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102-606: Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin in the Ottoman Empire. However, after there were troubles between the Turkish grand vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger and Sultan Mehmed II (who had him executed), there was a rise of slave administrators ( devshirme ). These were much easier for the sultans to control, as compared to the free administrators of Turkish aristocratic origin. The term vizier

204-599: A delayed tribute of 10,000 ducats and 500 recruits into the Ottoman forces. Vlad III Dracula refused and had the Ottoman envoys killed by nailing their turbans to their heads, on the pretext that they had refused to raise their "hats" to him, as they only removed their headgear before Allah. Meanwhile, the Sultan sent the Bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha , to make peace and, if necessary, eliminate Vlad III. Vlad III set an ambush;

306-455: A great impact in molding Mehmed's mindset and reinforcing his Muslim beliefs. He was influenced in his practice of Islamic epistemology by practitioners of science, particularly by his mentor, Molla Gürâni , and he followed their approach. The influence of Akshamsaddin in Mehmed's life became predominant from a young age, especially in the imperative of fulfilling his Islamic duty to overthrow

408-570: A letter to Corvinus dated 2 February, he wrote: I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova , which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers.... Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken

510-519: A month before the emperor David surrendered on 15 August 1461. The Ottomans since the early 15th century tried to bring Wallachia ( Ottoman Turkish : والاچیا ) under their control by putting their own candidate on the throne, but each attempt ended in failure. The Ottomans regarded Wallachia as a buffer zone between them and the Kingdom of Hungary and for a yearly tribute did not meddle in their internal affairs. The two primary Balkan powers, Hungary and

612-512: A month later, on the 16th of November, the Ottomans avenged their earlier defeat at Kruševac by defeating Skobaljić's army near Tripolje, where the Serbian voivode was captured and executed via impalement. Following this a temporary treaty was signed with the Serbian despot, where Đurađ would formally recognize the recently captured Serbian forts as Ottoman land, send thirty thousand florins to

714-458: A morale boost amongst the Ottoman troops, which allowed them to go on the offensive again and push the Christian forces out of the Ottoman camp. The actions of the Sultan had prevented a complete rout of the Ottoman army, however, the army had been far too weakened to attempt to take the city again, causing the Ottoman war council to decide on ending the siege. The Sultan and his army began

816-664: A position of supreme power in the Empire. It was during the Köprülü era that the Ottoman Empire reached its largest geographic expansion across Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa. In Ottoman legal theory, the Sultan was supposed to conduct affairs of state exclusively via the Grand Vizier, but in reality, this arrangement was often circumvented. As the Ottomanist Colin Imber writes, the sultan "had closer contact with

918-642: A pretext in November 1462, the Ottoman commander in central Greece, Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey , attacked and nearly succeeded in taking the strategically important Venetian fortress of Lepanto ( Nafpaktos ). On 3 April 1463, however, the governor of the Morea, Isa Beg, took the Venetian-held town of Argos by treason. The new alliance launched a two-pronged offensive against the Ottomans: a Venetian army, under

1020-453: A retreat to Edirne during the night, without the Christian forces being able to pursue them. Hunyadi died shortly after the siege, meanwhile Đurađ Branković regained possession of some parts of Serbia. Shortly before the end of the year 1456, roughly 5 months after the Siege of Belgrade , the 79-year-old Branković died. Serbian independence survived after him for only around three years, when

1122-512: A shortage of manpower and money meant that the Venetians remained largely confined to their fortified bases, while Ömer Bey's army roamed the countryside. In the Aegean , the Venetians tried to take Lesbos in the spring of 1464, and besieged the capital Mytilene for six weeks, until the arrival of an Ottoman fleet under Mahmud Pasha on 18 May forced them to withdraw. Another attempt to capture

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1224-572: A staunch antagonist of the West, as the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople with all the ceremonial elements, ethnarch (or milletbashi ) status, and rights of property that made him the second largest landlord in the empire after the sultan himself in 1454, and in turn, Gennadius II recognized Mehmed the Conqueror as the successor to the throne. Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos died without producing an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen to

1326-458: A strong state. Grand Viziers gained immense political supremacy in the later days of the Ottoman Empire. Power was centralized in the position of the Grand Vizier during the Köprülü era . Köprülü Mehmed Pasha was a powerful political figure during the reign of Mehmed IV, and was appointed to the office of Grand Vizier in 1656. He consolidated power within the position and sent the Sultan away from

1428-532: A war council with his commanders to determine the army's next actions. Karaca Pasha recommended that a part of the army should cross the Danube to counter the approaching relief army. This plan was rejected by the council, particularly due to the opposition by the Rumelian Begs. Instead, the decision was made to prioritize capturing the fortress, a move seen as a tactical blunder by modern historians. This allowed Hunyadi to set up camp with his army across

