§ 1. I have very often made mention of the Turkish Empire and warned that those men err who contend that, because of the common servitude of all, it is free from sedition and tumults. The history of Turkish affairs itself refutes them, as does the nature of the monarchy, which, since it is savage and harsh, must necessarily also be engaged in perpetual fear and danger.
In the year 1328 from the Incarnation, Osman having died, his son Orchan took the prefectures away from his leading men and introduced that servitude which now exists; thereafter they struggled with great evils. For the leading men conspired against Gilderun and called upon the Egyptian. Indeed, deserted also by his Tatar auxiliaries, Gilderun came into the power of Timur and was cast into an iron cage, while the leading men were restored to their dignities.
Thereafter Musa, Suleiman’s brother, harassed him, and the army declared Musa emperor. When Suleiman had been destroyed, there was war between Mahomet and Musa; Musa, deserted by his commander and fleeing his brother, was slaughtered by a servant. Meanwhile, while the brothers stirred up wars against one another, Caramanir the prefect revolted and brought hostile arms against Mahomet. But, after peace had been made with Caraman, Mustafa stirred up a greater sedition, and afterwards Torlac and Mustafa again; for it was very easy for them to entice rude men to themselves.
Murad thereafter, through Düzme Mustafa, and with almost all the leading men revolting, was not only cast down from the empire; but, when that Mustafa had been hanged, another Mustafa, the victor’s brother, began new disturbances. And lest any evil should be lacking, the Wallachian revolted. Amid these events Ibrahim of Karaman also rebelled, whom Murad was compelled to receive into favor.
Mahomet ruled without many seditions; when he died, the Janissaries plundered Constantinople. The brothers Bayezid and Zizim fought; the Egyptian attacked the victor, not without a conspiracy of the leading men. But the victor over these and others was agitated by Chasan Calisa, a solitary man who feigned holiness; for by the pretense of holiness he easily enticed to sedition peoples who had suffered things deserved and undeserved. Scarcely had he been destroyed when Selim took up arms against his father; and, when the Janissaries conspired, the old man was compelled to lay down the empire. Selim also killed his brother Ahmed and ruled in great fear.
Ibrahim thereafter considered casting Suleiman down from the kingdom. Suleiman came to so great a depth of misery that, when discord arose between his sons, he obtained by great promises from Tahmasp, his host, that his son Selim should be killed together with his grandson—an act than which nothing more disgraceful could be conceived in a father and grandfather. Dragut also rebelled against him when he was now old. Nothing, therefore, is easier than to excite a notable sedition in that kingdom in which the subjects are oppressed and the leading men are in fear, something which we see that the basest of men have been able to do.