Murad II: The Sultan Born in Amasya Who Took the Throne Twice

Born in Amasya and raised in the sanjak of Rûm under his lala Yörgüç Pasha, Murad II reigned twice, won at Varna and Kosovo, and left a will asking for a tomb open to the rain at Bursa.

Murad II twice sat on the Ottoman throne and twice stepped down from it. He took Thessalonica, scattered a crusader army at Varna, and fought the Hungarians for three days on the plain of Kosovo. His son, Mehmed the Conqueror, would take Constantinople, but the secure Ottoman standing in the Balkans and the settled order of the state that passed to him were the work of this prince, who had served as sanjak governor in Amasya. His life, which runs from the city of his birth to a tomb at Bursa whose roof was left open so that rain might fall upon him, is also one of the best documented examples of the part Amasya played as a sanjak in which princes were raised.

A Birth in Amasya

Murad was born in Amasya in Dhu al-Hijjah 806 (June 1404). Some sources give the date as 16 June 1404, while certain other sources, including some publications introducing his tomb at Bursa, put his birth in 1402. The disagreement over his age at death, which is given as forty-eight in some places and forty-six in others, comes from the same dispute. Here the year 1404 is adopted, following most of the encyclopedic literature.

His father was Çelebi Mehmed, a son of Bayezid the Thunderbolt, and Murad was born during Mehmed's years in Amasya. The sources diverge on his mother. Halil İnalcık says she was a concubine, and adds that in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (III, 180) she is recorded as Şehzade Hatun, daughter of Divitdâr Ahmed Pasha, one of the notables of Amasya. The fifteenth-century historian Şükrullah also mentions her as a concubine, while the most widely accepted view holds that she was Emine Hatun of the Dulkadirids. There is no certain document, and these three accounts stand side by side. It is reported that he spent the first years of his childhood in Amasya and that in 1410 he came to the capital with his father.

To the Province of Rûm at Twelve

In the Ottoman dynasty a prince was sent out to a sanjak as a candidate for the throne and learned to govern by governing. When Murad reached the age of twelve he was dispatched to Amasya as governor of the province of Rûm, a post that took in the districts of Amasya, Tokat, Sivas, Çorum and Osmancık. Some sources place the appointment in 1414, whereas the literature on the princes of Amasya and some general publications place it in 1415; the assignment lasted about six years, until 1421. The gap between the two years may come from the method of reckoning, and the event itself is the same. Here the 1415-1421 frame of the Amasya literature is adopted.

At his side stood his lala, Yörgüç Pasha. Neither the place nor the time of Yörgüç's birth is known, but it is clear that he received an excellent education. To judge by inscriptions and gravestones, his name was Yörgüç and his epithet Celâleddin; in chronicles and archival documents he also appears as Yörgeç or Yörgenç. The sources conflict about his ancestry. Some studies link him to the line of Nâsırüddin Ahmed, founder of the Atabekiye Madrasa in Amasya, while another genealogy counts him a grandson of Gâzî Mihal Bey and claims that his real name was Yörüklüce. Yet in the inscription of the mosque he built in Amasya, on his own gravestone and in his endowment deed, his father's name is written as Abdullah, which makes all these genealogies doubtful. From the father's name it has also been suggested that he was of Slavic origin and that his name derives from the Slavic Jorgić (son of Yorgi), according to W. Griswold. The title atabeg in the inscription most likely does not belong to his father but refers to his own role as lala. No firm judgment is possible.

The province of Rûm was then inhabited by Mongol and Turkmen populations left over from the Ilkhanid period. It was hard to bring these nomadic crowds under a central administration, and the local Turkmen families acted as they pleased. With the help of his lala, a cautious and capable man, Prince Murad tried to keep the region at peace.

The Amasya Years: Börklüce, Samsun and the Atabegs

A year after Murad went to Amasya he was ordered to march with the Amasya forces toward Saruhan and İzmir to put down the revolt of Börklüce Mustafa. At that moment his father Çelebi Mehmed was occupied at Thessalonica with Düzme Mustafa (the False Mustafa), and the Venetians had burned the Turkish fleet at Gallipoli and cut the straits (29 May 1416). The revolt was finally suppressed by Bayezid Pasha with the forces of Amasya and Sivas. When Murad left Amasya, the Mongol nomads of the region, the Black Tatars, stirred up disorder, and the prince returned to Amasya together with Bayezid Pasha. We have no detail about the prince's own part in these events; all that is certain is that he went out on the assignment and came back.

Between 1417 and 1421 important developments took place for the Ottomans on the border of Rûm. Prince Murad and his "new atabeg", the beylerbey of Rûm, Hamza Bey, took Samsun from the İsfendiyaroğlu. A caution is needed here. The part of Samsun belonging to the Genoese seems to have been taken earlier, and Neşrî confuses Çelebi Mehmed's unsuccessful campaign of 1418 with the conquest of Samsun in 1421. The date and details of the event are therefore not clear in the sources. Some time after this success, his father, on his deathbed, summoned Murad to Bursa.

That Murad never severed his tie with Amasya in later years is documented. In 1436 the beylerbey of Amasya, under pressure from Karaman, was his old lala Yörgüç Pasha; in 1443 the Amasya forces marched under the command of his son Alâeddin, who died in Amasya; and the sources call the grand vizier Hoca Mehmed Pasha "Mehmed Agha of Amasya".

The Call to the Throne: 1421

When Murad reached Bursa, Çelebi Mehmed had died at Edirne. Fearing that Düzme Mustafa, who was in Byzantine hands, would make a move, the viziers kept the sultan's death secret and sent the Janissaries across to Anatolia on a pretext. At Bursa the dignitaries and some of the Janissaries swore allegiance, and Murad ascended the throne on 23 Jumada al-Akhira 824 (25 June 1421). At Bursa he was girded with the sword of Osman; some sources give the date as 26 May, but here the more detailed 25 June is adopted.

He was seventeen. He was the eldest son of Çelebi Mehmed and had four brothers and seven sisters. His brothers were the princes Mustafa, Ahmed, Yûsuf and Mahmud. Ahmed had died in his father's lifetime; Mustafa, twelve years old, had been sent a year earlier to the sanjak governorship of Hamîd-ili; Yûsuf was eight and Mahmud seven. Because fratricide had become a custom, Çelebi Mehmed had wanted to protect his children's lives before he died. By his arrangement Murad was to take the Ottoman throne at Edirne, Anatolia was to be left to Mustafa, and Yûsuf and Mahmud were to be sent to the Byzantine emperor. In return the emperor would not release Mustafa, Çelebi Mehmed's brother, and Murad would pay the emperor an annual sum for his brothers' expenses. This plan could not be carried out.

The statements of an older Amasya text, "the prince matured in Amasya was invited to the throne" and "the loyal forces of Amasya became the sultan's greatest support", we could not verify against the sources. What is confirmed is that Murad was summoned from Amasya to Bursa and ascended the throne there. The role of the Amasya forces in the struggle for the throne is not mentioned in these sources.

The False Mustafa and the Anatolian Beyliks

When Murad came to the throne, the grand vizier and beylerbey of Rumelia, Bayezid Pasha, was conducting affairs of state. When the Byzantine envoys were told that Yûsuf and Mahmud would not be surrendered, the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos made an agreement with Mustafa Çelebi, who was in exile on Lemnos, released İzmiroğlu Cüneyd Bey together with him, and landed Byzantine troops under Demetrios Leontarios off Gallipoli with a fleet of ten ships (Ramadan 824 / September 1421). Byzantium recognized him as the legitimate sultan. This is why he is generally called "Düzmece" (the False) in Ottoman sources; modern accounts also call him "his uncle Mustafa Çelebi", so that there is both agreement and dispute about his identity.