1530-559: Is curtain-bearer in the palace of Chosroes, The owl sounds the relief in the castle of Afrasiyab. Some Muslim scholars claimed that a hadith in Musnad Ahmad referred specifically to Mehmed's conquest of Constantinople, seeing it as the fulfillment of a prophecy and a sign of the approaching apocalypse. After the conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title of caesar of the Roman Empire ( Qayser-i Rûm ), based on

1632-767: The Deccan had substantially weakened. Asaf Jah I, however, refused to grant Chauth to the Maratha Confederacy during its onset in 1718 and in 1721, after the nobility of the Mughal Empire had the two Sayyid Brothers assassinated. However, the Marathas had already expanded up to the Narmada River , and entrenched themselves in that region thereafter. Baji Rao I later instigated war by collecting Chauth in 1723, and trying to expand Maratha rule in

1734-540: The Dănești clan, to the throne. Vlad III Dracula fled to Moldavia, where he lived under the protection of his uncle, Bogdan II . In October 1451, Bogdan was assassinated and Vlad fled to Hungary. Impressed by Vlad's vast knowledge of the mindset and inner workings of the Ottoman Empire, as well as his hatred towards the Turks and new Sultan Mehmed II, Hunyadi reconciled with his former enemy and tried to make Vlad III his own advisor, but Vlad refused. In 1456, three years after

1836-703: The Golden Horn was blocked by a boom chain and defended by twenty-eight warships . On 22 April, Mehmed transported his lighter warships overland, around the Genoese colony of Galata , and into the Golden Horn's northern shore; eighty galleys were transported from the Bosphorus after paving a route, little over one mile, with wood. Thus, the Byzantines stretched their troops over a longer portion of

1938-570: The Isthmus of Corinth , restoring the Hexamilion wall and equipping it with many cannons. They then proceeded to besiege the fortress of the Acrocorinth , which controlled the northwestern Peloponnese. The Venetians engaged in repeated clashes with the defenders and with Ömer Bey's forces, until they suffered a major defeat on 20 October and were then forced to lift the siege and retreat to

2040-515: The Mughal Empire during the reign of Akbar . Saadullah Khan , Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire during the reign of Shah Jahan made the biggest contribution to the organization and administration of the Mughal Empire, he is considered the best of the long line of Mughal Grand Viziers. During the reign of Aurangzeb, Ali Quli Khan was bestowed this title. Later general Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung became Grand Vizier, his fame as one of

2142-459: The Ottoman state . His father was Sultan Murad II (1404–1451) and his mother Hüma Hatun , a slave of uncertain origin. When Mehmed II was eleven years old he was sent to Amasya with his two lalas (advisors) to govern and thus gain experience, per the custom of Ottoman rulers before his time. Sultan Murad II also sent a number of teachers for him to study under. This Islamic education had

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2244-453: The Porte as yearly tribute and provide troops for Ottoman campaigns. The 1454 campaign had resulted in the capture of fifty thousand prisoners from Serbia, four thousand of whom were settled in various villages near Constantinople . The following year, Mehmed received reports from one of his frontier commanders about Serbian weakness against a possible invasion, the reports in combination with

2346-582: The Saronic Gulf . On 12 July, Cappello landed at Piraeus and marched against Athens , the Ottomans' major regional base. He failed to take the Acropolis and was forced to retreat to Patras , the capital of Peloponnese and the seat of the Ottoman bey , which was being besieged by a joint force of Venetians and Greeks . Before Cappello could arrive, and as the city seemed on the verge of falling, Ömer Bey suddenly appeared with 12,000 cavalry and drove

2448-421: The 13th of June. After the necessary preparations were finished, Ottoman cannons started bombarding the city walls and Ottoman troops started filling the ditches in front of the walls with earth to advance forward. As despair started to set in amongst the defenders, news started arriving of a relief force assembling across the Danube under the command of John Hunyadi. Upon learning of this development, Mehmed held

2550-553: The 18th of April. Mehmed's forces quickly succeeded in capturing Sivricehisar (sometimes identified with the Ostrvica Fortress ) and Omolhisar, and repulsed a Serbian cavalry force of 9,000 cavalry sent against them by the despot. Following these actions, the Serbian capital of Smederevo was put under siege by the Ottoman forces. Before the city could be taken, intelligence was received about an approaching Hungarian relief force led by Hunyadi, which caused Mehmed to lift

2652-586: The 19th century, the Grand Viziers came to assume a role more like that of the prime ministers of contemporary Western monarchies. Forty nine Grand Viziers of Albanian ethnicity served the empire during the Ottoman period and most of them were southern Albanians ( Tosks ). Bairam Khan was the Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire, who led the forces of Akbar to victory during the Second Battle of Panipat . Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak , Grand Vizier of

2754-504: The Age of Sultan Suleiman I (1520-1566)". His research interest is focused on the history of the Ottoman Empire until the 17th century and on Islamic law , in particular on the system of Ottoman law , until the 17th century. He is considered as "perhaps the leading, and...certainly the most productive, of the painfully few Ottoman historians currently working in British universities." He

