Introduction
The Ottoman-Safavid war of 986–998/1578–1590 was a story of human tragedy for soldiers and civilians alike, and a social, political, and military disaster for both parties. By the end of the twelve-year conflict and the signing of the Treaty of Constantinople in 998/1590, the Safavids had lost the majority of their lands in the Caucasus and the Ottomans were plunged into a severe economic crisis that ultimately brought about the revolts of the Celali in Anatolia. As for the war’s battlegrounds of Azerbaijan and Shirvan, where most of the fighting took place, they were turned into barren swathes of depopulated land by the fierce fighting and plundering of both belligerents. The treaty’s signing did not even allow for a significant break in the fighting, as war broke out again only thirteen years later, and most Ottoman territorial gains were reversed by the Treaty of Naṣūḥ Paşa, signed in 1021/1612.
The terrible character of the 1578–1590 war is very much apparent in the book under consideration in this article. Written by an Ottoman soldier named Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh, this book is a history of the 986–987/1578–1579 campaign in Shirvan, the title of which has not been recorded in the surviving material. Ebūbekir’s text is extant in three different manuscripts, each corresponding to a distinct version of the text. A first and presumably earlier but undated version is represented by ff. 2v–36v of MS Historia Osmanica no 68, kept in the National Library of Austria in Vienna; a second version, dated Ṣafar 990/March–April 1582, is provided by MS Turc 123 of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris); and a third version, dated Rajab 992/July–August 1584, is found in ff. 1r–21r of MS no 366 of the Ali Emiri Efendi collection of the Millet Kütüphanesi in Istanbul (hereafter designated as H.O. 68, Turc 123, and AE 366).Footnote 1
MSS H.O. 68 and AE 366 are both majmūʿa miscellanies, or multiple-text manuscripts wherein all the pieces were written in the same hand at the same time and revolve around the same topic, thus consisting in single production units.Footnote 2 In H.O. 68, Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh’s work is followed by several texts, including a copy of a letter sent by Özdemiroġlu ʿOs̱mān Paşa (d. 993/1585) to ʿIvāż Efendi (d. 994/1586), ḳāḍı of Istanbul, and the Fetḥ-i Tebrīz by Kütahyalı Raḥīmīzāde Ibrāhīm Ḥarīmī (d. after 998/1590), composed in 993/1585.Footnote 3 In AE 366, the text is followed by a brief chronicle of the Ottoman dynasty from the enthronement of Aḥmed I in 1012/1603 up to the year 1045/1635–1636.Footnote 4 We can thus confidently say that these two manuscripts are not autographs; however, the copyist of AE 366 did preserve the colophon of his model manuscript.Footnote 5 As for Turc 123, it is a single text; yet, contrary to the opinion of Edgard Blochet, cataloguer of the French National Library’s Persian and Turkish manuscripts in the early twentieth century, textual variants indicate that this manuscript was also the work of a copyist.Footnote 6 Here again, the colophon of the model manuscript is preserved in the copy.Footnote 7
As mentioned, Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh’s text does not seem to have kept its original title. In H.O. 68, a later hand wrote the title Tārīḫ-i ʿOs̱mān Paşa (History of ʿOs̱mān Paşa) on folio 1r; this title was taken up by Gustav Flügel, cataloguer of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek’s manuscripts, and then by Yunus Zeyrek, who edited the work based on this manuscript in 2001.Footnote 8 In Turc 123, the text is called Tevārīḫ-i ʿOs̱mān Paşa berā-yı Demür-ḳapu Hikāyāt-ı ʿEcībe (Chronicle of ʿOs̱mān Paşa in Demirkapı [i.e., Derbent], with Some Intriguing Stories), a title most likely added by the copyist.Footnote 9 Finally, in AE 366, the work is called Şarḳ Seferlerinde Surḫ-ser ile Vāḳiʿ Olan Aḥvālleri ve Şirvān’da ʿOs̱mān Paşa ile Surḫ-serin Muḥārebelerin Beyān Eder (On the Eastern Campaigns against the Qizilbash and ʿOs̱mān Paşa’s Battles with the Qizilbash in Shirvan), a sentence taken from the work’s preface.Footnote 10 An abbreviation of this descriptive title was used as the title for the second edition of Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh’s book by Süleyman Lokmacı in 2018, an edition based on both H.O. 68 and AE 366, and including fac-similes.Footnote 11
Such elements from the work’s reception notably show that, from the mid-seventeenth century onwards, Özdemiroġlu ʿOs̱mān Paşa was seen as the primary character in the narrative of the 1578–1579 Caucasus campaign, despite the actual commander-in-chief (serdār) being Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa (d. 988/1580). This reflects the great prestige enjoyed by ʿOs̱mān Paşa as a result of his successful operations during that campaign in a difficult context, later reinforced by his conquest of Tabriz and tenure as grand vizier and commander-in-chief in 992–993/1584–1585.Footnote 12 In the text itself, however, it is only from his nomination as governor of Shirvan in winter 986/1578 onwards that ʿOs̱mān Paşa takes center stage, as the author stays with him and the rest of the troops wintering in Derbent, while Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa and the bulk of the Ottoman army retreat to winter in Erzurum. This is, arguably, the more interesting part of the text, notably for the information the author provides on the peoples, history, and politics of the North Caucasus, which is why I have translated it in this article.
Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh is as prolific on his wartime experiences and observations as he is concise about his own life. As I found no mention of him in external sources, whether chronicles or (published) archival documents, I provide here only a brief outline of his biography, exclusively based on the colophons of Turc 123 and AE 366. In the Paris text, dated Ṣafar 990/March–April 1582, we learn that Ebūbekir is a member of the corps of the ʿulūfeciyān-ı yesār, or left-wing ʿulūfeci, the fourth in rank of the six cavalry corps (altı bölük) of the Ottoman sultan’s standing army.Footnote 13
As their name indicates, these troops stood on the left of the sultan, between the ṣilāḥdār and ġurebā-yı yesār, and comprised around one hundred smaller units (also called bölük) and approximately 400 soldiers in total, according to an estimation given for the year 982/1574 by Rhoads Murphey.Footnote 14 During most of the Caucasus campaign, the ʿulūfeciyān-ı yesār were commanded by Ḥürrem Aġa, with Meḥmed Ketḫüdā as a second.Footnote 15 In the Istanbul text, composed two years after the Paris one in Rajab 992/July–August 1584, we learn that Ebūbekir is now working as çaşnīgīr, or taster and table attendant, for the Ottoman şehzāde, eighteen-year-old Meḥmed III (r. 1003–1012/1595–1603).Footnote 16 Ebūbekir’s further activities are unknown to us.
Sources on the campaign of 1578–1579
As with most conflicts, the causes of the war of 1578–1590 are debated and multifaceted, and a comprehensive discussion lies outside the scope of this article.Footnote 17 Nor is it the aim here to provide a full state-of-the-art overview of the war. The only monograph dedicated to the subject is Bekir Kütükoğlu’s Siyâsî Münasebetleri, in which the author draws on all the major chronicles, published and unpublished, as well as Ottoman archival material.Footnote 18 In addition, the introductions and commentaries of edited contemporary sources offer valuable scholarly insights. Scholarship specifically addressing the Shirvan and Derbent campaign of 1578–1579 is even more limited. Consequently, contemporary sources are paramount, and I have relied primarily on these to interpret the narrative elements in Ebūbekir’s text. Some of the authors cited below also provide brief observations on the politics and, more rarely, the social life of the Caucasus; I have referred to these where relevant.