The threat did not come from Byzantium alone. Germiyanoğlu Yâkub Bey refused to recognize Murad's sultanate and took the side of Mustafa Çelebi, who was sanjak governor of Hamîd-ili, and Hamîd-ili was occupied by the Karamanid ruler. Murad chose to appease him by sending an envoy and accepted the situation. The Menteşeoğlu, whom Çelebi Mehmed had brought into vassalage in 1415, declared independence; the Menteşe princes Ahmed and Leys, like their father İlyas Bey, did not put the Ottoman sultan's name on the coins they struck in 1421. The Aydınoğlu and the Saruhanoğlu recovered part of their lands. İsfendiyar Bey also drove out of Çankırı, Kalecik and Tosya his son Kasım Bey, who had settled there under Çelebi Mehmed's protection. Murad sent a force against him, and İsfendiyar Bey, who fled to Sinop, made peace through the mediation of the other beys (autumn or winter of 824/1421). Because Murad was in a struggle for the throne against Düzme Mustafa, he had been forced to accept all these changes.

When Mustafa landed at Gallipoli the people received him well, but Şah Melik Bey stood against him in the fortress of Gallipoli. Mustafa left the siege to İzmiroğlu Cüneyd and marched on Edirne, and was recognized everywhere as Bayezid's son and as sultan. Bayezid Pasha confronted him at Sazlıdere, but because the Rumelian troops under his command went over to Mustafa he was forced to obey him, and he was put to death at the instigation of Cüneyd Bey. When Mustafa entered Edirne the fortress of Gallipoli also surrendered. But Mustafa and Cüneyd, in keeping with their agreement with Byzantium, would not consent to hand the fortress over. There was some rapprochement between Byzantium and Murad at this point, but no agreement was reached. Mustafa, who commanded the Gallipoli passage and the fleet, also held the Bosporus. Murad then found an ally at sea. Giovanni Adorno, podestà of New Phocaea, undertook to prepare ships and troops for Murad in return for the remission of the debts remaining from the alum mines of Manisa. Genoese aid was an important factor in Murad's success.

On 26 Muharram 825 (20 January 1422) Mustafa crossed over to Anatolia by way of Gallipoli with twelve thousand sipahis and five thousand infantry. To block the road to Bursa, the bridge at the foot of Lake Ulubat was demolished, and Mustafa was left on the far side of the Ulubat river. The raid he tried to make with a force of four thousand men was foiled by the Janissaries. Mihaloğlu Mehmed Bey encouraged the frontier lords to go over to Murad, and Cüneyd was secretly promised the beylik of İzmir and Aydın-ili and so induced to flee. This last measure caused a rout in Mustafa's army. As Mustafa withdrew, Hacı İvaz Pasha crossed the wooden bridge with the Janissaries and put his infantry and azebs to the sword. The Rumelian frontier lords came and tendered their obedience to Murad. Although Mustafa managed to cross to Gallipoli, Murad crossed after him with the help of the Genoese ships. Mustafa fled to Edirne and from there toward Wallachia; he was caught at Kızılağaç Yenicesi and executed at Edirne (winter of 825/1422). According to another account he managed to flee to Wallachia and from there to Kaffa. It is impossible to choose between these two accounts on the basis of the sources. Fahameddin Başar, who wrote the biography of Yörgüç Pasha, says that the revolt of Mustafa Çelebi, who tried with Byzantine help to seize İznik in the first year of the reign, was dealt with when the new sultan marched against him on the advice of his lala. The accounts tell the events differently, but both stress the weight of the lala in Murad's decisions.

The Siege of Constantinople (1422) and Küçük Mustafa

Murad then marched on Byzantium (Rajab 825 / June 1422), but the siege, which lasted more than fifty days, produced no result. Meanwhile another front had been opened. His brother Küçük Mustafa (Little Mustafa), then thirteen years old, came with a force he had gathered with the Karamanid and Germiyan beys and besieged Bursa (Ramadan 825 / August 1422). Murad made one last general assault on Constantinople, left a force to continue the siege of the city, and went to Edirne. İsfendiyar Bey joined the Karamanids and Germiyanids, who had been alarmed by Murad's successes, and went on the attack; the lord of Wallachia, an ally of the Çandaroğlu in Rumelia, moved at the same moment, and Venice and Hungary took their place in this alliance. According to İnalcık the affair of Küçük Mustafa was in truth one aspect of a general offensive against Murad.

Mustafa, who was besieging Bursa, fled before the Mihaloğlu forces sent by Murad and took refuge in Constantinople, conferred with the emperor and crossed to Silivri, fled again before the Rumelian troops, and went to Kocaeli. İznik opened its gates to him, part of the plain of Bursa fell into his hands, and a considerable part of Anatolia appeared to have submitted to him. The people of Bursa sent messengers to Murad for help, and at the same time sent Ahî Yâkub and Ahî Kadem to Mustafa's lala, Şarabdâr İlyas Bey; these two men dissuaded İlyas Bey from the siege of Bursa.

There is one striking detail from the point of view of Amasya. Murad decided to go to Bursa at the insistence of his lala Yörgüç. The lala who had guided him in Amasya was at his side also in the tightest moment of the struggle for the throne. First Mihaloğlu was sent, and then Murad himself came to Bursa and besieged İznik. As winter approached Mustafa's forces had dispersed, İlyas Bey had been won over by the grant of the beylerbeyship of Anatolia, and the people had turned back to Murad. While Mihaloğlu was besieging İznik he burst in during a sortie and was gravely wounded; when the city fell it was plundered. Mustafa, whom İlyas Bey brought and handed over, was put to death (9 Rabi al-Awwal 826 / 20 February 1423).

Murad immediately marched on the forces of İsfendiyar Bey, who had advanced as far as Taraklıborlu, and scattered them. Mehmed Bey of the Karamanids, who had sent Küçük Mustafa to Bursa, was killed by a cannonball fired from the fortress while he was besieging Antalya (Safar 826 / January 1423). Murad took advantage of the internal struggle over the Karamanid throne and made İbrâhim Bey, whom he had helped to the throne, sign a treaty: the Karamanoğlu gave up Hamîd-ili, which his father had taken in 1421, and accepted Ottoman suzerainty. The young sultan had thus put his brother to death in the first two years of his reign. This is the bitter face of Ottoman dynastic law, and the same question will confront us again at the end of the reign. In the same year Yörgüç Pasha was appointed beylerbey of Rûm (826/1423). His star rose with Prince Murad's accession to the throne.

Yörgüç Pasha and the Beylerbeyship of Rûm

In the early years of his beylerbeyship he dealt with the bands, called the Kızılkocaoğulları, under the command of four brothers. These beys, who committed highway robbery around Amasya and Tokat and from time to time came as far as the towns and harmed the people, were evidently helped by Karayülük Osman Bey of the Akkoyunlu, Hasan Bey of the Dulkadirids and Halil Bey of the Bayındıroğlu. Yörgüç Pasha brought these rebels to obedience. He then entered into a struggle with the other beys who were acting independently in the region; the submission of Haydar Bey, lord of Kocakayası, and of Hüsâmeddin Hasan Bey, son of Alparslan and lord of Canik, was secured. The pasha seized Hasan Bey and sent him to the sultan at Bursa, and he brought the area of Ordu and Çarşamba, which was in the hands of the Tâceddinoğulları, under Ottoman administration (1427).