2856-741: The Byzantine Empire by conquering Constantinople. After Murad II made peace with Hungary on 12 June 1444, he abdicated the throne in favour of his 12-year-old son Mehmed II in July /August 1444. During Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke the conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged in September 1444. Cardinal Julian Cesarini ,

2958-598: The Captain General of the Sea Alvise Loredan , landed in the Morea, while Matthias Corvinus invaded Bosnia. At the same time, Pius II began assembling an army at Ancona , hoping to lead it in person. Negotiations were also begun with other rivals of the Ottomans, such as Karamanids , Uzun Hassan and the Crimean Khanate . In early August, the Venetians retook Argos and refortified

3060-479: The Conqueror (Ottoman Turkish: ابو الفتح , romanized:  Ebū'l-fetḥ , lit.   'the Father of Conquest'; Turkish: Fâtih Sultan Mehmed ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, he defeated the crusade led by John Hunyadi after the Hungarian incursions into his country broke

3162-433: The Danube uncontested. Shortly after, the Ottoman navy was defeated in a five hour long battle by the newly arrived Christian Danubian navy. Following this, Hunyadi's troops started entering the city to reinforce the besieged, which increased the morale of the defending forces. Infuriated by the unfolding events, Mehmed ordered a final attack to capture the city on the 21st of July, after continuous cannon fire building up to

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3264-680: The Deccan and beyond, causing the outbreak of the Later Mughal-Maratha Wars . Qamaruddin Khan was handpicked to be the Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire, by Asaf Jah I. He successfully repelled Baji Rao I during the Battle of Delhi (1737), and negotiated peace after the occupation of the Mughal Empire by the forces of Nader Shah . He fell in battle after being struck by a stray artillery shell, in battle against Afghan forces in

3366-467: The Elder reformed the role of the vizier in several ways. Several viziers before him held an equivalent, but differently named office; he was the first who held the position of "Grand Vizier", during the reign of Murad I . He was the first advisor with a military background – his forerunners had come from a more scholarly class of men. It is also significant that he was the first of a political family that, at

3468-514: The Greeks. A few holdouts remained for a time. The island of Monemvasia refused to surrender, and it was ruled for a brief time by a Catalan corsair. When the population drove him out they obtained the consent of Thomas to submit to the Pope's protection before the end of 1460. The Mani Peninsula , on the Morea's south end, resisted under a loose coalition of local clans, and the area then came under

3570-521: The Hexamilion and to Nauplia ( Nafplion ). In Bosnia, Matthias Corvinus seized over sixty fortified places and succeeded in taking its capital, Jajce , after a 3-month siege , on 16 December. Ottoman reaction was swift and decisive: Mehmed II dispatched his Grand Vizier , Mahmud Pasha Angelović , with an army against the Venetians. To confront the Venetian fleet, which had taken station outside

3672-758: The Hungarians and asked Pope Pius II for help in the face of an impending Ottoman invasion. In 1463, after a dispute over the tribute paid annually by the Bosnian Kingdom to the Ottomans, he sent for help from the Venetians . However, none ever reached Bosnia. In 1463, Sultan Mehmed II led an army into the country. The royal city of Bobovac soon fell, leaving Stephen Tomašević to retreat to Jajce and later to Ključ . Mehmed invaded Bosnia and conquered it very quickly, executing Stephen Tomašević and his uncle Radivoj . Bosnia officially fell in 1463 and became

3774-493: The Ottoman Empire formally annexed Serbian lands following dissension among his widow and three remaining sons. Lazar, the youngest, poisoned his mother and exiled his brothers, but he died soon afterwards. In the continuing turmoil the oldest brother Stefan Branković gained the throne. Observing the chaotic situation in Serbia, the Ottoman government decided to definitively conclude the Serbian issue. The Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha

3876-469: The Ottoman army and won the Battle of Varna on 10 November 1444. Halil Inalcik states that Mehmed II did not ask for his father. Instead, it was Çandarlı Halil Pasha 's effort to bring Murad II back to the throne. In 1446, while Murad II returned to the throne, Mehmed retained the title of sultan but only acted as a governor of Manisa. Following the death of Murad II in 1451, Mehmed II became sultan for

3978-466: The Ottoman history, the Grand Viziers have also been termed sadr-ı âlî ( صدر عالی , "sublime vizier"), vekil-ı mutlak ( وكیل مطلق , "absolute attorney"), sâhib-ı devlet ( صاحب دولت , "holder of the State"), serdar-ı ekrem ( سردار اكرم , "most noble [commander-in-]chief"), serdar-ı a’zam ( سردار اعظم , "grand [commander-in-]chief") and zât-ı âsafî ( ذات آصفی , "vizieral person"). Halil Pasha