The main sources focused specifically on the campaign are Ottoman ġazavātnāme-type chronicles written by direct participants, which are paramount to providing clarification and context for this study. In this respect, I can mention the Turkish Şecāʿatnāme by Dāl Meḥmed Çelebi (d. 1006/1597–1598), also known as Āṣafī, who was ʿOs̱mān Paşa’s chief of staff (teẕkereci);Footnote 19 the Ẓafernāme-i Ḥażret-i Sulṭān Murād Ḫān by Raḥīmīzāde Ibrāhīm Çavuş, also known as Ḥarīmī;Footnote 20 the Fetḥ-i Şirvān ve Temürḳapu by ʿAdlī;Footnote 21 and the so-called “anonymous ġazavātnāme” found in MS no 1240 of the Hasan Paşa İl Halk Kütüphanesi in Çorum.Footnote 22 Like Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh, all four of these authors were with ʿOs̱mān Paşa in Derbent. To this list, one should add Ḥüseyin b. Meḥmed’s Ġazāvāt-ı Özdemiroğlu ʿOs̱mān Paşa and the Tevārīḫ-i Futūḥ-i Şirvān, a hitherto unstudied chronicle presented by Samuel Stevens in the present issue.Footnote 23 In both cases, it is unclear if the authors took part in the campaign of Shirvan and Derbent. Also worthy of consideration are the Nuṣretnāme and Künhü’l-Aḫbār by Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī (d. 1008/1600), who did not stay in Derbent but was Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa’s secretary (dīvān kātibi) during the campaign, until the serdār’s demotion in 987/1580.Footnote 24
Persian sources are significantly less informative for two main reasons: there are no surviving accounts of direct participants in the campaign and, as a Safavid defeat, it was not prominently featured in the literature.Footnote 25 One notable exception is the Sharafnāma by Sharaf Khān Bidlīsī (d. ca. 1009/1600), who took part in the battles of Childir and Koyungeçidi as the Safavid governor of Nākhchivān; however, he defected to the Ottomans just a few months into the campaign.Footnote 26 As with many events of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Iskandar Beg’s Tārīkh-i ʿĀlam-ārā-yi ʿAbbāsī offers broader contextual insights from the Safavid perspective.Footnote 27 As for European sources, one can notably mention Giovanni Tommaso Minadoi’s War between the Turks and the Persians, although ʿOs̱mān Paşa’s time in Derbent barely receives mention.Footnote 28 The same applies to the account of Orūch Beg/Don Juan of Persia; like Sharaf Khān, the author served as a Safavid commander during the campaign.Footnote 29
War in the Caucasus
The war of 1578–1590 was the first conflict in which the Caucasus served as the primary battleground in the geopolitical struggles between the Ottoman Empire, Safavid state, and Russian tsardom.Footnote 30 For the Ottomans, in particular, this marked their first large-scale involvement in the region, precipitated by Muscovy’s absorption of the former Golden Horde Muslim lands of Kazan (959/1552) and Astrakhan (963/1556), and by the failure of an earlier, smaller-scale attempt to retake the latter province in 977/1569.Footnote 31
The failure of the Astrakhan campaign prompted a shift in Ottoman policy toward the Caucasus. Because Istanbul lay much farther from the region than Qazvin or Moscow, the Porte had until then largely delegated control of regional affairs to the Chinggisid Giray dynasty of Crimean khans, themselves claimants to the former Golden Horde territories.Footnote 32 Yet, although mutually beneficial, the relationship was also a “restrictive arrangement”: the Ottoman Porte sought to prevent the Crimean khanate from becoming too powerful, while the Crimean khans tried to curb Ottoman influence in the region.Footnote 33 Contemporary chroniclers such as Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī and Ibrāhīm Peçevī even contended that Devlet I Giray (r. 958–985/1551–1577), the ruling khan of Crimea, had sabotaged the Astrakhan campaign, fearing that Ottoman control of the province would further curtail his autonomy.Footnote 34
Furthermore, in the event of an Ottoman offensive against the Safavids, Russia’s advance in the region risked creating a practical alliance with the latter, further complicating the already difficult logistics of campaigning in the East.Footnote 35 In light of these developments, the time seemed ripe for the Ottomans to pursue a more direct approach to the local rulers of the Caucasus, particularly the Sunni Muslim rulers of the territory from Kabardia to south of Derbent, known in contemporary sources as “Daghestan.”Footnote 36 This was a strategic region in which “the Crimean khans and … Safavid shahs contested for a sphere of influence,” yet without encroaching on the authority of the local rulers who “enjoyed full independence both domestically and internationally.”Footnote 37 In particular, the city and fortress of Derbent was “a significant passageway between the North and South Caucasus … with a strategic position on the Caspian shore,” and its importance in Ottoman regional policy is evident from Ṣokollu Meḥmed Paşa’s 987/1579 plan to establish a Derbent-based fleet to patrol the Caspian Sea.Footnote 38
To achieve these objectives, the Ottomans needed the cooperation of a figure who appears repeatedly in the sources: the Shamkhāl, whose forefathers had been regarded since the Mongol period as the “masters of Daghestan.”Footnote 39 Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī describes the Shamkhāl as “prime amongst the governors of Daghestan, the governor of the Kumyks and Kaitags, Emir Shamkhāl,” while the anonymous author of another contemporary fetiḥnāme even calls him “the king of Daghestan” (Daġıstān pādişāhı).Footnote 40
Although not a king, the Shamkhāl was the ruler of a de facto state in the region, the Shamkhālate of Tarku.Footnote 41 The origins of both the Shamkhālate and the title “Shamkhāl” are unclear; its history is virtually unknown before the mid-sixteenth century, when it starts appearing in Russian, Safavid, and Ottoman sources.Footnote 42 Named after its capital, Tarku, near present-day Makhachkala, the Shamkhālate held sway across all of Daghestan. Although the territory was primarily inhabited by Kumyks, the ruling clan and the Shamkhāl himself were of Lak/Gazi-Kumukh origins.Footnote 43 The Shamkhāl also exercised lordship over other Daghestani groups, including the Avars, Kaitag, and Tabasaran.Footnote 44
As ruler of Daghestan, the Shamkhāl was an important partner for regional powers, and his strategic position enabled him to maneuver between all sides regardless of religious affiliation. The politics of the Shamkhāl, and of Daghestani rulers more broadly, were marked by pragmatism.Footnote 45 Although the Ottomans enjoyed a “favoured position … in the contest for the shamkhal’s loyalty” by virtue of their Sunnism, the Shamkhāl readily collaborated and even arranged marriage alliances with Shia and Christian rulers.Footnote 46
To win over the Daghestanis, the Ottomans sought to implement a decentralized form of rule, granting them broad autonomy in internal affairs, akin to the autonomy Kurdish emirs enjoyed in the early sixteenth century.Footnote 47 Unlike in Kurdistan, however, the Ottomans had limited knowledge of conditions in Daghestan. This is evident in the chroniclers’ ignorance regarding the Shamkhāl’s identity: most, including Ebūbekir, simply refer to him as “Shamkhāl”; only Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī appears to have understood that this was a title rather than a personal name.Footnote 48 Whatever the Ottomans’ confusion, it seems to have been worse for the Safavids.Footnote 49 Of the three powers, the Muscovites actually appear to have been the better informed on Caucasian affairs.Footnote 50
The confusion in contemporary sources has carried over into modern scholarship, leaving key questions unsettled, such as the identity of the Shamkhāl during the campaign of 1578–1579. Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay argues that Shamkhāl Surkhay I ruled until 1574, after which the Shamkhālate fragmented and declined in power.Footnote 51 Willem Floor follows this view and gives precise, though inaccurate, regnal dates for several shamkhāls, identifying Surkhay I’s successor as Choban I, who allegedly ruled in 1574–1575.Footnote 52 Drawing on a mühimme defteri dated 982/1574 and published by Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, İsmail Bülbül likewise places Choban’s accession in 1574. However, while Kırzıoğlu, following Şerafeddin Erel, dates Choban I’s death to 1578, Bülbül traces his presence in Ottoman records until 1586.Footnote 53 Murat Yaşar demonstrates that Choban was ruling from at least 1569, but also dates his death to 1578.Footnote 54 By contrast, Kamil Aliev and Dariusz Kołodziejczyk assert that Choban I ruled between 1569–1589.Footnote 55 Whatever his exact dates of rule, it is clear for our purposes that Choban I was the Shamkhāl mentioned by Ebūbekir in the context of the Shirvan campaign.
