Karamani Mehmet Pasha (died 4 May 1481) was an Ottoman statesman who served as

Grand Vizier Grand vizier (; ; ) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. It was first held by officials in the later Abbasid Caliphate. It was then held in the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Soko ...

from 1477 to 1481.

Early years

Karamani was born in

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

and was a descendant of

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

. He traveled to Constantinople (present day

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

) to study in the

medrese Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

founded by

Mahmud Pasha Angelovic Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Given name Mahmood * Mahmood Ali (1928 ...

. Later on, he worked as a teacher in the medrese. Being a man of letters, in various occasions he acted as a consultant to the

sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

. He was appointed as the court calligrapher ( nisanci, ) and he contributed to the ''kanunname'' of

Mehmed II Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

, a series of laws regularising the Ottoman Empire. He also helped the sultan in writing letters of high literary value to

Aq Qoyunlu The Aq Qoyunlu or the White Sheep Turkomans (, ; ) was a culturally Persianate society, Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two trib ...

sultan

Uzun Hasan Uzun Hasan or Uzun Hassan (; February or March 1425 – January 6, 1478) was a ruler of the Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman Aq Qoyunlu state and is generally considered to be its strongest ruler. Hasan ruled between 1452 and 1478 and presided ove ...

As a grand vizier

After conquering Constantinople and the execution of grand vizier

Çandarlı Halil Pasha Çandarlı is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Dikili, İzmir Province, Turkey. Its population is 8,021 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''belde''). It is a well-developed coastal town and an important to ...

, Mehmed II had preferred to appoint grand viziers of

devshirme Devshirme (, usually translated as "child levy" or "blood tax", , .) was the Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of Islam ...

origin instead of

Ethnic Turks Turks (), or Turkish people, are the largest Turkic ethnic group, comprising the majority of the population of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. They generally speak the various Turkish dialects. In addition, centuries-old ethnic Turkish communiti ...

to avoid possible crises caused by over-powerful grand viziers. After executing his last Turkish grand vizier, his next four grand viziers were of devsirme origin. Karamani Mehmet's appointment as grand vizier in 1476, therefore marks a notable exception, for he was a Turk from the recently conquered

Karamanid The Karamanids ( or ), also known as the Emirate of Karaman and Beylik of Karaman (), was a Turkish people, Turkish Anatolian beyliks, Anatolian beylik (principality) of Salur tribe origin, descended from Oghuz Turks, centered in South-Centra ...

territory in

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. In his short term in the office, Karamani Mehmet tried to reform the Ottoman administration.

Death of Mehmed II and Karamani Mehmet

In 1481, Mehmed II died. In the Ottoman Empire, it was the duty of the Grand Viziers to delay the announcement of a Sultan's death before the claimant to throne arrived in the capital, in order to avoid chaos. However, in this case, the sultan's sons were far away; Bayezid (later

Bayezid II Bayezid II (; ; 3 December 1447 – 26 May 1512) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, Bayezid consolidated the Ottoman Empire, thwarted a pro-Safavid dynasty, Safavid rebellion and finally abdicated his throne ...

) was in

Amasya Amasya () is a city in northern Turkey, in the Black Sea Region. It was called Amaseia or Amasia in antiquity."Amasya" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol ...

and

Cem Sultan Cem Sultan (also spelled Djem or Jem) or Sultan Cem or Şehzade Cem (22 December 1459 – 25 February 1495, ; ; ; ), was a claimant to the Ottoman throne in the 15th century. Cem was the third son of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, Mehmed II and ...

was in

Karaman Karaman is a city in south central Turkey, located in Central Anatolia, north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the seat of Karaman Province and Karaman District.Janissaries A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted du ...

who were supporting Bayezid learned about the Sultan's death and they further suspected that Karamani Mehmet was backing Cem. They revolted and killed Karamani Mehmet a few days after the death of the Sultan.Lord Kinross: ''The Ottoman Centuries'' (trans.Meral Gaspıralı), Altın Kitaplar, İstanbul, 2008 p 160

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mehmed, Karamani 15th-century grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire Pashas 1481 deaths Turks from the Ottoman Empire People from the Ottoman Empire of Iranian descent Assassinated politicians from the Ottoman Empire Nişancı Grand viziers of Mehmed II Year of birth unknown People from Konya

Early years

As a grand vizier

Death of Mehmed II and Karamani Mehmet

See also

References

Bibliography