ITS HISTORY IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

17

he was kindly received by Spatas and conducted to Ioannina; in which city he died peaceably on the 29th of April, 1401.

Sghurus succeeded by will to the dominions of his brother, and at the death of Spatas to the government of Arta. Against him came up a celebrated chieftain named Bonghoes, with a large army of Servians, Albanians, Bulgarians, and Valachians who drove Sghurus from his dominions, laid waste the country, burned towns and villages, and massacred their inhabitants; so that the MS. concludes this part of its history with a pathetic exclamation of Acarnania "weeping for her children and refusing comfort because they are not." According to my documents this Sghurus was the last Christian prince who reigned at Ioannina, ‡ which was thenceforth governed by an aristocracy. In the year 1432, the inhabitants, alarmed by the extensive conquests of Murat or Amurath II. sent a detachment of their best troops to guard the passes of Pindus, who cut to pieces the Turks opposed to them; on which occasion the sultan sent the following epistle to the city.

"Sultan Murat Sovereign of the East and West, to the People of Ioannina, greeting:

"I counsel you to deliver up to me with good will your fortress, and to receive me as your sovereign, lest you

At least this seems implied by the surname given by the MS. to this leader, who is styled Μπογγύης ὁ Σερβοαλβανοβουλγαροβλάχος.

+ This expulsion of Sghurus did not take place till after the year 1413, if he be the same governor who is mentioned by the historian Ducas as having scnt, as well as some other states, an envoy to congratulate Mahomet I. on his restoration to the throne of Adrianople. Ducæ Hist. Byz. c. xx.

Phranza however makes mention of a despot Charles who died at Ioannina A. D. 1430, just before it fell into the possession of the Turks.

VOL. II.

B

18

ITS CAPTURE BY THE TURKS.

should move me to great wrath, and I should come up against you and take your city with the sword: then you will suffer all the calamities that other places have suffered, which refusing to acknowledge my power, have been conquered by my arms; whose inhabitants have been sold into slavery through the East and through the West. Come then, let us make a treaty and ratify it with an oath, I on my part that I will respect your rights, and you on yours that you will obey me faithfully."

Upon receipt of this letter the principal inhabitants took counsel, and fearing to attract the resentment of so powerful a prince, sent ambassadors to Thessalonica, where the keys of their fortress were delivered into his hands.* On their return he sent back with them a Turkish garrison who took possession of the castron with great rejoicings, but soon showed their enmity against the Christian faith by razing to the ground the ancient church of St. Michael near the gula.

In a short time these Mahometans built houses in that part of the city which was afterwards called Turcopalco, and wishing to domiciliate there, obtained the Sultan's permission to take for themselves wives among the daughters of the Greeks: despairing, however, of success with the ladies, they devised the following scheme to effect their purpose.

Watching the opportunity of a great festival when the Greek families attended divine service in the cathedral, they armed themselves secretly, and waited at the doors

* Phranza, however, reports that the city was taken by Sinan, general of Murat, in 1431, 1. ii. c. 9. Chalcondilas gives a different account, and says, that it was at this time under the government of Charles, who was called Duke or Prince of Ioannina, a city at that time considered the most important in Greece, next to Thessalonica. Chalcond. I. v. p. 126.

STORY OF DIONYSIUS THE SKELOSOPHIST.

19

till the congregation came out; then, each person seizing upon the damsel that pleased him best, carried her off in defiance of her relatives and friends. The parents, after a short time, seeing no remedy for the evil, consented to the nuptials, and gave the customary dowry to the husbands.

