South African Military History Society - Journal - Laer at Trembowla <TITLE> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Mozilla/3.04Gold (Win16; I) [Netscape]"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">  <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-82PC1TMCBZ"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-82PC1TMCBZ'); </script> </HEAD>  <BODY BGCOLOR="#F0FFF0"> <CENTER> <a href="http://samilitaryhistory.org/message3.html"> <IMG SRC="http://rapidttp.co.za/milhist/banner/banner3.jpg" HEIGHT=60 WIDTH=468></a> </P></CENTER> <font size=+2> <CENTER><P></P></CENTER> <H2 ALIGN=CENTER><IMG SRC="mhslogo1.gif" HEIGHT=140 WIDTH=128 ALIGN=LEFT> The South African<BR> Military History Society<BR> <HR>Die Suid-Afrikaanse Krygshistoriese Vereniging</H2> <CENTER><P><BR clear=all> <HR></P></CENTER> <H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Military History Journal <br><FONT SIZE=+2>Vol 4 No 1 - June 1977</FONT></H1> <H1 ALIGN=CENTER>THE HUNGARIAN 'LAER' IN THE BATTLE AT TREMBOWLA IN 1657 </H1> <CENTER><P><I>by Robert Devereux </CENTER><p> Dr Robert Devereux was born in the state of Wisconsin, U.S.A., in 1922. From December 1942 to February 1946, he served in the Army of the United States, assigned to the Signal Corps. Since his discharge, he has made his career with the U.S. Government and is at present assigned to the American Embassy in Rome, Italy.<p> Dr Devereux obtained his B.A. (Political Science) from Indiana University, his M.A. (International Affairs) from George Washington University, and his Ph.D. (Middle Eastern Studies) from Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The First Ottoman Constitutional Period: A Study of the Midhat Constitution and Parliament (Baltimore, 1963) and has also published annotated translations of Mir 'Ali Shir's Muhakamat al-Lughatain (Leiden, 1966) and Ziya Gokalp's The Principles of Turkism (Leiden, 1968). In addition, he has published several score articles in such journals as Muslim World, Die Welt des Islams, Central Asiatic Journal, Asian Survey, Military Review, Sais Review, Explorers Journal, Foreign Service Journal, Italian Quarterly, etc.</i><p> 'A camp surrounded with carts chained together for defence.' No South African should have any difficulty in recognizing this phrase as a definition of <i>laager</i>, a word which, perhaps more than any other, is evocative of Boer and South African history. There is only one problem: the phrase is not, in fact, a definition of <i>laager</i>. It is actually taken from Sir James Redhouse's <i>A Turkish and English Lexicon</i>, published in Constantinople in 1890, which gives it as the definition of the Turkish word <i>tabur</i>. The word means <i>battalion</i> in modern Turkish, but in old Ottoman Turkish it denoted almost exactly what <i>laager</i> does in Afrikaans (and, according to <i>The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary</i>, it has also been used in English since 1850). <p> Very little research has yet been done in the field of Turkish etymology, so it is impossible to say how far back in time the old meaning of <i>tabur</i> extends. However, it clearly was already well established by the middle of the 17th Century, as is demonstrated by the 10-volume <i>Seyahatname</i> of Evliya Chelebi (1611-1681). In describing one military campaign in which he participated personally, Evliya includes a description of a <i>tabur</i>, which appears to have been very similar to a Boer <i>laager</i>, albeit on a much vaster scale.<p> In 1657, George II Rakoczi, Prince of Transylvania, allied himself with King Charles X Gustavus of Sweden and invaded Poland.<sup>1</sup> The King of Poland appealed to the Ottoman Sultan - Rakoczi's nominal overlord - for aid, and the Sultan, not appreciating the independent action of his vassal, responded favourably. A mixed Polish-Ottoman army, with the Ottoman contingent composed largely of Crimean Tatars<sup>2</sup>, marched against Rakoczi and eventually annihilated his forces at the Battle of Trembowla <sup>3</sup> on 31 July 1657. Evliya's uncle, Melek Ahmed Pasha, then Governor of Ozu (i.e., Dniepr) Province, was nominally Joint Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman forces and it was as a member of his entourage that Evliya participated in the campaign.