Suleiman The Magnificent 1520 1566 (37 page)

reproduction of it may be found opposite page 116 of vol. XV of Mittheilungen des Alterthums Vereins zu Wien (1875), together with a brief article (pp. 106-116) by Albert Ritter von Camesina, telling all about it and its present whereabouts (in the Sammlung von S. Exc. Ritter von Hauslab) and also containing two little-known ballads by Hans Sachs (in 1529 and 1539) about the siege of Vienna.

All these pictures, save that of Lorichs, represent the Sultan in profile, and they are all recognizable as portraits of the same man. The figure by Veronese in the "Marriage of Cana" (1562-63), to which reference has already been made, is purely imaginary. It Is seated, next to Vittoria Colonna and in close proximity to Francis I and Charles V, near the left-hand rear corner of the table; but the face bears little resemblance to the other portraits of the Sultan, and the artist did not even take the trouble to clothe his subject aright.

There is an article by A. Welcker in Die Graphischen Kiinste, Neue Folge, vol I (for 1936), Heft 3, pp. 103-05, entitled "A wedding gift by Jan van der Straet (also called Johannes Stradanus) to Christina of Lorraine in the year 1589: the retreat of the Turks from Vienna after the siege in the year 1529"; and there are four interesting illustrations. The original turned up at an auction at Amsterdam in 1932; but a sketch of it, which was apparently made by van der Straet (15 2 3-1605) to be engraved by A. Collaert (1545-1618), is now in the Albertina in Vienna (inventory, no. 23437). There is no evidence that the portraits of Suleiman in these pictures are authentic.

There are at least two portraits of the Sultan by Turkish artists (probably miniatures) in London today, and many more in Constantinople. I regret that the war has made it impossible for me to obtain further information about them.

Bibliographical Note

Dibliographies, generally speaking, are unpleasant things, save for the specialist, and mere lists of titles are even worse; "most of us," it has been well said, "they merely snow under." On the other hand, those who may wish to investigate in detail any phase of the great Sultan's reign have the right to know the sources on which this book is based, and to be given "leads" for further research. It is in the hope of being of service to them that I venture to append the following abbreviated bibliographical note. The names and authors of most of the principal works on the Turkish history of the period are to be found on pages 782-785 of the third volume of the Cambridge Modern History, on pages 303—330 of A. H. Lybyer's Government of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent, and on pages 108—125 of G. W. F. Stripling's "The Ottoman Turks and the Arabs" in Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. XXVI, no. 4 (1942); and these bibliographies dispense me from the necessity of enumerating the standard authorities. Of the three, that of Lybyer is by far the most valuable. Though officially only concerned with books on government and administration, it contains much else besides, and the scholarly analyses of the chief contemporaneous and modern works which precede the list of titles are particularly precious. It only remains for me to say a few additional words about the five authorities on whom I have principally relied, to give under each chapter heading the names of the books of a more special nature which have been used therein, and to furnish a list of abbreviations for the purpose of shortening the footnotes.

The best of all the contemporaneous descriptions of the Turkey of Suleiman's day is unquestionably to be found in the four confidential letters addressed by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (cf. ante, pp. 176-177) to his friend Nicolas Michault, the Hapsburg ambassador from the Netherlands to Hungary in the time of Charles V. They were written in simple, concise Latin, between the years 1555 and 1562; the first three from Constantinople, the last from Frankfort. As they were intended for private consumption, they contain much that is not to be found in the official reports of the Venetian bailos in Alberi's Relazioni, and shed a flood of light on what, without them, would have remained unknown (cf. G. Sarton, "Brave Busbecq," in the Third Preface to volume XXXIII of I sis (March, 1942), pp. 557-575). Because of the notes and additional information which it contains, I have used the two-volume English edition and translation entitled The Life and Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, by Charles Thornton Forster and F. H. Blackburne Daniell (London, 1881), rather than the more convenient single volume Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq ed. E. S. Forster (Oxford, 1927).