4080-454: The Ottomans had conquered Constantinople, they threatened Hungary by besieging Belgrade . Hunyadi began a concerted counterattack in Serbia : While he himself moved into Serbia and relieved the siege (before dying of the plague), Vlad III Dracula led his own contingent into Wallachia, reconquered his native land, and killed Vladislav II. In 1459, Mehmed II sent envoys to Vlad to urge him to pay

4182-510: The Ottomans having reached the outskirts of Venice . Based on the terms of the treaty, the Venetians were allowed to keep Ulcinj , Antivan, and Durrës . However, they ceded Shkodra , which had been under Ottoman siege for many months, as well as other territories on the Dalmatian coastline, and they relinquished control of the Greek islands of Negroponte ( Euboea ) and Lemnos . Moreover,

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4284-547: The Ottomans were surrounded and almost all of them caught and impaled, with Hamza Pasha impaled on the highest stake, as befit his rank. In the winter of 1462, Vlad III crossed the Danube and scorched the entire Bulgarian land in the area between Serbia and the Black Sea . Allegedly disguising himself as a Turkish Sipahi and utilizing his command of the Turkish language and customs, Vlad III infiltrated Ottoman camps, ambushed, massacred or captured several Ottoman forces. In

4386-613: The Ottomans, he likely would have been succeeded by the sons of his deceased elder brother. Those children were taken into the palace service of Mehmed after the fall of Constantinople. The oldest boy, renamed Has Murad, became a personal favorite of Mehmed and served as beylerbey of the Balkans . The younger son, renamed Mesih Pasha , became admiral of the Ottoman fleet and sanjak-bey of the Gallipoli . He eventually served twice as Grand Vizier under Mehmed's son, Bayezid II . After

4488-425: The Ottomans, maintained an enduring struggle to make Wallachia their own vassal. To prevent Wallachia from falling into the Hungarian fold, the Ottomans freed young Vlad III (Dracula), who had spent four years as a prisoner of Murad, together with his brother Radu , so that Vlad could claim the throne of Wallachia. His rule was short-lived, however, as Hunyadi invaded Wallachia and restored his ally Vladislav II , of

4590-519: The Ottomans, speaking of wild schemes that included the conquest of Jerusalem . Mehmed II eventually heard of these intrigues and was further provoked to action by David's demand that Mehmed remit the tribute imposed on his brother. Mehmed the Conqueror's response came in the summer of 1461. He led a sizable army from Bursa by land and the Ottoman navy by sea, first to Sinope , joining forces with Ismail's brother Ahmed (the Red). He captured Sinope and ended

4692-506: The Sultan for the conquest of the city, including the casting of 22 large cannons alongside many smaller ones and the establishment of a navy which would sail up the Danube to aid the army during the siege. The exact number of troops Mehmed commanded varies between sources, but the rumours of its size were significant enough to cause panic in Italy. Ottoman troops began arriving at Belgrade on

4794-634: The Venetians were forced to pay 100,000 ducat indemnity and agreed to a tribute of around 10,000 ducats per year in order to acquire trading privileges in the Black Sea . As a result of this treaty, Venice acquired a weakened position in the Levant . During the post- Seljuks era in the second half of the Middle Ages , numerous Turkmen principalities collectively known as Anatolian beyliks emerged in Anatolia. Karamanids initially centred around

4896-468: The arts and sciences, and by the end of his reign, his rebuilding program had changed Constantinople into a thriving imperial capital. He is considered a hero in modern-day Turkey and parts of the wider Muslim world . Among other things, Istanbul's Fatih district, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Fatih Mosque are named after him. Mehmed II was born on 30 March 1432, in Edirne , then the capital city of

4998-629: The assertion that Constantinople had been the seat and capital of the Roman Empire since 330 AD and whoever possessed the Imperial capital was the ruler of the empire. The contemporary scholar George of Trebizond supported his claim. The claim was not recognized by the Catholic Church and most of, if not all, Western Europe, but was recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church . Mehmed had installed Gennadius Scholarius ,

5100-405: The camp for his safety, which he refused to do so on the grounds that it would be a “sign of cowardice”. After this, Mehmed personally joined the fighting, accompanied by two of his begs . The Sultan managed to personally kill three enemy soldiers before being injured, forcing him to abandon the battlefield. The news of their Sultan fighting alongside them and the arrival of reinforcements caused

5202-423: The capital by sea in 1442, but bad weather made the landings difficult and the attempt was repulsed. While Mehmed II was away laying siege to Belgrade in 1456, the Ottoman governor of Amasya attacked Trebizond, and although he was defeated, he took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute. After John's death in 1459, his brother David came to power and intrigued with various European powers for help against

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5304-527: The chance and instead attacked him trying to take back the Fortress of Chilia . Vlad III had to retreat to the mountains. After this, the Ottomans captured the Wallachian capital Târgoviște and Mehmed II withdrew, having left Radu as ruler of Wallachia. Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey , who served with distinction and wiped out a force of 6,000 Wallachians and deposited 2,000 of their heads at the feet of Mehmed II,