<p> At this point it would seem appropriate to devote a few words to Evliya and his <i>Seyahatname</i> for the benefit of readers. Although virtually unknown in the West, the 10-volume set is one of the major travel works ever written, and records the author's experiences during almost 50 years of constant travel as an Ottoman emissary and soldier. He visited almost every portion of the then extensive Ottoman Empire, including the Balkans, the Crimea, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and the Hejaz, as well as considerable portions of Hungary, Poland, Austria, Germany, Holland, Southern Russia, and Persia.<p> Born in Istanbul on 25 March 1611 as Mehmet Zilli Evliya, he was the son of a Turkish master-goldsmith and an Abkhasian mother who had been brought as a child to Istanbul from the Caucasus and presented as a gift to Sultan Ahmed I. Although not a highly educated person, Evliya certainly received an education far superior to that then available to most children in the Empire. He was a talented musician, was well-versed in history, and was proficient in Arabic and Persian, in addition to his native Turkish. He also seems to have known some Greek and at least a little Latin. By virtue of having committed the entire Qur'an to memory, Evliya was entitled to the honoured Muslim title of <i>Hafiz</i>, and it was while he was reciting the Qur'an in Ayasofya (St. Sophia) Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan (in February 1630) that the beauty of his voice attracted the attention of Sultan Mehmet IV, who took him into the palace service as a gentleman-inwaiting and thus into Ottoman court officialdom, with which he was thereafter connected in one manner or another for the rest of his life. Although it may have been his fine voice that attracted the Sultan's attention, his subsequent career was due in no small degree to the influence of his maternal uncle, Melek Ahmed Pasha, then Swordbearer to the Sultan and subsequently the holder of many other high-ranking positions, including even that of Grand Vizier from August 1650 to August 1651. Much of Evliya's travelling, in fact, was done either as a member of his uncle's retinue, as in the case of the 'Fruitful Hungarian Campaign,' or on missions entrusted to him by the Pasha.<p> Evliya was not a particularly gifted writer, so that the value of the <i>Seyahatname</i> lies not so much in its excellence as a work of literature as in the wealth of facts on a myriad subjects and places to be found in it. Despite his penchant for exaggeration, his frequent lack of objectivity, and his unreliability whenever he cites figures, which he does constantly, his work is perhaps the most informative and most original single source available on events and life in the Ottoman domains during the 17th Century, and it has long been, and still is, a much-valued source for scholars writing on Ottoman history of that era. The following, taken from Volume VII of the <i>Seyahatname</i>, is a translation of Evliya's account of the final phase of the campaign.<p> 'Upon reaching the plain in front of the fortress of Trembowla, we saw - Allah is Great! - that there was a man for each blade of grass in the flowered field. It was a great <i>tabur</i>, the perimeter of which could not be travelled in two days, with a series of deep trenches on three sides and the river on the fourth. Rakoczi and 200 000 soldiers were within the <i>tabur</i>, which was formed of 70 000 to 80 000 carts sited on the edges of the trenches and linked together with chains. From within the <i>tabur</i> the smoke of cooking fires drifted up to the skies. Upon viewing this scene, Nureddin Sultan<sup>4</sup> brought up our troops. Then he conferred with his officers, having previously written letters to the Tatar Khan, to Melek Ahmed Pasha and to the King of Poland, asking them not to abandon the army in the field and to come to us with help on 15 Zu-l-Qa'da. The officers agreed unanimusly that the <i>tabur</i> should be surrounded ... At dawn on 15 Zu-l-Qa'da,<sup>5</sup> Nureddin Sultan, with the coastal Tatars, the Polish contingents and the Kardash Cossacks, emerged from the forest onto the plain and cries of "Allah! Allah!" resounded to the skies. All the warriors galloped forward and assailed Rakoczi's <i>tabur</i>. Having been repulsed, they set up guard posts that night and we slept peacefully. Within the <i>tabur</i> that night, however, the unbelievers were busy at tricks and devilry, so they got no rest until morning.