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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
XXXV
his kiosk, as he reclined on his divan.
Supposing that this portended his death, he
died in a fever under that impression His
contemporary in England was Elizabeth,
who wrote him a Latin letter.
Mohammed III. succeeded to the throne
on the death of his father Mohammed in
1595; he died in 1603. He drowned all
the odalisks, or female slaves, of the seraglio, suspected of pregnancy, and put to
death nineteen of his brothers on the first
day of his elevation. He, from policy, was
advised by his mother to affect a dissipated
life, and contracted a habit which he could
not afterwards get rid of. He died prematurely of excess. His only contemporary
in England was Elizabeth.
Achmet I. came to the throne in 1603; and
died in 1607. He escaped the fate usually
attendant on a younger brother in Turkey,
by the premature death of his elder. His
life was attempted by a Dervish, who hurled
a large stone on him from the roof of a
house, which bruised his shoulder. He supposed that dogs communicated the plague,
and he ordered them all to be killed; but
the mufti saved them, by affirming that
every dog had a soul. His contemporary
in England was James I.
Osman, or Othman II. succeeded his father
Achmet in 1617; he was strangled by the
janissaries in 1621, at the early age of nineteen years. A meteoric phenomenon, which
assumed the appearance of a huge cymeter,
was seen in .the sky in his reign for a
month, which the Turks were persuaded portended to them the conquest of the world.
Charles I. was his contemporary in England.
Mustapha I. was dragged from prison, and
set on the throne by the janissaries in 1621,
on the death of his nephew Osman. In
1623 he was compelled to resign by the
turbulent janissaries, and re-entered the
prison from which they had taken him.
James I. reigned in England.
Amurath IV. began his reign in 1624; and
ended it in 1640; having hastened his
death by an intemperate use of wine and
ardent spirits, so as to break down a strong
constitution at the age of thirty-one. He
had conceived the extraordinary projects of
extinguishing the Ottoman race, by putting
his brother Ibrahim to death; but his own
death anticipated his intention. He annexed Bagdad to the empire. In his
reign, Cyril Lascaris, the Greek patriarch,
published, at the patriarchal press, a confession of eighteen articles, declaring the
faith of the Greeks on these points, similar
to that of the reformed church in Europe.
The contemporary reign in England was
that of Charles I.
Ibrahim, succeeded his brother in 1640, and
was strangled by the janissaries in 1668.
He was a miserable-looking man, had a
pale visage, scanty beard, seamed with the
small-pox, mean appearance, spare person,
hypochondriac, and subject to the falling
sickness. His contemporary in England
was Charles I.
Mohammed IV. the son of Ibrahim, ascended
the throne in 1648, at the age of seven
years. He was deposed in 1687, and shut
up in the seraglio, where he lingered in solitude four years. In the year 1666, in this
reign, Sabathi Levi, or Sevi, appeared in
Palestine as the expected Messiah, and was
invited to Constantinople by the sultan,
who promised to restore Jerusalem. Multitudes of people, both Turks and Jews, believed on him. Among other miracles, he
professed to be invulnerable; but when he
was set up as a mark to be shot at, his
courage failed, and he confessed the imposture. Contemporary governments in England, "the Commonwealth," Charles II.
Soliman II. (III.) brother to the former, succeeded in 1687; and died in 1691, of a
dropsy. He was austere and indisposed to
accept the throne. He passed his whole
time in studying the koran. In his reign
Lewin Warner, the Dutch ambassador at
the Port, caused the Bible to be translated
at Constantinople into the Turkish language.
The MS. remained from that time shut up
in the University of Leyden, till it was dis- |