5406-502: The city on hunting trips, thus stopping Mehmed's direct management over the state. Next, he forcibly removed any officers suspected of corruption; those who did not leave were executed. He also conducted campaigns against Venice and the Habsburgs, as well as quelling rebellions in Anatolia. On his deathbed five years later, he convinced Mehmed to appoint his son (Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha) as the next Grand Vizier, thus securing his dynasty

5508-565: The conditions of the truce per the Treaties of Edirne and Szeged . When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451, he strengthened the Ottoman Navy and made preparations to attack Constantinople. At the age of 21, he conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Byzantine Empire . After the conquest, Mehmed claimed the title caesar of Rome (Ottoman Turkish: قیصر‎ روم , romanized:  qayṣar-i Rūm ), based on

5610-546: The conquest of Constantinople, Mehmed II visited the site of Troy and boasted that he had avenged the Trojans by conquering the Greeks (Byzantines). Mehmed II's first campaigns after Constantinople were in the direction of Serbia, which had been an Ottoman vassal state intermittently since the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The Ottoman ruler had a connection with the Serbian Despotate – one of Murad II 's wives

5712-465: The conquest of the city, Mehmed captured various other Serbian settlements in the surrounding area, after which he started his march back towards Edirne, visiting his ancestor Murad I 's grave in Kosovo on the way. In 1456, Mehmed decided to continue his momentum towards the northwest and capture the city of Belgrade , which had been ceded to the Kingdom of Hungary by the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković in 1427. Significant preparations were made by

5814-414: The day of the attack. Ottoman troops were initially successful in breaching the defences and entering the city, however were eventually repulsed by the defenders. The Christians pressed their advantage by launching a counter attack, which started pushing back the Ottoman forces, managing to advance as far as the Ottoman camp. At this crucial point of the battle, one of the viziers advised Mehmed to abandon

5916-429: The despots, their failure to pay their annual tribute to the Sultan, and finally their own revolt against Ottoman rule, Mehmed entered the Morea in May 1460. The capital Mistra fell exactly seven years after Constantinople, on 29 May 1460. Demetrios ended up a prisoner of the Ottomans and his younger brother Thomas fled. By the end of the summer, the Ottomans had achieved the submission of virtually all cities possessed by

6018-488: The dissatisfactory results of the 1454 campaign convinced Mehmed to initiate another campaign against Serbia. The Ottoman army marched on the important mining town of Novo Brdo , which Mehmed put under siege . The Serbians couldn't resist the Ottoman army out in the open, thus resorted to fortifying their various settlements and having their peasants flee to either various fortresses or forests. After forty days of siege and intense cannon fire, Novo Brdo surrendered. Following

6120-521: The entrance of the Dardanelles Straits, the Sultan further ordered the creation of the new shipyard of Kadirga Limani in the Golden Horn (named after the "kadirga" type of galley ), and of two forts to guard the Straits, Kilidulbahr and Sultaniye . The Morean campaign was swiftly victorious for the Ottomans; they razed the Hexamilion, and advanced into the Morea. Argos fell, and several forts and localities that had recognized Venetian authority reverted to their Ottoman allegiance. Sultan Mehmed II, who

6222-454: The fact that Constantinople had been the seat and capital of the surviving Eastern Roman Empire since its consecration in 330 AD by Emperor Constantine I . The claim was soon recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople , albeit not by most European monarchs. Mehmed continued his conquests in Anatolia with its reunification and in Southeast Europe as far west as Bosnia . At home, he made many political and social reforms. He encouraged

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6324-428: The fall of Constantinople, Mehmed would also go on to conquer the Despotate of Morea in the Peloponnese in two campaigns in 1458 and 1460 and the Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia in 1461. The last two vestiges of Byzantine rule were thus absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Constantinople bestowed immense glory and prestige on the country. There is some historical evidence that, 10 years after

6426-481: The following months, ending the existence of the Serbian Despotate . The Despotate of the Morea bordered the southern Ottoman Balkans. The Ottomans had already invaded the region under Murad II , destroying the Byzantine defenses – the Hexamilion wall  – at the Isthmus of Corinth in 1446. Before the final siege of Constantinople , Mehmed ordered Ottoman troops to attack the Morea. The despots, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos , brothers of

6528-468: The following year. Stefan Branković was ousted from power in March 1459. After that the Serbian throne was offered to Stephen Tomašević , the future king of Bosnia, which infuriated Sultan Mehmed. After Mahmud Pasha suppressed an uprising near Pizren , Mehmed personally led an army against the Serbian capital, capturing Smederevo on the 20th of June 1459. After the surrender of the capital, other Serbian castles which continued to resist were captured in

6630-422: The inner citadel, Mahmud lifted the siege diverted his army elsewhere, conquering Rudnik and its environs before attacking and capturing the fortress of Golubac. Subsequently, Mehmed who had returned from his campaign in Morea met up with Mahmud Pasha in Skopje . During this meeting, reports were received that a Hungarian army was assembling near the Danube to launch an offensive against the Ottoman positions in