The Urkunden und^Actenstucke zur Geschichte der Verhahnisse zwischen Osterreich, Ungern und der Pforte im XVI. und XVIL Jahrhunderte (Vienna, 1840-1842), ed. Anton von Gevay, is fundamental for the relations between the Hapsburgs and the Porte between the years 1527 and 1541. The original work was most inconveniently divided into eleven unnumbered parts, each with a title-page of its own and a separate pagination; but it has usually, though not always (cf. the catalogues of the Biblio-theque Nationale and of the British Museum), been published in three volumes, of which the first contains the first five parts, covering the years 1527 to 1532; the second the next three, for 1532 to 1536; and the third the last

three, for 15 3 6 to 1541. As the Harvard copy, which I have used and which seems to be the only one in this country, is one of those bound in three volumes, I have made rny references to accord with it, i.e., the first figure indicating the volume, the second the number of the part in that volume, and the third the page. The book gives the original text of all the letters, reports, and ambassadorial instructions bearing on the Turkish advance up the Danube during the period in question. There is no introduction. The work consists of original documents and nothing else. All that I have been able to find out about von Gevay is that he was first "Scriptor an der K. K. Hofbibliothek" and later "K. K. geheimer Hof. und Haus Archivar"; clearly he was a modest scholar whose work was its own reward. For one who, like myself, cannot read Turkish, the monumental Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, ten volumes (Pesth, 1827-35), by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall is absolutely indispensable. The author has been somewhat roughly treated by a number of his contemporaries and successors (cf, F. C. Diez, Umfug und Betmg), and there is no doubt that his work does not always measure up to the highest standards of the critical historical scholarship of today; yet when all is said and done, our knowledge of Ottoman history would be vastly less than it is if his great book were not there to blaze the trail; the German word "bahnbrechend" is the aptest of all to describe it. He knew and used his Turkish authorities as no other European historian has ever done. He gives a mass of material which is available nowhere else, and precious indications where to find more; particularly valuable are the numerous excerpts from Suleiman's diary while on campaigns. J. W. Zin-keisen's Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches in Europa (7 volumes, Hamburg and Gotha, 1840-63) will be found a useful supplement to him, particularly on matters of diplomacy and the Mediterranean campaigns. All my ref-

erences to Hammer-Purgstall are to the eighteen-volume French edition "traduit . . . sur les notes et sous la direction de Pauteur," by J. J. Hellert (Paris, 1835-43). It contains everything that is to be found in the original, and corrects some minor errors; it is better indexed, vastly more convenient to read, and also more easily obtainable. The two shorter second editions (in German, at Pesth, in four volumes, 1834-36, and in French (tr. Dochez) at Paris, 1840-42) are much less satisfactory.

Of collaborate histories as of the curate's egg, it may be truthfully said that parts are very good. Chapter xvi in vol. Ill and chapters xix and xx in vol. IV of Lavisse and Rambaud's Histoire generate were written by A. Rambaud and E. Masqueray, both recognized masters of the fields with which they deal, and every page of them is typical of the most perfect French historical scholarship. Necessarily brief, they will be found to contain much that is available nowhere else.

The Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches in five volumes (Gotha 1908-13 ), by my old friend and fellow-pupil, the late Nicholae lorga, is the most recent history of the Ottoman Empire, and the largest and most important of the works of the great Rumanian statesman and historian whose assassination in November 1940 was one of the many tragedies of the present war. The book was written too hurriedly to be as accurate as one could wish, particularly in the narrative portions, and the footnotes are so abbreviated that it is often well-nigh impossible to find the references that they were intended to give. On the other hand lorga's work has a magnificent sweep to it, clearly indicating the hand of a great master. It brings the whole picture up to date, and its portrayal of manners, customs, and social and economic conditions—a side which his predecessors had for the most part neglected—is beyond all praise.

Bibliographical Notes on the Separate Chapters

CHAPTER I

For the early history of the Ottoman Turks, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is still fundamental. I have used Bury's edition. Teodoro Spandu-gino's Commentari delV origine de Principi Turchi (Florence, 1551, and in French, ed. C. Schefer, Paris, 1896) is one of the best of the earlier accounts. Recent monographs, which deal with controversial points, are H. A. Gibbons, The Foundation of tfye Ottoman Empire, 1305-1403 (Oxford, 1916); J. Marquart, Uber das Volkstum der Komanen (cf. note 3 above); and W. L. Langer and R. P. Blake, "The Rise of the Ottoman Turks and its Historical Background" in the American Historical Review, vol. XXXVII, no. 3 (for April, 1932), pp. 468-505. L. Thuasne's Gentile Bellini et Sultan Mohammed II (Paris, 1888) and his Djem Sultan (Paris, 1892) are the latest authorities on the subjects with which they deal. G. W. F. Stripling, The Ottoman Turks and the Arabs (cf. ante p. 301), is valuable on the conquests of Seliin.

