418G. BREK陌associated with this miniature which acclaims the Ottoman musketeers for shooting bullets like liding stars�against the enemy (Divn- Ndir, fol. 26a). Yet, Nak艧i miniature does untangle several crucial problems. It should first be noted that this miniature depicts a scene that actually took place but that was incorrectly identified by scholars (Tannd 2003, p. 145). It has heretofore been assumed to depict the battle of Nicopolis (Ni臒bolu) in 1598 between the forces of the commander Hadm Hafz Ahmed Pasha, the governor of Bosnia (here depicted on horseback among the Janissaries) and those of Mihai Viteazul (also known as Michael the Brave), the rebellious Voyvoda of Wallachia in the 1590s. It is known that both Gazanfer and Ali Aghas, paying all expenses from their own pockets, had sent a force of 100 musketeers and 50 armor-clad infantry soldiers to aid Ahmed Pasha in October 1598 (陌p艧irli 1999, p. 774). Nadiri poems praise these two aghas for their generosity in this regard and it seems that this miniature, though indirectly, emphasises this benevolent act. However, a detail in the miniature actually allows a more precise and correct dating of the event depicted. The figure wearing the tiger-skin among the European soldiers can be identified in contemporary Ottoman chronicles as the commander of a Transylvanian mercenary force sent by Mihai in 1597. According to Selaniki, a contemporary chronicler and bureaucrat who seemingly had access to the reports sent by Ahmed Pasha following the engagement, the Transylvanian soldiers numbered 1000, among which 300 were given the mission of laying an ambush in the mountain passes near Nicopolis for the Ottoman forces marching to join the campaign. Selaniki gives this mercenary commander name as Hersekl (literarily, rom Herzegovina� and mentions that Ahmed Pasha, who had previously been ordered to secure the passages along the Danube around Vidin, captured him and a few of his forces alive after a coordinated attack with the Ottoman cavalry forces. Selaniki writes, T]heir commander, Hersekl, with his tiger-skin, was captured alivend he was sent to Istanbul with 700 severed heads�(陌p艧irli 1999, p. 733). The prisoner, together with the heads and reports and letters sent by Ahmed Pasha, arrived in Istanbul on 7 April 1598 (陌p艧irli 1999, p. 733). Abdlkadir Efendi, on the other hand, puts this engagement in mid-November/early-December of 1597 in the mountain pass near Nicopolis (Ylmazer 2003, p. 205).30 These accounts thus show that the scene depicted in the miniature took place in 1597, not in 1598.31 It should also be mentioned that, soon after this engagement, Mihai arrived with his army and fought against Ahmed Pasha once again in the vicinity of Nicopolis. During this battle, according to Abdlkadir, Ahmed Pasha and his forces at first suffered some setbacks, but in the end they managed to defeat the forces of Mihai, who fled the scene (Ylmazer 2003, p. 205). Nak艧i seems to have depicted Ahmed Pasha victories over both Hersekl and Mihai on a single30 The date given according to the Hijri calendar in the original text is Reblhr (1006), which corresponds to 11 November to 9 December 1597 in the Gregorian calendar. 31 Nak艧i, as a person close to the royal court, would have heard of Ahmed Pasha success and may even have observed the prisoner entry into Istanbul.Acta Orient. Hung. 59, 2006
