This treaty was signed by the grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha who is accused of having betrayed Turkey by accepting it, Ibrahim Pasha being a man of epicurean tastes which the sultan shared.
The craze of the time in the capital was the cultivation of tulip gardens and has given to this period of Turkish history the name of the "Tulip Period." It created a definite literary school under Nedim, the greatest Turkish lyric poet. But popular murmurings against these costly pleasures became such that the grand vizier had to seize the occasion of the Persian defeat by the Afghans to annex several parts of Daghistan in Persia in order to appease the bellicose spirit of the janissaries. This led to a complication with Russia, but the intervention of France resulted in a treaty be tween Russia and Turkey which was signed in Constantinople (June 30, 1724). The treaty allotted Baku and Derbend on the Caspian coast to Russia.
The news of the defeat of the Turkish army by the Persian army under Nadir Kuli Khan led to a rising of the mob under the leadership of Patrona Khalil, a bath waiter. The grand vizier was killed and the sultan forced to abdicate (173o). Mahmoud I. succeeded. This is the only Turkish rising which had not originated in the army. The printing-press first came into use in Turkey at this time.
Mahmoud I. (1730-1754).—Patrona Khalil was killed and his followers dispersed after the accession of Mahmoud I. The war continued with Persia and Nadir Kuli Khan, after his successes in `Iraq and Erivan, seized the Persian throne. In 1736 a Turco Persian treaty was signed whereby all territory conquered since the reign of Murad IV. was returned to Persia. Russia also re turned the Persian territory she had annexed, thus laying the basis of a Russo-Persian alliance against Turkey.
The question of the Polish succession once more led Turkey into war. France had put forward as her claimant to the Polish throne Stanislas Leszcynski, while Austria and Russia supported the claims of Augustus III., the elector of Saxony, although Russia had bound herself by the treaties of 1711 and i720 to abstain from interfering with Poland. The Russian candidate was forced upon Poland, whereupon France declared war on Russia and Austria, and then urged Turkey to join her. Turkey had a grievance in that
Russia had refused to allow the Crimean troops to march through Daghistan during the Persian campaign, so she declared war in spite of the joint efforts of England and Holland. Before waiting for a declaration of war a Russian army under Marshal Munnich stormed the isthmus of Crimea, devastated the whole peninsula, and captured Azov and Kilburun, and a year later, Ochakov. The sea Powers of the west mediated to restore peace and the repre sentatives of the belligerents met in Niemirov in 1737 to arrange terms. But Austria put forward new claims to the principalities and the Balkan peninsula which were refused by Turkey, where upon she revealed the existence of a secret alliance with Russia and threatened to fight for her new claims. Accordingly her army marched on Bosnia and Walachia, capturing Nish in Serbia. But the tide of war turned against both Russia and Austria, Ochakov and Kilburun being recaptured by one Turkish army while another crossed the Danube and penetrated as far as the Banat. In 1739 Turkey consented to negotiate peace and a conference opened in the camp of the grand vizier who was marching on Belgrade. The preliminaries were signed under the mediation of the French am bassador Villeneuve, for whose services the Porte reaffirmed the capitulations which France had already obtained. After the entrance of the grand vizier into Belgrade the definitive treaties of peace were concluded with Austria and Russia (Sept. 18, 1739). Austria gave up Belgrade and the rest of the territory south of the Save which she had gained by the Treaty of Passarovitz. The treaty with Russia provided that the forts of Azov should be razed, and that Russia should have no warships on the Sea of Azov or on the Black Sea. The Kabardias were to remain independent as a buffer-state between Turkey and Russia. Turkey consented to discuss the question of recognizing the tsar's claim to the imperial title of padishah and admitted his right to send representatives to Constantinople.