Although poorly informed, the Ottomans were determined to ally with local rulers to wrest control of the region from the Safavids and Russians. At the outset of the 1578–1579 campaign, requests were sent to Daghestani leaders to join, prime among them the Shamkhāl.Footnote 56 For his services, Choban I was rewarded with a robe of honor and the sancāḳ of Shaburan, while his brother Tuchalav, governor of the Avars, was appointed sancāḳbey of Akhty. Other Daghestani rulers received similar rewards.Footnote 57 It is in this context that Choban I met Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa and his kātib Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī at Sulṭāncık, on the way from Eresh to Tbilisi, on the night of barāt, Shaʿbān 14, 986/October 16, 1578.Footnote 58 The Shamkhāl later guided ʿOs̱mān Paşa to safety in Derbent, as recounted by Ebūbekir. In late 991/1583, after further Ottoman successes, the Porte sent one hundred robes of honor for distribution among the local rulers as a reward for their continued service.Footnote 59
In sum, the campaign of 1578–1579 in Shirvan and Derbent marked the beginning of a consistent Ottoman policy in the Caucasus. ʿOs̱mān Paşa, himself of Kabardian origin, was uniquely positioned to implement it, drawing on his personal knowledge and connections in the region.Footnote 60 As noted, it was during the Shirvan and Derbent campaign that his star began to rise, culminating six years later in his conquest of Tabriz as grand vizier and commander-in-chief of the army.
Although the Ottomans lost control of Shirvan and Daghestan in the war of 1012–1021/1603–1612, this did not mark the end of their efforts to administer and influence the region. In Istanbul, the Caucasus was no longer regarded as a peripheral zone to be managed through the Crimean khans, who were often ineffective and not always aligned with Ottoman policy, but as a strategically vital region for the empire’s economic and military interests. This outlook set the Porte on a collision course with Iran and Russia, triggering a series of wars that extended into the early twentieth century. Thus, when Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh stepped foot in Shirvan, he was taking the first step in a conflict that ultimately lasted for three centuries and a half.
Ebūbekir’s ġazavātnāme, however, reflects none of these larger concerns, and even the broader picture of the campaign is eclipsed by his day-to-day impressions as a rank-and-file soldier, which is precisely what gives the text its distinctive value.
Ebūbekir’s narrative
Ebūbekir’s story starts with the Sultan’s order for “a campaign in Shirvan and Georgia, and in the lands of the Ajam,” as well as Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa’s appointment as serdār of the army for that campaign.Footnote 61 In Muḥarram 986/March–April 1578, the army’s standards are brought to Üsküdar, where the army starts assembling and departs.Footnote 62 In Erzurum, they are joined by the troops levied by the governors of various provinces, notably Diyarbekir, Erzurum, and Aleppo, and the army leaves in Jumādā I 986/July 1578, marking the beginning of the campaign itself.Footnote 63
The first important event recounted by Ebūbekir is the battle of Childir, which took place, according to our author, on the day after the army departed from Ardahan, namely Saturday Jumādā II 5, 986/August 9, 1578. The Georgian fort overlooking Childir, called “İblīs ḥıṣārı” by the author (or Şeytan Kalesi today) is easily conquered, but a force of 40,000 Safavid soldiers under the command of Muḥammad “Toqmāq” Khān Ustājlū, governor of Chuqūr-Saʿd, suddenly appears on the battlefield and massacres the Kurdish troops of Dervīş Paşa, beylerbeyi of Diyarbekir, before being targeted by an Ottoman counterattack.Footnote 64
The Ottoman army then advances to occupy Tbilisi and presses on towards Shirvan, once again encountering a 20,000-strong Qizilbash force under Amīr Khān Mawṣillū, governor of Tabriz, whom the Ottomans defeat on the plain between the Kura and Iori rivers on Rajab 7, 986/September 9, 1578.Footnote 65 In Turkish sources, this battle is called the battle of Ḳoyungeçidi, from the ford in the river Kura where many Safavid soldiers drowned during the retreat.Footnote 66 After the Safavid rout, and despite the troops’ pleas to the serdār to go back to Erzurum for the winter, Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa has the army cross the flooded Alazani river, causing many soldiers and animals to drown, before moving into Shirvan.Footnote 67
On Rajab 13, 986/September 15, 1578, the army settles in the Sunni town of Eresh and, after twenty days spent there building a fort, Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa finally decides to return to Erzurum with the bulk of the army, leaving some troops behind to man the fort. The serdār first appoints Meḥmed Paşa, beylerbeyi of Aleppo, to command this garrison as beylerbeyi of Shirvan, but, as he refuses, Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa turns to Dervīş Paşa, the aforementioned beylerbeyi of Diyarbekir, and then to Behrām Paşa, beylerbeyi of Erzurum, who both also reject the nomination. Finally, Özdemiroġlu ʿOs̱mān Paşa accepts the position and, in early Shaʿbān 986/mid-October 1578, Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa departs.Footnote 68 Our author, Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh, is among the unfortunate soldiers made to stay in Shirvan, and he gives a heart-wrenching description of the Ottoman army’s departure:
Every one of those who stayed in Shirvan were sad and melancholic, as lovers separated from their loved ones, some also sending letters and personal effects to their family and their people. And the troops departing for Rum were joyful, gleefully shouting, and they thus left. As for the troops that stayed on this side, they looked at them [the troops that left] with sadness and melancholy, as if their cherished souls had already left their bodily prisons to ascend the heavens. Whatever, those who went, went, and those who stayed, stayed. And all the troops remaining in Shirvan then assembled around His Excellency, ʿOsman Pasha.
A series of further adventures happen to this unfortunate group of soldiers, forcing them to retreat in the face of an 80,000-strong Safavid army under the command of Muḥammad Khudābanda’s son, Ḥamza Mīrzā (d. 994/1586). The group of soldiers left to defend Shirvan make their way towards the fort of Derbent, or Demürḳapu (“Iron gate,” modern Turkish “Demirkapı”), as it is usually called in the text, and it is at this point that my translation begins.Footnote 69 The soldiers depart on the day of ʿĪd al-Fiṭr and, fearing that traveling through open land would make the troops vulnerable to Safavid attacks, ʿOs̱mān Paşa chooses to cross through “Mount Elbruz,” or the Greater Caucasus mountain range. Soon, however, cautioned by the Shamkhāl to hurry, ʿOs̱mān Paşa and some of the Ottoman horsemen start galloping, leaving the less capable horsemen and soldiers on foot at risk of either being killed by the enemy or freezing to death in the snow.