In this period the Kara Koyunlu ruler İskender Mirza, who had lost a war against the Timurid Shahrukh, had settled at Tokat with Murad's consent to pass the winter. When spring came and the Kara Koyunlu soldiers began to plunder and ravage the surroundings, Yörgüç Pasha reported the matter to the sultan, and when the Anatolian beylerbey Timurtaşoğlu Umur Bey was sent to Tokat the Kara Koyunlu left the region. Yörgüç Pasha, who had succeeded in establishing peace in central Anatolia, was given the rank of vizier. The reports that he was permitted to have coins struck in his name and that these akçes were called "Yörgüç Pasha akçesi" are doubtful.

Thessalonica, Venice, and War and Peace with Byzantium

The lord of Wallachia had attacked through the Danube crossings with Hungarian help; when he learned of Murad's successes in Anatolia he sent two sons as hostages and asked for peace. The pressure on Byzantium continued: in Jumada al-Akhira 826 (May 1423) Turahan Bey took the wall of the Hexamilion and entered the Morea, and Thessalonica was put under siege. Venice, exploiting Byzantium's hopeless situation, took over the administration of Thessalonica by an agreement (summer of 826/1423), and a new crisis thus arose. Venice offered an annual tribute (1500-2000 ducats) if the Ottomans would recognize its occupation of Thessalonica; at the same time it sent its fleet under Pietro Loredano to Gallipoli and prepared an alliance for a general attack with Cüneyd, the bey of İzmir, the lord of Wallachia and the king of Hungary. The Ottomans feared that Constantinople too would be handed over to the Venetians. Through the mediation of the Genoese, Murad signed peace with the Byzantine emperor (21 Rabi al-Awwal 827 / 22 February 1424). The emperor agreed to pay an annual tribute of 300,000 akçes and to return the places he had taken since 1402 on the coasts of the Marmara, the Aegean and the Black Sea, except for the fortresses of Silivri and Terkos.

Cüneyd, who had seized the beylik of İzmir and Aydın-ili but refused Ottoman suzerainty, continued to incite the Anatolian beys and Byzantium and also entered into relations with Venice. Hamza Bey, appointed beylerbey of Anatolia in 828 (1425), sent a force under Halil Bey; Cüneyd was defeated at Gülnas near Akhisar, took refuge in the fortress of İpsili and was compelled to surrender. In that year the Ottomans not only took İzmir and Aydın-ili but also annexed the lands of the Menteşe princes and of the branch of the Hamîdoğulları in Teke. About the same time the Venetians put forward yet another False Mustafa, claimed to be a son of Bayezid. Setting out from Thessalonica in the spring of 828 (1425), this person cooperated with the Venetian fleet, and Kassandra and Kavala fell into Venetian hands. This is how the Ottoman-Venetian war (1425-1430) began. The next year the Ottomans made good their losses, and the Mustafa who came out again from Thessalonica was resisted by the Pazarlı and Sarıca beys. The war spread to Albania as well, and the Ottomans besieged the Venetian town of Durrës. Negotiations for an alliance against the Ottomans between Venice and the Hungarians also began at this time, in October 1425.

While Murad was occupied with the Danube question in Rumelia, the Karamanoğlu established relations with the Hungarian king and moved in Anatolia, occupied Beyşehir and took Şarabdâr İlyas prisoner (as recorded by Âşıkpaşazâde). The sultan, who could not leave Rumelia, was forced to leave Hamîd-ili to the Karamanids. Venice also made contact with the Karamanids for an alliance through Janus, King of Cyprus. In the east, the news that Shahrukh was marching toward Anatolia with a great army was greeted with joy throughout Christendom, as it had been in the time of Timur. In 1429 Venice intensified the war; in August Admiral Pietro Mocenigo attacked the harbour of Gallipoli and brought down the wall that closed the port, but could not take it, and withdrew leaving five ships before Gallipoli.

At last the question of Thessalonica was settled. Murad completed his preparations through the winter of 1429 and in Jumada al-Ula 833 (February 1430) marched on Thessalonica with his whole army; the Anatolian forces under the beylerbey Hamza also joined. Before the Venetian fleet could arrive, the fortress was taken in a general assault toward dawn on 4 Rajab (29 March 1430). When the city fell, the Venetian admiral Morosini was dallying on the coasts of Epirus. On receiving the news the Senate began to fear for its lands in Albania as well; when word came that Shahrukh was in Azerbaijan, it took hope of recovering Thessalonica and sent an order to attack. Morosini came to Gallipoli, besieged the fortress called the Burgaz of Emîr Süleyman, inflicted heavy losses on the Ottomans and halted all military and commercial traffic in the straits. Hamza Bey thereupon signed the first peace terms at Lâpseki (Shawwal 833 / July 1430; ratified 15 Dhu al-Hijjah 833 / 4 September 1430). Ottoman rule in Thessalonica and its surroundings was recognized, Venetian rule over the towns in Albania and at Lepanto was accepted in return for an annual tribute of 236 ducats, and free passage for Turkish ships in the straits was secured.

The Beginning of the Albanian Question

When Venice made peace with Murad, it at once went to war against Genoa; the Ottomans helped their old allies with provisions and ships, Ottoman-Venetian relations deteriorated, and the danger of renewed war appeared. But because the Ottomans were meeting serious problems in Albania at that time, Venetian neutrality acquired great importance. The Ottomans had established their own administration in the south and centre of Albania, and in the north and the mountainous districts had left the Albanian lords, who rested on tribal support, as tributary vassals. The strongest of these was Ivan (Yuvan) Kastrioti, who ruled in Yuvan-ili north of Akçahisar (Krujë). Like the other Albanian lords, once he was promised an annual allowance he did not hesitate to turn toward the Venetian side; in 1428 he came under Venetian protection and asked that, if his son İskender Bey, as an Ottoman bey, attacked Venetian territory, he should not be held responsible for it. After Thessalonica, the Ottoman forces that came to Yuvan-ili made him submit once more. The Rumelian beylerbey Sinan, exploiting a quarrel among the Toccos in Epirus, annexed Ioannina and its surroundings, and Carlo Tocco agreed to pay the Ottomans an annual tribute for the remainder of the despotate (centred on Arta) (1430).

Immediately after this conquest the Ottomans carried out a new survey in the region in 1431-32. As the villages were being distributed as timars, resistance was met; Evrenosoğlu Ali Bey, who moved against the rebels, was ambushed in a defile and suffered heavy losses. The Ottomans, supposing that the Venetians had incited the revolt, issued a warning, and Murad himself went to Serres in order to be near the theatre of operations (winter of 1432-33), and the revolt was put down. The Venetian Senate had sent orders to its officials in Albania not to help the rebels. The rebel lords who had taken refuge in the mountains this time entered into relations with the Hungarian king; the king, believing that he had found a new ally against the Ottomans in the Balkans, encouraged them and in 1435 secretly sent into Albania Dâvud Çelebi, son of Prince Yakub, who had been executed at Kosovo and was at his court. This is how the Albanian problem, which would occupy the Ottomans for half a century, came into being.

