c. 1488
Born to a prominent Anatolian family sometime after 1425, Tursun Beg held a series of prominent administrative roles over the course of a four-decade career in the service of both Mehmed II and his successor, Sultan Bayezid II. Tursun Beg was also present on most of the major campaigns of the 1450s to the 1470s, including the construction of Rumeli Hisarı, the capture of Constantinople, and the siege of Belgrade. His History of the Conqueror, composed at the close of his career, is another rich compilation built from earlier written sources, oral accounts, and the author’s own experiences. It reflects his deep familiarity with Turkish, Arabic, and Persian literary traditions, and his often strongly panegyric purpose – strong enough, in the passage translated here, that the author works to frame the events of Belgrade as a virtual victory for the conqueror of Constantinople.
Source: Trans. J. Mixson, from Tursun Beg, Târîh-i Ebü’l-Feth, trans. Luca Berardi, in La conquista di Costantinopoli (Milan: Mondadori, 2007), 102–8.
While
The shah, father of the conquest, of firm judgment
Shah Mehmed Khan of praiseworthy nature 1
was intent on the conquests that have been reported, to his noble ears came word that the infidel king of the “desperate” Hungarians, a notorious wretch named John Hunyadi, burned with desire to become betrothed to the teasing spouse of the country of Serbia. But
The gazelle of the king is the worthy prey of the lion;
The dog, who looks after the pigs, goes hunting for carrion.
The situation required that the sultan had first to kill the rival before being joined with his beloved. Thus, he satisfied himself with the territories he had conquered in this region and turned the bridles of victory toward Edirne, capital of the sultanate. Orders were given to prepare the means to strike the enemy, and the various instruments of war. In this year the sultan had his army, guided by victory, take a rest. He also decided that he, too, would happily take his rest in comfort and amusement, and that both the common people and the nobility would enjoy the blessings of his benevolence. Nevertheless, he remained restless, assailed by doubt over whether he would obtain the bride of the conquest, or whether it would be refused him.
In accordance with the maxim that “all things have a doorway,” “enter your houses by their doors” (Qur’an 2:189), the design of the sovereign, which is always accompanied by benevolent fate, hinted at what followed. The key to the conquest of the land of Hungary was the fortress of Belgrade, a celebrated fortress whose reputation for being impossible to assail and impossible to take was well known, built at the confluence of the Danube and the Sava. So his first move was to plan to conquer it. He made generous arrangements for the appropriate measures, in a way that was worthy of the glory of a king who had conquered so many lands: terrifying cannons as large as mountains, and deadly catapults. On the waters of the Danube, he had deployed a fleet captained by renowned and well-equipped azebs [light infantry soldiers], sailors, and whatever else was needed.
In the year 860, the springtime grass decorated the riverbanks, and every flower and every bud took notice.
This is the season of spring, and blessed is he
who is in the company of his beloved, and has a chalice to his mouth.
And so the banners – symbols of triumph – fluttered with waves of success and victory. The soldiers – guided by victory – took to the field, their numbers greater than the waves of the sea. And thanks to the artifice of the engineers, the troops were able to haul the cannons from the city of Skopje.
The same ruler
with triumph, power, and majesty, blessed by God,2
resolved to conquer Belgrade, if not to destroy the enemy in a pitched battle, and moved out with the army, boiling, thundering like the sea,
like the surface of the seas driven by a storm.
It was an army that found battle more pleasing than festival. In the face of it, the one bearing the shield could not turn away from the consequence of so many blows of a sword; and the one wearing armor could hardly close an eye amid the swarm of arrows. As it began to settle in before Belgrade, the imperial army deployed itself in the typical Ottoman fashion, and its fearless warriors fought with the enemy before the gates of the fortress. The fleet arrived as well, and so they besieged the fortress, surrounding it on the river and on land, like a chalice encloses wine. It was ordered that the cannons and the catapults should open fire, and that the miners should set themselves to work. He showed enormous zeal in carrying out his plan for the city’s conquest, working from the breaking of the white light of dawn until the reddening light of sunset. The harp of war sounded from every corner, and battle broke out. Meanwhile the accursed king of Hungary3 also arrived and arrayed his troops on the opposite shore of the Danube, their camp set up directly opposite the fortress.