After this event the Mahometan population of course increased; but the Greeks still resided in the castron, paying a moderate tribute until, in the year 1611, their evil star gained the ascendancy, and brought upon them such a train of calamities that my MS. can trace them to no other cause except the personal interference of the archfiend himself. The immediate author of these evils, or the satanic instrument, was Dionysius,* called the Dogsophist, who had been ejected from his bishopric of Triccala for practising the arts of astrology and necromancy. This personage had the misfortune to dream that he saw the Sultan rise up to receive him; and hence conjectured that he was fated by the stars to deliver his country from the Ottoman yoke. Full of this project, as he roamed about, with a wallet behind his back and a flaggon of wine slung by his side, gaining proselytes to his opinion and adherents to his cause, he arrived at the monastery of San Demetrio near Delvinaki: there learning that the Turks were not very numerous in Ioannina, and that they dwelt for the most part outside the fortress, he determined to make that the scene of his first operations. Having by his pretended skill in astrology, as well as by the application of money, collected a crowd of followers, he led them by night against the city, which they entered singing the Kyrie Eleison; there they put to death about a hundred Mahometans, and burned several houses, Asu

Eknλóσopos. The MS. by a play upon his name, calls him also Aai

μονύσιος.

20

STORY OF DIONYSIUS THE SKELOSOPHIST.

man Pasha the governor escaping with great difficulty by a secret passage into the gula.

This infatuated mob having soon turned their hands to plunder, and become inebriated by the contents of wine casks, the Turks seized the opportunity of rallying, and making a charge; when they slew many and took more, whom they reserved for the most exquisite tortures: but Dionysius in the tumult escaped, and hid himself in a deep cavern under the north-east precipice of the castron, called to this day the cave of the Skelosophist. Here he eluded for a time the search that was made for him, being supplied with bread by a baker; but he was at last discovered by some Jews, and delivered up to his enemies: the arch-rebel was then flayed alive, his skin stuffed with straw, sent to Constantinople, and carried to the Seraglio: there it is said that the Sultan, having heard of the singular character of this astrologer, rose up from the divan to view the spectacle, and fulfilled his prediction.

After this rebellion Ioannina was treated by the Turks like all other conquered cities. The principal conspirators, with many innocent persons, were subjected to extreme punishments, some being impaled, others sawn asunder, and many burned alive: every Greek church within the castron was razed to the ground, from which place all Christians were banished for ever by a special firman of the Sultan; but the Jews were allowed to retain their habitations, and received various immunities, in consequence of the assistance they had rendered to the Mahometans.*

*This accounts for their late residence there in great numbers, and the total exclusion of the Greeks. I find the sedition of Dionysius alluded to in Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 1308. It happened in the reign of Achmet the eighth emperor of Constantinople. The stuffing of the Bishop is also

PRESENT CONDITION OF IOANNINA.

21

The expulsion of the Greeks from the castron tended to increase the city, which soon began to extend its arms along the banks of the lake. It seems to have enjoyed a considerable degree of tranquillity during the last efforts made by Christian powers to preserve some portion of European Turkey from the overwhelming force of its Ottoman invaders. It was governed by beys, and pashas of two tails, sent by the Porte, but never became the capital of a sandgiac until the time of its last Pasha, whose experienced eye soon saw the advantages of its central situation:* under him it rose to that degree of splendor, importance, and population which we saw. The number of inhabitants was computed at near forty thousand after the insulation of the castron and the fortification of Litaritza, it might have been said to have had two citadels, three palaces, (besides a vast number of small serais,) nineteen mosques, and six Greek churches. There were also five tekés, or Turkish monasteries, and two Jewish synagogues within the castron. The hospital, which was founded by the exertions of Signore Nicolo's father, was capable of receiving one hundred and fifty patients, and an annual governor was appointed to inspect the accounts and superintend the whole concern. The public prison was a dreadful place, sufficient to appall the stoutest heart: but a procuratore attended there daily to administer food and raiment to the wretched inmates, many of whom would otherwise have perished with cold and hunger.

Ioannina contained two schools in which the ancient

mentioned, but he is there styled a patriarch: it is also added, that the cooperation of some Maltese knights, Neapolitans and Spaniards was expected. Here the Ioannina MSS. end.

This pashalic was divided into four districts or provinces, Palaio-Pogogianni, Zagori, Kurrendas, and Grevena.