from them was the payment of a regular tribute. To the Moslem dissenters in Persia of the Shiite sect, he showed himself an implacable persecutor, all the more because his animosity was excited by the encouragement given to his rebellious brother Ahmed and his three sons by Ismail, the master of Persia. Ismail also negotiated an alliance with the Sultan of Egypt against the Osmanlis. Selim began in his own provinces by organizing a systematic massacre of the schismatics. Then followed a holy war against the Shah, in 1513, in