During a consultation, Karaca Bey, lord of Rumelia, who was a brave and expert commander and sailor, said, “The ruler orders and grants license to me, his trusted commander, to cross over to the other shore to disperse the enemy, since his view from there strengthens the defense of the fortress!”
But certain emirs and viziers did not approve this proposal, and countered: “What harm can come from the enemy while he is on the opposite shore? To raid and to destroy crops right before his eyes can only cause his reverential fear of the sultan to grow.”
By now the infidel king [Hunyadi] had arranged, at the source of the Danube, for the preparation of a fleet whose numbers by far exceeded the number of the sultan’s ships. They arrived by advancing with the momentum of the river’s current. The news began to spread: the ships of the ruler of Islam met and fought with the enemy ships, which arrived first, sinking four or five of them. So many infidels were killed that the Danube became a river flowing with blood, so abundantly that it overflowed and became twice its normal size. Finally, the infidel fleet arrived, and it was double the size of the Ottoman one. In keeping with the saying “two kittens are enough for a lion,” seeing the superiority of their force, the ruler, yielding to the will of God, withdrew his fleet from the siege of the fortress and followed the direction of the river. Thus, the Hungarian fleet had an open road to the fortress.
Our adversary was the same one who in the time of Sultan Murad had so often led his troops into the territory of Islam, revealing his burning desire “to ruin the crops and the herds” (Qur’an 2:205). And though every time he had come, he went away crushed, defeated, abandoned by God, and deceived, he remained always an infidel, firm in that ancient hatred which waited only for an auspicious moment.
When the game of chance revealed itself to be playing out in this way, the victorious sovereign ordered the assault to be launched, before the forces of the infidel could be carried across to the fortress by their ships. To this end they loaded and prepared the cannons. Before nightfall each detachment placed barricades and ladders at various points against the walls of the fortress, making their advance from the place in which they found themselves. They fought all through the night.
The tent of the horizon was blackened by the vapors of infidel blood, and by the smoke from the lamps of oil. When the laundress dawn began her washing of the tent in heaven’s basin with the soap of the sun’s disk – that is, when dawn gave way to daylight – the conqueror sultan mounted his steed – the bracelet of fortune – and launched an assault against the fortress. Everywhere there sounded bass and timpani drums, tambourines and brass horns in the guise of a royal band.
The cry of the troops and the scream of the cannons,
the sound of the timpani, of the tambourine, and the brass horn.
While the head of heaven rang out,
“To the attack!” said the shah, in the manner of Khosrow.
“God is the greatest!” 4
The first to leap forward were the messengers of the fateful hour and the birds of hope, that is, the cannons, now loaded and ready for use. The deadly soldiers and heroic men followed, and with cries of “Allah, Allah!” they assaulted the fortress. Without any delay they threw their misguided enemies from the tower of ostentation into the deadly abyss, and ascended into the fortress. With such an illusion of victory, the avarice of the world began to impose itself on their hearts. And so they poured out and scattered to ransack the city, and failed to remain near to one another. Since the desire of worldly riches caused disunity to fall down upon them, they were unable to confront the enemy, who was ready and waiting in ambush. They turned back, their victory turned into defeat, and were forced to go out where they had come in. At this point many of them became martyrs, and many others fell wounded.
What happened next was this: the accursed infidel king, thanks to his many ships, in one day and one night had been able to ferry across (without their baggage) the soldiers who were on the opposite shore. He now not only placed on the towers of the fortress a sufficient number of infidel troops who were large, strong, and fully armed, but he also deployed a well-supplied regiment in front of every damaged breach. They stayed in this position and drove back the Muslims who, as we have noted, had been scattered in their lust for plunder.
