Murad II

Murad II (Amasya, June 16, 1404 — Edirne, February 3, 1451), ruled as sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1421 to 1451 (only interrupted during the period from 1444 to 1446), and his reign was marked by a long war against the Christians of the Balkans and the Turkish emirates in Anatolia, a conflict that lasted 25 years. His childhood was spent in Amasya, and he ascended the throne upon the death of his father.

Early years

Murad was born in June 1404, son of the future Sultan Mehmed I and his wife Emine Hatun, and spent his early childhood in Amasya. While Murad's early years passed, the Interregnum occurred, in which his father and his paternal uncles competed for the Ottoman throne. In 1410, Murad arrived with his father in the Ottoman capital, Edirne. After his father ascended the Ottoman throne (1413), he made Murad governor (sanjak-bey) of the sanjak of Amasya. Murad remained in Amasya until the death of Mehmed I in 1421. At sixteen years of age, he was solemnly recognized as sultan, girded with the saber of Osman, in Bursa. The troops and officers of the Ottoman state willingly paid homage to her as their sovereign.

First reign

Murad's reign was disturbed by insurrection from the beginning. Due to the growing push of Ottoman conquests, the Byzantines of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos encouraged the sultan's only surviving uncle, Şehzade (Turkish for prince) Mustafa Çelebi (known as Düzmece Mustafa, in Turkish, Mustafa the Impostor) to try to create a climate of civil war and thus dethrone the young sultan. The Byzantine emperor had first secured the stipulation that Mustafa should, if he succeeded, pay him for his release by giving up a large number of important cities. Released from his confinement on the island of Lesvos (until then a prisoner by a mutual agreement between Mehmed I and Manuel II), the claimant (who had already failed to rebel in 1414 against his brother Mehmed I) was landed by the Byzantine galleys in the European dominion of the sultan and for a time made rapid progress. Many Turkish soldiers joined Mustafa Çelebi, who defeated Murad's army, under the command of the veteran general Bayezid Pasha (grand vizier of Murad as he was of his father Mehmed I), who after the defeat was beheaded. Düzmece Mustafa appointed himself Sultan in Edirne and, with a large army, crossed the Dardanelles to wipe out his nephew Murad in Anatolia. Manuel II recognized him as the legitimate heir to the throne of Bayezid I, grandfather of Murad and father of Mustafa. Despite this, forces loyal to Murad caught up with Mustafa at Ulubat, near Bursa, and executed him in 1422. Murad then formed a new army called Azab in 1421, and marched in the direction of the small possessions of the Byzantine Empire, he besieged its capital Constantinople in retaliation. During the siege of that city, the Byzantines, colluding with some independent Turkish states in Anatolia, sent Şehzade Mustafa Çelebi (known as Küçük Mustafa, in Turkish, Mustafa the Lesser), a young brother of the sultan (who was only thirteen years old), to in turn besiege Bursa and rebel against the new sultan. Murad had no choice but to abandon the siege of Constantinople in order to deal with the new setback caused by his rebellious brother. He thus captured Prince Mustafa and executed him in October 1423. The Anatolian states that constantly conspired against him—Aydin, Germiyan, Mentese, and Teke—were annexed in a military campaign and were henceforth part of the Ottoman Empire.

Murad later organized a new military campaign in which he fought Venice and the Karaman beylicate. Until then, the Republic of Venice had maintained friendly relations with the Ottomans due to its great economic interests in Ottoman territory, especially on the Black Sea coast. Venice had signed a trade treaty with Murad I (Murad II's great-grandfather) in 1388 and had not joined the anti-Turkish crusader movements of the 20th centuryXIV for fear that this would benefit their rival, the Republic of Genoa. However, Ottoman expansion through Macedonia towards the Adriatic Sea made Venice fear that as soon as Murad II could build an armed fleet it would become a potential competitor. The cassus belli was when the Byzantine princes who owned Thessaloniki declared themselves unable to defend it against Turkish aggression, Venice accepted their offer to take over the city. The sultan could not bear this obstacle to his ambitions and the result was war. He defeated the Karamanids in 1428 and Venice withdrew in 1432, following the failure of the second siege of Thessaloniki in 1430.

