Murad II: Ottoman Sultan from 1421 to 1444 and 1446 to 1451

Murad II was the Ottoman Empire's Sultan from 1421 to 1444 and again from 1446 to 1451. Murad II ruled in an era of significant economic growth. Trade grew, and Ottoman cities grew significantly. Bertrandon de la Broquière, a traveller, estimated in 1432 that Ottoman annual revenue had climbed to 2,500,000 ducats. Murad II could have easily overrun Europe if he had used all of his resources.

Sultan Mehmed I gave birth to Murad in June 1404. His mother's identity is a point of contention. Murad's mother was a concubine, according to 15th-century historian Şükrullah. His mother was Emine Hatun, daughter of Şaban  Suli Bey, king of the Dulkadirids, according to historians İsmail Hami Danişmend and Heath W. Lowry. Amasya was where he spent his early years. Murad and his father arrived in Edirne, the Ottoman capital, in 1410. Murad was appointed administrator of the Amasya Sanjak after his father rose to the Ottoman Empire. Murad stayed in Amasya until Mehmed I's death in 1421. At the age of sixteen, Murad II was formally recognized as Sultan of the Ottoman Sultanate. At Bursa, he was girded with Osman's sabre, and the state's men and officers freely paid respect to him as their emperor.

Consent and First Sovereignty

Murad's administration was plagued by insurgency from the start. The 'pretender' Mustafa Çelebi, also known as Düzmece Mustafa, was released from prison by Byzantine Emperor Manuel II. He recognized him as the genuine heir to Bayezid I's throne. The Byzantine Emperor had initially gotten a promise from Mustafa that he would. If you succeed, you can pay him back by giving up a significant number of major cities. The impostor was landed in the Sultan's European territory by Byzantine galleys and made rapid headway for a period. A large number of Turkish soldiers accompanied him. Murad had ordered veteran general Beyazid Pasha to attack him, but he defeated and killed him. Murad's army was beaten, and Mustafa crowned himself Sultan of Adrianople. With a strong army, he crossed the Dardanelles to Asia, but Murad outmanoeuvred Mustafa. Murad II received a considerable portion of Mustafa's soldiers. Mustafa sought safety in the Gallipoli city. But the Sultan, with the help of a Genoese captain named Adorno, besieged and assaulted the fortress.

Relinquishment and Second Sovereignty

Murad II abdicated the kingdom to his son Mehmed II in 1444. However, he was obliged to return due to a Janissary insurrection in the Empire. In the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448, he destroyed the Christian coalition. In 1389, the first fight took place. Murad II headed east after securing the Balkan front to destroy Timur's son Shah Rokh and the emirates of Karamanid and orum-Amasya. Murad II led his army into Albania in 1450 and unsuccessfully besieged the Castle of Kruje to break Skanderbeg's resistance. Unfortunately, Murad II became ill in the winter of 1450–1451. In Edirne, he died. His son, Mehmed II, succeeded him.

As for Ghazi Sultan

When Murad succeeded to the throne, he set out to reclaim the Ottoman territories that had been lost. Following his grandfather Bayezid I's defeat at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 at the hands of Timur, it had restored to autonomy. He required the public's and nobles' support, so he used the old and powerful Islamic myth of the Ghazi King. Murad II styled himself after the legendary Ghazi kings of old to attract widespread international support for his conquests. The Ottomans had already established themselves as ghazis, claiming descent from Osman's ghazas, the dynasty's founder. Ghaza, for them, was the honourable defence of Islam and justice against both non-Muslims and Muslims. Timur Lang, Bayezid, Bayezid, Bayezid, Bayezid, Bayezid, Bayezid, Bay Before the Battle of Ankara, he was likewise a Muslim who had become an apostate because of the carnage his forces had perpetrated against innocent citizens. Murad II just had to use his dynastic heritage of ghaza to his advantage. He accomplished it by aggressively shaping Ghazi Sultan's public image. Following his accession, a rush of translation and compiling activity ensued. Old Arab, Persian, and Anatolian epics were translated into Turkish for Murad II to learn about the ghazi king traditions. He modelled his activities after the honourable demeanour of the nameless Caliphs in the Battalname, an epic about a mythical Arab warrior who battled against the Byzantines. He was meticulous in portraying the Ghazi King's innocence, sincerity, and great sense of justice. For instance, When the combat in Battalname began to favour his adversary, the Caliph dismounted and prayed. After that, he was victorious in the combat. Murad II witnessed the Hungarians take the upper hand in the Battle of Varna in 1444. He dismounted and prayed in the manner of the Caliph, and the tide soon changed in the Ottoman's favour. He gained the support of the Muslim population of the Ottoman regions for himself and his vast, costly campaigns and the broader Muslim populations of the Dar-al-Islam through this self-presentation. Murad II effectively presented himself as a ghazi monarch who fights non-Muslims (caffers) and as the guardian and master of lesser ghazis.

İlker Kurt has played Murad II in the 2012 film Fetih 1453, Vahram Papazian in the 1953 Albanian film The Great Warrior Skanderbeg, and Tolga Tekin in the 2020 Netflix series Rise of Empires: Ottoman.