The survivors finally reach Derbent after three days of traveling, but it is not the end of their hardships, as they have no food or provisions left, a situation again vividly described by Ebūbekir. Finally, local people from Kaitag and Tabasaran provinces bring food and provisions to the soldiers, which they pay for at a high price. The soldiers spend the winter in these two regions, settled among the local people, and it seems that Ebūbekir saw this as an opportunity to learn more about the region’s history and folklore: his remarkable observations form the bulk of my translation.
Then, in the spring, ʿOs̱mān Paşa orders the troops back to the fort of Derbent, where they all wait for Lala Muṣṭafā Paşa’s return to Shirvan, an event that never happens: the serdār has spent too much time tending to the fort of Kars, and he leaves ʿOs̱mān Paşa’s soldiers to spend a second winter on their own in the region.Footnote 70 This understandably causes great distress, and it is at this juncture, in Ramaḍān 987/November 1579, that Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh is captured by the Safavids during an Ottoman raid on Ganja.Footnote 71 Ebūbekir does not dwell much on his time in Iran, where, he says, “so many events happened to [him] that if [he] were to write them, it would not fit into this book, and the book would extend too much.” He only mentions that he was brought to Tabriz, where he was interrogated by Muḥammad Khudābanda on the situation of ʿOs̱mān Paşa’s army, and then to Qazvin, the Safavid capital. His life was spared and he was allowed to stay there, managing to flee a year later with three other Ottoman prisoners.
Ebūbekir then quickly wraps up his narrative, giving a brief summary of events up until Koca Sinān Paşa’s nomination as grand vizier, which Ebūbekir does not date but we know happened on Jumādā II 18, 988/July 31, 1580.Footnote 72 At this time, if we are to believe he stayed a whole year in Iran, Ebūbekir was still there as a prisoner and would remain so for another three months, until Ramaḍān 988/November 1580, meaning he probably wrote the first version of his text soon after he returned to Istanbul, sometime in late 988/1580 or early 989/1581. In the two revised versions of the text produced in 990/1582 and 992/1584, Ebūbekir does not expand on later events, whether in Istanbul or the Caucasus.
Daghestan through the eyes of Ebūbekir
As is clear from the preceding context, the ethnopolitical and sociocultural landscape of the Caucasus in the early modern period remains complex and poorly understood, and Ebūbekir does little to clarify it. The value of his text lies chiefly in his role as a primary witness with close interactions with several Daghestani groups, apparently wintering in 986/1578 in the Derbent region among the Tabasaran or the Kaitag. These two groups, together with the “Shamkhāl” people, presumably designating the Kumyk, form the main focus of his account. Ebūbekir also briefly mentions the “Kūra,” identified under the same name by ʿAdlī and Āṣafī and referring to the Lezgins of the Kurakh region south of Derbent, whom he describes as “heretics” and “partisans of the Qizilbash.”
Beyond these four groups, several other Caucasian populations are listed by Ebūbekir: the Gazi-Kumukh (i.e., the Lak), the Kabardians, the Abaza, and the Circassians.Footnote 73 Two further ethnonyms present more difficult identifications: the Tuman (Tūmān), possibly the Turkish-speaking Karachay of the Tumanly Gel region, and the Hukuk (Ḥuḳūḳ), perhaps the earliest documented reference to the Hinukh, a people speaking a Northeast Caucasian language of the Tsezic family and originating from the village of Genukh, about 200 kilometers west of Derbent.Footnote 74 Notably absent from Ebūbekir’s text are the Avars and the Lezgins (although, for the latter, see the Kūra above).
Another missing term is “Daghestan” and its demonym “Daghestani,” used by Ebūbekir’s contemporaries to designate a supra-ethnic identity that may or may not have corresponded to the Shamkhāl’s sphere of influence. This absence may be a reflection of Ebūbekir’s more “micro-level” perspective, in contrast to authors such as ʿAdlī, Āṣafī, and Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī. In any case, one should not expect geopolitical analysis from Ebūbekir, who appears to have been poorly informed about North Caucasian politics, including mistaking titles of Daghestani leaders such as Usmī, Maṣʿūm, and Shamkhāl for personal names.Footnote 75 Information on sociopolitical organization is limited mainly to military matters (numbers of men, tactics, and fortifications), while women and children are entirely absent.
The identity of Daghestan was not only political but also sociocultural and religious and, on this point, Ebūbekir provides valuable insights, recording religious practices apparently common to all of Daghestan and even the wider Caucasus, including vestiges of pre-Islamic animist traditions. One example is the story of the “Gate of Armageddon”: according to tradition, no warrior who passed through that gate ever returned, prompting Alexander the Great to curse it so that it would one day collapse. Ebūbekir notes that “whoever has a toothache comes and hammers in a nail” into the wooden gate to ease the pain, a practice similar to that mentioned by Evliyā Çelebi among the Ademey Circassians, who drove nails into a tree believed to have been gifted by God to Alexander to endure “until the doomsday.” Similarly, Ebūbekir remarks that the people of Derbent believed the end of days would come when the “Gate of Armageddon” finally collapsed.
The Caucasus also inserts itself in broader trans-Islamic phenomena. Thus, in his discussion of Derbent’s tombs and mausoleums, Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh produces an inventory of heroes appearing in folk stories transmitted from Anatolia to Iran, South Asia, and Turkestan in languages such as Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Pashto, Punjabi, and many more. Hence, in addition to the ubiquitous Alexander the Two-Horned and Khusraw Anushirvan, putative builders of the Derbent fortress, we encounter characters such as Cemşīd Ḫan b. Oġuz Ḫan, ruler of Turkestan; Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya, son of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (erroneously called “Abū Ḥanīfa” by Ebūbekir); the farrier of ʿAlī’s horse Duldul; Dede Korkut; and other unidentified characters. We further find such heroic figures in the ancestry claims of some of the peoples described by Ebūbekir, such as the Tabasaran and Kaitag, who claim descent from two of the most prominent Islamic folk heroes, Abū Muslim and Ḥamza b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, respectively.
This inventory places Derbent and Daghestan within a transregional geography of “lived” or “colloquial” Islam, highlighting similarities with popular heroes found in other comparable “peripheral” and frontier regions.Footnote 76 The extent to which this is a product of a tendency, in regions traditionally defiant of central authority, to more readily associate with famous rebels and martyrs in the fight for right against might, remains to be studied, as does the particular connection between the Caucasus and Oġuznāme stories, in particular the Book of Dede Korkut.Footnote 77
All these heroic figures ultimately participate in the construction of a “borderlander ethos” revolving around ghazā as the ultimate form of the fight against injustice and evil. In this context, the wall of Derbent, built by Alexander the Two-Horned to “[protect] and [shield] these provinces from the cursed infidels,” is presented as a physical manifestation of this moral distinction.Footnote 78 Relatedly, martyrdom is a central theme in several of the folk stories recounted by Ebūbekir.Footnote 79 Such thematics seem to have been especially common in the lore of frontier peoples, and can also be found, for example, in Ottoman Kurdistan as related to Safavid Iran.Footnote 80
Similarly, in describing the character of the various communities (ṭāʾife) of Daghestan, Ebūbekir presents us with a stereotypical vision of “noble savages,” overtly hospitable and chivalrous but reckless and ignorant, a stereotype also prevalent in Arabic, Ottoman, and Persian sources on the Kurds.Footnote 81 Thus, the Caucasians are, in general, described as loyal to the point of stubbornness, “a pure-hearted breed” (oġuz ṭāʾife), fierce, brave, and who dislike lies and trickery. Yet, the Tabasaran are “a rebellious breed” who “do not adhere much to the sharia,” and “the stronger among them seize food and property from whomever they manage.” They do not pay taxes and their habit of plundering and stealing seemingly causes anarchy in the country. As for the Kaitag, they are “Tatar-like in nature” and have “a penchant for boza.”
