The Grand Turk by Freely John

Author:Freely, John [Freely, John]
Language: zho
Format: epub
Publisher: Overlook
Published: 2009-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Meanwhile, the crusader fleet had been launched and sailed to Rhodes, where the various contingents assembled in June 1472. The fleet comprised eighty-five galleys and fifteen transports, commanded by Cardinal Carafa and two Venetian provveditori, Luigi Bembo and Marin Malipiero, with Pietro Mocenigo commanding the Venetian contingent. The galleys included thirty-six from Venice, twelve from the Venetian-controlled cities on the Dalmatian coast, eighteen from the papacy, seventeen from Naples, and two from the Knights of St John on Rhodes. Mocenigo received a letter on Rhodes that Caterino Zeno had written from Tabriz, recommending that the Christian armada attack the fortresses held by the Ottomans on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia, so as to divert Mehmet when Uzun Hasan began his offensive against the sultan.

Mocenigo thereupon attacked and took Silifke and two other fortresses to its east, which he handed over to Kasım Bey. The entire crusader fleet then sailed to Antalya in August 1472, breaking through the chain that blocked the entrance to the fortified port and landing troops, who laid waste the environs of the city. But the crusaders were unable to break through the powerful Roman walls of the fortified city, and so after a brief siege the fleet sailed back to Rhodes.

At that point the Neapolitan leaders, who had been in continual disagreement with Mocenigo and the other Venetian commanders, withdrew their contingent from the armada and sailed back to Naples. The rest of the crusader fleet attacked Izmir (Smyrna) on 13 September 1472, and after a bloody battle with the Ottoman defenders the city was sacked and burned to the ground.

Uzun Hasan sent an army into Anatolia in the late summer of 1472 under the command of his beylerbey Emir Bey and his nephew Yusuf Mirza, who took with them the Karamanid princes Pir Ahmet and Kasım Bey, as well as Kızıl Ahmet, the son of the dispossessed Türkmen emir of Sinop. Caterino Zeno, the Venetian ambassador in Tabriz, also accompanied the expedition with a force of 500 Croatian cavalrymen. Zeno estimated the size of the Akkoyunlu army to be 50,000 men, while other estimates range up to 100,000.

The Türkmen troops commanded by Emir Bey and Yusuf Mirza captured and sacked Tokat. Uzun Hasan then reinstated Pir Ahmet as emir of Karaman, where Prince Mustafa was provincial governor. Prince Mustafa, who at the time was with Gedik Ahmet Pasha on campaign in southern Karaman, received instructions from his father not to engage the Akkoyunlu forces until he had joined forces with Daud Pasha. Mehmet then personally led the main Ottoman army into Anatolia, whereupon he ordered Prince Mustafa and Daud Pasha, who now commanded an army estimated to comprise 60,000 troops and cavalry, to attack the Akkoyunlu. The two forces met near Carallia on the south shore of Lake Beyşehir, a battle described by Tursun Beg.

The Ottoman prince Mustafa, who was at the time in charge of the province of Karaman, advanced against them with a contingent of the Anatolian forces and subjected them to a defeat, taking Mirza Yusuf and two hundred other influential begs prisoner.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.