Umur the Lion

Aydınoğlu Umur Bey was the Emir of Aydin from 1336 to 1344. Umur has been celebrated in a chronicle by a Turkish poet in the 15th century as the "Lion of God", for his exploits against Christian shipping. However, western sources paint a far less heroic image - two Venetian ambassadors remarked that he was immensely fat with a stomach, "like a wine casket". They had found him wearing silks, drinking almond milk and eating eggs with spices from a golden spoon. At the height of its power, his principality possessed 350 ships and 15,000 men. In 1348, a Papal fleet of 20 ships destroyed his fleet.

Umur was killed in 1348 in battle - despite his title, Umur failed to remove the Christians in Smyrna.