It was at this time that the Ottoman policy of conquest was directly involved in the power struggles that began to emerge between the Turkish aristocracy and the Devşirme (and its military arm, the kapıkulları), which again regained strength at the Ottoman court. Murad II had been elevated to the throne by the Turkish aristocracy, led by Grand Vizier Çandarli Ibrahim Paşa and his family. The sultan did not take long to notice the heavy influence that the Turkish aristocracy had on him. To reinforce his power, he attempted to consolidate the power of his tiny janissary guard (what had remained of the devşirme and the kapıkulları, after the disaster of Ankara in 1402) to balance powers between both groups and, in the process, control them. To this end, Murad II distributed his new conquests among the kapıkulları, sometimes in the form of timars, but more often as concession estates, which not only provided him high incomes but they reinforced the treasury sufficiently to maintain the Janissary guard as a salaried body. Murad II, to further reinforce this power group, re-established the devşirme system. The number and income of the devşirme grew rapidly, with which they gained considerable political power and were able to let themselves go on the important issues of the day. Thanks to the action of Murad II, there was an exchange of ideas between the competing Ottoman power groups: the new conquests in Europe were used to favor and reinforce the devşirme (and its military arm, the < i>kapıkulları) which supported these conquests, while the Turkish aristocracy modified its old position and was firmly opposed to continuing the advance of conquest until the already conquered domains were completely assimilated and organized.

In the years after 1430, those who advocated a return to the aggressive policy of Bayezid I, the reigning sultan's grandfather, were in a dominant position as their wishes coincided with those of Murad II. Its victims were Serbia and its allies: Hungary and the principality of Wallachia. In 1434, under the pretext of the cession of Belgrade to the Hungarians by the Serbians, the Ottomans attacked Serbia and Wallachia. In 1437, taking advantage of the death of King Sigismund of Hungary (also Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia), Murad conquered vast territories in the Balkans and managed to annex Serbia in 1439, with the exception of Belgrade, after defeating King Albert I of Hungary and Bohemia (Duke of Austria, King of Romans and son-in-law and successor of Sigismund) at Szendrő. Most of the annexed territory was divided into timars and tax lands, which were allocated to members of the devşirme. In 1441 the Holy Roman Empire, Poland (by dynastic union with Hungary) and Albania joined Hungary, which was fighting the Ottoman Empire. Belgrade, under Hungarian rule, constituted the greatest obstacle to the Ottoman advance. The sultan sent the akıncı, led by Mezid Bey, on destructive expeditions towards Transylvania in the hope of forcing Hungary to abandon Belgrade. However, despite the devastation of the Turkmen irregular horsemen, the Hungarians and Vlachs of the regions bordering the Danube River prevailed, led by the Vlach nobleman John Hunyadi, also appointed Hungarian regent by the new King Władysław I of Hungary. and III of Poland. As the leader of this frontier resistance movement against Islam, John Hunyadi was able over the next twenty years to organize effective resistance against the attacks of Murad I and his successor. In March 1442, Hunyadi defeated the akıncı Turkmens of Mazid Bey (who fell in battle) at the Battle of Gyulafehérvár and, in his effort to continue his expeditions, crossed the Carpathians to Transylvania.. Murad II, outraged by the defeat, sent another Ottoman army north of the Danube, this time under the command of General Hadım Şehabeddin (a devşirme of Georgian origin), beylerbey of Rumelia to end the Hungarian-Wallachian resistance. In September 1442, Hunyadi ambushed and defeated the beylerbey Şehabeddin at the decisive Battle of Vaskapu.