6732-474: The island shortly after also failed. The Venetian navy spent the remainder of the year in ultimately fruitless demonstrations of force before the Dardanelles. In early 1465, Mehmed II sent peace feelers to the Venetian Senate; distrusting the Sultan's motives, these were rejected. In April 1466, the Venetian war effort was reinvigorated under Vettore Cappello : the fleet took the northern Aegean islands of Imbros , Thasos , and Samothrace , and then sailed into

6834-402: The king of Bosnia, tried to bring Serbia under his control, but Ottoman expeditions forced him to give up his plan and Stephen fled to Bosnia, seeking refuge at the court of his father. After some battles, Bosnia became tributary kingdom to the Ottomans. On 10 July 1461, Stephen Thomas died, and Stephen Tomašević succeeded him as King of Bosnia. In 1461, Stephen Tomašević made an alliance with

6936-422: The last emperor, failed to send any aid. The chronic instability and the tribute payment to the Turks, after the peace treaty of 1446 with Mehmed II, resulted in an Albanian-Greek revolt against them, during which the brothers invited Ottoman troops to help put down the revolt. At this time, a number of influential Moreote Greeks and Albanians made private peace with Mehmed. After more years of incompetent rule by

7038-412: The leading Grand Vizier of the Mughal Empire during the Third Battle of Panipat . He was also the Nawab of Awadh , and a loyal ally of Shah Alam II . Mehmed II Mehmed II ( Ottoman Turkish : محمد ثانى , romanized :  Meḥmed-i s̱ānī ; Turkish : II. Mehmed , pronounced [icinˈdʒi ˈmehmet] ; 30 March 1432 – 3 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed

7140-448: The modern provinces of Karaman and Konya , the most important power in Anatolia. But towards the end of the 14th century, Ottomans began to dominate on most of Anatolia, reducing the Karaman influence and prestige. Colin Imber Colin Imber is a lecturer in Turkish studies at Manchester University , UK. He completed his Oriental studies at Cambridge University , where he defended his doctorate on "The Ottoman Fleet in

7242-413: The most greatest military leaders in the Mughal Empire would lead to his downfall when rogue generals executed him in a power struggle after the death of Aurangzeb. In 1718, Balaji Vishwanath , leader of the antagonistic Maratha Confederacy , secured the right to collect Chauth and Sardeshmukhi from the Subahs of the Mughal Empire by the rogue Vizier Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha , whose grip over

7344-452: The most significant. Mehmed II sent his armies to take Shkodra in 1474 but failed. Then he went personally to lead the siege of Shkodra of 1478–79. The Venetians and Shkodrans resisted the assaults and continued to hold the fortress until Venice ceded Shkodra to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Constantinople as a condition of ending the war. The agreement was established as a result of

7446-529: The narrow Bosphorus Straits , the fortress Anadoluhisarı had been built by his great-grandfather Bayezid I on the Asian side; Mehmed erected an even stronger fortress called Rumelihisarı on the European side, and thus gained complete control of the strait. Having completed his fortresses, Mehmed proceeded to levy a toll on ships passing within reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel ignoring signals to stop

7548-522: The official reign of the Jandarid dynasty, although he appointed Ahmed as the governor of Kastamonu and Sinope, only to revoke the appointment the same year. Various other members of the Jandarid dynasty were offered important functions throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire. During the march to Trebizond, Uzun Hasan sent his mother Sara Khatun as an ambassador; while they were climbing the steep heights of Zigana on foot, she asked Sultan Mehmed why he

7650-459: The outnumbered besiegers off. Six hundred Venetians and a hundred Greeks were taken prisoner out of a force of 2,000, while Barbarigo himself was killed. Cappello, who arrived some days later, attacked the Ottomans but was heavily defeated. Demoralized, he returned to Negroponte with the remains of his army. There Cappello fell ill and died on 13 March 1467. In 1470 Mehmed personally led an Ottoman army to besiege Negroponte . The Venetian relief navy

7752-539: The pages of the privy chamber, the kapi agha , the kizlar agha or with other courtiers than he did with the Grand Vizier, and these too could petition the sultan on their own or somebody else’s behalf. He might, too, be more inclined to take the advice of his mother, a concubine, or the head gardener at the helm of the royal barge, than of the Grand Vizier". After the Tanzimat period of the Ottoman Empire in

7854-643: The peace with him [Mehmed II]. Mehmed II abandoned his siege of Corinth to launch a punitive attack against Vlad III in Wallachia but suffered many casualties in a surprise night attack led by Vlad III Dracula, who was apparently bent on personally killing the Sultan. However, Vlad's policy of staunch resistance against the Ottomans was not a popular one, and he was betrayed by the boyars's (local aristocracy) appeasing faction, most of them also pro-Dăneşti (a rival princely branch). His best friend and ally Stephen III of Moldavia , who had promised to help him, seized