The conquest of Thessalonica gave Murad a position in the Balkans from which he could be considered to have rebuilt the empire of Bayezid the Thunderbolt. Wallachia and Serbia were under close vassalage, Ottoman rule was settled in Albania and Epirus, and the king of Bosnia, the despots of Arta and the Morea, and the Byzantine emperor paid tribute; even Venice paid tribute for the places it held. Byzantium and the Serbian despotate had returned the places they had taken from the Ottomans in the Interregnum. The traveller Bertrandon de la Broquière, who came to Edirne in 1432, describes the sultan's power thus: "I am told that he does not like war. It seems so to me as well; for if he wished to use the forces at his disposal and his great revenue, then, considering the little resistance he sees from Christendom, it would be no trouble for him to conquer a large part of Europe." The same traveller writes elsewhere that of all the rulers he knew, the Ottoman sultan was the one most obeyed by his subjects.

The Danube Frontier: Wallachia, Serbia and the Hungarians

Since 1421 Hungarian influence over Wallachia and Serbia had grown stronger, and Murad tried to re-establish Ottoman authority in these two countries. In order to put Radu in place of Dan II, the Wallachian prince under Hungarian protection, the Ottoman frontier forces moved in 827 (1424) and the Hungarian king Sigismund came to Orsova. In 1426 the Ottomans routed Dan and the Hungarian commander Pippo. According to a Serbian source, Murad, who had come to Sofia, crossed the Danube from Vidin and inflicted heavy losses on the Hungarians.

The Serbian despot Stefan Lazarević had been at war since 1421 against Venice, which had seized ports such as Shkodër, Drivasto and Dulcigno, and for that reason he valued friendship with Murad, and the Ottoman frontier lords in Albania also helped him. Yet Stefan made a treaty with Venice (12 August 1423) and ratified it in 1426. That he went every year to the Hungarian king and seemed to have forgotten his vassalage to the Ottomans did not escape the court at Edirne. In 1426 the Ottoman envoy who went to Serbia waited for the despot to return from Hungary, but was not received. Murad, who was then at Sofia, thereupon sent an army and had the country plundered as far as Alacahisar (Kruševac). The despot at once sent an envoy to say that he would abandon the lands up to Alacahisar, would pay tribute every year, and that neither the Hungarians nor he himself would trespass on Ottoman territory. The Ottomans in turn agreed to help him against Bosnia. While Stefan marched on Srebrenica (Srebrenik), the Ottoman frontier forces entered Bosnia from the south and advanced as far as Croatia (summer of 1426).

Stefan died on 19 July 1427. He left the despotate to his nephew Đurađ Branković (Vılkoğlu in the Ottoman sources); Murad, citing Olivera's marriage to Bayezid the Thunderbolt, claimed that he himself was the legitimate heir. Stefan's death suddenly sharpened the Ottoman-Hungarian contest over Serbia. Sigismund occupied Belgrade, and the Ottomans took Alacahisar, the fortress of Güvercinlik (Golubac) on the Danube, and the Hungarian island. That winter Sigismund besieged Güvercinlik, but he withdrew when Sinan, the frontier lord of Vidin, raided him; a large part of his forces drowned in the Danube or were taken prisoner. The new despot Vılkoğlu sent an envoy, renewed the treaty made between Stefan and the sultan, and agreed to give his daughter to the sultan. In Wallachia too the Ottomans prevailed. In the spring of 1427 Sigismund had entered Wallachia again together with Dan and taken Yergöğü, but the next year, because of Ottoman attacks, Dan declared his loyalty to the sultan. After this a three-year truce was signed between Murad and the Hungarian king (831/1428).

The girl's name was Mara. In 1433 the despot sent Mara to Edirne with a great dowry (400,000 ducats); his son Gregor, together with the frontier lord İshak Bey, advanced as far as Shkodër and raised old claims in Zeta against the Venetians. Some sources place the marriage in 1435, and this difference of date stands plainly in the sources. Mara Hatun never became a Muslim, had no children, and lived for many years after Murad's death (about 1420 - 14 September 1487).

In 1431 the truce with the Hungarians had come to an end. Sigismund's envoy demanded that the king's overlordship over Bosnia, Serbia, Wallachia and even Danubian Bulgaria be formally recognized, and Murad rejected these demands harshly. Pretenders to thrones, to be used against Murad, were gathered at the king's side: the Ottoman prince Dâvud Çelebi, Memnon Tocco, who claimed Ioannina, and Frujin, who wanted the Bulgarian throne. In 1434 the Bosnian king Tvrtko II and the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković, Vılkoğlu, also came to Sigismund. Why the despot, who seemed so attached to the Ottomans, should have joined the Hungarians at that moment is not entirely clear; the defterdar Kadı Fazlullah seems to have had a considerable influence in it. Saruca Pasha, who is said to have treated the Serbian despot gently by permitting him to build and fortify Smederevo, had been dismissed, and Fazlullah, a partisan of conquest and war, came to dominate the policy of the state. The lands of King Tvrtko had also suffered Ottoman raids. In 1435, in place of Aldea, who died in Wallachia as a loyal Ottoman vassal, Vlad I Dracul came with Hungarian help. To restore the balance Murad sent his frontier lords against Wallachia and Transylvania (1436), but because the situation in Anatolia grew confused again, the campaign could not be continued.

Shahrukh, the Mamluks and the Balance in the East

In the east, the march of the Timurid ruler Shahrukh into Anatolia with a great army recalled the fears of Timur's day. Facing Shahrukh were the Kara Koyunlu and the Mamluks. The Mamluks, who had pushed into Anatolia as far as Malatya and Divriği, also had a certain Anatolian policy: they wanted to keep the Dulkadirids and the Karamanids under their own protection and to resist the Ottoman policy of unification and expansion to the east. When Shahrukh marched west a second time with his great army in 1429, Ottoman-Mamluk relations took on a friendly character in the face of the common danger. Shahrukh's crushing of the Kara Koyunlu forces at Selmas (17-18 September 1429) had opened the road to Anatolia and Syria before him, and this troubled the Ottomans as it did the Mamluks; his decision to return from Azerbaijan to Herat gave them a breath of relief.

Murad pursued a moderate policy toward Shahrukh until his death (850/1447), did not provoke the Timurids, and always confirmed his loyalty. Around Dhu al-Hijjah 838 (July 1435) Shahrukh sent robes of honour to Karayülük and his sons, to the Dulkadirid Nâsırüddin Mehmed, to the Karamanoğlu İbrâhim Bey and to Murad, asking them to wear these robes as though they were his deputies in their own countries. That the Ottoman sultan wore the robe and appeared to be a vassal of Shahrukh disturbed the Sultan of Egypt, because the most reliable power in Anatolia against the Timurids was the Ottomans. In the meantime the Timurids, pursuing the Kara Koyunlu İskender, halted at the Ottoman frontier; İskender, who had taken refuge at Tokat, stayed there for a while, and when spring of 1436 came the Ottomans looked for a way to be rid of this dangerous guest as soon as possible. Shahrukh had warned all the rulers of Anatolia not to receive İskender in their lands. The Khan of the Golden Horde, Ulugh Muhammad Khan, also sent Murad a letter recalling the friendship between Toqtamish and Bayezid and proposing an alliance to do away with the principality of Wallachia (1428).

