Count Alexander of Montenegro: Difference between revisions

Names
	Count Alexander of Montenegro; Yahya bin Murad (self claimed)

Count Alexander of Montenegro
Count Alexander of Montenegro
Born	1585 (self claimed); Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (self claimed)
Died	1648 (aged 62–63); Kotor
Burial	Kotor, Montenegro
Spouse	Anna Caterina of Drisht
Issue	Maurice; Elena
Names
Names
	Count Alexander of Montenegro; Yahya bin Murad (self claimed)
House	House of Osman (self claimed)
Father	Murad III (self claimed)
Mother	Safiye Sultan (self claimed)
Religion	Orthodox, formerly Sunni Islam (claimed)

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Latest revision as of 02:41, 31 October 2024

Count Alexander of Montenegro (1585? –1648?), also known as Şehzade Yahya (sometimes spelled Jachia or Jahja), was an impostor and a self-claimed pretender to the Ottoman throne who claimed to be the son of Sultan Murad III.

Biography

Background

According to Alexander's own writings, when his brother, Mehmed III, became Sultan, he followed the Ottoman custom of executing all of his brothers (potential rival claimants to the Ottoman throne). Yahya's mother Safiye was concerned that this could also eventually happen to him after the death of his father, so he was smuggled out of the empire, first to Greece, and then to present-day Bulgaria. He was then supposedly baptized at an Orthodox Christian monastery, where he lived for the next eight years of his life.^[1]

Battle for Ottoman throne

Alexander's narrative then claims that eventually, Alexander's two older brothers died, but in 1603, since Alexander had escaped the country to avoid fratricide, his nephew Ahmed I became the Ottoman sultan. Alexander believed that as the next oldest son of Murad III, he was next in line to be Ottoman Sultan and felt cheated out of his rightful destiny. He would dedicate the rest of his life to gaining the Ottoman throne. However, the standard Ottoman practice at the time for determining the succession was not birth order of sons; instead the Ottoman laws of succession to the throne stated that after the death of their father, the Ottoman princes would fight among themselves until one emerged triumphant.

From 1603 on, Alexander made frequent trips to northern and western Europe to gain support for his claim to the throne (visiting Florence, Madrid, Rome, Kraków, Antwerp, Prague, and other cities). At one point he managed to win the support of the Tatar Khan Shahin, and of the Cossacks as well.^[2] Between 1614 and 1617, he schemed with Serbian Orthodox Christian bishops in the Sanjak of Prizren and Western Roman Catholic bishops and leaders as part of his strategy to gain the Ottoman throne. A few years later, with the assistance of Russian and Ukrainian cossacks, he led a fleet of 130 ships and unsuccessfully attacked Constantinople. He died in 1648 or 1649^[2] on the Montenegrin coast, where he was involved in a rebellion organized by the Roman Catholic bishops of Shkodër and Bar.

None of Alexander's statements regarding his identity or his temptative to conquest of the Ottoman throne are supported by historical evidence, and he currently receives no academic credence.

Family

Alexander married an Albanian noblewoman named Anna Caterina of Drisht, the daughter of Duke Peter, Count of Drisht, in the early 1630s, when Yahya started calling himself Duke of that region. Anna Caterina was supposedly descended from the national Albanian hero Skanderbeg. They had two children, a son and a daughter:^[3]

Maurice of Drisht (1635 - 1693). Born in Turin and dead in Palmanova as captain of Venice. He married Eleonora Romano of Gorizia and had two daughters:
- Maria Anna of Drisht (1674 - 14 August 1694). Born in Palmanova, dead in Udine.
- Elena of Drisht (4 August 1675 - 29 August 1727). Born in Palmanova, dead in Udine. She married Lucrezio Treo of Udine.
Elena of Drisht (1638 - 1697). Born in Turin. In 1658 she married the pisan noble Andrea Biagi and had two children:
- Caterina Biagi. She married Ottaviano Alasio of Pisa.
- Vincenzo Biagi. Unmarried and without issue, he was captain under the King of Spain.