<p> Dawn broke. From a high point we looked down on the <i>tabur</i> area. Rakoczi's men had dug two more trenches outside the original one and had diverted the river into them. In front of the trenches they had dug thousands of small pits, between which they had placed <i>chevaux-de-frise</i>, stakes, rails and hundreds of thousands of cartwheels. On the ground they had spread brushwood and thousands of large trees rich in branches and knots. In several places they had constructed suspension bridges and, at eleven points on the <i>tabur</i>'s perimeter, they had thrown up large mounds of earth to form large redoubts, in each of which were 40 to 50 balyemez<sup>6</sup> cannons. Mortars were standing ready on all sides. Outside the trenches they had laid explosive mines. In short, to describe what they had done by stealth would be a manual on <i>taburs</i>.<p> To put it briefly, we besieged the <i>tabur</i> for two full days but were unable to capture a single prisoner or achieve any kind of success. Finally, realizing that things had reached a stalemate, Nureddin Sultan decided on a clever course of action. From among the Tatar soldiers, he summoned into his presence all the unhanged brigands, the rascals, the fleet of foot, the thieves, the tricksters, the wrestlers and the reckless and, with a thousand promises, coaxed them into undertaking a mission: "If you will bring me a few prisoners from within the enemy <i>tabur</i>, I will give you such-and-such a reward." At once, 300 of these men donned the clothes of nocturnal thieves. Some who spoke Hungarian carried provisions as if they were coming to help, some pretended to be fleeing the Poles. In short, 300 tricksters and impostors entered the <i>tabur</i> by some kind of devilry or under cover of darkness. Within the <i>tabur</i>, they at once sent up 'a wail; they sent up such a wail amongst the unbelievers that it defies description. Early the next morning, we observed that seven of the 300 were missing. The remainder brought before Nureddin Sultan a large quantity of loot and 78 unbelievers bound hand and foot. Some of them were drunk and seriously wounded, others were plunged into dreams as a result of drugs they had ingested. Interpreters interrogated many of them and learned that within the <i>tabur</i> there were 200 000 unbelievers and 77 000 foot soldiers armed with rifles, and that no provisions remained. The heads of all the prisoners, were then separated from their bodies ... A sea of Muslim soldiers, rank on rank, surrounded the <i>tabur</i> on all four sides. But some Polish and Cossack unbelievers aiding us on the river side became careless. That night, infidels from the <i>tabur</i> opened the gates and drove out 3 000 thirsty water buffalos used to draw cannons, but the Tatars seized all of them immediately. An ox was my share; we cooked it and then we snored.<p> For three days and three nights, things were such within the <i>tabur</i> that no infidel monk could cross the trench or show his black hat, and there was much misery due to the shortage of food. The Tatar soldiers enjoyed themselves and soared like birds and honeybees. But they could not atack the <i>tabur</i> from any side. The infidels feared for their lives and were thrown into a whirlpool of anxiety. Within the <i>tabur</i>, flies swarmed because of the fetid odours.<p> Although the infidels expected provisions to reach them from Transylvania, there were Tatar, Polish and Cossack soldiers lying in ambush in the shade of every tree in that direction and even a bird could not get through, let alone reinforcements and provisions. The unbelievers who tried were caught, for they could not escape the hand of so many thousands of thieving, quick, enemy-hunting Tatars. Those within the <i>tabur</i> began to eat their horses and even their own flesh. After five days they began to eat the flesh of those who had died.<p> On 20 Zu-l-Qa'da, Mehmed Giray Khan, Khan of Crimea, arrived with 77 000 fully armed warriors from various Tatar tribes ... And Praise be to Allah! 50 wagons of gifts and 10 wagons of purses<sup>7</sup> and 1000 wagons of provisions arrived from the King of Poland, as well as 170 000 armed men from the province of Krakow, from Danska, from the Swedish<sup>8</sup> and Czech kings, from the Bans of Siavonia, Karol and Tot, from the <i>hetmans</i> of 12 Cossack tribes, from the Muslim communities subject to the King of Poland and from the Libka tribe, in short, from the <i>begs</i> and princes and <i>hetmans</i> of 47 different tribes, armed with 70 <i>balyemez</i>, <i>kolomborne</i>, howitzer, </i>shahi</i> and <i>salchima</i> cannons.