Mesih Pasha

Mesih Pascha , also Misac Pascha , (* in the 15th century ; † November 1501 in Constantinople ) was an Ottoman politician of Byzantine-Greek origin and nephew of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. He was Kapudan Pasha (supreme naval commander) of the Ottoman Navy and in 1501 Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire .

Life

According to the Ecthesis Chronica from the 16th century, Mesih was born in the 15th century as the son of Gidos Palaiologos. According to reports from the Historia Turchesca, the father was the brother of the Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. from the dynasty of palaeologists who ruled the late Byzantine Empire . Mesih or one of his brothers would probably be the successor to Constantine XI. if he had remained childless and the Ottomans had failed to conquer Constantinople. Instead, Mesih became one of the most powerful men in the state that destroyed Byzantium. Byzantine-Italian historian Theodore Spandounes , who claimed that Mesih was his paternal grandmother's brother, wrote that Mesih was ten years old when he conquered Constantinople . That would mean that he would have been born around 1443. He and two of his brothers were kidnapped in the course of the boy harvest ("Dewschirme"), had to convert to Islam and grew up as pages at the court of Mehmed II .

Mesih first appears in sources in 1470 when he was Sanjak-Bey of Gallipoli . As in Sandzak was also the most important military port of the Ottoman Empire, the item also included the command of much of the Ottoman fleet. In this capacity he was also responsible for the Ottoman conquest of Euboea ( rule of Negroponte ) in the Ottoman-Venetian War (1463-1479). However, the Venetian archives document that shortly afterwards he offered to hand over Gallipoli and his fleet to Venice if he was promised 40,000 gold ducats and rule over the Morea (Peloponnese), which for a long time was the semi-autonomous despotate of Morea under the administration of the Byzantine palaeologists-emperor stood.

Mesih was appointed vizier of the imperial government in the imperial council or divan in 1476 or 1477 . Documents show his rank as second vizier in 1748, but the Historia Turchesca records his appointment as fourth vizier for 1480 when he took command of the Ottoman army and navy during the siege of Rhodes . His failure cost him the title of vizier, he was only allowed to keep his title as Sanjak-Bey of Gallipoli and his post as Kapudan Pasha. The historian Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede counted Mesih among the grand viziers of Mehmed II, but this could be a misunderstanding due to his rank as a vizier.

After the death of Sultan Mehmed II, the leading Dewschirme military could enthrone Bayezid II . As a leading member of this circle, Mesih was able to return to the divan as a vizier. The leading military and Grand Vizier Gedik Ahmed Pasha , who could rely on the support of the Janissaries , was said to have sympathy for Bayezid's half-brother Cem . Mesih, however, tried to gain Bayezid's trust and opposed Cem's claims. In the summer of 1482 Bayezid II had Gedik Ahmed Pasha interned in the palace. In response, the angry Janissaries broke into the palace and Mesih was sent to negotiate with them. He managed to calm them down by promising them that the older members would be raised to the rank of vizier and that the dew screens or the janissaries would in future have a say in the enthronement of a sultan. Mesih thus proved his loyalty and diplomatic skill and thus became one of the leading figures of the dew screens , which soon dominated the divan. In order to create a counterbalance, Bayezid II soon began to transfer trustworthy chief eunuchs to important governor posts.

Mesih was able to demonstrate his diplomatic skills again when Cem fled to the Order of St. John on Rhodes . In the negotiations that followed, the Grand Vizier Gedik Ahmed took an adamant position, but Mesih managed to find a mutually acceptable compromise. Gedik Ahmed was executed on November 18, 1482 for his failure. In February 1483 Mesih was promoted to second vizier in the divan. Some sources claim that Mesih succeeded Ishak Pasha as Grand Vizier in the fall of 1483 and was in office until 1485, but most historians suspect that Koca Davud Pasha held the position at that time and Mesih was his representative, as contemporary documents report .

For unknown reasons, Mesih fell out of favor with the Sultan in January 1485 and was dismissed as a vizier in the divan and transferred to the post of Subaşi of Filibe . He was later transferred to Eyâlet Kefe on the Crimean peninsula, which was considered a popular spot for disgraced officials and military of the Ottoman Empire. Possibly he lived here until 1489. He is not mentioned again until 1497 as Sandschak-Bey von Akkerman (today Ukraine). In the latter post he was instrumental in a Polish military action in the Vltava River to stop during the Polish-Ottoman War (1485-1503) and won his reputation with the Sultan back when he the ruler several Polish noblemen as prisoners and 29 Polish standards sent .

After his victory, Mesih made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1499. This seems to confirm reports by the Greek historian Spandounes, who describe Mesih as religious and mention his hatred of Christians. As the historian Halil İnalcık suspected, the pilgrimage also gave him an excellent excuse for a flying visit to Constantinople and the opportunity to work towards a return. Indeed, due to the outbreak of the Second Ottoman-Venetian War (1499-1503) Mesih's knowledge of the Venetians and his military knowledge of naval warfare were decisive for his reinstatement as second vizier after his return from Mecca.

In the spring of 1501, Mesih was appointed Grand Vizier and left Constantinople to put down a rebellion by the Warsak tribe in the Anatolian principality of Karaman , who supported the pretender Mustafa. Again, due to his diplomatic skills, Mesih succeeded in persuading the Warsaks to give up their support. During his return to Constantinople, the Franco-Venetian forces took the important trading center of Mytilene on Lesbos , which infuriated Sultan Bayezid II so much that he struck Mesih with his bow. Shortly thereafter, Mesih was seriously injured while trying to put out a fire in Galata . He died five days later from his wounds in November 1501.

Mesih was buried in a mosque his brother built in the Aksaray neighborhood of Fatih district . Mesih completed the mosque under construction after his brother Has Murad died in battle. Mesih had also built a mosque in Gallipoli around 1478.

Mesih had three sons: Ali Bey, Mahmud Çelebi and Bâlî Bey, who worked as the Sanjak-Bey of Vučitrn in 1503 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marios Philippides: Mehmed II the Conqueror and the fall of the Franco-Byzantine Levant to the Ottoman Turk . University of Massachusetts, Amherst 2007, p. 267
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Théoharis Stavrides: The Sultan of Vezirs: The Life and Times of the Ottoman Grand Vezir Mahmud Pasha Angelovic (1453–1474) . Brill, Leiden 2001, ISBN 978-90-04-12106-5
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} Halil İnalcık : Mesīḥ Pasha . In CE Bosworth, E. van Donzel, Ch. Pellat: Encyclopaedia of Islam , Volume 6: Mahk-Mid, EJ Brill, Leiden 1991, ISBN 90-04-08112-7 , pp. 1025-1026. ISBN 90-04-08112-7
4. ^ ^{A b c} Heath W. Lowry: The Nature of the Early Ottoman State . State University of New York Press, Albany, NY 2003 122

predecessor	Office	successor
Çandarlı II. İbrahim Pasha	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 1501	Hadim Ali Pasha