Gedik Ahmed Pasha

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Gedik Ahmed Pascha (* in the 14th or 15th century ; † November 18, 1482 in Adrianople ) was an Ottoman statesman and admiral. As Kapudan Pasha, he was Commander in Chief of the Ottoman Navy and during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II. Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire .

Life

Little is known about Ahmed's origins. Most sources assume an Albanian ancestry, some also of Serbian ancestry. Ahmed went through the palace school Enderun , where the palace boys recruited from the boys' reading and converted to Islam completed their training. After he was Beylerbey of Eyâlet Rumelia , he became provincial governor of Eyâlet Anatolia around 1464 and was appointed vizier in 1470 .

Gedik Ahmed Pasha led the Ottoman army in Anatolia and in 1471 defeated the Beylik of Karaman, the last Anatolian principality to oppose Ottoman expansion in the region. The Karamanids had been the strongest principality in Anatolia for almost 200 years and even superior to the Ottomans at the beginning. They had followed the Sultanate of the Rum Seljuks in Anatolia and had taken over their rulers, including the former Seljuq capital Konya . Gedik Ahmed Pascha's victory against the Karamanids and the conquest of their territory as well as the Mediterranean coastal region around Ermenek , Mennan and Silifke secured the supremacy of the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia.

In 1474, Gedik Ahmed Pasha succeeded the dismissed and executed Mahmud Pasha in the office of Grand Vizier. His term of office was marked by wars. He fought in the Mediterranean against the Republic of Venice and was sent by the Sultan in 1475 to help the Khanate of Crimea against the armed forces of the Republic of Genoa . In the Crimea he conquered Caffa , Soldaia , Harpsichord and other Genoese castles as well as the Principality of Theodoro with its capital Mangup and the coastal regions. He saved the Khan Meñli I. Giray from Genoese armed forces. As a result of these campaigns, the Crimea and Cherkessia came under the Ottoman sphere of influence, which secured Ottoman supremacy in the Black Sea, the Genoese Levant trade was badly damaged and the overland route to the Caucasus, Persia and India was placed under Turkish control.

In 1477 the Sultan dismissed him as Grand Vizier because of differences of opinion between the Grand Vizier and the Sultan over the question of a campaign in Albania. Gedik Ahmed Pascha was arrested and not released until the following year. The Sultan rehabilitated him and later made him Kapudan Pasha of his fleet.

In 1479, when Ahmed Pasha was Sanjakbey of the Sanjak Valona , Sultan Mehmet II ordered that Ahmed Pasha lead a siege force of 10,000 to 40,000 soldiers at the siege of Shkodra . Later that year the Sultan ordered him to lead the Ottoman Navy in the Mediterranean as part of the war against Naples and Milan. During his campaign, Gedik Ahmed Pasha conquered the islands of Lefkada , Kefalonia and Zakynthos . Since conquering Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II saw himself as heir to the Roman Empire and thought seriously about conquering Italy in order to reunite the Roman lands under his dynasty. As part of this plan, Gedik Ahmed Pasha was sent to Italy with a naval force.

After the siege of Rhodes in 1480 and the failed attempt to conquer the island from the Order of St. John , Ahmed was able to conquer the Italian port city of Otranto in 1480. However, due to the lack of food and supplies, he had to return to Albania with most of his troops in the same year and wanted to continue the campaign in 1481. But the death of Mehmed II prevented this return. Instead, Ahmed supported Bayezid II in his struggle for the successor to the sultan's throne against half-brother Cem . A mishap in the persecution of Cem resulted in Ahmed's temporary incarceration, but he was rehabilitated under pressure from the Janissaries . But Beyazid II no longer trusted Ahmed and probably suspected that he was now trying to help his brother Cem to the throne. Beyazid II had Gedik Ahmed Pasha imprisoned on November 18, 1482 in Adrianople and killed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Théoharis Stavrides: The Sultan of Vezirs: The Life and Times of the Ottoman Grand Vezir Mahmud Pasha Angeloviu (1453–1474) . (= Ottoman Empire and Its Heritage Series , Volume 24), Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden 2001, ISBN 90-04-12106-4 , pp. 65f. ( Online at Google Books )
  2. ^ Heath W. Lowry : The Nature of the Early Ottoman State . SUNY Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-7914-8726-6 , p. 116
  3. ↑ a b c Hans-Joachim Kißling: Ahmed Pascha, Gedik . In: Mathias Bernath / Felix von Schroeder (eds.): Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 1, Munich 1974, p. 21 ( online edition ), accessed on April 28, 2020
  4. ↑ Kenneth Setton: The Fifteenth Century . (= The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571) , Volume II), DIANE Publishing, 1978, ISBN 0-87169-127-2 , p. 340 ( online at Google Books )
  5. ^ Franz Babinger: Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time . Princeton University Press, New Jersey 1978, p. 365
predecessor Office successor
Mahmud Pasha Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
1474–1477 		Karamanlı Mehmed Pasha
personal data
SURNAME Gedik Ahmed Pasha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ottoman Grand Vizier and Kapudan Pasha
DATE OF BIRTH 14th century or 15th century
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1482
Place of death Adrianople