We will print you a perfectly bound paperback of your selected title and send it to you at your nominated address

[Pg 1]

[Pg 2]

HALIL THE PEDLAR

[Pg 3]

A TALE OF OLD STAMBUL

BY

Maurus Jókai

AUTHOR OF

"The Green Book," "Black Diamonds," "The Poor Plutocrats," etc.

Authorised Edition, Translated by

R. Nisbet Bain

LONDONJARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, E.C.
[All Rights Reserved]
1901

[Pg 4]Translated from the Hungarian, "A fehér rózsa,"
by R. Nisbet Bain.

Copyright
London: Jarrold & Sons
New York: McClure, Phillips, & Co.

[Pg 5]

CONTENTS.

[Pg 7][Pg 6]

INTRODUCTION.

On September 28th, 1730, a rebellion burst forth in Stambul againstSultan Achmed III., whose cowardly hesitation to take the field againstthe advancing hosts of the victorious Persians had revolted both thearmy and the people. The rebellion began in the camp of the Janissaries,and the ringleader was one Halil Patrona, a poor Albanian sailor-man,who after plying for a time the trade of a petty huckster had beencompelled, by crime or accident, to seek a refuge among the mercenarysoldiery of the Empire. The rebellion was unexpectedly, amazinglysuccessful. The Sultan, after vainly sacrificing his chief councillorsto the fury of the mob, was himself dethroned by Halil, and Mahmud I.appointed Sultan in his stead. For the next six weeks theex-costermonger held the destiny of the Ottoman Empire in his handstill, on November 25th, he and his chief associates were treacherouslyassassinated in full Divan by the secret command, and actually in thepresence of, the very monarch whom he had drawn from obscurity to setupon the throne.

This dramatic event is the historical basis of Jókai's[Pg 8] famous story, "AFehér Rózsa," now translated into English for the first time. No doubtthe genial Hungarian romancer has idealised the rough, outspoken,masterful rebel-chief, Halil Patrona, into a great patriot-statesman, a