The Karaman Campaign and Yörgüç Pasha, Beylerbey of Amasya (1436-1437)

This section is of particular importance for Amasya. Once the danger from Shahrukh had passed, the Ottomans supported the Dulkadirids against the Karamanoğlu, who had seized Kayseri. In Jumada al-Akhira 840 (December 1436) the Karamanid forces pressed hard on the beylerbey of Amasya, Yörgüç Pasha. Murad, together with the Dulkadirids, attacked the Karamanid country from east and west. While an Ottoman army coming from Tokat besieged Kayseri with the Dulkadirid Süleyman, Murad entered Akşehir with the Rumelian and Anatolian forces (Ramadan 840 / March 1437). The Karamanid forces were defeated; Konya, Beyşehir and the whole of Hamîd-ili were taken. İbrâhim Bey, who had taken refuge in Taş-ili, was pursued there as well. İbrâhim Bey sent Mevlânâ Hamza and his wife, who was Murad's sister, to ask for peace. Murad announced that he had given up deporting the people of Konya to Karahisar, and gave the land of Hamîd-ili to Îsâ, İbrâhim's brother, who was with him (treaty Dhu al-Qa'dah 840 / May-June 1437). Îsâ Bey could not succeed against his brother and was killed, and the Ottomans kept Akşehir, Beyşehir and their surroundings. Amasya, where Murad was born and served as sanjak governor, thus appears in his reign too as an eastern outpost, and the beylerbey at the head of this outpost is the lala of an earlier time.

The Hungarian Campaign, Smederevo and Belgrade

Sigismund died on 9 December 1437. This gave Murad the opportunity, within three years, to abolish the Serbian despotate altogether and to establish dominion in Wallachia. The Wallachian prince Dracul brought his sons to Edirne as hostages and accepted vassalage. The next year Murad set out in person on a campaign into Hungary with a great army; he crossed the Danube, came before Hermannstadt (Sibiu), the centre of Transylvania, besieged it for some fifteen days, sent out raiders, entered Wallachia and returned to Edirne. On this campaign he met no response from the Hungarians. Dracul and Vılkoğlu were summoned to Edirne but did not come.

In Shawwal 842 (March 1439) Murad took Serbia and captured the despot's capital Smederevo (16 Rabi al-Awwal 843 / 27 August 1439). Vılkoğlu had earlier left it to his son Gregor and fled to Hungary. The new Hungarian king Albert, who was waiting at Szeged with a small army, could offer no help. In the same year the Ottoman forces under Îsâ Bey, son of İshak Bey, the frontier lord of Skopje, tried to take Jajce (Yayça), the seat of the Bosnian king, and King Tvrtko II agreed to pay an annual tribute of 2500 gold pieces.

In 844 (1440) Murad tried to take the fortress of Belgrade, the strong point of the Serbian inheritance that remained in Hungarian hands. The siege, which lasted six months, produced no result. Firearms, used against the Turks for the first time, seem to have been one of the causes of this failure. In the same year the Rumelian beylerbey Şehâbeddin Şahin Pasha took Novo Brdo, an important silver-mining centre.

The failure at Belgrade was a turning point for Murad. Îsâ Bey was driven out of Bosnia, and the Hungarians under Yanko (John Hunyadi) carried out successful operations against the Ottoman forces (1441). Mezid Bey, the frontier lord of Serbia, was ambushed, and the next year the army of Şehâbeddin Pasha was surprised and scattered on the Ialomița. These defeats increased the eagerness of Christendom to launch a crusade against the Turks, and Hunyadi's victory was celebrated at Venice with great ceremony.

Byzantium, the Council of Florence and the Karaman Campaign of 1443

Byzantium, under Ottoman pressure, had also conceived new hopes. In 1437 the emperor had gone to Europe taking high Orthodox clergy with him, had signed church union at the Council of Florence and had planned a crusade. The Ottomans received this with anxiety; as soon as the emperor returned to Constantinople, Murad sent an envoy to ask for assurances (as the Byzantine historian Ducas relates). In 1442 the emperor's representative Janaki Torzello went to the courts of Italy and Hungary and worked to have the crusading plan carried out as soon as possible. The Byzantine emperor was also in contact with the Karamanoğlu.

Karamanoğlu İbrâhim Bey, hearing the news of the rout in Transylvania, marched on Akşehir and Beyşehir (1443). Murad set out at once with the kapıkulu troops. The record says: "On the other side Prince Alâeddin marched with the Amasya forces." The Ottomans plundered and ravaged Karaman-ili, including Konya and Larende; but Murad, taking into account the situation in Rumelia, signed peace and returned to Edirne. This is the sentence that is critical for the memory of Amasya: Prince Alâeddin Ali was at the head of the soldiers of the city where his father was born.

The Death of Alâeddin Ali Çelebi

Hunyadi, knowing that the Ottoman army would disperse in the autumn, crossed the Danube with the Serbian despot and the new Hungarian king Ladislas at his side (Rajab 847 / October 1443). He broke the Rumelian forces, took Niš and Sofia, and came up against the last Balkan passes that open the way to the Maritsa valley. Murad met and halted them at the Zlatitsa (İzlâdi) Pass (1 Sha'ban 847 / 24 November 1443). The Hungarian advance into the interior of the Balkans caused new stirrings in the West, and likewise in the Balkans and Anatolia. İskender Bey had fled and rushed to Albania, setting the revolt ablaze, and in southern Albania Araniti had become active again.

At this time word came to Murad that his son Alâeddin Ali Çelebi, whom he loved and trusted greatly, had died in Amasya. The news shook Murad deeply. It is also told that Alâeddin was governor of Manisa and Amasya, took part in the Karaman campaign of 1443, and died by falling from his horse on the way back; so the sources differ on the place of death (in Amasya or on the return from the campaign). The year of death is 1443 in both accounts, and some sources give the month as June. It is certain that Alâeddin lies at Bursa beside his father, in the Muradiye Complex.

Murad had Turahan Bey, the great lord of the frontier forces who had not fought the Hungarians as he should have but had dispersed and gone off, seized and sent to prison at Tokat. Çandarlı Halil Pasha, who directed the policy of the state, saw no remedy but to secure peace at any sacrifice in every direction. In the spring of 1444 the Karamanids had advanced as far as Sivrihisar, Beypazarı, Ankara and Karahisar and had occupied the region of Akşehir and Beyşehir.

The Peace of Edirne, Yenişehir and the Abdication

In January 1444 Murad made contact for a truce with the Hungarians; Mara Sultan, daughter of the Serbian despot, played an important part in it. The Hungarian king, and the envoys of Hunyadi and of the despot, came to Edirne and made an agreement (24 Safar 848 / 12 June 1444). The Serbian despotate would be returned to Vılkoğlu as it was at Stefan's death in 1427 (including Güvercinlik), the two sides would not cross the Danube, the sultan's rule over Bulgaria would be recognized, and the lord of Wallachia would remain a vassal and pay tax, but would be excused from the obligation to appear before the sultan. Some sources call this peace the "Treaty of Szeged"; it is related that the king swore an oath at Szeged and that this oath was later made to be broken.

Murad, who believed he had put the peace on a firm footing, crossed over to Anatolia with the kapıkulu against the Karamanids. Without undertaking an invasion of Karaman, he signed a "sevgendnâme" at Yenişehir near Bursa with the envoys of İbrâhim Bey. İbrâhim Bey undertook to send his son with a force every year to Murad Bey and to his son Mehmed Bey; Murad, for his part, returned to İbrâhim the places he had taken in 1438 (Beyşehir, Seydişehir, Oklukhisarı, Akşehir). He thus withdrew from important places taken in the west and in the east, but believed that he had rescued the state from a dangerous situation and secured peace on every side.