Following the teaching that “war is cunning,” the wise counselors of the sultan found an opportunity in this circumstance to draw the infidels into the open field. It was ordered that the servants of His Majesty should withdraw unarmed from before the walls of the fortress. The infidels became drunk and stunned by drinking the wine of victory. They affirmed resolutely that “The Turks are defeated!” Rushing into an enclosure, they poured out of the fortress and advanced recklessly against the Muslim army. When the Muslims, fighting the infidel advance while in retreat, were approaching the place where the sovereign of Islam held his position, they said, “Let us draw back from the infidels! Don’t let a living soul return toward the fortress! The sultan is beginning to retreat!”
The sultan, thinking it foolishness of judgment and weakness of mind among those viziers who said such words, went on a rampage: “To turn from the enemy is a sign of defeat! According to what is sanctioned by God – praise be upon him – the truthful is the supreme – great is my fortune. It is for the enemy to retreat!” With that he took up his lance and charged against the throng of infidels that came to meet him. He chose three of the demons who were advancing and struck them down.
He took up his lance like Hizir,
Put the bridle to the mane.
He charged, head down, like a roaring lion,
He struck three warriors, and the enemy was filled with fear.
The angel exclaimed, “God will protect you!” (Qur’an 5:67)
The heavens cried out, “God is with you.”
Upon seeing this, the janissaries and the cavalry of the Muslims spurred on their horses and turned back the infidels. They found themselves in a place that was an absolutely level plain, without any kind of harsh feature or irregularity, hills or heights. In the same place they had in hand defenseless infidels, now at the end of their rope – mountain knaves wrapped in armor, caught between their rivers of wine, their exhaustion, and the heat of the sun.
When they seized the infidels,
Among a thousand not one remained alive.
At that point the bodies of those pagans began to pile up,
And there were piles of them in every corner.
The land was so filled with the heads of the enemy
That you would have thought them piles of building stones.
The field had become red with blood, the color of a tulip.
What a tulip! A lake of flowing blood.
The bodies of the enemy lay strewn like rocks;
Their decapitated heads floated in blood.
In brief, they crushed them under the hooves of their horses, so many that not one was able to make his way safely back to the fortress. Among the Muslims there was great triumph. The possibility of now also conquering the fortress with a minimal attack seemed near, as night fell.
The benevolent ruler was satisfied with this clear victory. He said, “My servants are tired and some of them have reported being wounded. The fortress itself is my prey, already struck down. There will be time …” Acting in keeping with the saying “the return is the most commendable thing,” he gave the order to depart, with the sweet taste of this military campaign.
A few days after the victorious sovereign had cast his fortunate shadow over his own domains, there came news that the accursed king of Hungary had departed for hell. The cause of his death and of his departure from the world was as follows: when the sultan’s servants, as a ruse, had turned as the spit turns, the infidels had communicated to their king: “The Turk has abandoned honor and has been defeated.” Convinced by the report, the king also went forth from the city and advanced suddenly toward the field of battle. A gazi struck him in the leg with a lethal blow as he [Hunyadi] turned away and fled directly back to the tower from which he had run out. Because of this wound he was set on his way for the voyage to hell. Better that the enemy is imprisoned in the tomb.
This is what God does with tyrants.
The killing of his rival was the wish of the sultan, and that wish, with God’s help, had been granted. And so that shah – of the fortunate banners of the victorious sultan – grasped his reins as swiftly as the north wind, climbed resolutely into stirrups as firm as the ground, on the saddle of a steed that has traveled the world, to return to Edirne, capital of the sultanate. Here he would prepare the means and the way to be able to reunite with his beloved, Serbia, like a flirtatious new bride.
With the most sublime conditions and the most auspicious arrival,
With the best fortune following after him, forever.
1 In his account, Tursun Beg frequently adorns his prose with brief poetic passages. These verse passages are signaled here in italics.
2 In the original text this poetic line is rendered in Persian.
3 The chronicler here mistakes Hunyadi for a king.
4 The reference here is to the Sasanian kings of Persia, and to a general Islamic declaration of faith.