AMURATH III. secured his advancement by the now established practice of devoting to death all the other males of the deceased sultan's family. This prince was even more superstitious than his father; and every action of his reign was prompted and regulated by the reveries of astrology. He timidly yielded to every demand of the mutinous janissaries; but relieved the capital of their pre sence by a Persian war, which continued to occupy his armies and to exhaust his treasures for nearly twelve years. Having afterwards directed their en thusiasm in defence of the Hungarian provinces, Amurath himself was induced, by the solicitations of his vizier, to place his foot in the stirrup ; but his wavering mind was so overcome with terror during a violent tempest, that he shut himself in the seraglio, and fell a victim to his own gloomy and imaginary fears.* The Hungarian war continued throughout the reigns of his successors ATAIIOMET III. and ACIIMET and was concluded by the treaty of Comorra in 1616. The Ottoman empire, during this period, seemed fast hastening to decay. Its feeble-minded monarchs had become the slaves of the turbulent soldiery, and the rich provinces of Anatolia were desolated by rebellions. Its treasury was exhausted, and its armies were consumed in the swamps of Hungary, or in the arid sands of Persia. Sur rounded by formidable enemies, and torn by intes tine divisions, it was stripped of all its conquests on the side of Persia by Shah Abbas the Great; and the empire was saved more by the clemency of the conqueror than by its own power of resistance.
The imbecile MusTArna occupied the throne for a few months, and was deposed to make room for (thorax II. This prince, had he possessed pru dence and experience, was endowed with qualities that might have enabled him to revive the glories of the reign of Soliman; but his pride and severity excited against him the hatred of the janissaries, and his ambition and obstinacy hurried him into a war with Poland, contrary to the advice of his wis est counsellors. He led an army of 400.000 Turks to the banks of the Dneister, and after having seven times assaulted the Polish camp with the most de termined courage and perseverance, he was com pelled to retire in disgrace with his discomfited and discontented troops. A revolt of the janissaries immediately followed, in which Othman was de posed and strangled, and Mustapha again raised to the throne. This stupid prince enjoyed the pageant
of royalty only for a short period, when the sceptre was placed in the hands of AMURATII IV.
The first years of his reign were devoted by Amu rath, to repress the insolence and rapacity of the janissarics, who had now adopted the system of commanding their sovereigns, and of raising whom they pleased to the throne. These lawless soldiery had murdered the kaimaken or lieutenant of the grand vizier, in the presence of the sultan. Amu rath marked the deed in silence, but watched his opportunity of revenge. The most seditious were arrested, and privately executed; detachments were from time to time sent off to the army on the fron tiers; and when their numbers in the capital were thus no longer formidable, Amurath issued an or der for their destruction. This order was accom panied by a feiva of the mufti, enjoining the inha bitants of Constantinople and other principal cities to take up arms, and slay every janissary within their walls. The order was rigorously obeyed, and this once powerful body were reduced to such weakness that they became incapable of any sedi tious movement during the whole of this prince's reign.
The Ottoman porte at this period was engaged in hostilities on every side; but the thirty years' war, which now broke out in Europe, relieved Amurath from all apprehensions on the side of christendom. He therefore directed the strength of his empire against Bagdat, which had been re duced by the Persians. Three hundred thousand Ottomans surrounded the devoted city: thirty clays it withstood their incessant assaults, but it fell by the treachery of the governor, and was given up to massacre and pillage. The bloody mandate was in process of being executed, when Shah Cali, the Orpheus of Persia, presented himself before Amu rath, and sung to the Scheschader the downfall and misery of his native city with such intense and touching enthusiasm, that the conqueror was melt ed to tears, and commanded the slaughter to be suspended. Amurath led back his army loaded with plunder, and made a triumphant entry into his capital; but he did not long survive this impor tant capture, being carried oil' by a fever, the con sequence of a deep debauch, in the 31st year of his age.