In sum, despite frequently calling them “bastards” (ḥerāmzāde) in the context of their raids on Ottoman troops, Ebūbekir nevertheless presents us with a somewhat sympathetic view of the peoples of Derbent, albeit one shaped by the prejudices of the imperial authorities; a perspective that contrasts with other Ottoman accounts, including those of his contemporaries who also participated in the campaign.Footnote 82 Beyond the stereotypes, Ebūbekir’s text is valuable for what it reveals about an Ottoman soldier’s perspective on identity and difference, and its significance extends to multiple themes not fully explored here. Taken together with other sources, Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh’s text can serve as a rich resource, and I hope this translation will encourage further, more detailed studies of the sociocultural history of the early modern Caucasus and Ottoman-Iranian borderlands in a wider sense.
The translation
The present translation is focused on a specific passage of Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh’s book: the Ottoman soldiers’ stay in Derbent with Özdemiroġlu ʿOs̱mān Paşa in the winter of 986/1578 and spring of 987/1579.Footnote 83 The objective is to make this little-known text accessible to a broader audience, including scholars of the Caucasus who may not have reading knowledge of Ottoman Turkish and, more broadly, researchers interested in undertaking comparative studies of phenomena presenting similarly in various imperial borderlands.
I believe that, as interpretive exercises, scholarly translations of primary sources can shed light on these sources even for scholars who have mastered the original language and, in that sense, like the production of critical editions, the translation of primary sources is also an analytical undertaking. For this reason, I believe this translation fills an important research gap and could be used by scholars to further develop research on the sociopolitical life of Daghestan and the Caucasus in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Sources employed
When discussing Derbent and its region, Ebūbekir b. ʿAbdullāh engages in a sort of ethnographical account seldom seen in Ottoman and Persian chronicles of the period. Notable exceptions to this are works of local historiography, which are comparatively numerous in the Caucasus region. To expand on and contextualize Ebūbekir’s text, I have made use of two such works: the Turkish-language Derbendnāme, an anonymous text edited by Mirza A. Kazem-Beg, himself a native of Derbent, in 1851, and an untitled work composed in Arabic by Mullā Muḥammad Rafīʿ, also edited by Mirza A. Kazem-Beg, as an appendix to the Derbendnāme’s edition.Footnote 84 Although undated, both texts have been deemed contemporary to Ebūbekir’s book.Footnote 85 In addition to these, brief information on the history of Derbent and the Caucasus is also found in another contemporary work, the Risālat al-Intiṣār li Qudwat al-Akhyār, composed in Arabic by ʿAlī Dede al-Bosnevī (d. 1007/1598), a Bosnian shaykh of the Halvetiyye.Footnote 86
I have also referred to two mid-seventeenth-century travelogues: the Seyāḥatnāme by Evliyā Çelebi (d. ca. 1095/1684), which contains several ethnographic sketches of the Caucasus written in Evliyā’s characteristic fashion, and the Beschreibung der muscowitischen und persischen Reise published in 1647 by Adam Olearius (d. 1671), a German scholar and secretary to Philipp Crusius and Otto Bruggemann, ambassadors of Frederick III (r. 1616–1659), Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, to Muscovy (1633–1635) and Iran (1635–1639).Footnote 87 Olearius was in Derbent from April 7–14, 1638, as the embassy was on its way back from Isfahan; the city, in Ottoman hands at the time of Ebūbekir’s writing, was back under Safavid control by this time.Footnote 88
I have employed later works as well, such as a brief anonymous Arabic text written in 1195/1780–1781 and edited in 1862 by Nicolas de Khanikoff, and the much more voluminous Gulistān-i Iram by ʿAbbāsqulī Āqā Bākīkhānov (d. 1263/1847), composed in Persian in 1257/1841–1842.Footnote 89 Finally, the studies and Russian translations of these and other works of Caucasian historiography, such as the Taʾrīkh Dāghistān, the History of Abū Muslim, etc., published by Amri R. Shikhsaidov, Timur M. Aytberov, and Hasan M.-R. Orazaev as Dagestanskie istoricheskie sochineniya, helped provide supplementary information and context.Footnote 90
Concerning the campaign itself, I have made use of the sources mentioned above, notably the Ottoman ġazavātnāme texts by Muṣṭafā ʿĀlī, Raḥīmīzāde, ʿAdlī, and Āṣafī. A comparative analysis of these works with other sections of Ebūbekir’s text would offer valuable insight into differences in approach, contextualization, and even details regarding rank, status, and occupation within the campaigning army. This is not addressed in the present article.
Approach
In establishing the translation, I primarily used the version of Ebūbekir’s text found in Turc 123, which we can call a “middle version” between H.O. 68 and AE 366. I have done so for several reasons. First, this version includes the most elements, adding information to the text in H.O. 68 and keeping information later removed from AE 366, perhaps in order to produce a more polished and less controversial text. Second, as a result, this “middle version” seems to be the most complete and coherent, despite not being the author’s final revision. Finally, this manuscript has not been used by the book’s previous editors, Yunus Zeyrek and Süleyman Lokmacı, and its specific variants have thus never been published. I have indicated important variants of content in the translation’s footnotes; these are notably taken from AE 366, which in some places significantly differs from both H.O. 68 and Turc 123.
I have endeavored to find a balance between preserving the author’s meaning and producing a text written in good English that is enjoyable to read. To this end, I also added to the translation sub-headers not found in the original. I have omitted most diacritics in personal and place names in the main body of the text, considering that their use would needlessly disrupt the flow of reading. They are found, however, in the footnotes. Quotations from the Turkish text are given in the Library of Congress transliteration, while quotations from modern editions preserve the latin transliteration used by the editors.
Translation
The retreat to Demirkapı
On the morning of the holy day, the decision was made to head to the fort of Demirkapı.Footnote 91 Now, would you look at this? Most of the soldiers do not have horses, they are going on foot! And many of the horses were actually killed in battle.Footnote 92 And so, come morning, all soldiers started following the horses, out of breath and striving to retreat. There were no more fathers and sons then, there were no more brothers. By the power of God, it was so cold and windy these days that the men’s beards and mustaches froze due to their own breath. And His Highness ʿOsman Pasha left all of his apparel and ammunition supply there, as well as his fanfare and his cooking utensils and provisions, and all of the things that he could not take, he left them behind and so did the troops. And the foot soldiers also abandoned their servants and companions and, in such a sorrowful state, we left the town of Shamakhi and headed for Demirkapı. But for fear of going through the plain, we went by the mountain route and counted on the good fortune of Mount Albruz.Footnote 93
The whole army, both foot soldiers and horsemen, thus left the city and set out, and we slowly went forward for a few stages [menzil] until a few old and experienced men from Shirvan province and the fort of Demirkapı, including the Shamkhal himself, who were then guiding His Highness, eventually told ʿOsman Pasha:
O Great Pasha, going slowly like this won’t do. You will get the whole army killed! For the places we are going are full of unruly people like the Tabasaran and the Kura near Demirkapı, who are quite a restless and troublesome bunch. If they learn of the battered state of the army of Rum, they will cross our path and rob and kill our soldiers. And then, the enemy will reach the fort before us by the road below and the fort will be lost, after which we shall certainly all be done.Footnote 94
Upon hearing this account, His Highness the Pasha took the fateful decision to leave behind both the foot soldiers and the horsemen whose horses were too weak to follow, and he started galloping, even distancing the couriers walking before him.
