Malkoçoğlu family

The Malkoçoğlu family (Turkish: Malkoçoğulları, Malkoçoğlu ailesi) or Yahyali was one of the ghazi families of Serbian origin that led the akıncı corps in the Ottoman Empire between the 14th-16th centuries. They served mainly in the Balkan conquest of the empire. The members of the family usually served as beys, sanjak-beys, beylerbeys, pashas, and castle commanders. Later on, they joined the ranks of the Ottoman Army in various missions, and one of the descendants became a Grand Vizier.

Malkoçoğulları
Country	Ottoman Empire
Founded	14th century
Titles	ghazi ("warrior") akıncı ("raider")
Dissolution	1604

History

The Battle of Maritsa (1371) was a disaster for the Serbian Empire, which resulted in several Serbian and Bulgarian lords becoming Ottoman vassals.^[1] The Malkoçoğlu (Serbian: Malković) was a warrior family of Christian Serb origin, which became Muslim.^[1][2] Malkoç, the eponymous founder, is alleged to have been one of the commanders of Sultan Murad I and Bayezid I, fighting at Kosovo (1389) and at Nicopolis (1396).

The further Ottoman expansion to the European frontiers was shared with semi-independent warriors, with the most notable being the four families of Evrenosoğulları, Mihaloğulları, both of which were of Anatolian Christian origin, Turahanoğulları of Turkish origin, and the Malkoçoğulları.^[1] These four families made up the gazi (warrior) nobility.^[3] Unpaid they lived and operated as raiders on the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire, subsisting totally on plunder.

Members

Genealogy known

• Hamza
  • Malkoçoğlu Yahya Paşa bin Hamza (died 1507), married to a daughter of Bayezid II.^[4]
    • Mehmed (fl. 1511), Rumelian commander, supported Selim I during the throne struggle.^[4]
  • Balı (died 1514), commander, had two sons, Ali and Tur Ali, all three died at Chaldiran.^[4][5]
    • Ali (died 1514)
    • Tur Ali (died 1514)

Genealogy unknown

• Balı bin Yahya Paşa (died 1548)^[6]
• Malkoçoğlu Bali Bey (1495–1554), gazi commander.^[7] Probably one of the commanders under Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha that participated in the Safavid Campaign (1554–55).^[8]
• Malkoč-beg (died 1565)
• Ahmed-paša Dugalić
• Malkoç-oğlu Bâlibey of Semendire^[9]
• Yavuz Ali Paşa, Grand Vizier from October 16, 1603 to July 26, 1604.

Legacy

There is a Bosnian Muslim epic tradition about an Ottoman hero named Malkoč-bey.

• Malkoçoğlu Cem Sultan, 1969 Turkish action film

References

1. Finkel 2012, p. 21

   Four such Muslim families were particularly prominent during the Ottoman conquest of Rumeli (the name they used for the Balkan peninsula): these were the Evrenosoğulları,fn2 the Mihaloğulları, the Turahanoğulları, and the Malkoçoğulları. [...] Malkoç dynasty, properly known as Malković, were of Christian, Serb origin

2. Gemil, Tahsin (1991). Românii și otomanii în secolele XIV-XVI (in Romanian). Editura Academiei Române. p. 59. ISBN 9789732701980. Malkocogullari, tot comandanţi de acingii, erau descendenţii unui feudal sirb Malkovic).
3. Mélikoff, I. (1991). "Ewrenos". Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 720.
4. Yürekli 2016.
5. Yılmaz Öztuna (n.d.). Türkiye tarihi: baslangicindan zamanimiza kadar. Hayat Kitaplari. p. 152.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link)

   Türk atlı ordusunun sağ kanadına, Balı Bey'in büyük oğlu Ali Bey, ardeı birliklere de küçük oğlu Tur-Ali Bey kumanda ediyordu

6. Yürekli 2016, p. 118.
7. Yürekli 2016, pp. 166–167.
8. Yürekli 2016, p. 119.
9. Donald Edgar Pitcher (1968). An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire: From Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century. Brill Archive. pp. 92–. GGKEY:4CFA3RCNXRP.

Sources

• Finkel, Caroline (2012). Osman's dream: the story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465008506.
• Yürekli, Zeynep (2016) [2012]. Architecture and Hagiography in the Ottoman Empire: The Politics of Bektashi Shrines in the Classical Age. Routledge. pp. 119–. ISBN 978-1-317-17941-2.
• Gemil, Tahsin (1991). Românii și otomanii în secolele XIV-XVI. Editura Academiei Române. ISBN 9789732701980.