7956-411: The region. The Hungarians crossed the Danube near Belgrade, after which they marched south towards Užice . While the Hungarian troops were engaged in plunder near Užice, they got ambushed by the Ottoman forces in the region, forcing them to retreat. Despite this victory, for Serbia to be fully annexed into the empire, Smederevo still had to be taken. The opportunity for its capture presented itself

8058-414: The representative of the Pope, had convinced the king of Hungary that breaking the truce with Muslims was not a betrayal. At this time Mehmed II asked his father Murad II to reclaim the throne, but Murad II refused. According to the 17th-century chronicles, Mehmed II wrote, "If you are the sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the sultan I hereby order you to come and lead my armies." Then, Murad II led

8160-530: The rule of Venice . The last holdout was Salmeniko , in the Morea's northwest. Graitzas Palaiologos was the military commander there, stationed at Salmeniko Castle (also known as Castle Orgia). While the town eventually surrendered, Graitzas and his garrison and some town residents held out in the castle until July 1461, when they escaped and reached Venetian territory. Emperors of Trebizond formed alliances through royal marriages with various Muslim rulers. Emperor John IV of Trebizond married his daughter to

8262-409: The second time. Ibrahim II of Karaman invaded the disputed area and instigated various revolts against Ottoman rule. Mehmed II conducted his first campaign against İbrahim of Karaman; Byzantines threatened to release Ottoman claimant Orhan . When Mehmed II ascended the throne again in 1451, he devoted himself to strengthening the Ottoman navy and made preparations for an attack on Constantinople. In

8364-497: The siege and start marching back to his domains. By August the campaign was effectively over, Mehmed left a part of his force under the command of Firuz Bey in Serbia in anticipation of a possible offensive on Ottoman territories by Hunyadi. This force was defeated by a combined Hungarian-Serbian army led by Hunyadi and Nikola Skobaljić on the 2nd of October near Kruševac , after which Hunyadi went on to raid Ottoman controlled Nish and Pirot before returning back to Belgrade. Roughly

8466-399: The siege was won by Mehmed II , the Younger was executed for his opposition. After his death, the position of Grand Vizier was chosen nearly exclusively from the kul system. Often, the men who were chosen had a Byzantine or Balkan background. According to Gábor, this was usually a political move, designed to appease powerful European factions to Ottoman supremacy. In fact, it was easier for

8568-480: The son of his brother-in-law, Uzun Hasan , sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu (also known as White Sheep Turkomans), in return for his promise to defend Trebizond. He also secured promises of support from the Turkish beys of Sinope and Karamania , and from the king and princes of Georgia . The Ottomans were motivated to capture Trebizond or to get an annual tribute. In the time of Murad II, they first attempted to take

8670-455: The strength of the local resistance. Skanderbeg himself died of malaria in the Venetian stronghold of Lissus ( Lezhë ), ending the ability of Venice to use the Albanian lords for its own advantage. After Skanderbeg died, some Venetian-controlled northern Albanian garrisons continued to hold territories coveted by the Ottomans, such as Žabljak Crnojevića , Drisht , Lezhë, and Shkodra  –

8772-460: The sultan to control an enslaved and non-Turk administrator. In the Ottoman Empire, executing a Grand Vizier of Turkish origin (in the event they were rebellious) and an enslaved foreigner would also give rise to different reactions. Further, the devshirme were less subject to influence from court factions. From the very beginning, the Turcoman were a danger that undermined the Sultan's creation of

8874-451: The time, rivaled the Ottoman dynasty itself. Several of Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Elder's kin went on to hold the office of Grand Vizier in the decades following his death. Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger , the grandson of Pasha the Elder, was also highly influential in shaping the role of the Grand Vizier. During the reign of Mehmed II, the Younger opposed the siege of Constantinople and the ongoing hostilities with Christians. Two days after

8976-454: The title "Grand Vizier" was to distinguish the holder of the sultan's seal from other viziers. The initially more frequently used title of vezir-ı a’zam ( وزیر اعظم ) was gradually replaced by another one, sadr-ı a’zam ( صدر اعظم from Arabic صَدْر "front part, bosom, forehead, lead, forefront" and أعْظَم "superior, major, maximal, paramount, grand", informally pronounced sadrazam ), both meaning "grand vizier" in practice. Throughout

9078-494: The tomb of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. After the conquest, Mehmed built Eyüp Sultan Mosque at the site to emphasize the importance of the conquest to the Islamic world and highlight his role as ghazi . In 1453, Mehmed commenced the siege of Constantinople with an army between 80,000 and 200,000 troops, an artillery train of over seventy large field pieces, and a navy of 320 vessels, the bulk of them transports and storeships. The city