<sup>9</sup> They too invested the <i>tabur</i> but remained on the Tatar perimeter. The Tatars remained between the unbelievers within the <i>tabur</i> and the Polish unbelievers outside. The Khan acted very prudently, for he was wary lest the unbelievers decide to unite and strike at the Tatars in the middle ... The next day 80 000 fighting men armed with rifles from 40 different Cossack tribes ... arrived to help the Khan and stopped on the other side of the river ... They quickly dug earthworks, like moles, and set up a large <i>tabur</i> of their own. They set up guard posts all around and dug a trench on a slope facing the Rakoczi <i>tabur</i>. They built a redoubt equipped with 40 to 50 cannons and linked their 7000 wagons with chains about their <i>tabur</i>, filling the gaps with Cossack riflemen. For these Cossacks had formerly been subjects of the Polish king. Seven years before, they had joined the Khan on raids into Poland, during which they had not spared populated areas. Therefore, the Cossacks feared the Poles and therefore they set up their own <i>tabur</i>, withdrew inside it and were thus safe from the Poles, for they were still mortal enemies.<p> From within the <i>tabur</i>, the Hungarians observed the situation. Day by day, the soldiers without grew in number, while no reinforcements or provisions reached them and they were approaching death from famine and hunger. Finally, all the Hungarians came to Rakoczi and said: "What is going to become of us? Our enemies have cut us off on all four sides. Our families within the <i>tabur</i> are weeping. What is our fate to be?"<p> Immediately the accursed Rakoczi silenced them by saying: "Come now! Letters have reached me through the Polish lines. At daybreak, 60 000 Transylvanian soldiers, 40 000 Szekler soldiers, 20 000 Haydushak tribesmen, and 10 000 Hungarian soldiers are coming. By Christ's order, when they arrive, we will go out once more and fight the Poles and Tatars. So, be of good cheer." <p> That night, men were observed coming from Rakoczi's <i>tabur</i>. Crying, "Have mercy, Mehmed Giray Khan, illustrious Khan of the House of Genghiz," the 17 men, together with priests, patriarchs, monks and clerics, came into the Khan's presence and showed him their orders. They said: "My lord! Our king, Rakoczi, is obedient to the Ottoman Sultan. This noble lord would defeat and seize the capital of the King of Poland, who accepted 200 purses from Grand Vizier Boynuegri (Crok-Neck) Mehmed Pasha and then rebelled by refusing to deliver the fortress of Khotin to the Ottomans. If ordered by the Sultan to do so, we would fight to protect Mecca and Medina as if they were Transylvania. It is up to you." The Khan immediately replied: "Boynuegri Mehmed Pasha has now been dismissed. Now it is the era of Koprulu Mehmet Pasha, whose neck is straight and teeth crooked. He has sent me against you with the Tatar soldiers and the Ottoman soldiers of Melek Ahmed Pasha, so I must forbid you to sit on the throne of Poland and must make you return (to Transylvania). Go back to your homeland. Today and tomorrow we shall fight a great battle, giving you no quarter." The unbelievers persisted in their obstinacy: "My lord! Previously, when Koprulu was Pasha of Eger, he was the enemy of our king, Rakoczi. Does he wish to take revenge now that he is Grand Vizier? As a favour, my lord, let us give 10 <i>hanto</i> <sup>10</sup> wagons of piastres to Your Excellency and 10 wagons of gold pieces to the Sultan and five wagons of silver to Koprulu. Also, let us give the Ottoman treasury 5000 purses annually from Poland, in addition to gifts without number. When we reach Poland, we will not leave empty-handed but will conquer the thrones of Trembowla, Danska and Krakow and each year we shall give 5000 purses to the Ottoman state." <p> For six hours they said who knows how many hundreds and thousands of things to the Khan, but he did not open his ears to the empty words of the unbelievers and, since they were wasting his time, he dismissed the monks and the metropolitans.<p> When Rakoczi understood the situation, he ordered his ships and men to make ready. Then, saying he was going to meet the reinforcements who were coming, he boarded the ships with about 40 to 50 serviceable mares and hussar horses and fled taking refuge in the Sikel area of Transylvania.