With this belief, in Jumada al-Ula 848 (August 1444) at Mihalıç, before the kapıkulu and the beys, he formally abdicated in favour of his son Mehmed II and withdrew near Bursa to a life of asceticism and piety. According to İnalcık the recent events, the death of his eldest son and the opposition he had met from the frontier lords must have led him to this decision. Another interpretation attributes it to the weariness produced by the successive losses of sons. We cannot know Murad's inner world; we can only say that these interpretations are found in the sources. İnalcık writes that contemporary sources describe him as a person "emotional, good-hearted, as fond of Sufism, the arts and learning as he was determined", but also as too much given to amusement and drink; all the sources, from the Ottoman calendars to the Greek and Arab chronicles, agree on this point. He adds that the recent disasters may have made these failings more conspicuous among the people and the army.

A Sultan of Twelve and the Crusader Threat

His withdrawal, which left the throne to a boy of twelve, plunged the state into a heavy crisis. Çandarlı Halil Pasha gained great power; the other viziers, in particular Şehâbeddin and Mehmed's lalas Zağanos and İbrâhim, took a stand against him. The Byzantine emperor, Venice, the papacy and Hunyadi judged that the time to strike had come. Although Murad had returned his lands to the despot and fulfilled the clauses of the treaty, they had the Hungarian king break the oath he had given at Szeged, and on 4 August 1444 the king confirmed that he would go on a crusade against the Turks.

In Edirne the people were alarmed and the notables began to flee to Anatolia. That summer the pretender Orhan Çelebi came out of Constantinople as far as İnceğiz in order to raise Rumelia in revolt and take the throne from young Mehmed; unable to hold his ground, he withdrew to Dobruja and, closely pursued by Şehâbeddin Pasha, fled unsuccessfully to Constantinople. On the day the Hungarians crossed the Danube, a massacre of the Hurufis took place at Edirne, and a great fire broke out that reduced to ashes 7000 houses together with the bedesten. On 4-8 Jumada al-Akhira 848 (18-22 September 1444) the Hungarian-Wallachian army, which had crossed the Danube, pressed on through northern Bulgaria as far as the neighbourhood of Varna. A strong Venetian fleet had also cut the Gallipoli strait; the Serbian despot remained neutral.

While defensive preparations went on at Edirne, a man was sent to Murad. The offended ruler did not wish to come, but at their insistence he set out and reached Edirne swiftly. Şehâbeddin and Zağanos wanted to leave him at Edirne and put Mehmed II at the head of the army. At Halil Pasha's insistence Murad set out as commander-in-chief, while Mehmed formally kept the sultanate.

Varna: 10 November 1444

The pitched battle of Varna was fought on 28 Rajab 848 (10 November 1444). The violent charge of the Hungarian king with his heavy cavalry was at first successful, the Ottoman lines were broken, and the Hungarians came very close to Murad's headquarters. Dayı Karaca Bey prevented Murad from retreating, and the soldiers rallied around the sultan's standard. King Ladislas was surrounded by the Janissaries, thrown from his horse and beheaded; the Ottoman counterattack ended in victory. Hunyadi, the commander-in-chief of the crusading army, escaped only with difficulty. The victory was announced to Edirne and to all the Islamic lands by letters of good tidings. The circumstances of Ladislas's death, however, are disputed. According to a Balkan historian this victory decided the fate of Byzantium and made Turkish rule in the Balkans final.

From the point of view of Amasya there is a small but meaningful detail: Hızır and Mustafa, sons of Yörgüç Pasha, fell as martyrs at the battle of Varna. The lala's children were thus at Murad's side in his most critical battle.

Çandarlı Halil Pasha always treated Murad as the true sultan. Murad, for his part, did not wish to shake his son Mehmed's position against the pretender at Constantinople; after a short stay at Edirne he returned to Manisa. The revenues of the provinces of Aydın, Menteşe and Saruhan were assigned to him. Since his influence and authority in the country had been re-established after Varna, he lived at Manisa like a sultan.

The Second Reign: 1446

The struggle between Çandarlı and his rivals grew harsh. Zağanos and Şehâbeddin Pashas urged Mehmed to a hard policy toward Byzantium, the Serbian despot and the Anatolian beys, and this in turn provoked Murad's intervention. The danger from abroad had not wholly passed: the Hungarians moved on the Danube, the Wallachian prince who cooperated with them seized Yergöğü, and Dâvud Çelebi, who claimed the Ottoman throne, was landed in Dobruja but could do nothing. Then a Janissary revolt broke out. The revolt, which appears to have been incited by Halil Pasha, spread, and some of the rebels threatened to go over to the pretender Orhan at Constantinople. The revolt was put down with the help of the people. Some sources say the revolt may have been connected with the debasement of the coinage; this goes no further than a possibility.

Murad's return to the throne was judged necessary for the internal and external security of the state. Halil Pasha secretly called him to the throne. On 8 Safar 850 (5 May 1446) he set out in haste from Manisa, then, perhaps because of the revolt at Edirne, changed his mind and came to Bursa. At the end of August, without his son's knowledge, he crossed to Rumelia and reached Edirne. Mehmed II was told to renounce the throne in his father's favour. Zağanos and Şehâbeddin Pashas did not want this change; they were sent to Manisa with Mehmed. After an interval of two years Murad had returned to the sultanate, and Mehmed was regarded as heir apparent. The sources say nothing about the psychological effect of these two withdrawals on the fourteen-year-old Mehmed.

The Morea Campaign and the Hexamilion (1446)

On coming to the throne Murad first occupied himself with putting down the Albanian revolt, which had emboldened the crusader attacks, and with bringing the Wallachian voivode and the despot of the Morea to obedience. He campaigned into the Morea and appeared before the wall of the Hexamilion on 8 Ramadan 850 (27 November 1446). The walls were taken and demolished (21 Ramadan / 10 December). While the raiders spread over every part of the peninsula, Murad himself advanced as far as Patras and Clarenza, and from there returned to Edirne. The Palaiologoi recognized Ottoman suzerainty once more.

Albania and Kosovo (1448)

Seeing that the Turks had grown strong again, Vlad I Dracul, prince of Wallachia, wished to come to terms with the sultan, but he was killed by Hunyadi (1447). İskender Bey, who had made contact with the pope and the Hungarian king and received help, had seized the fortress of Kocacık (Svetigrad) on the road into Albania. When his relations with Venice broke down, in the summer of 1448 Murad came to Albania with a great army and retook Kocacık. Soon word was received that Hunyadi was marching on Albania. Murad, who had withdrawn to Sofia, put his army in order again and met the Hungarians on the plain of Kosovo.

After a hard battle lasting three days the Hungarians were defeated (18-21 Sha'ban 852 / 17-20 October 1448). Hunyadi, as in 1444, was able to withdraw only under the protection of wagons reinforced with firearms, that is, by the wagon-fort tactic. The Serbs again did not cooperate with the Hungarians, and the Karamanids sent military aid to Murad. While Hunyadi was marching toward Kosovo, the Wallachian prince Vladislav, son of Dan, had passed through Nikopol and attacked Ottoman territory; in 1449 the new Rumelian beylerbey Dayı Karaca Bey retook Yergöğü. According to what is told, Hunyadi set up a wagon position on the hill of Plementina, the Ottoman cavalry enveloped the Hungarian left wing, and the Hungarian order collapsed when the Wallachian contingents withdrew on the last day; the account adds that the sixteen-year-old Mehmed was at his father's side in the battle.

In the summer of 1450 Murad, taking his son Mehmed with him, made his second campaign into Albania. He besieged Akçahisar (Krujë), but at the rumour that Hunyadi would attack again he lifted the prolonged siege and withdrew.