Now would you know it? As soon as the Pasha started galloping, the army’s stronger horsemen, not leaving his side, also galloped forth, and this caused some of the men, taken aback by this plan, to conclude: “The Pasha is fleeing, and the enemy has reached our rear!” And so panic set in, as foot soldiers and horsemen on crippled mounts fought their way against one another trying to move through, brother set against brother and father against son. Then, the winter weather turned apocalyptic, especially in the evening when we reached Mount Albruz, a mountain so steep that words cannot do it justice. There, ice had frozen on the roads and, when darkness set in, the soldiers scattered and got lost, not knowing which way to go, and some of them even went back from where they had come. We wouldn’t even light torches then for fear of the enemy. That night, on that calamitous mountain, we went through such a pain and suffering that only the Eternal God may know it. And, as night passed and morning came, we crossed the mountain and, on the second day, we reached the district of Shabaran. Yet, the day we arrived in Shabaran, the weather was so cold and stormy that never in our lifetimes had we seen the likes of it. A lot of people just froze to death on the back of their horses, and many others lost fingers and toes due to the cold. What a story! Still, let us keep it brief.Footnote 95
Demirkapı is a place seven or eight days away from the city of Shamakhi; ʿOsman Pasha, galloping, got there in three days.Footnote 96 When he reached the fort, however, he had been preceded by Tatar deserters fleeing the rout of their army, and these men had given the fort’s Rumi soldiers an absurd report, saying:
Eighty thousand Qizilbash have come and struck ʿOsman Pasha in Shamakhi, they destroyed and routed the entire army, and then they came after us and smashed our army too, taking prisoner our commander ʿAdil Giray Khan.Footnote 97 Such is our story, and we saved ourselves. What are you waiting for? Start making supplies and provisions!
Upon hearing this bleak report, the yayabaşı and the few soldiers and Janissaries charged with the fort’s defense all came together and, in the morning, they left Demirkapı and set out for Caffa, going through the province of Kaitag.Footnote 98
As for His Highness ʿOsman Pasha, he arrived at the fort in mid-morning. The fort’s people, however, had strengthened the gates, donned all their weapons, climbed onto the towers, and stood ready for war. And when the Rumi soldiers arrived, regiment after regiment drawing up in line outside, they [the fort’s people] mistook them [the Rumi soldiers] for Qizilbash troops and prepared for battle. As the soldiers got closer, however, the fort’s people realized that they were ʿOsman Pasha’s army; still, they did not open the gates and remained stubbornly defiant. There was with us a noble man (begzāde) from Demirkapı, a brave and capable man named Agha Beg, and, sparing no efforts, this valiant fellow eventually pleaded with the fort’s commander, Muttahara, telling him in their own tongue: “Open the gates at once, for ʿOsman Pasha will treat you well and reward you handsomely!”Footnote 99 Then, the fort’s people lowered a copy of the Holy Qurʾan from the walls and asked: “Now, swear by God that no harm shall afterwards come to us!” ʿOsman Pasha swore by God and gifted them a bunch of florins, and thus he got them to open the gates and the Rumi troops entered the fort and settled in.Footnote 100
Bracing for the winter
Now, even though the fort’s towers are strong and solid, most of the houses inside are in ruins. What was once a thriving city is now falling apart, and, if there are a few houses still standing in the inner fort, most of the outer fort is in ruins. And so, if the first soldiers to arrive did find houses for themselves, the latecomers did not and had to camp in the open, despite the very cold weather and thick falling snow. In this cold province, the exposed soldiers experienced such a misery then, that words cannot express it.Footnote 101
In three to four days, the army retreated front to rear and came to the fort. However, on the way, the troops were attacked by local bastards (ḥerāmzāde) from these provinces and some were robbed and others were killed, and so Demirkapı was filled with wounded and broken men all around. The army was crushed and absolutely no one had any food or provisions, causing a famine in the fort.Footnote 102 With nothing to eat or drink, the soldiers suffered terrible hardships and, though we sons of Adam can withstand anything if necessary, we also found no grass, chaff, or barley to give our horses. Crippled by hunger, the horses looked into the eyes of their owners, their own eyes wide open, sad, and melancholic. In the end, many men took them out and chased them into the wild, thinking: “May we at least not see this!” So many horses died in Demirkapı that one could not walk the streets without stepping on a horse carcass, and the foul smell nearly made one lose his wits.
We spent a few terrible days like this. Then, some people from the provinces of Tabasaran and Kaitag came and brought us food and provisions, which the Rumi soldiers bought for hefty sums of money. As the people of these provinces were not used to gold and coins, they thought: “The Rumi soldiers have a lot of money!” And so they let food and provisions pour into Demirkapı.Footnote 103 By God’s grace and mercy! So much food and provisions did they bring that no one even cared anymore.
These provinces were rich, as it turns out, but we foreigners did not know it. Then, the people of the region grew accustomed to the Rumi soldiers and, once they were acquainted, they came to Demirkapı and the Rumi went to their provinces and befriended them. Indeed, if you get to know the locals and break bread with them, they will be loyal to you with such passion that the winds of a hundred storms could not erode it. Such is their virtuous character. They would then rather be killed than let anybody do you harm, even if you were to be attacked a hundred times over. They are a pure-hearted breed indeed (oġuz ṭāʾife). They absolutely do not know of slander and trickery, nor do they lie or utter obscenities. Indeed, they dislike liars and foul-mouthed folks, as they are a people true to their words, as well as a well-disposed, brave, fierce, and enthusiastic lot.Footnote 104 So, then, company by company, the soldiers went wintering, some in the province of Tabasaran, some in the province of Kaitag, and some also in Müshkür and Shabaran.Footnote 105
And as winter turned to spring in the world emperor’s state [Ottoman sultan Murad III], His Highness ʿOsman Pasha ordered: “Let all the Rumi soldiers come and assemble at the fort of Demirkapı!” All the soldiers wintering in Tabasaran and Kaitag then came together, some settling inside the fort and others setting up their tents outside in the fields. Such a beautiful spring had come, with verdant meadows all around, that words cannot do it justice.
Saints and wonders
As for the fort of Demirkapı, it is located at the foot of a mountain, with that mountain standing to its west and the Caspian Sea (baḥr-i Ḳulzum) located to its east.Footnote 106 From the mountain up to the sea, two walls over three miles in length have been built, one of them by His Highness Alexander the Two-Horned and the other by Anushirvan the Just.Footnote 107 And the locals do not call the fort Demirkapı, they call it Derbent.Footnote 108 This name comes from a time when the province of Shirvan was inhabited by Muslims and the province of Kaitag was an infidels’ land (kāfiristānlıḳ). These infidels would come together and attack Shirvan’s Muslims, killing, taking prisoners, and returning, until the Muslims assembled and implored His Highness Alexander the Two-Horned [to help them]. Alexander then had the pass connecting the mountain to the Caspian Sea walled up, building fortified towers manned by warriors and installing doors in seven or eight spots, so that, when the infidels would try and come, they were prevented by these walls and turned back. This is how His Highness Alexander the Two-Horned protected and shielded these provinces from the cursed infidels, and so the name “Derbent” came to be used.
