Note 331 — A NARRATIVE OF ITALIAN TRAVELS IN PERSIA. (continued 2)

Knolles says:—“This was that notable battell fought in the Calderan fields neare unto the city of Coy, betwixt these two great princes, the 7th day of August, in the yeare of our Lord 1514. In which battell Selymus lost above thirtie thousand men, amongst whom was Casan Bassa, his great lieutenant in Europe; seaven Sanzackes, in which were the two Malcozzian brethren, who, labouring the one to rescue the other, were both togither slaine. Beside his common footmen, of whom he made least reckoning, he lost most part of his Illirian, Macedonian, Servian, Epirot, Thessalian, and Thracian horsemen, the undoubted flower and strength of his army, which were in that mortall battell almost all slaine or grievously wounded. Selymus, for all this great losse, by the confession of his enemies having gotten the victorie, and receiving embassadours from Coy and the cities thereabout, and the great citie of Tauris, promising to relieve him with whatsoever he needed, and to doe what else he should commaund, marched directly to Tauris, desiring both to see and possesse himself of that citie as one of the chiefe pallaces of the Persian kings. This citie is two daies’ journey distant from Coy, where the battell was fought, and is probably supposed to be the famous citie called in auntient time Ecbatana, about an hundred and fiftie miles distant from the Caspian Sea. The citizens were readie at the comming of the Turks, and brought them great store of victuals out of the gates of the citie, where Selymus had lodged his army in the suburbs, thinking it no safetie to lodge within that great and populous citie, contenting himselfe to have the gates thereof delivered unto him, which he kept with strong guard.”