TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

indicated that during the conquest of Rumelia and Thrace there were influential military
and religious leaders, such as Hacı Đlbeyi and Seyyid Ali Sultan, semi-dependent or
independent from the Ottoman dynasty. To Beldiceanu-Steinherr, indeed, they were the
ones who first crossed Maritza River and conquered many towns in the region but later
became subjected to the superior authority of Murad I. 342
Later on the prerogative of leading the akıncı troops was left in the hands of their
descendents. These families with a great deal of raider-warriors under their command
constituted an alternative focus of power during the formative periods of the empire,
when the state institutions were still to be clearly defined and regulated. They ruled the
regions that they conquered like small principalities on the frontier, with an only
nominal dependence to the Ottoman sultan. 343 In the course of time, when Ottomans
evolved towards a bureaucratic empire, they became the representatives of the resistance
against centralistic policies.
The reign of Mehmed II marked a drastic change in the status of akıncı families.
They lost their political and military autonomy and were incorporated in the institutions
conquered those places. This practice later continued in Rumelia. See Halil Đnalcık, “Periods in Ottoman
History. State, Society, Economy”, in Ottoman Civilization, vol. I, eds., Halil Đnalcık and Günsel Renda,
Ankara: Ministry of Culture, 2003, p. 48. Also consider Lowry, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State,
pp. 45-54.
342 Beldiceanu-Steinherr argues that even the conquest of Adrionople was the work of these gāzi groups
under Haci Đlbeyi. The dominance of Murad I was not before the winter of 1376-7. See her “La conquête
d’Andrinople par les turks : la pénétration turque en Thrace et la valeur des chroniques ottomanes”,
Travaux et Mémoires, 1, Paris, 1965, 439-61; “Le règne de Selim Ier: tournant dans la vie politique et
religieuse de l’empire ottoman”, pp. 44-6.
343 See Đnalcık, “The Emergence of the Ottomans”, p. 284. After indicating a somewhat independent status
of akıncı-begs, Đnalcık makes the point that these begs were prevented from becoming feudal lords with
truly private armies since the timars were given directly by the sultan, who also maintained a greater
power of slave surpassing the military power of akıncı begs. See Đnalcık, “Ottoman Methods of
Conquest”, pp. 121-2. Also see Mariya Kiprovska, The Military Organization of the Akıncıs in Ottoman
Rumelia, Unpublished MA Thesis, Bilkent University, 2004, pp. 22-3. To give an example of the
excessive power held by akıncı commanders, Konstantin the Philosopher, who was a clerk in the court of
the Serbian ruler Stefan Lazarević, on his eyewitness account states that Musa Çelebi wanted to kill
Mihaloğlu Mehmet Bey, who was an akıncı commander under his rule, since the latter gained too much
glory and was suspected to have condoned the escape of George Branković. Recited in Kiprovska, p. 25.
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