9180-607: The walls. About a month later, Constantinople fell, on 29 May, following a fifty-seven-day siege. After this conquest, Mehmed moved the Ottoman capital from Adrianople to Constantinople. When Sultan Mehmed II stepped into the ruins of the Boukoleon , known to the Ottomans and Persians as the Palace of the Caesars, probably built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II , he uttered the famous lines of Saadi : The spider

9282-492: The westernmost province of the Ottoman Empire. According to the Byzantine historian Michael Critobulus , hostilities broke out after an Albanian slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens fled to the Venetian fortress of Coron ( Koroni ) with 100,000 silver aspers from his master's treasure. The fugitive then converted to Christianity, so Ottoman demands for his rendition were refused by the Venetian authorities. Using this as

9384-438: The year 1748. After defeating Ahmad Shah Durrani , the new Mughal emperor, Ahmad Shah Bahadur , posted Safdarjung , Nawab of Oudh as Mughal Grand Vizier, Feroze Jung III as Mir Bakshi and Muin ul-Mulk (Mir Mannu) , the son of late Grand Vizier Qamaruddin Khan , as the governor of Punjab . Safdarjung 's efforts to defend the reign of Ahmad Shah Bahadur from treacherous subjects failed. Shuja-ud-Daula served as

9486-465: Was Mara Branković – and he used that fact to claim Serbian lands. Đurađ Branković 's recently made alliance with the Hungarians, and his irregular payments of tribute, further served as justifications for the invasion. The Ottomans sent an ultimatum demanding the keys to some Serbian castles which formerly belonged to the Ottomans. When Serbia refused these demands, the Ottoman army led by Mehmed set out from Edirne towards Serbia in 1454, sometime after

9588-458: Was also reinstated, as a reward, in his old gubernatorial post in Thessaly. Vlad eventually escaped to Hungary, where he was imprisoned on a false accusation of treason against his overlord, Matthias Corvinus . The despot of Serbia, Lazar Branković , died in 1458, and a civil war broke out among his heirs that resulted in the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in 1459/1460. Stephen Tomašević , son of

9690-456: Was defeated, and Negroponte was captured. In spring 1466, Sultan Mehmed marched with a large army against the Albanians. Under their leader, Skanderbeg , they had long resisted the Ottomans, and had repeatedly sought assistance from Italy. Mehmed II responded by marching again against Albania but was unsuccessful . The winter brought an outbreak of plague, which would recur annually and sap

9792-499: Was dispatched with an army to the region in 1458, where he initially conquered Resava and a number of other settlements before moving towards Smederevo. After a battle outside the city walls, the defenders were forced to retreat inside the fortress. In the ensuing siege, the outer walls were breached by Ottoman forces, however the Serbians continued to resist inside the inner walls of the fortress. Not wanting to waste time capturing

9894-437: Was following Mahmud Pasha with another army to reinforce him, had reached Zeitounion ( Lamia ) before being apprised of his Vizier's success. Immediately, he turned his men north, towards Bosnia. However, the Sultan's attempt to retake Jajce in July and August 1464 failed, with the Ottomans retreating hastily in the face of Corvinus' approaching army. A new Ottoman army under Mahmud Pasha then forced Corvinus to withdraw, but Jajce

9996-662: Was not retaken for many years after. However, the death of Pope Pius II on 15 August in Ancona spelled the end of the Crusade. In the meantime, the Venetian Republic had appointed Sigismondo Malatesta for the upcoming campaign of 1464. He launched attacks against Ottoman forts and engaged in a failed siege of Mistra in August through October. Small-scale warfare continued on both sides, with raids and counter-raids, but

10098-540: Was originally used in the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century AD. This position was later adopted by the Ottomans in the early 14th century, by the Seljuks of Anatolia. During the nascent phases of the Ottoman state , "vizier" was the only title used. The first of these Ottoman viziers who was titled "Grand Vizier" (French spelling: grand-vézir ) was Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Elder . The purpose in instituting

10200-434: Was sunk with a single shot and all the surviving sailors beheaded, except for the captain, who was impaled and mounted like a human scarecrow as a warning to other sailors on the strait. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari , the companion and standard bearer of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, had died during the first Siege of Constantinople (674–678) . As Mehmed II's army approached Constantinople, Mehmed's sheikh Akshamsaddin discovered

10302-555: Was surrounded by sea and land; the fleet at the entrance of the Bosphorus stretched from shore to shore in the form of a crescent, to intercept or repel any assistance for Constantinople from the sea. In early April, the Siege of Constantinople began. At first, the city's walls held off the Turks, even though Mehmed's army used the new bombard designed by Orban , a giant cannon similar to the Dardanelles Gun . The harbor of

10404-420: Was undergoing such hardship for the sake of Trebizond. Mehmed replied: Mother, in my hand is the sword of Islam, without this hardship I should not deserve the name of ghazi , and today and tomorrow I should have to cover my face in shame before Allah . Having isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants knew he was coming, and he placed it under siege . The city held out for

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