Taking advantage of the troubles which agitated Persia during the Afghan usurpation„Achmet seized upon Georgia, Armenia, and the mountainous parts of Tauris as far as the lake Ourmia, while Russia also made important conquests on the shores of the Caspian. Nadir Shah, however, having expelled the Afghans, stript the Turks, during this and the following reign, of all their acquisitions on the side of Persia, and restored the original boundaries of the two nations.
In an insurrection of the janissaries the sceptre was transferred from Achmet to his nephew MATT MOUD I. The new sovereign, however, took a severe retribution upon the insurgent leaders who had raised him to the throne; and to prevent future revolts, made it a rule of his policy frequently to change his vizier, and never to retain any one above three years. The Persian war was prosecuted by the Turkish commander Osman with great ability and success. He twice vanquished Nadir Shah with great slaughter, and, had he been furnished with the necessary supplies by his sovereign,' he would have compelled the proud Nadir to retire within his frontiers. But Osman was thrown upon his own resources, and being slain in battle, the tide of victory ran in favour of the Persians, which disposed the Porte to listen to pacific overtures.
Peace was accelerated by the threatening attitude of Russia, and war was commenced by that power by the irruption of Marshal Munich into the Cri mea. The emperor offered himself as mediator, but, actuated by a selfish policy, he soon after join ed his pretentions to those of the empress Anne. The Turks, led by the counsels of the Count de Bonneval, drove the Austrians from Wallachia and Servia, and laid siege to Belgrade. The emperor
paid for his perfidy with the loss of this important fortress; and the Danube and the Save became again the common boundary of the two empires. Russia,' though successful during the war, consented to re store her conquests, to demolish the fortress of Azoff, and to relinquish the navigation of the Black Sea.
During the war of the Pragmatic sanction which occupied the principal powers of Europe, the Sub lime Porte preserved a dignified neutrality, and instead of taking advantage of the dissentious of his enemies, he proferred to the belligerents his good offices as a mediator. But the treaty of Aix la-Chapelle restored for a time tranquillity to Eu rope.
The Russians continued to press upon the desert frontiers of the empire, bet‘%een the Dneister and Dnieper,by silent but gradual encroachments. Co Ionics were established and towns arose, and the remonstrances of Mahmoud had only the effect of causing a temporary suspension of these hostile measures.
The latter years of Mahmoud were disturbed by some popular insurrections, excited by the avarice and ambition of his Kislar-aga, w hich could only be quelled by the death of the favourite and his criminal agents. The sultan himself soon after died in consequence of a fistula, which had been neglected or unskilfully treated; and his death was universally regretted by his subjects. He was a humane and indulgent sovereign, and maintained by his domestic and civil policy the tranquillity of the empire.