Mahmud Pasha Angelović

Not to be confused with Mahmud Pasha (admiral), the mid-19th century Ottoman admiral

Veli Mahmud Pasha Mahmud-paša Anđelović
Born	1420 Novo Brdo, Serbian Despotate (modern Serbia)
Died	1474 (aged 54)
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire
Years of service	1456-1474
Rank	Grand Vizier
Battles/wars	Siege of Belgrade

Mahmud Pasha or Mahmud-paša Anđelović (1420–1474), also known simply as Adni, was a Serbian-born^[A] of Byzantine noble descent (Angeloi^[1]) who became an Ottoman general and statesman, after being abducted as a child by the Sultan.^[2] As Veli Mahmud Paşa he was Grand Vizier in 1456–1468 and again in 1472–1474. A capable military commander, throughout his tenure he led armies or accompanied Mehmed II on his own campaigns.^[3]

Origin and early life

After the Ottoman conquest of Thessaly in 1394, the ruling Angeloi Philanthropenoi family took refuge in Serbia. The grandchildren of either Alexios or Manuel were Mahmud Pasha and his brother Mihailo Anđelović.

He was born in 1420, in the village of Novo Brdo, present-day Serbia.^[A] He was abducted in 1427, during an Ottoman invasion of the Serbian Despotate^[4] by the Ottoman Turks (Devşirme, an Ottoman practice), and was sent together with two other boys to Edirne.^[5] According to Laonikos Chalkokondyles he was captured by the horsemen of Sultan Murad II, while traveling with his mother from Novo Brdo to Smederevo.^[1] He was raised a muslim according to the practice.^[4]

Life

A capable soldier, he was married to a daughter of Sultan Mehmed II. After distinguishing himself at the Siege of Belgrade (1456), he was raised to the position of Grand Vizier as a reward, succeeding Zagan Pasha.^[6]

In 1458, the Serbian Despot Lazar Branković died. Mahmud's brother Mihailo became member of a collective regency, but he was soon deposed by the anti-Ottoman and pro-Hungarian faction in the Serbian court. In reaction, Mahmud attacked and seized Smederevo Fortress, although the citadel held out, and seized some additional strongholds in its vicinity. Threatened by a possible Hungarian intervention however he was forced to withdraw south and join the forces of Sultan Mehmed II at Skopje.^[7] In 1461, he accompanied Mehmed in his campaign against the Empire of Trebizond, the last surviving fragment of the Byzantine Empire. Mahmud negotiated the surrender of the city of Trebizond with its treasurer, the scholar George Amiroutzes, who was also his cousin.^[8]

In 1463 Mahmud led the invasion and conquest of the Ottoman vassal state of Bosnia, even though a peace treaty between Bosnia and the Ottomans had just been renewed. He captured the Bosnian king, Stephen Tomašević, at Ključ, and obtained from him the cession of the country to the Empire.^[7]

Mahmud was dismissed in 1468 due to the machinations of his successor, Rum Mehmed Pasha, ostensibly due to irregularities regarding the resettlement of the Karamanids in Constantinople following Karaman's conquest earlier in that year.^[9] He was reinstated in 1472, but his relations with the Sultan were now strained. He was dismissed and executed in 1474, allegedly because of Mehmed's son, prince Mustafa. Mahmud had been at loggerheads with Mustafa after divorcing his second wife for spending a night in the same house as Mustafa during Mahmud's absence on campaign in 1473. Mustafa's death later in 1474 was even attributed by later accounts to poisoning by Mahmud.^[10]

See also

• List of Ottoman Grand Viziers

References

1. ^ The ethnicity of Mahmud-Pasha is disputed.^[1] The contemporary Ecthesis Chronica and Historia Patriarchia says he was from Serbia, and ethnic Serb.^[1] Most modern historians accept that he was from Serbia.^[1] Ibn Kemal is the only Ottoman source that explicitly say that he was "from the mines of Serbia" (Novo Brdo).^[1] Some Ottoman authors give other information: The 16th-century biographer Asik Celebi says that Mahmud was from Kruševac,^[1] also some late Ottoman historians claim he was Croat in origin.^[1] The claim of his Croat origin is from a letter to Venice where he is signed "Abogovic the Croat".^[1] Three points make the latter assumption implausible: It is contradicted by all Byzantine sources,^[1], It would imply he was born Catholic - strange given his relations to Byzantine Orthodox Christians,^[1] and his geographical origin in Serbia - both of his possible birthplaces were in the Serbian/Orthodox world, far from Catholic influence.^[1] There was some considerable confusion over the terms "Croat" and "Serb" in these times, which suggest that "Croat" in this case would mean someone from the wider South Slavic area.^[1] The Serb origin is the most likely, supported by Chalkokondyles and the most notable of Ottoman authors Ibn Kemal.^[1] His brother, and family, is known in all sources as Orthodox, ethnic Serb.^[11]
   Modern sources indicating ethnic Serb origin:^{[1][12][11][13]}
   Modern souces indicating ethnic Croat origin:^[2][14][12]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Stavrides (2001), pp. 73–74
2. ^ ^{a b} Miller, Barnette (1941). The Palace school of Muhammad the Conqueror. Harvard University Press. p. 7. 
3. ^ Finkel (2006), pp. 78–79, 559, 560
4. ^ ^{a b} Finkel (2006), pp. 59–60, 48
5. ^ Enes Duraković, Esad Duraković, Fehim Nametak, Đenana Buturović, Bošnjačka književnost u književnoj kritici, 1990, p. 142, Google Books
6. ^ Finkel (2006), p. 78
7. ^ ^{a b} Finkel (2006), p. 60
8. ^ Finkel (2006), p. 62
9. ^ Finkel (2006), pp. 78–79
10. ^ Finkel (2006), p. 79
11. ^ ^{a b} Gabriel Piterberg, Teofilo F. Ruiz, Geoffrey Symcox, Braudel revisited: the Mediterranean world, 1600-1800, p. 93
12. ^ ^{a b} Ayvansarayı̂; Crane, Hafız Hüseyin; Howard (2000). The garden of the mosques: Hafiz Hüseyin al-Ayvansarayī's guide to the Muslim monuments of Ottoman Istanbul. Brill. p. 28. ISBN 9004112421, 9789004112421. 
13. ^ E. J. Brill, The encyclopaedia of Islām, Vol 3, p. 136 "Mahmud Pasha", [1]
14. ^ United Center for Research and Training in History (1998). Bulgarian historical review: Revue bulgare d'histoire. Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. p. 48. 

Sources

• Finkel, Caroline (2006). Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1923. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6112-2. 
• Stavrides, Théoharis (2001). The Sultan of vezirs: the life and times of the Ottoman Grand Vezir Mahmud Pasha Angelovic (1453–1474). Brill. ISBN 9789004121065. 

Preceded by Zağanos Pasha	Grand Vizier 1456–1468	Succeeded by Rum Mehmed Pasha
Preceded by Ishak Pasha	Grand Vizier 1472–1474	Succeeded by Gedik Ahmed Pasha

Persondata
Name	Angelović, Mahmud Pasha
Alternative names	Veli Mahmud Pasha
Short description	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
Date of birth	1420
Place of birth
Date of death	1474
Place of death