Evrenos

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Ghazi Haji

Evrenos

Bey
Nickname(s)Gazi Baba
BornKarasid Emirate
Died17 November 1417
Yenice-i Vardar
Buried
Yenice-i Vardar
Allegiance Ottoman Empire
Battles/warsBattle of Kosovo (1389)
Battle of Nicopolis (1396)
Evrenos conquered Keşan, İpsala, Komotini, Feres, Xanthi, Maroneia, Serres, Monastir, and, in 1397, Corinth
Imaret of Komotini, Thrace, Greece.

Evrenos or Evrenuz (died 17 November 1417 in Yenice-i Vardar) was an Ottoman military commander. Byzantine sources mention him as Εβρενός, Ἀβρανέζης, Βρανέζης, Βρανεύς (?), Βρενέζ, Βρενέζης, Βρενές.[1]

He served as a general under Süleyman Pasha, Murad I, Bayezid I, Süleyman Çelebi and Mehmed I. Legends stating that he lived for 129 years and had an incredibly long career are thought to be inaccurate. These sources of confusion may be linked to the deeds of his descendants becoming intertwined with his own achievements in historical retellings. [2] He was also known as Gavrinos, and believed to descent from a Greek family.[3]

Family[]

A persistent Greek legend[4] maintains that Evrenos' father was a certain Ornos, renegade Byzantine governor of Bursa (Prusa) who defected to the Ottomans, and then on to Karasi, after the Siege of Bursa, in 1326.[5] Stanford J. Shaw and Joseph von Hammer regarded Evrenos as a Byzantine convert to Islam.[6][7] Turkish sources report that the family was of Turkish origin.[8][9] It is said that they belonged to the Akkoyunlu Turks, or possibly to the Uran tribe of the Kipchaks.[10][11] Their Turkish ethnic origin is not proven. Some argue that the name Evrenos (also Evrenuz)[10] is not Turkish.[12] What is certain is that Gazi Evrenos was from Ottoman Anatolia and first appears as bey.[9] Lapavitsas even put forward that the founder, Piranki (Prangı) Isa Bey, might've been descended from the mercenaries of the Catalan Company, who razed the coasts of Asia Minor in the early 14th century.[12]

Îsâ "Prangi" Bey, Evrenos' father, was, according to some sources, the son of Bozoklu Han, who joined Süleyman Pasha in his conquest of Rumelia. He is said to have been martyred in the village of Prangi (also known as Sırcık or Kırcık in Ottoman sources), a busy ferry-place on the Evros river about 6 km (4 mi) east from Didymoteicho, and that his tomb was built by his son Evrenos (Evrenuz) Bey.[13][10]

Gazi Evrenos Bey was father of seven sons (Khidr-shah, Isa, Suleyman, Ali, Yakub, Barak, Begdje) and several daughters.[14] Among the numerous descendants of lord Gazi Evrenos, apparently the memory of some has dived into oblivion, as their deeds got incorporated into the achievements of their illustrious forefather. This explains the legendary, yet unlikely, 129-year lifespan of lord Gazi.

Together with the Mihaloğulları (from the Beylik of Karasi ), Malkoçoğulları (from Serbia), Ömerli/Ömeroğlu, and the Turahanoğulları, Evrenos' descendants, the Evrenosoğulları, constitute one of the Byzantine families that effectively formed the early Ottoman warrior nobility.[15]

Career[]

Οriginally, Gazi Evrenos was a noble dignitary, a bey in the principality of Karasi, joining the Ottomans only after their conquest of the beylik in 1345. He led many crucial Ottoman campaigns and battles in Bulgaria, Thessaly, and Serbia. After having participated in the Ottoman conquest of Adrianopolis in 1362, Evrenos was appointed to uc beği (frontier warlord) of Thessaly.[1] He and his akıncıs fought in the Battle of Kosovo (1389) and the Battle of Nicopolis (1396). Evrenos conquered Keşan, İpsala, Komotini, Feres, Xanthi, Maroneia, Serres, Monastir, and, in 1397, Corinth.[2][15] He founded the town Yenice-i Vardar, modern Giannitsa.[16] The inhabitants of Gianitsa (Ottoman: Yenice Vardar) down to the early 20th century displayed reverence for "Gazi Baba", that is "papa Gazi".