In popular culture

In the TV series "Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem" Alexander was played by Berk Cankat. In the series, the name Alexander was an alias: his real name was Iskender and he was in fact a real son of Sultan Murad III and Safiye Sultan, saved from the execution of the Law of Fratricide by his mother. Having grown up believing himself a commoner, Iskender made no claim for the throne and expressed a great disinterest in becoming sultan. However, news of his true identity gave Sultan Ahmed's enemies a powerful potential claimant in whose name they might rise to rebellion, and so Iskender was executed under his nephew's orders.

References

^ Kosovo, A Short History (1998), Noel Malcolm -- Harper Perennial - pp. 121 - 122 ISBN 978-0-06-097775-7
^ ^a ^b Faroqhi, Suraiya (December 20, 2005). The Ottoman Empire and the World around it. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0-857-73023-7.
^ Giammanco, p. 43, 60

Sources

Ostapchuk, Victor (1989). The Ottoman Black Sea Frontier and the Relations of the Porte with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovy: 1622-1628. Harvard University. p. 92.
Королёв В. Н. (2007). Босфорская война (in Russian). М.: Вече. ISBN 978-5-9533-2099-3. Archived from the original on 2017-08-08. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
Усенко О. Г. (2006). Ототоманус, или сын турецкого султана. Limba Română: Revistă Trimestrială (журнал) (in Russian) (6) (Родина ed.): 45–52. ISSN 0235-7089.
Faroqhi S. (2005). The Ottoman Empire and the World around it. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0-857-73023-7.
Benzoni G. (2004). "JACHIA" (Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani) (in Italian). 61. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
Catualdi Vittorio (= Oscarre de Hassek) (1889). Sultan Jahja dell'imperial casa ottomana od altrimenti Alessandro conte di Montenegro ed i suoi discendenti in Italia: Nuovi contributi alla storia della questione orientale (in Italian). Trieste: G. Chiopris., reprinted in 2013 by BiblioLifeISBN 1295371448
Giammanco A.D. (2015). "(Self) Fashioning of an Ottoman Christian Prince: Jachia ibn Mehmed in confessional diplomacy of the early seventeenth century" (MA thesis in comparative history) (Central European University ed.). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Levinsk. A. (1890). "Un adventurier turk au XVII ciecle (Sultan Yahya autrement dit le comte Alexandre de Montenegro)" (Revue bleue: politique et littéraire) (in French). XLV(1): 393–400, 435–442. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Malcolm N. (2002). Kosovo: A Short History. Pan. ISBN 0330412248.
Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195086775.
Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1991). Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-192-2.
Dorothy M. Vaughan, Europe and the Turk: A Pattern of Alliances, 1350-1700, Liverpool, 1954, pp. 220–236

[1] Kosovo, A Short History (1998), Noel Malcolm -- Harper Perennial - pp. 121 - 122 ISBN 978-0-06-097775-7

[faroqhi-2] Faroqhi, Suraiya (December 20, 2005). The Ottoman Empire and the World around it. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0-857-73023-7.

