DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0050
SLAUGHTER OF THE MAMELUKES.
43
thousands whose blood cries out from the earth
against him; but the manner in which it was ef-
fected brands the pacha as the prince of traitors
and murderers. Invited to the citadel on a friendly
visit, while they were smoking the pipe of peace
he was preparing to murder them ; and no sooner
had they left his presence than they were pent up,
fired upon, cut down and killed, bravely but hope-
lessly defending themselves to the last. This cruel
deed must not be likened to the slaughter of the
janizaries by the sultan, to which it is often com-
pared, for the janizaries were a powerful body,
insulting and defying the throne. The sultan
staked his head upon the issue, and it was not till
he had been driven to the desperate expedient of
unfurling the sacred standard of the Prophet, and
calling upon all good Mussulmans to rally round it
—in a word, it was not till the dead bodies of thirty
thousand janizaries were floating down the Bos-
phorus, that he became master in his own domin-
ions. Not so with the pacha; the Mamelukes
were reduced to a feeble band of four or live hun-
dred men, and could effect nothing of importance
against the pacha. His cruelty and treachery can
neither be forgotten nor forgiven; and when, in
passing out of the citadel, the stranger is shown
the place where the unhappy Mamelukes were
penned up and slaughtered like beasts, one only
leaping his gallant horse over the walls of the cita-
del, he feels that he has left the presence of a
wholesale murderer. Since that time he has had
43
thousands whose blood cries out from the earth
against him; but the manner in which it was ef-
fected brands the pacha as the prince of traitors
and murderers. Invited to the citadel on a friendly
visit, while they were smoking the pipe of peace
he was preparing to murder them ; and no sooner
had they left his presence than they were pent up,
fired upon, cut down and killed, bravely but hope-
lessly defending themselves to the last. This cruel
deed must not be likened to the slaughter of the
janizaries by the sultan, to which it is often com-
pared, for the janizaries were a powerful body,
insulting and defying the throne. The sultan
staked his head upon the issue, and it was not till
he had been driven to the desperate expedient of
unfurling the sacred standard of the Prophet, and
calling upon all good Mussulmans to rally round it
—in a word, it was not till the dead bodies of thirty
thousand janizaries were floating down the Bos-
phorus, that he became master in his own domin-
ions. Not so with the pacha; the Mamelukes
were reduced to a feeble band of four or live hun-
dred men, and could effect nothing of importance
against the pacha. His cruelty and treachery can
neither be forgotten nor forgiven; and when, in
passing out of the citadel, the stranger is shown
the place where the unhappy Mamelukes were
penned up and slaughtered like beasts, one only
leaping his gallant horse over the walls of the cita-
del, he feels that he has left the presence of a
wholesale murderer. Since that time he has had