Gazi Evrenos died at an advanced age in Yenice-i Vardar. He was buried in a mausoleum there in 1417. The mausoleum survives but was badly mutilated in 19th century and served for a time as an agricultural store.[13]

Monuments[]

Mausoleum of Gazi Evrenos, Giannitsa. Before (left) and after (right) its restoration)

As one of the most successful Ottoman commanders, Evrenos acquired a considerable amount of wealth and founded numerous endowments (awqaf). Several monuments attributed to him survive in southeastern Europe. Of primary importance is his mausoleum, or türbe, with its accompanying epitaph in Giannitsa.[13] A hammam of Evrenos stands to the south of the mausoleum. Two other monuments stand in Greek Thrace.[17]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Trapp, Erich; Walther, Rainer; Beyer, Hans-Veit; Sturm-Schnabl, Katja (1978). "Ἐβρενέζ". Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (in German). 3. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 207–208. ISBN 3-7001-3003-1.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Reinert, Steven W. (1991). "Evrenos". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. 2. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 765. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
  3. ^ Abbé Raynal (Guillaume-Thomas-François), Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans l'Afrique septentrionale, Paris, 1826, vol.2, p. 361
  4. ^ Bent Holm, Mikael Bøgh Rasmussen, ed. (2021). Imagined, Embodied and Actual Turks in Early Modern Europe. Hollitzer. p. 5. ISBN 9783990121252. According to a Greek legend, Evrenos Bey's father was the governor of Bursa and a convert
  5. ^ P. Voutierides, “Neai Ellenikai Poleis-Yenitsa” Panathinaia 25 (1912-13), p. 210.
  6. ^ Stanford J. Shaw: History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280–1808. Cambridge University Press, 1977.
  7. ^ Joseph von Hammer: Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches. Zweite verbesserte Ausgabe Bd. I - IV. Hartlebens, Pesth 1836. (Serbo-Croatian edition by . Zagreb, 1979.)
  8. ^ Tokalak, İsmail (2006). Bizans-Osmanlı sentezi Bizans kültür ve kurumlarının Osmanlı üzerinde etkisi. Gülerboy Yayıncılık via Indiana University. p. 249. ISBN 9789944547208. Akınism is not unique to the Ottomans, nor is Evrenosoğulları, Mihaloğulları and Malkoçoğulları, who come from famous raider families, are of Turkish origin.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Nicolle, David (2011). Cross & Crescent in the Balkans The Ottoman Conquest of Southeastern Europe (14th–15th Centuries). Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 9781844687602. According to some sources, mainly Greek, Evrenos son of Isa (Jesus) Bey Prangi came from a family of Byzantine origin which transferred its alliance to the Turkish Karasi rulers of western Anatolia and had converted to Islam in the 14th century. Other scholars, generally Turkish, claim that the family was of ancient Turkish origin. Certainly Gazi Evrenos was first mentioned as a middle ranking bey.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c "EVRENOSOĞULLARI". İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020.
  11. ^ Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm ansiklopedisi Volume 27. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, İslâm Ansiklopedisi Genel Müdürlüğü. 1988. p. 539. ISBN 9782840502586.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b Lapavitsas, Costas; Cakiroglu, Pinar (2019). Capitalism in the Ottoman Balkans Industrialisation and Modernity in Macedonia. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781788316590. He [Evrenos] might have even been a descendant of a mercenary of the notorious Grand Catalan Company [...]
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c Demetriades, Vasilis (1976). "The Tomb of Ghāzī Evrenos Bey at Yenitsa and Its Inscription". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 39 (2): 328–332. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00050023. ISSN 0041-977X. JSTOR 616797.
  14. ^ Mélikoff, I. (1965). "Ewrenos Og̲h̲ullari̊". In Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume II: C–G. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 720. OCLC 495469475.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Mélikoff, I. (1965). "Ewrenos". In Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume II: C–G. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 720. OCLC 495469475.
  16. ^ Machiel Kiel, "Yenice Vardar (Vardar Yenicesi-Giannitsa): A forgotten Turkish cultural centre in Macedonia of the 15th and 16th century,” Studia Byzantina et Neohellenica Neerlandica 3 (1973): 303.
  17. ^ Machiel Kiel, “The Oldest Monuments of Ottoman-Turkish Architecture in the Balkans: The Imaret and the Mosque of Ghazi Evrenos Bey in Gümülcine (Komotini) and the Evrenos Bey Khan in the Village of Ilıca/Loutra in Greek Thrace” Sanat Tarihi Yıllıġı, Kunsthhistorische Forschungen 12 (Istanbul, 1983): pp. 117-138.

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