The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire (20 page)

As he found that the country around Nikopolis and Vidin was healthful and had a good climate, he spent the entire autumn there. But after a short time he learned that the disease was diminishing and that the City was free of it, for he had frequent couriers, nearly every day, traveling by swift relays, and reporting on conditions in the City. So at the beginning of winter he went to Byzantium. So closed the 6975th year in all [AD 1467], which was the seventeenth year of the reign of the Sultan.

Mehmet then focused his attention on Anatolia, which he had neglected during his year of inactivity and in the two years following because of his Albanian wars. The political situation in Anatolia had been destabilised since the death on 4 August 1464 of Mehmet’s vassal, Ibrahim Bey of Karaman. Ibrahim had left seven sons, the eldest of whom, Ishak, was the child of a slave woman, while the other six - Pir Ahmet, Kasım, Karaman, Nure Sufi, Alaeddin and Süleyman - were children of Sultan Hatun, a sister of Murat II, and thus cousins of Sultan Mehmet. Ishak had always been the favourite of Ibrahim, who in his latter days conferred upon him the town of Silifke, on the Mediterranean coast. Ibrahim’s six other sons were enraged by this and besieged their father in his capital at Konya. Ibrahim managed to escape to the mountain fortress of Kevele, south of Akşehir, where he died soon afterwards.

Pir Ahmet, the oldest of Ibrahim’s six sons by Sultan Hatun, took possession of Konya and the northern part of Karaman, the richest and most fertile part of the emirate. Two of his brothers - Süleyman and Nure Sufi, appealed to their cousin Sultan Mehmet, who gave them fiefs within Ottoman territory in central Anatolia. A third brother - Kasım - fled first to Syria and then to Cairo, where he was given refuge by the Mamluk sultan Koshkadem.

Ishak entered into negotiation with the Akkoyunlu chieftain Uzun Hasan, who gave him funds and troops to support him against Pir Ahmet. The Egyptian chronicler Ibn Taghriberdi gives a summary of this campaign, in which both Ishak and Uzun Hasan apparently recognised the sovereignity of the Mamluk sultan over Karaman.

Hasan Beg went with his troops from Diyarbakır to the land of Karaman to assist Ishak of Karaman in fighting his brothers. Together with Ishak, he fought the aforementioned until he had defeated them and driven them from Karaman, and pursued them to the sea-coast. He seized their goods and provisions, and took back from them Kayseri, Akşehir, Develi, Beyşehir, Konya and Aksaray, and delivered these cities to emir Ishak.

Ishak then sent an envoy to Istanbul to seek the support of Mehmet, who rejected his request and sent an army against him under Hamza Bey. Hamza Bey, accompanied by Pir Ahmet, defeated Ishak’s forces in a battle near Mut, in southern Karaman. Ishak was forced to take refuge with Uzun Hasan, leaving his wife and children behind in Silifke. Pir Ahmet gave Silifke to the young son of Ishak, while he added the rest of his half-brother’s territory to his own realm except for the towns of Akşehir and Beyşehir, which he handed over to his cousin Mehmet, acknowledging his status as the sultan’s vassal. Meanwhile, Ishak died in Diyarbakır in August 1465, so that Uzun Hasan no longer had a stake in the sovereignity of Karaman.

During the winter of 1467-8 there were two successive usurpations in the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt. The second of these regime changes brought to power Kaitbey, who proved to be one of the greatest of all the Mamluk sultans. The instability in Egypt prompted Mehmet to launch a campaign against the Mamluks in the spring of 1468. Pir Ahmet was supposed to join the expedition as an Ottoman vassal, but he reneged, and so Mehmet attacked him instead of proceeding against the Mamluks. Tursun Beg describes the campaign.

The Ottoman troops overran Karaman, and Pir Ahmed fled to Taş-Ili. The Sultan took Kevele, Konya, the capital of the Karamanids, and Larende, and gave the responsibility for the administration of the province to Prince Mustafa. When the Sultan reached Kara-Hisar on his way back to Istanbul he dismissed Grand Vezir Mahmud Pasha. The ostensible reason for his dismissal was that Mahmud had pledged for Pir Ahmed’s loyalty, assuaging the Sultan’s doubts that Pir Ahmed would be present for service. This affair took place in the year 872 [1467-8]. In the spring of 873 [1469], the Sultan remained in Istanbul and sent an army into Karaman to clean up the rebels.

