Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/668

Rh 646 TURKEY [HISTORY. during which they pillaged the palaces of the principal officers of the government and murdered the grand vizier, along with many of the members of his household. The Austrians, under Charles of Lorraine, Louis of Baden, and Prince Eugene, were carrying all before them in the north : Erlau, Belgrade, and Stuhlweissenburg fell into their hands; and by the end of 1689 the Ottomans had lost almost all their former possessions beyond the Danube. Meanwhile the Venetian leader, Morosini, was equally successful in the Morea, completing the conquest of that province, which he added to the dominions of St Mark. When matters had come to this pass, the sultan summoned an extraordinary meeting of the divan to consult on the measures to be taken to meet the danger threatening on every hand. By the unanimous advice of his ministers, Suleyman appointed to the grand vizierate Koprili-zada Mustafa, another son of old Koprili Muhammed. This statesman, who had been trained in the duties of office under his father and brother, worthily upheld the high name of his house. He gave up the jvhole of his gold and silver plate to be coined into money wherewith to pay the troops ; he sought out the best men to fill positions of trust and responsibility in the army and navy ; and he exercised and encouraged a wise and just policy of toleration towards the Christian subjects of the sultan. Such was the confidence which his high character and illustrious connexion inspired that large numbers of volunteers hastened to join the Turkish hosts ; and in a very few weeks from the time when he took com mand of the army Mustafa had driven the Austrians out of Servia, and Belgrade once more received a garrison of Ottoman troops. Mustafa returned in triumph to Con stantinople, where, early in the summer of 1691 (1102), Suleyman II. died, and was succeeded on the throne by his brother Ahmed II. Ahmed The most important event which occurred during the n - brief and disastrous reign of this monarch was the defeat and death at Slankamen (Szlankament) of Koprili-zada Mustafa, who in August 1691 advanced from Belgrade to attack the Austrians under Louis of Baden. The un fortunate result of the battle was in great measure owing to the rashness of the vizier, who, in opposition to the advice of the oldest and most experienced of his officers, refused to await behind the lines the attack of the enemy. The Ottomans fought with desperate courage ; but the day was decided against them by the death of Mustafa, who was shot while cutting his way through the Christian ranks. Ahmed II. reigned for four years, during which the hapless empire, besides continuing to suffer defeat at the hands of foreign foes, was visited with the curses of pestilence and domestic insurrection. Mustafa On the death of Ahmed II. in the year 1695 (1106) II. Mustafa II., son of Muhammed IV., was girt with the sword of Osman. The new sultan, aware of the pitiful condition to which the empire had sunk, in part, at least, through the negligence and indifference of his pre decessors, resolved to restore the old Ottoman usages, and placed himself at the head of his armies. His first cam paign was altogether successful : he recaptured several important fortresses and totally defeated a great Austrian army. During the following winter he worked hard to repair the finances and bring the forces of the empire into a higher state of efficiency ; and, when he set out in the spring against the Austrians, fortune continued to smile upon his banners. He defeated the duke of Saxe, raised the siege of Temesvar, and strengthened the garri sons of those fortresses which Turkey still held in Hungary. But in the next year, 1697, all was changed : Prince Eugene was at the head of the Austrians, and on the banks of the Theiss, near Zenta, the Turks sustained an overwhelming defeat, which compelled the sultan to retreat to Temesvar. Thence he returned to Constanti nople, and never again led an army against the enemy. Recourse was once more had to the house of Koprili, and Amuja-zada Huseyn, a nephew of old Koprili Muhammed, was promoted to the grand vizierate. Huseyn raised fresh troops ; but he saw that what was really needful was peace, and this he succeeded in bringing about. At Carlowitz Peace of on 26th January 1699 a peace was arranged, through the Cs. irl - intervention of England and Holland, between Turkey Wltz on the one hand and Austria, Venice, Russia, and Poland on the other. The basis of the treaty, agreed to with certain modifications, was that each power should retain the territories in its possession at the time of opening negotiations. This arrangement left Austria in possession of Transylvania and almost all Hungary and Slavonia; Venice remained mistress of its conquests in Dalmatia and the Morea ; Poland received Podolia ; and Russia, which under Peter the Great was only now becoming con scious of its strength, retained Azoff, which it had wrested from Turkey three years before. Huseyn Pasha took advantage of the restoration of peace to check the disorders which had sprung up in various parts of the empire, and to endeavour to effect much -needed reforms in many de partments of the state. But unfortunately his efforts were thwarted by others less disinterested than himself ; and, broken-hearted by the calamities of his country, he retired from office three years after the peace of Carlowitz, and very shortly afterwards died. Mustafa II. very soon followed the example of his minister, and abdicated in 1703 (1115) in favour of his brother Ahmed III. Although the peace of the empire was often broken Ahmed during his reign, Ahmed III. was not of a warlike disposi- I!I - tion, and all the representations and entreaties of Charles XII. of Sweden, who after the disaster of Pultowa had taken refuge in Turkey, failed to induce him to re-open hostilities with the czar. In 1710 Nu man Pasha, son of Amuja-zada Huseyn, and the last of the Koprili family, was appointed grand vizier. Though able and tolerant, he was so much addicted to interfering in the business of his sub ordinates that he became the object of general dislike, and was dismissed from his office after holding it for four teen months. The menacing preparations of Russia in the south had more influence with the Porte than the prayers of the Swedish king, and in 1711 the new grand vizier, Baltaji Muhammed, marched into Moldavia to meet the forces of Peter the Great, who had formed an entrenched camp near the village of Hush, on the right bank of the Pruth. Here the vizier blockaded him, and after two days severe fighting compelled him to surrender with all his army. By the treaty which followed the czar pledged himself, among other things, to restore the fortress of Azoff and all its dependencies to the sultan, and to grant the king of Sweden a free and safe passage to his own country through the Muscovite dominions. The lenity of Baltaji Muhammed in not destroying the czar and his army when they were within his grasp caused such discontent at Con stantinople that he was dismissed from the vizierate, which was conferred on AH Pasha, known as Damad All or Ali the Son -in -Law, from the circumstance of his having married a daughter of the sultan. This vizier distinguished himself by winning back from Venice the whole of the Morea in a single campaign (1715). His next venture, a war against Austria, undertaken in the following year, had a very different issue, he himself being slain and his army routed in a great battle at Peterwardein. Next year Prince Eugene, the conqueror of Damad All, laid siege to Belgrade, which he forced to capitulate after driving off a large army sent by the Turks to its relief. These events Treaty of led to the peace of Passarowitz in 1718, by which Austria Passar - ^quired that portion of Hungary which had remained in Wltz-