…Hama, towards Halab. Another embassy meanwhile arrives…
June 1516 CE
…Hama, towards Halab.
Another embassy meanwhile arrives from the Ottoman camp which, in deceptive guise, brings costly gifts to the Sultan and also to the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III and Vizier, with the request of Selim I for a supply of Egyptian sugar and confectionery.
It is also intimated that legal pronouncements against the Shah of Persia Ismail I had forced him again to prepare for war and take the field.
The Chancellor Mughla Baig is sent with presents in return; but by the time he reaches the Ottoman camp, Selim I has shed his guise of peaceful intent: now, to show his contempt for the Egyptians, he treats the Embassy ignominiously, and sends back the Chancellor shaven and shorn, and mounted on a lame and wretched animal, with the rest on foot.