The Brothers Murad and Mesih

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II, he took two young male potential Byzantine heirs, converted them to Islam, and made them important figures in the new administration.

We don't know their original names, or their exact parentage (they were reported by some Ottoman historians to be nephews of the deposed Byzantine Emperor Constantine), but they were converted to Islam and renamed Hass Murad Pasha and Mesih Pasha. Both had powerful career positions.

Hass—a title meaning "private" or "personal"—was also very wealthy. He had accrued a significant amount of wealth by 1465/66 when he began the construction of a new mosque, called the Murat Pasha Mosque in Istanbul (still in use; see illustration).

In 1468, the current Grand Vizier and beylerbey ("lord of lords") was dismissed, and Hass replaced him as beylerbey, the commander-in-chief of the Balkans. Life in the Balkans was not peaceful. In 1473, he led a troop of 20,000 against an uprising. When the enemy retreated, Hass Murad intended to follow.

One of the men under his command, Mahmud Pasha, warned him that this particular enemy employed the tactic of "feigned retreats": pretending to flee in disarray and yet prepared to turn and fight when pursued. Murad did not listen. He crossed the Euphrates, his army was ambushed and many captured, and Hass Murad Pasha was killed.

The other brother, Mesih Pasha, was first mentioned in the records as military and administrative commander of Gelibolu (Gallipoli). Gallipoli was a chief Ottoman naval base, and so Mesih had control of a large part of the navy. There was an Ottoman-Venetian War in 1463 - 1479 in which Mesih conquered Euboea, the second-largest Greek island. 

Venetian records of the time claim that Mesih was willing to surrender Gallipoli to Venice for 40,000 gold ducats, but this arrangement never came to fruition, so may have been a Venetian plan to stir up unrest among the Ottomans, and discredit a successful enemy leader.

A new sultan came to the throne, Bayezid II (1481 - 1512). There were some problems with a rival claim, and when Bayezid imprisoned the Grand Vizier who was sympathetic to Bayezid's rival, the Janissaries revolted and invaded the palace (the Grand Vizier, like the Janissaries, was a devşirme). Mesih was sent to negotiate, which he did successfully.

In January 1485 he fell out of favor with Beyazid. This was not the end of his story, however. I'll continue it next time.

After the Conquest

Once Mehmed II had taken Constantinople in 1453, absorbing it into the Ottoman Empire, he declared himself Roman Caesar. His thinking was that Constantinople had been the seat of the emperors of Rome since 330CE, and therefore whomever sat on that throne was in charge. Western Europe and the Popes did not support this claim, but thinking was different in the East. 

Contemporary Byzantine scholar George of Trebizond (1395 - 1486) supported this view. Another who aligned with the new Caesar was Gennadius Scholarius, whom Mehmed chose as the new Patriarch of Constantinople.

Note that Mehmed did not declare Eastern Orthodoxy heretical. He was actually quite magnanimous to his potential opposition. For example, when he then turned his attention to the royal family, he did not simply execute anyone who might have provided the nucleus of an insurrection and coup.

The defeated Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, who had died during the siege, had no heirs. He had nephews of a deceased brother who would have been next in line. As was mentioned in the post on the Janissaries, a Muslim practice called devşirme (the "ş" is pronounced like "sh") took children of conquered peoples and converted them, training them to be loyal Muslims.

Mehmed took at least two boys who were purportedly related to Constantine, converted them to Islam and renamed them Hass Murad Pasha and Mesih Pasha. Hass—a title meaning "private" or "personal"—became beylerbey ("lord of lords"), the commander-in-chief of the Balkans in 1468. (The illustration shows his signature.) Mesih (1443 - 1501) became Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy.

We do not know the parentage of the two young men who rose so high in the sultan's favor. Contemporary Ottoman chronicles claim they were nephews of Constantine, but offer different names for their father. Still, Murad and Mesih were lucky that Constantine was succeeded by Mehmed and not another prominent Greek noble, who might have followed the Byzantine tradition of eliminating all possible opposition through incarceration, execution, or blinding.

It would be nice to think that the two boys had not only good lives but peaceful ends. That was not to be the case, however. I'll give you the rundown on their careers tomorrow.