After these victories, Pope Eugene IV sent Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini to Hungary with the aim of launching a crusade that would end the threat of the Ottomans. At the beginning of 1443, Władysław I obtained the support of Durađ Branković, the exiled Serbian despot, who intended to take advantage of Hunyadi's success against the Ottomans to free his country from the subjection of the Turks. Hunyadi organized the European Crusader army and led, together with Władysław I, an offensive across the Danube, towards Serbia and Bulgaria, taking Niš and Sofia and defeating three Ottoman armies. After defeating these three forces he learned that a new Ottoman army was heading against Władysław's position (whose contingent was one day behind Hunyadi's). The Ottoman forces, led by General Kasim Pasha, did not expect the participation of Hunyadi's troops in the battle and the unexpected attack of the heavy cavalry caused the Turks to flee. Hunyadi pressing in the passes of the Balkan Mountains, threatened Edirne, the Ottoman capital. However, each victory separated him further from his sources of supplies and supplies of men. The slow pace of the crusaders' march and the onset of winter gave Murad II time to transport troops from Anatolia to Rumelia and establish his headquarters in Plovdiv. When winter cut off the Crusaders from the north, Murad II counterattacked. Turkish infantry forces occupied the mountain passes and finally, on November 24, 1443, Murad defeated the crusaders while attempting to break through the Zlatica passes. The narrowness of the road prevented the capacity of the heavy cavalry from being exploited and the bad weather made logistics difficult. Kasim Pasha was sent by Murad II to pursue the Hungarian rearguard but was defeated by the Crusader army on December 25 at the Battle of Kunovica. Both parties were now willing to sue for peace. Władysław I had been wounded and Hunyadi's army was dissolving and he had to retreat to the other side of the Danube. Meanwhile, at the Ottoman court, the Turkish aristocracy had used the defeats to regain its ascendancy over the weakened sultan, who approved of abandoning his aggressive policy of conquest. In June 1444 Murad II was forced to accept a ten-year truce, known as the 'Peace of Szeged', between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. In the treaty the Ottoman delegate declared that the sultan would return the occupied territory and fortresses, in Wallachia and Serbia, and it was promised that the Ottomans would never again attempt to cross the Danube, if the Hungarian forces did not intervene in Ottoman territory. With this truce, Serbia was restored as an independent state; Durađ Branković gained several strongholds in Serbia and Hungary and regained a solid buffer state on its southern border. This offered Hungary the opportunity to stabilize internal conflicts and regenerate after continued fighting against the Turks.

The rebellion of Bey Ibrahim II of Karaman, one of his Turkish vassals in Anatolia, forced Murat to leave Edirne with much of his army on June 12, 1444. His eldest son Büyük Ahmed (Turkish: Ahmed the Elder) had died suddenly in 1437 and his second son Alaeddin Ali (his father's favorite) had been assassinated, in early June 1443, by Kara Hizir Pasha. There was a third son left: Mehmed (only 12 years old), who was called to Edirne after the death of his brother. Murad appointed Mehmed as regent during his absence, with Grand Vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha as the prince's advisor. That same June an insurrection broke out among the janissaries, who asked that Mehmed increase their pay. Murad II had used them to great effect during his previous campaigns, but now that he was away they began to grow impatient, believing they could take advantage of Mehmed's youth. In the uprising, the Janissaries rioted and burned the Edirne market. Mehmed relented and increased their pay, setting a precedent that would be a constant source of trouble. Murad II, through the Treaty of Yenişehir, signed a peace agreement with Karaman. Murad, tired of wars, thought he could retire to a contemplative life and planned to abdicate; However, peace did not last for long.

On the Christian side, continuing the crusade was once again considered, despite the truce in force. However, there was opposition to a new war. The Polish nobility had concerns about the absence of their king in Poland and some of the Hungarian nobles maintained that this new campaign was coming too soon and the country was not prepared to support the new offensive. Cardinal Cesarini attended the Diet in Buda in April 1444 and developed an ambitious plan that integrated several nations. A Crusader army would be raised that would follow the course of the Danube, while a Venetian fleet would prevent the transit of Turkish soldiers from Anatolia to Europe and the Greeks would carry out diversionary attacks in the Peloponnese. The Christians would annihilate the Turks who were in Europe, saving Constantinople and evaluating the “liberation” of Jerusalem. The plans soon began to fall apart. The Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos (son and successor of Manuel II) sensed that it was not the most appropriate thing to support the crusade and Durađ Branković, whose daughter had married the sultan, thought that he would have more gains through diplomacy than through weapons. Both urged the Albanian leader Skanderbeg that the Albanians also not support the crusade. However, Cardinal Cesarini persuaded Władysław I that an oath sworn to a Muslim was worthless. Thus, the young Polish-Hungarian monarch began preparations for a new crusade and crossed the Danube and began moving south in September 1444. The crusader army that crossed the Danube at Orşova consisted of 20,000 Hungarians, Poles, Crusaders Westerners and Vlachs recruited by Cardinal Cesarini, Hunyadi and the Vlach voivode Vlad II Dracul. The plan of operations sought to avoid the defiles and mountain passes that had stopped the army in the previous campaign and aimed to advance along the Danube to Varna from where they would head along the Black Sea coast to Edirne. Meanwhile, Murad II managed to bribe the Genoese to transport his army from Anatolia to Europe. The Ottoman troops, numbering around 80,000, gathered in Provadia and advanced to set up camp west of Varna. Finally and in an almost pyrrhic way, Murad won the battle of Varna on November 10, 1444 against the Hungarian regent John Hunyadi and King Władysław I of Hungary and III of Poland (who fell in combat in an absurd manner). However, shortly afterward, he lost the battle of Jalowaz and was forced to abdicate by the janissaries of the Ottoman army. His son, Mehmed II, assumed the throne on December 1, 1444. Murad, who was only 40 years old at the time, tired of so many military campaigns and rebellions against him, retired to Manisa, in Anatolia.