CHAPTER II

Paolo Giovio's Turcicarum Rerum Commentarius (cf. ante, p. 297) was the first book to make Western Europe realize the power and ambitions of the Turk. Marino Sa~ nuto's Dairii, MCCCCXCVI-MDXXXIII, 58 volumes in 59 (Venice, 1879-93), and E. Alberi's Relazione degli

ambasciatori veneti al Senato> 15 vols. (Florence, 1839-63), are fundamental for this chapter and the immediately succeeding ones; and the Calendars of State Papers Venetian (ed. E. Rawdon Brown, vols. Ill-VII, 1869-1890) almost equally so. The Deutsche Reichstagsakten (Jiingere Reihe) unterKarl V, vols. II and III (Gotha, 1896-1901), are the principal source for the attitude of the Empire towards the Turk.

CHAPTER III

Cf. bibliographical notes on Chapter II, and, in addition: Suleiman's diary, which may be found (in French) in the appendices to vols. V and VI of Hammer, is our best source of information on the siege of Belgrade, and on all Suleiman's subsequent campaigns. A. Vambery's The Story of Hungary (New York, 1886) gives a good brief account of conditions within that realm.

The first two volumes of E. Charriere, Negotiations de la France dans le Levant, 4 vols. (Paris, 1848-60), are a mine of information for the period 1515 to 1565, and contain all the important documents on Franco-Turkish relations at the time; it is indispensable for the siege of Rhodes. La grande et merveilleuse et tres cruelle oppugnation de la noble cite de Rhodes (Paris, 1527), by the "Bastard" Jacques de Bourbon (son of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liege), and the De Eello Rhodio Libri Tres (Rome, 1524) and the Ad Adrianum Pont. M. Epistola missa e Rhodo (Tubingen, 1523), by Jacobus Fontanus, are precious accounts of the siege by eye-witnesses. As Bourbon was a member of the Order, and Fontanus a Judex Appella-tionwn y they describe the event from different standpoints. The two best modern accounts of the topography and fortifications of the island are Rhodes of the Knights, by Fra-din, Baron de Belabre (Oxford, 1908), and La Cite de

Rhodes, MCCCX-MDXXII, by Albert Gabriel (Paris, 1921). Much useful information may also be found in C. W. C. Oman, The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1937).

CHAPTER IV

The most important contemporaneous Turkish account of the Mohacs campaign is that by the learned Kemal Pasha Zadeh, who was Sheik-ul-Islam from 1525 to his death in 1533. It has been beautifully translated into French, and edited, with valuable notes, by M. Pavet de Courteille (Paris, 1869) under the title of Histoire de la Campagne de Mohacs. On the Christian side the Clades in Campo Mohacs by Istvan Brodarics, which appears on pp. 1185-86 of vol. II of Simon Schard's Historicum Opus (Basel, 1574), and the Oratio Protreptica by John Cuspini-anus (Vienna, n.d.) are the most valuable. Brodarics was a Hungarian statesman and prelate who had been sent to Rome to get aid against the Turks, was present at the battle, and survived it. Cuspinianus had been doctor and diplomatic agent to the Emperor Maximilian, and was also the author of a work published at Ley den in 1654 entitled De Turcarum Origine, Religione ac immanissima eorum in Christianos tyrannide, etc., etc.

CHAPTER V

Suleiman's diary on the Vienna campaign was carefully translated into German and edited, with notes, by W. F. A. Behrnauer at Vienna in 1856. There are many accounts of the siege: among the best are those of M. Smetz, Wien in und aus der Turken-Bedrangniss (1529-1683) (Vienna, 1883), an d the Earl of Ellesmere's translation of K. A. Schimmer's Wien's Belagerungen (Vienna, 1845) under

the tide of The Siege of Vienna by the Turks (London, 1879); the latter has an excellent map. Martin Rosnak's Die Belagerung der Konigl. Freystadt Guns (Vienna, 1789) is practically the only book on the subject. F. B. Bucholtz, Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinand's des Ersten, 9 vols. (Vienna, 1831-38), still contains much that is to be found nowhere else. H. Kretschmayr's "Ludovico Gritti," in the first half of vol. LXXXffl of the Archiv fur osterreichische Geschichte (1896), and also separately printed, is a model of thoroughness and accuracy, and typical of the very best historical monographs that were produced in the days when German scholarship was still respected.

CHAPTER VI