The Order of the State: Viziers and Frontier Lords

İnalcık writes that in Murad's time real power was determined at the centre by the grand vizier and the kapıkulu, and in the provinces by the frontier lords. According to the endowment deed of Oruç Bey dated Rabi al-Awwal 823 (March-April 1420), the first vizier was Bayezid, the second Çandarlı İbrâhim and the third Hacı İvaz Pasha. The Çandarlıs had lost their former influence because they had served Çelebi Mehmed's rivals in Rumelia; Çelebi Mehmed trusted Bayezid Pasha. Çandarlı İbrâhim, who came from the ulema and had no direct influence over the army, together with Hacı İvaz succeeded in getting rid of Bayezid Pasha, seized the grand vizierate and remained in that post until his death (24 Dhu al-Qa'dah 832 / 25 August 1429). Hacı İvaz Pasha, who had moved to the second vizierate, was also removed. Murad appears to have been under the influence in turn of Çandarlı İbrâhim, of Fazlullah Pasha and, last of all, of Çandarlı Halil. According to Venetian documents, in August 1428 İbrâhim Pasha as first vizier, Mehmed Agha as second vizier and Sinan Bey as beylerbey of Rumelia were the most influential persons of the state.

After Çandarlı İbrâhim, "Mehmed Agha of Amasya (Hoca or Koca Mehmed Pasha)" became grand vizier. In Murad's endowment deed for his soup kitchen, dated Shawwal 833 (July 1430), Hoca Mehmed Pasha is appointed supervisor of the endowment in his capacity as grand vizier; Mehmed Pasha's Bursa endowment deeds of 5 Ramadan 843 / 9 February 1440 still show him as grand vizier in 1440. According to the Ragusan documents, in October 1431 Saruca Pasha was second vizier and Halil Pasha third. Saruca Pasha, who was of Greek origin, at first gained great influence and was dismissed in 1435 or 1436. At that time Kadı Fazlullah, an ardent advocate of the policy of ghaza and conquest, came to the fore; Fazlullah appears to have become a vizier in the divan in 1436-37, and according to Ducas Murad made him first vizier, and he pursued a policy of war against Serbia and Hungary. At the beginning of 1443 it is established that Çandarlı Halil was first vizier and Fazlullah second. In 1443 the viziers were Halil and Fazlullah Pashas together with Fenârîzâde Hasan Pasha, and all were of ulema origin. After Halil, Mehmed and Fazlullah Pashas had been dismissed, he held his post with full authority until 1453. In 1446, when Murad returned to the throne through Halil Pasha's efforts, Saruca Pasha was second vizier and İshak Pasha third.

Of the frontier lords, after the death of Mihaloğlu Mehmed Bey (1422) Paşa Yiğitoğlu Turahan Bey became head of the frontier forces; with Tırhala and Yenişehir as his centres he directed the raids on Greece and the Morea. The second frontier region was Serres, facing Thessalonica, and Ergiri in Albania, and it belonged to Ali, Îsâ and Barak of the Evrenosoğulları; Ali and Îsâ Beys were in turn frontier lord of Arnavut-ili. The third region was Skopje: after Paşa Yiğit Bey his adopted son İshak Bey, and after his death his sons Îsâ and Mustafa Beys, ruled there, and their field of activity was Serbia and Bosnia; İshak Bey extended his raids as far as Croatia and Dalmatia. The centre of the fourth region was Vidin, and from it campaigns were made against Serbia, Hungary and Wallachia. At Nikopol Mehmed Bey, son of Fîruz Bey, and at Silistra the Gümülüoğulları were active.

These frontier sanjaks had a hereditary and semi-feudal structure that continued the old Ottoman tradition. The frontier lords did not hesitate to oppose the sultan and the beylerbey who represented central power, or even to support pretenders to the throne. An example is that Turahan Bey was sent to prison for not helping Kasım Pasha properly at Zlatitsa and was restored to his position after Varna. Murad never trusted the frontier lords. When the Christian forces made ever greater use of firearms and a strong enemy like Hunyadi appeared, the frontier lords understood their own weakness and felt the need to bind themselves more closely to the centre; after Murad, the power and influence they had enjoyed in the 1420s became a thing of the past.

Learning, Sufism and Cultural Life

Ottoman intellectual life made great progress under Murad. Among the personalities of the time, Molla Yegân was mufti and judge; many masters of Mehmed the Conqueror's day, Hızır Bey and Hatibzâde Tâceddin İbrâhim among them, were trained by him. Many scholars came from Arabia, Turkestan and the Crimea: Molla Gürânî, Alâeddin et-Tûsî, Şerefeddin Kırîmî, Seydi Ahmed Kırîmî, Alâeddin es-Semerkandî, author of the Bahrü'l-ulûm, Seydi Ali Arabî and Acem Sinan are the principal names. Most were students of Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani and Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani, and by bringing the subjects of the scholarly debate between these two masters to Anatolia they gave life to its intellectual world.

The inclination toward Sufism continued strongly. The Zeyniyye and the Mevleviyye were in favour in high circles, and the Bayramiyye spread widely. Murad's grant of tax exemption to the disciples of Hacı Bayrâm-ı Velî helped the growth of this order. Georgius de Hungaria, who remained in Turkey as a captive between 1438 and 1458, notes Murad's close relations with dervishes and speaks of four religious groups: the dânişmends, the dervishes, the Sufis and the Hurufis. The Yazıcızâde family, among the successors of Hacı Bayram, holds a distinguished place in Turkish cultural history. The Muhammediyye of Yazıcızâde Mehmed and the Selçuknâme that Ali dedicated to Murad represent two strong currents of the period: one Sufism, the other the Oghuz tradition. Both are regarded as excellent examples of the Turkish prose of that age. The prevailing Oghuz-Kayı tradition served a mostly practical political aim, namely to exalt the Ottoman dynasty against the Timurids and to gain influence in Turkmen circles. That many works were translated from Arabic and Persian into Turkish is also important for the development of Ottoman Turkish culture.

Ibn Taghribirdi mentions him as the greatest of the rulers of Anatolia. His reign was long, he rose, gained majesty and attained felicity; he was a ruler who never fell short in jihad but was fond of amusement and pleasure, just toward the people, generous and good-natured. The same source records that he loved entertainers and musicians, that musicians flocked to him from everywhere, and that nonetheless, when news of a jihad came, he left everything and rose.

Building Activity: Abu al-Khayrat

Around his mosque in the Simavlılar quarter of Bursa, completed in Muharram 830 (November 1426), Murad had a zâviye and a madrasa built; their endowment deed, dated 22 Shawwal 833 (14 July 1430), has survived to our day. His own tomb and that of his son Alâeddin are also there, and this corner bears the name Murâdiye.

He had his great works built at Edirne. Four years after the dârülhadis on the Tunca (endowment deed Sha'ban 838 / March 1435), he founded a mosque and zâviye for Sheikh Şücâüddin Karamânî. The Yenicami (later called Üç Şerefeli) is the first example of the great mosque type of the imperial period. Murad laid its foundation in 1438 before setting out on the Hungarian campaign, and the building was finished only in 1447. In its courtyard the Üç Şerefeli Madrasa was built, and it kept its place as the high madrasa of the empire even after the Sahn-ı Semân was founded in Mehmed the Conqueror's time; the complex was completed with a dârülfakr and a soup kitchen. The Ergene Bridge (Uzunköprü) was begun together with the mosque and finished in 1443; it is 1392 metres long and has 174 arches. For the upkeep and security of the bridge, a mosque, soup kitchen, bath and markets were built at one end and the town of Ergene was founded, part of the population was exempted from taxes, and rich endowments were attached to the bridge.