All around the fort, there are many tombs with tall, sculpted and engraved headstones, each indicating the name and date [of death] of the deceased. Indeed, in the past, the ghazi lived inside the fort and, every day, they would sortie out and fight the infidels, returning with wounded and martyrs; for this reason, every ghazi used to have stones sculpted and engraved for themselves while still alive, and when they were martyred, their relatives buried them and had their date of death indicated on the headstones.Footnote 109
There are so many saints (erenler) in this province that one cannot count them all. Cemshid Han himself is laying there, and his tomb is a pilgrimage site (ziyāretgāh).Footnote 110 There is also a great pilgrimage site for the tombs of the Three and the Forty (üçler ve ḳırḳlar maḳāmı vardır, ulu ziyāretgāhdır), and the tomb of His Highness Abu Hanifa.Footnote 111 And His Highness ʿAli’s farrier is also laying there, and his tomb is a pilgrimage site.Footnote 112 The tombs of Pir Maghar Sultan and Pir Dede Sultan, two real saints (ʿazīz), are also pilgrimage sites.Footnote 113 And, at the time of Alexander the Two-Horned, forty virgin girls known as the Chil Mihri came and settled near Demirkapı and fought many a battle against the infidels, after which one was martyred and the others vanished (ġayb olmuşlar).Footnote 114 Now their grave is a pilgrimage site and a great circumambulation site (tavāfgāh).Footnote 115 The little Kaʿba (Kaʿbe-i küçük) is there: it was built on the side of the fort facing the infidels, and the locals believe that those unable to visit the great Kaʿbe (ulu Kaʿbe) can circumambulate it and benefit from the Kaʿba’s rewards.Footnote 116
In the wall of the fort facing the infidels, there is a gate known as the Gate of Armageddon (ḳıyāmet ḳapusı). At the time of Alexander the Two-Horned, groups of warriors would come out of the fort’s gates to fight and, come evening, they would return and settle down. However, the warriors who had sortied through that gate never came back, and they were always martyred, hence the name “Gate of Armageddon.” After several such occurrences, this was told to His Highness Alexander, who then cursed that gate, saying: “God willing, may it fall apart!” On account of that ancient curse, little is now left until the gate collapses. In Alexander’s time, it used to be a lofty gate, through which even camels and horsemen came in and out; in the fort, some elderly men indeed recall witnessing horsemen pass through that gate. Now there isn’t much left until it falls to the ground, and the locals hold the belief that the end of days shall come when it completely collapses. I, the humble writer, have measured that gate and there are only four ḳarış [from sixty to one hundred centimeters] left before it falls apart.Footnote 117 And so many nails have been driven in around that gate that no place remains even to prick a needle, for whoever has a toothache comes and hammers in a nail and, by the will of God Almighty, the pain immediately ceases.Footnote 118
In the fort of Demirkapı, there is a noble and great mosque, which in former times was robust and functioning, but is now falling in ruins. When the soldiers coming from Shamakhi arrived and did not find houses, they entered this ruined mosque and stayed there for a while, some even bringing in their horses. But, by the strength of the Lord of the Worlds, most of the men who had settled in the mosque were killed, and some of them also fell ill, so that in the end, His Highness ʿOsman Pasha had the people inside the mosque thrown out all at once, after which he had it cleaned and repaired where necessary. He had the minbar and mihrab rebuilt, and mats and carpets were spread out inside; he then appointed an imam and a muezzin, and the Muslims started performing the five daily prayers and the Friday prayer in the mosque. It is now such a magnificent mosque that words alone cannot describe it.Footnote 119 It is truly a great mosque; it was originally built with forty arches by Shaykhshah Padishah, from the lineage of Burhan Padishah, and it is more than 300 years old.Footnote 120 In sum, Demirkapı is a place where one finds numerous saints and wonders of this sort.
The peoples of Demirkapı
There are various peoples who live around the fort of Demirkapı, among whom the Tabasaran, so called because His Highness Abu al-Muslim arose from their ranks. His tomb and battle axe are in this province, and the locals go there in pilgrimage.Footnote 121 The Tabasaran number 40,000 households, all Muslims of the Shafiʿi creed; they speak in a distinct tongue, and follow a beg called the Maʿsum.Footnote 122 However, they do not ever pay taxes (ḫarāç ve ḥāṣıl) to their begs, for they are a rebellious breed.Footnote 123 They do not adhere much to the sharia, and the stronger among them seize food and property from whomever they manage.Footnote 124 As for the position of beg, it belongs to the man who has the most relatives and dependents and can muster the most strength, for he has the final say in all matters.
Sometimes, bastards from certain villages come together and forcefully seize the horses, oxen, and sheep of villages around, and then eat them. And all their men always walk around in full arms and armor, even when leaving the house to fetch water or firewood or to plough the fields. Due to their neglect of the sharia, and in the absence of a praiseworthy beg and police officers (żābitler), they get to keep their stolen food and property and so, for this reason, they all act with great caution and walk around in full arms and armor. The province of Tabasaran is very mountainous, with dense forests and steep cliffs, bountiful fruits and many running streams; it is also known as Daghestan. Such is Tabasaran province, and such are the Tabasaran people.Footnote 125
There is another people called the Kaitag that live on the side of the fort of Demirkapı facing the infidels. Their beg is known as “Usmi”; he is a very big and fat man, so fat that he cannot mount a horse, and if he needs to go from one place to another, he rides in a wheel cart.Footnote 126 Yet, he has worthy and brave sons; one of them is named Muhammad Khan. He is an intrepid man and has lost an eye in battle.Footnote 127 They [the Kaitag] have numerous soldiers and, if need be, they can field as many as 20,000 of them.Footnote 128 They are all Muslims but speak a distinct tongue, and they are Tatar-like in nature (Tatar-ṭabīʿat ṭāʾifedür).Footnote 129 Most of them have a penchant for boza, and they have filled the fort of Demirkapı to the brim with this drink.Footnote 130
The Kaitag see themselves as descendants of His Highness Hamza, and they hold a fort called the Fort of Quraysh.Footnote 131 Their claim to descent from Hamza is based on the following story: in the past, this province was inhabited by infidels, while the province of Shirvan was inhabited by Muslims. His Highness Hamza then arrived with some of his companions and fought many a war against the infidels, until the cursed infidels caught him by using malice and imprisoned him in the Fort of Quraysh. His Highness Hamza was imprisoned there a long time, and so they gave him a concubine to be with, and with her he had intercourse. When Baba ʿUmar then found a way to free His Highness Hamza from prison, this concubine was pregnant and later gave birth to His Highness Hamza’s child. This boy grew up to be a worthy and gallant man and had many children of his own, and after a certain time his family and descendants multiplied and, by virtue of their strength and bravery, they conquered these provinces. This is what they mean when they say: “We are the descendants of Hamza.” And the name “Fort of Quraysh” has its origin in Hamza’s imprisonment in the fort, as Hamza was a Qurayshi; hence, they call it the Fort of Quraysh. This fort is built on a very steep mountain in the province of Kaitag, and it is now the dwelling place of Usmi, the beg [of the Kaitag].
