The Turkish Empire: Its Growth and Decay

“In this volume Lord Eversley gives us the story of Poland’s tragedy with his usual precision and compression, but adding the special charm of a delightfully fresh, sustained, and vivid handling.”

+Westminster Gazette.+

“Thoroughness, dignity, and a calm, even judgment are the conspicuous characteristics of Lord Eversley’s study of the sufferings and wrongs of Poland during the last 150 years.... It was always Lord Eversley’s way to pursue any theme with complete independence of judgment, and an assiduous determination to get back to facts, and this volume is a meritorious example of its author’s industry and intellectual vigour.”

+Daily Telegraph.+

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN LTD.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: MAHOMET THE CONQUEROR

From a medallion in the British Museum attributed to the Italian artist Gentile Bellini, who was invited by Mahomet to Constantinople, in 1480, and painted a portrait of him.

The portrait is in the Layard Collection.]

THE TURKISH EMPIRE ITS GROWTH AND DECAY

BY LORD EVERSLEY Author of “The Partitions of Poland,” “Peel and O’Connell”, “Gladstone and Ireland”

WITH A FRONTISPIECE AND THREE MAPS

LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN LTD. ADELPHI TERRACE

First published in 1917

Second Impression 1918

(All rights reserved)

PREFACE

THE favour with which, two years ago, my book on The Partitions of Poland was received by the public has induced me to devote the interval to a study of the history of another State which, in modern times, has almost disappeared from the map of Europe—namely Turkey.

The subject is one in which I have for many years past taken great interest. In the course of a long life, I have witnessed the greater part of the events which have resulted in the loss to that State of all its Christian provinces in Europe and all its Moslem provinces in Africa, leaving to it only its capital and a small part of Thrace in Europe, and its still wide possessions in Asia.

So long ago, also, as in 1855 and 1857, I spent some time at Constantinople and travelled in Bulgaria and Greece, and was able to appreciate the effects of Turkish rule. As a result, I gave a full support, in 1876, to Mr. Gladstone in his efforts to secure the independence of Bulgaria, and in 1879 was an active member of a committee, presided over by Lord Rosebery, which had for its object the extension of the kingdom of Greece so as to include the provinces inhabited by Greeks still suffering under Turkish rule.

In 1887 and 1890 I again visited the East and travelled over the same ground as thirty years earlier, and was able to observe the immense improvements which had been effected in the provinces that had gained independence, and how little change had taken place at Constantinople.

In view of these experiences and of the further great changes portended in Turkey after the conclusion of the present great war, I have thought it may be of use to tell, in a compact and popular form, the story of the growth and decay of the Turkish Empire.

History may well be told at many different lengths and from different points of view. That of the Ottoman Empire, from the accession of Othman in 1288 to the treaty of Kainardji in 1774, which secured to Russia a virtual protectorate in favour of the Christian subjects of Turkey, has been told at its greatest length by the German professor, Von Hammer, in eighteen volumes. He is the only historian who has explored for this long period both Greek and Turkish annals.