Second reign

In 1446 Murad II regained power, due to a revolt of the janissaries in Edirne and, above all, the incapacity and youth of his son. Mehmed II was sent to Anatolia as sanjak-bey of Manisa. Despite the opposition of the Janissaries, Murad prevailed and prevailed over them. In October 1448, Murad II, supported by his son Mehmed and with a powerful army of 40,000 to 60,000 men, crushed the Christian Crusader coalition (composed of Hungarians, Poles, Vlachs and Moldavians, 22,000 to 30,000 strong). men), led by Juan Hunyadi in the Second Battle of Kosovo (the first took place in 1389). When the Balkan front was secured, Murad resumed his military campaign in the East, defeating the emir Temür's son, the Timurid sultan Shahruj, and the beylicates of Karaman and Çorum-Amasya. Murat arranged a marriage between the young Mehmet II and Princess Sitti Hatun, daughter of Dulkadiroğlu Süleyman Bey, ruler of the Dulkadir Beylicate of Eastern Anatolia, in September 1449; The celebrations in Edirne lasted two months. Murad would have another son, named Küçük Ahmed (Turkish: Ahmed the Lesser), with his favorite wife, Hatice Halime Hatun, the daughter of Taceddin Ibrahim II Bey, ruler of the Turkmen beylicate of the Candaroglu. These marriages with princesses of the Turkmen beylicates were a strategy of Murat II to cement alliances with his enemies in Anatolia. In 1450, Murad II led his army into Albania and unsuccessfully laid siege to Kruje Castle in an effort to defeat the resistance of Albanian guerrilla militias led by Skanderbeg.

Murad II as Ghazi-Sultan

When Murad II ascended the throne, he sought to recover the lost Ottoman territories that had regained their autonomy following the defeat of his grandfather Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 at the hands of the Emir Temür. He needed the support of both the public and the nobles who would allow him to exercise his rule, and he used the ancient and powerful Islamic incentive of Monarch Ghazi.

To gain popular and international support for his conquests, Murad II drew inspiration from the legendary Ghazi monarchs of ancient times. The Ottomans already presented themselves as ghazis, painting their origins as arising from the ghazas of Osman, the founder of the dynasty. For them, ghaza was the noble defense of Islam and justice against non-Muslims and Muslims, if they were cruel; for example, Bayezid labeled Temür, also a Muslim, an apostate before the battle of Ankara because of the violence his troops had committed against innocent civilians and because "all he does is break promises and vows, spill blood and rape" #3. 4; the honor of women”. Murad II only had to capitalize on this dynastic heritage of ghaza-making, which he did by actively creating the public image of Ghazi-Sultan.

Murad II successfully painted himself as a simple soldier who did not engage in royal excesses, and as a noble Ghazi-Sultan who sought to consolidate Muslim power against non-Muslims such as the Venetians and Hungarians.. Through this self-representation, he received support from the Muslim population not only of the Ottoman territories, both for himself and his extensive and costly campaigns, but also for the majority Muslim populations in the Dar al-Islam, such as the Mamluks. and the Muslims of India's Delhi Sultanate. Murad II basically presented himself as not only "a ghazi monarch who fights against the kuffār (non-Muslims), but also serves as protector and teacher of the lesser ghazis."

Death

In the winter of 1450-1451, after the failure of his last military campaign, Murad fell ill and died in Edirne Palace on February 3, 1451, and was buried in the Muradiye Complex in Bursa. He was forty-six years old and had ruled for three decades, most of which he had spent warring. His death was kept secret while that of his son Mehmed II came from the province of Manisa. He arrived fifteen days later and was immediately hailed as sultan by the army.