Near the Kaitag, there lives another Muslim people, the Shamkhal, and their forces would be a match for many an army.Footnote 132 As His Highness the felicitous Mustafa Pasha arrived in the province of Shirvan, the Shamkhal came and greeted His Highness the Pasha with all due deference and obedience, upon which His Highness the Pasha asked, on behalf of ʿOsman Pasha, for the Shamkhal’s daughter in marriage.Footnote 133 The Shamkhal agreed and they were married on the spot; then, when ʿOsman Pasha arrived in the fort of Demirkapı, they sent men and brought her to him. However, it wasn’t the Shamkhal’s own daughter, but rather his brother’s; now, she is the wife of ʿOsman Pasha.Footnote 134
Many other peoples (ṭāʾife) live in this region, such as the Tuman (Tūmān), the Kumukh, the Hinukh (Ḥuḳūḳ), the Kabardians and, lastly, the Circassian infidels, great in number, and some of whom are Abaza, and some Circassians (kimi Ābāza cinsidir ve kimi Çirākisdur).Footnote 135 All of these peoples live in the steep and rocky mountains of Daghestan.Footnote 136 So have we described these provinces to the extent of our ability and knowledge; now, let us turn to the story of His Highness ʿOsman Pasha.
Trouble with the Kaitag
The army of Islam settled in Demirkapı, some of the soldiers inside the fort and some of them in the countryside and, with the coming of spring, they all had their horses graze out and about until evening, when some would sleep in and some would sleep out. A certain time thus passed but, every night, some of the horses were being stolen, until nobody stayed out at night anymore and they all came in instead. Then, some bastards from Kaitag province started coming together and stealing horses and equipment from the attendants and stablemen who had gone outside [during the day] to graze the horses.Footnote 137 Upon hearing this, His Highness ʿOsman Pasha had a few light cavalrymen lay in ambush, and the horses once more went out there [to graze]. After a few days had passed, again some Kaitag bastards assembled and hid themselves on the banks of the Caspian Sea; however, when they tried to steal the horses, they were confronted by the men sent by the Pasha with the command: “Protect your surroundings!” A battle ensued and [the soldiers] caught three strongmen from among the bastards, while the rest of them took flight. They then brought these three men to His Highness the Pasha, whose enraged eyes had turned to fire; he did not pardon any of them but had them decapitated and their heads hanged from the fort’s tower.
However, [it turned out that] the executed individuals were Kaitag beg Usmi Beg’s own men, and when he heard about these events, he declared all-out war on the Rumi soldiers, and summoned all the people in his dominions (taḫt-ı hükūmet) and commanded them: “Wherever you find the soldiers of Rum, kill them, and plunder their riches and resources and their goods and provisions!” Footnote 138 And these people then made it literally impossible for the Rumi soldiers to come out of the fort, to the point that they did not even lead their horses nearby for grass and water, unless a sancakbey would go out as vanguard (ḳaravul) with a number of men. Being aware of these precautions, the cursed several times assembled five or six hundred worthy Kaitag soldiers to raid the horses in the meadows, stealing many horses and mules and killing many of our people.Footnote 139
These events made a strong impression on His Highness ʿOsman Pasha and, one evening, he assembled a number of soldiers and Janissaries, as well as five darbzen cannons, to mount an expedition in the provinces of the Kaitag.Footnote 140 The ghazi traveled all night and into the morning and, at midmorning, they entered Kaitag territory and started bringing Kaitag bastards dead and alive from every corner. And there is in Kaitag a high and steep place in the mountain known as Başköy, for there a village of around five hundred houses is located; it is Usmi Beg’s own village, as well as that of all his relatives.Footnote 141 When the soldiers of Islam reached it, countless villagers as well as men from the neighboring villages were standing there in full arms and armor, surrounding it, for on account of its very high and steep location, the village had only one road on which the Kaitag fighters had assembled. From on high, they were throwing big stones and casting arrows at the soldiers of Islam, fighting with indescribable fervor; they [the Kaitag] had also sent couriers (feryātçı) to all corners [of the province], and so from every direction, wave after wave, Kaitag soldiers kept arriving. A ferocious battle was fought over that village, in which many men fell from both sides; the Kaitag even threw Ibrahim Pasha and the sancakbey of Ruha Budak Bey off their horses, yet they procured spares and mounted again.Footnote 142 Eventually, the Rumi soldiers launched a general assault (ġulüv-i ʿāmm) on the village, attacking steadfastly and firing muskets and cannon balls at the cursed Kaitag, whom they finally expelled.Footnote 143 The soldiers entered the village and plundered the Kaitag’s riches and resources and all of their goods and provisions. They killed all the men that they happened upon and set fire to the houses, and they also seized countless sheep and cattle. With this plunder they turned back, setting for Demirkapı.
The Kaitag then started coming from all corners of the province, wave after wave of soldiers advancing like sheep coming for salt and producing an indescribable impression. Each one of them had donned arms and armor, and they are such good archers that they shoot arrows like javelins and can throw a man off his horse in one blow.Footnote 144 They were coming after us and, on that day, a fierce battle ensued which lasted until evening, as the numbers of the accursed were constantly growing. That evening, we camped in a reed bed, all assembled in one place with cannons and musketeers at the ready on all sides, and we stood cautiously and did not sleep until morning. As morning came, the army started retreating again and reached the shores of the Caspian Sea, so one side of the army was towards the sea and the other side towards the enemy, as we were ever so slowly advancing in the direction of Demirkapı. A big lake then appeared in front of us and there was a ford in it near the sea, and at any other place the lake could not be crossed. The entire Kaitag army was gathered there in trenches dug at the end of the ford, standing ready for battle, and when the army of Rum arrived, they started fighting and a great battle ensued. In the end, the cannons were brought to the fore and we blew away their trenches and fought off the Kaitag, crossing this ford and continuing towards Derbent.
His Highness [ʿOsman] Pasha then commanded that the disarmed, weak, and foot soldiers walk in front of the army, while the plunder was placed on the side of the sea, and the worthy horsemen, Janissaries, and soldiers ready to fight remained on the side of the enemy as we fought our way, pursued by the Kaitag until one or two miles away from Demirkapı, when the soldiers who had stayed in the fort came to meet us.Footnote 145 Seeing the rest of the army come out, the Kaitag left and returned to their provinces.Footnote 146 The local people then cheered and hailed ʿOsman Pasha for his heroic deed, as he was able, with only a few battered Rumi soldiers, to plunder, burn, and destroy the estates and villages of a people as brave and courageous as the Kaitag. [Witnessing this,] the local begs and governors also took care to congratulate him dearly.Footnote 147
The Kura, partisans of the Qizilbash
Living near the Tabasaran, on the foothills of the Alburz Mountain, there is a people called the Kura.Footnote 148 They are partisans of the Qizilbash and belong to the sect of the heretics (rāfiżī). These cursed deviants assembled and, as the Rumi soldiers went to Müshkür and Shabaran for provisions, they cut their way, robbed some of them and killed some others. When these marks of hostility came to the noble attention of His Highness ʿOsman Pasha, he appointed Kaykı Agha as commander (ser ʿasker) of a bunch of soldiers and sent him after them but, as [the Kura] were unfit for fighting, they left their villages and people and fled into the mountains.Footnote 149
In the end, All-Glorious and Almighty God gave strength and assistance to the religion of Islam and this people was conquered. The Rumi soldiers went after them and killed the ones who fell into their hands, took their women and children prisoners, plundered their goods and provisions, and set fire to their houses and crops. They seized countless sheep and cattle which they brought to the fort of Demirkapı, returning with innumerable spoils. The soldiers of Islam were then so rich in booty and plunged in delights and riches that they did not care for it anymore. Let this story end here.
