Mihaloğlu

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Mihaloğlu (also Mihailoğlu) is the name of a Turkishized Byzantine family who produced several successful Akıncı - Beys in the 15th and 16th centuries - which is all the more remarkable since the Akıncı rarely even accepted commanders.

Mihailoğlu means "son of Michael" in Turkish and thus indicates a Christian ancestor ( Köse Mihal ) who apparently converted to Islam at the beginning of the 14th century , whose descendants were the Mihaloğlu. It is possible that the conversion of their ancestors to Islam was still superficial in the beginning, it is possible that Köse Mihal himself was just a mythical figure, the Mihaloğlu in any case became loyal and religiously motivated subjects of the Ottoman sultan.

The position of the Mihaloğlu was more like that of vassals than of subjects. They were able to plunder largely independently of the sultan with Bulgarian, Serbian and Bosnian Akıncı in Transylvania, Hungary and Venetian Italy. They owned extensive estates and hereditary castles on the Danube , and they commanded all fortresses in the Mark on the Danube: Schabatz, Semendria, Golubatsch, Widin , Rachowo , Nikopol , Rustschuk , Tutrakan , Klein-Nikopolis and Giurgiu. Little happened in Serbia , Bulgaria and Wallachia without their influence.

Like all large Ottoman families, the Mihaloğlu also lost influence in the power struggles at the Ottoman court that lasted until the middle of the 15th century. B. Mihaloğlu Ali Bey with advances a. a. after Austria and Veneto (Northern Italy) a name as Akıncı-Kommandeur, before he was defeated in 1492 near Villach by troops of the German King Maximilian I , captured and apparently executed (after Hammer-Purgstall ; according to Turkish chroniclers, he is in old age his Balkan lands died).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Nicolle , p. 112f.
  2. ↑ David Nicolle, page 33f.
  3. ↑ David Nicolle, p. 38f.
  4. ^ David Nicolle, p. 115.
  5. ↑ N. Jorga : History of the Ottoman Empire, II, p. 204f.

literature

  • David Nicolle: The Ottomans - 600 Years of Islamic World Empire ; Vienna 2008; ISBN 3850032191

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