Family

Consorts

Murad II had four consorts:

• Yeni Hatun (?) first consort of Murad and daughter of Şadgeldi Paşazade Mustafa Bey of the beylicate of Dulkadir. Mother of Şehzade Orhan;
• Hatice Halime Hatun (1413 — 1501) married to Murad in 1425, daughter of Taceddin Ibrahim II Bey and granddaughter of Izzeddin Isfendiyar Bey, rulers of the Candaroglu and mother of Şehzade Alaeddin Ali, Şehzade Isfendiyar and Şehzade Küçük Ahmed;
• Hüma Hatun (1410 — 1449), concubine of Murad, was of Venetian, Greek-Macedonio or Albanian origin, was the mother of Hatice Hatun, Fatma Hatun, and Mehmed II. He died before the ascension to the throne of his son, so it was not Valide Hatun;
• Mara Hatun (1418 — 23 September 1487), born as the princess Mara Despina Branković. He married Murad in 1435. She was the daughter of the Serbian déspota Đurađ Branković. He acted as Valide Hatun of Mehmed II. Considered one of the most influential women in the Ottoman Empire. Mara was a strong pillar of help in the Fall of Constantinople, which led to the consolidation of the glory of the Ottoman Empire and the total fall of the Byzantine Empire. He was known as Mother Mara or Mother Amerissa.

Children

• Şehzade Ahmed (1419 — June 1437), son with unknown concubine. It was Sanjak Bey (governor) of Amasya. Known as Büyük Ahmed (Ahmed the Major);
• Şehzade Alaeddin Ali (1425 — 1443), son with Hatice Halime Hatun. It was Sanjak Bey of Manisa and supposed favorite heir of his father, was killed by his counselor, Kara Hizir Paşa;
• Şehzade Isfendiyar (1426-1430), son with Hatice Halime Hatun, died young;
• Mehmed II (30 March 1431 — 3 May 1481), son with Hüma Hatun. It was Sanjak Bey from Amasya, and after Manisa. Known as "Mehmed the Conqueror"considered one of the best sultans. He reigned from 1451 until his death, apart he is known for conquering Constantinople and giving the Byzantine Empire a complete fall;
• Şehzade Orhan (1433 — 1441), son with Yeni Hatun, died young;
• Şehzade Hasan (1435 — 1444), son with concubine of unknown name, died young;
• Şehzade Hüseyn (1438 — 1449), son with concubine of unknown name, died young;
• Şehzade Ahmed (1450—February 18, 1451), son with Hatice Halime Hatun. Known Küçük Ahmed (Ahmed the minor). Executed with the ascension to the throne of Mehmed II, he began the famous Fratricidio Law.

Daughters

• Erhundi Hatun (1423), daughter with concubine of unknown name. Married in September 1439 with Damat Yakub Bey. They had descendants;
• Hatice Hatun (1425 — 1478), daughter with Hüma Hatun. Married in 1437 with Damat İsa Bey. He married in 1448 with Damat Çandaroğlu İsmail Kemaleddin Paşa. She had her second husband's offspring. Hatice had direct descendants who lived during the reign of Abdülmecit I (r. 1839—1861);
• Hafsa Hatun (1428—?), daughter with concubine of unknown name. She married her cousin in 1450. Damat Çandaroğlu Kaya Bey, son of her aunt İlaldi Hatun, daughter of Mehmed I. They had descendants;
• Selçuk Hatun (1430 — 1492), daughter with concubine of unknown name. She married in 1446 with Damat Sinan Bey;
• Fatma Hatun (1430—?), daughter with Hüma Hatun. He married in October 1448 with Damat Zağanos Paşa, Grand Visir of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1456. After divorced in 1462, she married Damat Çandarli Mahmud Paşa. It is known that he had enough influence and power in state affairs;
• İlaldi Hatun (1430 — after 1495), daughter with concubine of unknown name. She married in 1451 with Damat Kasım Paşa. She was still alive in 1495 for donations she made to foundations. He had a descendant.

Predecessor: Mehmed I	6°Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1421-1444	Successor: Mehmed II
Predecessor: Mehmed II	6°Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1446-1451	Successor: Mehmed II