<sup>11</sup> In the morning, those within the <i>tabur</i> discovered that Rakoczi had fled. All the unbelievers assembled and discussed the matter: "All sedition and intrigue were the work of Rakoczi. Now he has fled. For whom shall we fight now and for whom shall we die of hunger? Let us give great wealth to the Tatar Khan, Kalgay Sultan, Nureddin Sultan, the Yali Agha<sup>12</sup> and the other officers, and then let us return safely to our homeland." They sent 77 lords of fortresses, innumerable priests and 17 princes ... to the Khan with gifts and they begged for mercy: "Let us give you our wealth and let us go home."<p> Immediately from the Tatar ranks the cry of "Allah! Allah!" rent the skies, and all the Polish, Czech, Swedish and Cossack soldiers who had come to help also rose to their feet, and the Khan, upon seeing the situation, said, "May Allah grant us good fortune." While the Khan's attendants and I were reading the victory anouncement, all the Muslim soldiers, neck and neck, were arriving under the guns of the <i>tabur</i> and 100 000 Tatars were each fitting two or three arrows to their bowstrings, so that twice 100 000 arrows rained down into the <i>tabur</i>. When the untold thousands of arrows hit the unprotected horses, they kicked out at the men and bit them. The arrows piled up like tulips on the heads of the Hungarians and created a wail within the <i>tabur</i>. From seven emplacements, the Polish unbelievers fired <i>balyemez</i> cannon balls into the <i>tabur</i>, while the Cossacks poured in a rain of bullets. Thus, a 3-hour battle occurred, with broadsides of bullets and cannon balls from both sides. Eyes were blinded by the smoke of black gunpowder. Shouts of "Allah! Allah!" from outside the<i>tabur</i> and of "George! George!" from within filled the skies, along with the sounds of bells and trumpets, and during this time untold thousands drank the sherbet of Judgment Day.<p> At one point the Tatars approached the <i>tabur</i> from the rear. Upon seeing this, the unbelievers within the <i>tabur</i> immediately mounted their horses and, with all the <i>tabur's balyemez</i> cannons firing, charged out onto the plain after the Tatars, shouting "George! George!" From the rear Cossack and Polish soldiers immediately fell on the <i>tabur</i> and began to loot. By the time the Tatars cried, "Return! Enough!", the Hungarians - Allah is Great! - had emerged from the <i>tabur</i>. They remained on the field and began to fight like dogs. For about an hour, a truly savage battle occurred, such as had not been seen since the days of Genghiz Khan, Hulagu Khan and Tamerlane.<p> The unbelievers' famous field commanders, the Austrian princes who had been participating in the battle, all the pimps lay stretched out on the ground and, proving the truth of the saying "everything returns to its origin," their fate was the deepest pit of Hell. Those who escaped the sword were converted back into monkeys by a cannon ball or into swine by an arrow. So many men were killed that human blood flowed like rivers and those still alive were constrained to pray that they too might die. In this battle Hungarians beyond counting tasted the sword. The world was filled with the cannon and rifle fire of the two seas of soldiers, with the swish of arrows, with the outcries of men, with the neighing of horses. The smoke of black gunpowder reduced to nothing the strength of the sun's rays and darkened the face of the moon. As a result of the battle, the Polish and Cossack soldiers acquired booty beyond calculation, while the Tatars took the living portion, 27 000 horses and mules and 47 000 prisoners. The bodies of 87 000 dead unbelievers were piled up on the ground face down. (It was determined that 87 000 unbelievers had been killed when their backs were scratched with a sword and counted.) It was so recorded in the register of the Khan's <i>cadi</i>. The prisoners were left bound.