Other Turkish sources say that when Mahmut Pasha was dismissed as grand vezir his tent was suddenly collapsed on his head, apparently an old Turkish tribal custom. After his dismissal Mahmut withdrew to his estate at Hasköy. He remained there until late in 1469, when he was appointed
sancakbey
, or provincial governor, at Gelibolu on the European shore of the Dardanelles, a position that also made him chief admiral of the Ottoman fleet.

Meanwhile, Mahmut was replaced as grand vezir by Ishak Pasha, who held the office until 1471, when he in turn was replaced by Rum Mehmet Pasha. Rum Mehmet, as his first name implies, was of Greek origin, having converted to Islam when he joined the sultan’s service. The Turkish sources all agree that the downfall of Mahmut Pasha was largely due to the machinations of Rum Mehmet Pasha.

Mehmet’s absence from Europe on his Anatolian campaign led the Venetians to think that this was the opportune time to launch an expedition against the Turks. On 3 June 1468 Doge Cristoforo Moro wrote in this vein to Jacopo Loredan, the Venetian Captain-General of the Sea.

Never, in everyone’s judgment, has there been a more promising and favorable period than at present for embarking upon an expedition against the Turk, the fierce enemy of our faith. The opportunity has been divinely granted to us at the time when, beside the poor conditions in his domains and especially the plague, he is far away in distant lands in Asia, from which he cannot return for many days and months. His whole army, furthermore, will probably come back in poor condition. Consequently…you must consider embarking upon such an expedition as you shall deem both honorable and expedient.

Arrangements were made for Loredan to recruit men from Crete, Corfu and other Venetian territories, while troops and warships would be sent to him from the republic’s strongholds in the Adriatic. Meanwhile, Turkish raiders had been attacking as far afield as Zara and Senj on the upper Adriatic, while an Ottoman fleet in the Agean sacked the Venetian-held island of Andros.

Reports then began arriving in Venice that Mehmet was preparing a huge fleet and army for a campaign in the Aegean, probably against the Venetian strongholds of Negroponte and Nauplia in Greece. This led the Senate to appoint Niccolo da Canale to be both Captain-General of the Sea and
provveditore
of Negroponte. During the summer of 1469 Canale commanded a Venetian fleet that brutally sacked and burned the port-city of Enez, north of the Gallipoli peninsula, carrying off around 2,000 prisoners, including some 200 Greek women. He then did the same at Yeni Foça on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. These attacks were occasions for rejoicing in Venice, but they had no military significance and did nothing more than enrage Mehmet and provoke him into launching an expedition against the Venetians.

The Venetians had been trying to convince Pope Paul II that they were in imminent danger of being attacked by the Turks, and that they desperately needed help. On 7 July 1470 the Senate wrote to the Venetian ambassadors in Rome telling them to seek an immediate audience with the Pope, and to inform him ‘that the Turk has sent a fleet of three hundred and fifty sail under Mahmud Pasha out from the Dardanelles, and that he himself has also come with a huge and powerful army to lay siege to Negroponte’.

The Ottoman fleet sailed out of the Dardanelles on 3 June 1470 under the command of Mahmut Pasha, while at the same time Mehmet led the main army from Thrace down the east coast of Greece. As Mahmut sailed through the northern Aegean he attacked the Venetian-held islands of Imbros, Limnos and Skyros, while the Venetian fleet under Niccolo da Canale followed at a safe distance, not daring to attack because of its much inferior numbers and firepower. The Venetian captain Geronimo Lungo, observing the Ottoman armada at Skyros, wrote, ‘At first I judged it to be of 300 sail. Now I believe there are 400… The sea looked like a forest. It seems incredible to hear tell of it, but to see it is something stupendous![…] Negroponte is in danger, and if it falls, our whole state in the Levant will be lost as far as Istria.’

The Ottoman fleet sailed around the south end of Euboea and entered the Euripos channel, anchoring near Negroponte on 15 June, disembarking the troops aboard the transports on the shore of the island south of the fortress. Mehmet arrived with the main army three days later, leading his troops down from the hills to the Euripos, where the Venetians had destroyed the bridge connecting the island to the mainland. One Venetian observer estimated that there were 70,000 troops aboard the transports, with another 120,000 in the main army, although modern authorities hold that the total number of men was about 100,000.