Murad also had the Manisa Palace built, and there are mosques bearing his name at Skopje, Alacahisar, Thessalonica and Merzifon, as well as other charitable works. Because of these works he earned the title "abu al-khayrat" (father of good works). Merzifon is a district attached to Amasya, but the details of this mosque are not given in these sources, and it has therefore not been treated separately as a trace of his in Amasya.

His Death and Will

In the winter a magnificent wedding was held at Edirne on the occasion of his son Mehmed's marriage to Sitti Hatun, daughter of the Dulkadirid Süleyman Bey. After the wedding Murad fell ill and died (1 Muharram 855 / 3 February 1451). He was forty-eight years old at his death. The place of death is Edirne; some accounts attribute the death to a stroke, while İnalcık speaks only of an illness.

In the will he had drawn up on 9 Jumada al-Ula 850 (2 August 1446), he said: "At Bursa, beside the grave of my late son Ali, let them lay me... Let them build over me a tomb of four walls, with the top open, that rain may fall upon me... Whoever of my line shall die, let them not lay him beside me, let them not bring him to my side." He had also freed all his slaves. Today he lies in the Muradiye Complex at Bursa; the top of the tomb was left open in accordance with his will.

His Family

Murad had at least eight sons, and it was he who gave the title "şehzade" to his sons and their male grandchildren; before that they were called only "çelebi". His principal sons were these: Ahmed the Elder (1419-1437), Alâeddin Ali (1425-June 1443; governor of Manisa and Amasya, his father's favourite), Mehmed II (1432-1481; his mother Hüma Hatun died in September 1449), Hasan (d. 1444, buried at Edirne) and Ahmed the Younger (May 1450 - 18 February 1451). Among his wives are mentioned Mara Hatun, Hüma Hatun, Hatice (Halime) Hatun and Hundi Hatun. His daughters include Hundi, Hatice, Hafsa, Fatma and Selçuk Hatun; Fatma Hatun married Zağanos Pasha. Ahmed the Younger was put to death on Mehmed's order after Murad's death. Thus the father had put his brother to death in 1423, and the son's reign began, again, with the death of a brother. The sources do not state the direct grounds of the custom of fratricide.

The End and Works of Yörgüç Pasha

Murad's lala died in Dhu al-Hijjah 845 (April-May 1442) and was buried in the tomb of the mosque he had built in Amasya. He had sons named Hızır, Yûnus and Mustafa and two daughters named Sitti and Hundi Hatun; it is noted that there was one more son, Molla Îsâ, who had endowments at Lefke. It is also noteworthy that Çiçek Hatun, who had an endowment at Edirne, is recorded as the pasha's wife. Besides Amasya, Yörgüç Pasha had many religious and social institutions built at Tokat, Gümüş, Köprü, Havza and İskilip. From the texts of endowment deeds and from the survey registers it is understood that he built in Amasya a mosque, a madrasa, a soup kitchen and two baths; in Tokat a bath and a caravanserai; in Gümüş a mosque; in Havza a soup kitchen; in Kavak a mosque; and in İskilip a bath. Of these, the mosques at Amasya, Gümüş, Kavak and Köprü and the bath at Tokat have survived to our day.

His Legacy and His Place in Amasya

According to İnalcık, Murad was not a conquering sultan like his grandfather Bayezid the Thunderbolt and his son the Conqueror; in his love of peace the cautious policy of the Çandarlıs played as large a part as political circumstance. Even so, in his time the state attained the strength to meet its dangers and in the end to expand the realm. The spread and settlement of the Ottomans in the Balkans became definitive in his reign. According to Ducas, "Today the Turks in the lands from the Gallipoli strait to the Danube are more numerous than the Turkish subjects of the Ottomans in Anatolia."

For Amasya his meaning lies in the crossing of a prince's destiny with a city's history. The city is his birthplace and hosted his childhood and six years as sanjak governor. His lala Yörgüç Pasha left a built trace that has reached our day in his mosque, madrasa, soup kitchen and baths (the mosque is dated 1428). In later years the Amasya forces took part in Murad's campaigns, his son Alâeddin served as governor of Amasya, and the beylerbey Yörgüç Pasha held the eastern frontier against Karaman. No building commissioned directly in Murad's name could be identified in Amasya in the sources.

Chronology

1404: Birth in Amasya (Dhu al-Hijjah 806; some sources 1402).

1414/1415: At about twelve he is sent to Amasya as sanjak governor of the province of Rûm (some sources 1414, others 1415).

1416: Revolt of Börklüce Mustafa; on 29 May the Venetian fleet burns the Ottoman fleet at Gallipoli.

1417-1421: Capture of Samsun on the border of Rûm (confusion of dates is noted in the sources).

1421: Çelebi Mehmed dies; Murad ascends the throne at Bursa on 25 June; in September the False Mustafa lands at Gallipoli.

1422: In January Mustafa crosses to Anatolia and is defeated; siege of Constantinople in June; in August Küçük Mustafa besieges Bursa.

1423: On 20 February Küçük Mustafa is executed; Yörgüç Pasha becomes beylerbey of Rûm.

1424: Peace with Byzantium on 22 February.

1426: The Muradiye Mosque at Bursa is completed in November.

1427: Yörgüç Pasha brings the area of Ordu and Çarşamba under Ottoman administration; Stefan Lazarević dies on 19 July.

1430: Conquest of Thessalonica on 29 March; peace of Lâpseki in July; Muradiye endowment deed on 14 July.

1433/1435: Marriage to Mara (1433 and 1435 in the sources).

1436-1437: In December 1436 Karaman presses the beylerbey of Amasya, Yörgüç Pasha; Akşehir in March 1437, Karaman peace in May-June 1437.

1438: Hungarian campaign, siege of Hermannstadt; foundation of the Üç Şerefeli Mosque.

1439: Smederevo is taken on 27 August.

1440: The siege of Belgrade fails; Novo Brdo is taken.

1442: Yörgüç Pasha dies in Amasya.

1443: Karaman campaign; Alâeddin marches with the Amasya forces; Zlatitsa on 24 November; Alâeddin Ali dies; the Ergene Bridge is completed.

1444: Peace of Edirne on 12 June; abdication at Mihalıç in August; Varna on 10 November.

1446: Sets out from Manisa on 5 May; enthroned again at Edirne at the end of August; will drawn up on 2 August; Hexamilion demolished on 10 December.

1447: The Üç Şerefeli Mosque is completed.

1448: Kocacık is retaken; Kosovo on 17-20 October.

1450: Siege of Akçahisar (Krujë).

1451: Dies on 3 February; buried at Bursa.

Sources

The following sources were used in this article:

Halil İnalcık, "Murad II", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 31, 2020, pp. 164-172 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/murad-ii) islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
Fahameddin Başar, "Yörgüç Paşa", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 43, 2013, pp. 566-567 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/yorguc-pasa) islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
Vikipedi (Turkish), article "II. Murad"
Wikipedia (English), articles "Murad II", "Battle of Varna" and "Battle of Kosovo (1448)"
Archnet, "Yörgüç Pasa Camii, Amasya"; Kültür Portalı and Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, introductions of the "II. Murad Türbesi"