<p> As for our side, 700 Tatar soldiers had drunk the sherbet of martyrdom; their bodies were salted and transported to the Crimea by raft. Of the Poles, Cossacks and other infidels who had come to help us, about 7 065 were killed. So much booty was taken that every Tatar returned home straining under the load. Forty thousand Bessarabians also won booty ... Within the 80 000 wagons seized inside the <i>tabur</i>, there were many female slaves of sun-dazzling beauty, who, although each worth a Greek tribute, were sold for a bowlful of tobacco or an okka<sup>13</sup> of bread. Three wagon loads of goods were given especially to the Khan; I do not know what they contained. Rakoczi's larder and treasury were seized specifically for the Khan, while the others - Kalgay Sultan, Nureddin Sultan and the Khan's other principal officers - seized the rest of Rakoczi's baggage. All the ordnance, including 40 <i>balyemez</i> cannons, were seized in the name of the Ottomans.<p> Thanks be to Allah! There fell into my hands in this battle seven slave boys, three sun-dazzling girls, seven Hungarians, ten rifles, 17 silver trays, a silver cross, two silver Hungarian-style stirrups, a silver goblet and countless similar items ... Among the Crimean Tatars, this campaign is still referred to as the "Fruitful Hungarian Campaign". In fact, if a Tatar sells his chattels and spends his wealth like a prodigal gentleman, others will quote the proverb, "Fellow! you must have gotten rich in the fruitful Hungarian campaign". Indeed, the campaign resulted in so much booty that the Tatars later used some of it to roof most of the houses in Bakhchisarai with red tile. Previously most of them had been thatched with reeds. May Allah make the Crimea even more prosperous, for it is a country of warriors for the faith!' <p> Such is Evliya's account of the great <i>tabur</i> and the battle the Ottoman-Polish forces fought to take it. Although no Boer <i>laager</i> of such a size ever existed, the similarities between a <i>tabur</i> and a <i>laager</i>, namely, the use for defence of wagons chained together, emerges clearly.<p> <b>Notes</b><p> 1 George II Rakoczi (1615-1676) ascended the throne of Transylvania in October 1648 upon the death of his father, George I (b. 1590). As a vassal of the Sultan, his title was prince, although Evliya consistently refers to him as a <i>kral</i>, or king. The war between Sweden and Poland lasted from 1655 to 1660 and ended in victory for the Swedes, with Poland being forced to cede Livonia to Sweden under the Treaty of Oliva.<br> 2 Like Transylvania, the Crimea was then an Ottoman vassal state. The King of Poland was then John II Casimir, sometimes known as Casimir V (1609-1672, reigned 1648-1668). At the time of his election to the Polish throne, he was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church and, after abdicating in 1668, he resumed his religious career and became Abbot of Saint-Germain in France. Although Western writers normally present wars between Europeans and Ottomans as crusades waged by noble, God-fearing paladins against savage heathens, it is instructive to note that the Ottomans were involved in this campaign because of a request for aid against a Christian prince made to a Muslim sultan by a Christian king (and former cardinal)! <br> 3 Then a Polish city but today Terebovlya in the Ukraine.<br> 4 Not a personal name but the title borne by the second in line for the Crimean Khanate throne. The first in line, or heir apparent, was known as Kalgay Sultan.<br> 5 An error by Evliya; 15 Zu-l-Qa'da 1067 equates to 25 August 1657, but the final battle was fought on 31 July.<p> 6 A type of culverin, reputedly named after its Italian inventor, Balliamezza.<br> 7 A purse (<i>kese</i>) was 500 piastres.<br> 8 Since Rakoczi was invading Poland as an ally of the King of Sweden, Evliya is obviously in error here.<br> 9 A <i>kolomborne</i>, a corruption of the Italian <i>colubrina</i>, was another type of culverin. A <i>shahi</i> (literally, imperial) was a form of muzzle-loading, long-range cannon. The writer has been unable to identify <i>salchima</i>.<br> 10 A type of Hungarian cart, richly decorated.<p> 11 According to the <i>New Cambridge Modern History</i>, Vol 5 (Cambridge, 1961), p. 487, Rakoczi bought his freedom from the Poles for 1 200 000 florins.<br> 12 The title of the Ottoman military commander in charge of coastal defences. He was present as commander of the contingent of Bessarabian Tatars that formed part of the Ottoman-Polish army.<br> 13 A Turkish measure of weight equal to about 1,27 kg (2,8 pounds).<p> <P>Return to <A HREF="journal.html">Journal Index</A> OR <A HREF="index.html">Society's Home page</A></P> <ADDRESS><A HREF="http://samilitaryhistory.org">South African Military History Society </A>/<A HREF="mailto:scribe@samilitaryhistory.org"> scribe@samilitaryhistory.org</A></ADDRESS>