On the side of the south too, Bayazid's dominions
had been threatened. The Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, Sayf
ad-Din (1468-95), had espoused the cause of Jem, to
whose mother he had given an asylum; had interfered
in the affairs of Sulkadr, a small Turcoman lordship
in Cappadocia; and had asserted authority in the
regions of Lesser Armenia,—even as in ancient
days the Ptolemies had thrown out an arm to grasp
Cilicia. Tarsus, Adana, and other places passed under
Egyptian rule, and in 1485 war openly broke out
between the Mamluk and the Ottoman Sultans. An
important victory was won by the Egyptian in 1488;
but a peace was patched up in 1491, and lasted during
the rest of Bayazid's reign.
The Cambridge modern history, Volume 1 ,
Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton Acton, Ernest
Alfred Benians Editors Sir Adolphus William Ward, Sir
George Walter Prothero, Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, The
University press, 1912
Jem Sultan
The situation and prospects of the Ottoman empire
seemed changed on the death of the conqueror. The
prosperity and growth of that empire depended wholly
on the personality of the autocrat who ruled it; and
the two sons whom Mohammad left behind were made in a
different mould from their vigorous father. Bayazid
the elder, who was governor of the province of
Amasia, was a man of mild nature who cared for the
arts of peace, and would have been well contented to
rest upon the conquests which had been already
achieved, and to enjoy the fruits of the labours of
his fathers. Jem, governor of Caramania, was a
bright, clever youth, endowed with a distinguished
poetical talent; he might easily have been lured into
a career of military ambition, but perhaps he hardly
possessed the strength and steadfastness necessary
for success. When Bayazid reached Constantinople, on
the news of his father's death, he found that
the Janissaries had begun a reign of terror in the
city. They had slain the Grand Vezir, who, being
disposed to espouse the cause of Jem, had, according
to a common practice in such cases, concealed the
Sultan's death; and they had plundered the
habitations of the Jews and Christians. They favoured
the claims of Bayazid, and were tranquillised when
they had exacted from him a pardon for their outbreak
and an increase of their pay. Meanwhile Jem who
claimed the throne on the ground that, though the
younger, he was born in the purple—had advanced
to Brusa, and was there proclaimed Sultan. But he was
willing to compromise. Through his great-aunt he made
a proposal to Bayazid
that they should divide the empire—Bayazid to rule in
Europe, and he in Asia. The question at stake was not
merely a personal one, the extent of Bayazid's sovereignty,
but the integrity and power of the Ottoman empire.
Moreover, it involved a direct violation of one of
the fundamental canons of Islam: that there shall be
only one supreme Imam. Bayazid's decision accordingly
influenced the history of the world. He refused to
accept Jem's offer; " the empire," he said,
" is the bride of one lord." The rival
claims were settled by the award of battle in the
plains of Yenishehr, where the treachery of some of
Jem's troops gave the victory to Bayazid. The defeated
brother fled to Cairo, and his attempt in the
following year to seize Caramania in conjunction with
an exiled prince of that country was repelled. Then
he sought refuge at Rhodes; his chances of success
lay in the help of the Christian powers of Europe.
Jem arrived at Rhodes under a safe-conduct from the
Grand-Master and the Council of the Knights,
permitting him and his suite to remain in the island
and leave it at their will. But it was soon felt that
it 86 Adventures of Jem Sultan. [1482-95 was not safe
to keep the precious person of the prince at Rhodes,
so near the realm of Bayazid,
who was ready to resort to any foul means of seizing
or destroying him; and Jem and the Grand-Master
agreed that France would be the best retreat, pending
the efforts which they hoped would be made to restore
him. To France, accordingly, Jem sailed (September,
1482). After his departure, the Knights concluded
first a treaty of peace with Bayazid for the Sultan's
lifetime, and secondly a contract by which he agreed
to pay them 45,000 ducats a year, in return for which
the Grand-Master undertook to maintain and guard Jem
in such a way as to cause no inconvenience to the
Sultan. In an age when the violation of engagements
was regarded as justifiable, and was even in certain
cases recommended by the heads of the Church, there
is no more shameless instance of perfidy than this.
D'Aubusson had guaranteed Jem his freedom, and
undertaken to espouse his cause; he now took
Bayazid's money to be Jem's jailor. His conduct could
not even be defended on the plea of the interests of
religion, which in those days were often furthered by
dishonesty and bad faith; on the contrary, it was a
treachery to the cause of Christendom, to which Jem's
ambitions —according to the letters which
D'Aubusson himself wrote to the western
powers—furnished so unique an opportunity
against its foe. For six years Jem was kept a
prisoner in France, being constantly removed from one
castle to another by his Rhodian guards, and making
repeated attempts to escape which were always
frustrated; while the Pope, the King of Naples, and
the King of Hungary were each seeking to induce
D'Aubusson to deliver the prince into his hands. At
length Innocent VIII came to an arrangement. The
concession of various privileges, and a cardinal's
hat for D'Aubusson, persuaded the Knights, who were
already anxious to rid themselves of a charge which
involved them in troublesome relations with both
Bayazid and the Sultan of Egypt. Another series of
negotiations was required to obtain from Charles Vin
permission for Jem to leave France; and not till
March 1489 did the Turkish prince arrive at Rome.
Pope Alexander VI, who succeeded Innocent in 1492,
and who was threatened by the invasion of Charles
VIII, affected the most friendly relations with
Bayazid and had recourse to him for money and other
support. In 1494 the document containing this Pope's
instructions to his envoy, together with letters from
Bayazid, was intercepted at Sinigaglia, in the
possession of Turkish envoys who had landed at Ancona
and were on their way to Rome. The compromising
papers were taken to Charles VIII at Florence, and
the Popes treachery to Christendom was exposed. A
letter of the Sultan to the Pope, if genuine, is
significant. Considering—wrote Bayazid in Latin, a
language with which he was well acquainted—that
sooner or later Jem must die, it would be well, for
the tranquillity of his Holiness and the satisfaction
of the Sultan, to hasten a death which for him would
be life; and therefore he implored the Pope to remove
Jem from the vexations of this life and send him to a
better world. For the dead body of the prince he
promised 300,000 ducats, with which the Pope might
buy estates for his sons. Charles VIII advanced to
Rome, and the terms which he made with Alexander VI
comprised the transference of Jem into his own power.
Jem accompanied the King southward, but he was in
ailing health, and at Capua became so ill that he
could go no further. He was taken in a litter to
Naples, and died there in high fever (February,
1495). The Venetians, who were the first to inform
the Sultan of his brother's end, wrote in a pointed
way that he had died a natural death; but, as it was
their policy at this moment to keep on good terms
with the Pope, this testimony does not weigh much in
deciding the question whether, as was certainly
believed at the time, Jem's health was undermined by
a deliberate system of intoxication. The
insufficiency of our material compels us to leave the
question open; but the circumstances are at least
suspicious, and in any case the French were innocent.
Thus for thirteen years the Western Powers held Jem
as a menace over the head of the Turkish Sultan; but
this singular episode did not affect the course of
Turkish history.
The Cambridge modern history, Volume 1 ,
Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton Acton, Ernest
Alfred Benians Editors Sir Adolphus William Ward, Sir
George Walter Prothero, Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, The
University press, 1912