Niccolo da Canale anchored his flotilla of thirty-six galleys and six freight vessels off Akri Mandilli, the southernmost cape of Euboea, refraining from an attack on the Turkish fleet until he received reinforcements. He sent a fast galley to Candia in Crete to order the Venetian
provveditore
there to send him as many ships and troops as possible. Geronimo Lungo was sent to Venice via Corfu, bearing a message from Canale that he would attack the Turks when he had a fleet of 100 galleys and ten round-ships.

The Senate received Canale’s letter on 24 June, whereupon they outfitted fourteen great galleys and fourteen round-ships that had been under construction in the Venetian Arsenale. Meanwhile, Canale sailed his flotilla off to Candia, where the
provveditore
had outfitted seven round-ships on receiving the admiral’s letter.

A Venetian observer, Fra Giacomo Pugiese, reported that the Ottoman fleet had entered the Euripos channel on 14 June, and ‘on 15 June came before Chalkis and prepared to build a bridge from St. Chiara on the mainland with forty-five galleys and seven armed round-ships’. When the bridge of boats was complete Sultan Mehmet crossed to Euboea with one-half of the main army, leaving the remainder on the mainland. He then set up mortar batteries at four points around Negroponte, from which they could fire over the outer walls of the fortress and into the town of Chalkis itself.

Negroponte was one of the strongest fortresses in the Venetian maritime empire. The overall command was in the hands of Paolo Erizzo, the
bailo
of Negroponte, while the garrison was under the joint command of Captains Alviso Calbo and Giovanni Bandumier.

Before beginning hostilities Sultan Mehmet sent an emissary to the defenders on 25 June proposing that they surrender under what he thought were generous terms. The sultan offered the inhabitants of Negroponte ten years’ exemption from taxes; those who possessed a villa would be given an extra one; while the
bailo
and the two co-captains of the garrison were offered high positions in the Ottoman court, for Mehmet knew they could never return to Venice if they surrendered to him. The
bailo
turned down the offer contemptuously, saying to the Ottoman emissary: ‘Tell your lord to eat swine’s flesh, and then come and meet us at the fosse!’

As soon as the emissary returned Mehmet ordered his forces to attack. According to one Turkish chronicler, ‘Mahmud Pasha with the marines and many brave men went from the side of the sea and shot with cannons and guns, making breaches in the walls.’ At the same time, Mehmet sent 2,000 cavalry to raid the countryside around Negroponte, where they killed or enslaved all who lived outside the walls and cut off the city from the rest of the island. But the attackers were unable to break through the city walls, and Fra Giacomo estimates that 14,000 of them were killed. Mehmet ordered another attack five days later, but that too failed, with 16,000 of his men killed and thirty of his galleys sunk, in Fra Giacomo’s account. Two more unsuccessful attacks followed, with 500 Turks killed on 5 July and 15,000 on 8 July, according to Fra Giacomo, though here again modern authorities say the numbers are highly inflated.

The Venetian fleet commanded by Niccolo da Canale finally returned from Crete on 11 July, when it anchored in the Euripos channel three miles north of the bridge of boats connecting the island to the mainland. The arrival of the Venetian fleet caused panic in the Ottoman camp, for it was thought that Canale would destroy the bridge of boats and cut them off from the mainland. Mehmet at first thought to withdraw his forces, but Mahmut Pasha persuaded him to press on with the siege.

Canale remained at anchor despite signals from the defenders urging him to attack, which he answered by saying that he was waiting for reinforcements. One of his galleys, commanded by Antonio Ottobon, disregarded orders and made its way through the Ottoman armada into the fortress harbour, but when others thought to follow, Canale prevented them from doing so, and thus left Negroponte to its fate.

The final assault began later that same day, when Mahmut Pasha’s cannons opened a breach in the fortress walls, after which he led the Ottoman troops as they broke into the city in the early hours of 12 July. The defenders fought valiantly, with the two co-captains, Alviso Calbo and Giovanni Bandumier, killed in the hand-to-hand battle within the city. Paolo Erizzo surrendered to Mahmut Pasha on the promise of safe conduct for him and his fellow defenders, but Sultan Mehmet had them all executed, supposedly having the
bailo
tied between two boards and sawn in half through the waist.

Giovanni-Maria Angiolello, one of the few Venetians to survive the fall of Negroponte, says in his memoir that he was presented to Mehmet by his captor and was inducted into the sultan’s service, possibly as a janissary. According to Angiolello, Mehmet rounded up virtually all the populace of Euboea and either executed or enslaved them. Then, after leaving a garrison in Negroponte, Mehmet led his army back to Istanbul, where he arrived on 4 September, according to Angiolello.