[3] Giammanco, p. 43, 60

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 | father       = [[Murad III]] (''self claimed'')
 | mother       = [[Safiye Sultan (wife of Murad III)|Safiye Sultan]] (''self claimed'')
-| religion     = [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] formerly [[Sunni Islam]] (''claimed'')
+| religion     = [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]], formerly [[Sunni Islam]] (''claimed'')
 }}
@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 == Biography ==
 === Background ===
-According to Yahya's own writings, when his brother, [[Mehmed III]], became Sultan, he followed the [[Line of succession to the Ottoman throne#Succession practices|Ottoman custom of executing all of his brothers]] (potential rival claimants to the Ottoman throne). Yahya's mother [[Safiye Sultan (wife of Murad III)|Empress Safiye Sultan]] was concerned that this could also eventually happen to him after the death of his father, so he was smuggled out of the empire, first to Greece, and then to present-day Bulgaria. He was then supposedly baptized at an Orthodox Christian monastery, where he lived for the next eight years of his life.<ref>Kosovo, A Short History (1998), Noel Malcolm -- Harper Perennial - pp. 121 - 122 {{ISBN|978-0-06-097775-7}}</ref>
+According to Alexander's own writings, when his brother, [[Mehmed III]], became Sultan, he followed the [[Line of succession to the Ottoman throne#Succession practices|Ottoman custom of executing all of his brothers]] (potential rival claimants to the Ottoman throne). Yahya's mother [[Safiye Sultan (mother of Mehmed III)|Safiye]] was concerned that this could also eventually happen to him after the death of his father, so he was smuggled out of the empire, first to Greece, and then to present-day Bulgaria. He was then supposedly baptized at an Orthodox Christian monastery, where he lived for the next eight years of his life.<ref>Kosovo, A Short History (1998), Noel Malcolm -- Harper Perennial - pp. 121 - 122 {{ISBN|978-0-06-097775-7}}</ref>
 === Battle for Ottoman throne ===
-Yahya's narrative then claims that eventually, Yahya's two older brothers died, but in 1603, since Yahya had escaped the country to avoid [[fratricide]], his nephew  [[Ahmed I]] became the Ottoman sultan. Yahya believed that as the next oldest son of Murad III, he was next in line to be Ottoman Sultan and felt cheated out of his rightful destiny. He would dedicate the rest of his life to gaining the Ottoman throne. However, the standard Ottoman practice at the time for determining the succession was not birth order of sons; instead the [[Line of succession to the Ottoman throne#Succession practices|Ottoman laws of succession]] to the throne stated that'' ''after the death of their father, the Ottoman princes would fight among themselves until one emerged triumphant.<!-- Can't use Wikipedia as reference: <ref>quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_succession_to_the_Ottoman_throne Retrieved 4-8-2010</ref><ref>(from above-named source) In 1617, the law of succession changed to a system based on agnatic seniority (ekberiyet), whereby the throne went to the oldest male of the family. This in turn explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was usually succeeded by an uncle or brother.</ref> -->
+Alexander's narrative then claims that eventually, Alexander's two older brothers died, but in 1603, since Alexander had escaped the country to avoid [[fratricide]], his nephew  [[Ahmed I]] became the Ottoman sultan. Alexander believed that as the next oldest son of Murad III, he was next in line to be Ottoman Sultan and felt cheated out of his rightful destiny. He would dedicate the rest of his life to gaining the Ottoman throne. However, the standard Ottoman practice at the time for determining the succession was not birth order of sons; instead the [[Line of succession to the Ottoman throne#Succession practices|Ottoman laws of succession]] to the throne stated that'' ''after the death of their father, the Ottoman princes would fight among themselves until one emerged triumphant.<!-- Can't use Wikipedia as reference: <ref>quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_succession_to_the_Ottoman_throne Retrieved 4-8-2010</ref><ref>(from above-named source) In 1617, the law of succession changed to a system based on agnatic seniority (ekberiyet), whereby the throne went to the oldest male of the family. This in turn explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was usually succeeded by an uncle or brother.</ref> -->
-From 1603 on, Yahya made frequent trips to northern and western Europe to gain support for his claim to the throne (visiting Florence, Madrid, Rome, Kraków, Antwerp, Prague, and other cities). At one point he managed to win the support of the Tatar Khan Shahin, and of the Cossacks as well.<ref name="faroqhi">{{cite book|first=Suraiya|last=Faroqhi|title=The Ottoman Empire and the World around it|publisher=I. B. Tauris|date=December 20, 2005|isbn=978-0-857-73023-7}}</ref> Between 1614 and 1617, he schemed with [[Serbia]]n Orthodox Christian bishops in the [[Sanjak of Prizren]] and Western Roman Catholic bishops and leaders as part of his strategy to gain the Ottoman throne. A few years later, with the assistance of Russian and Ukrainian [[cossacks]], he led a fleet of 130 ships and unsuccessfully attacked Constantinople. He died in 1648 or 1649<ref name="faroqhi"/> on the [[Montenegro|Montenegrin]] coast, where he was involved in a rebellion organized by the Roman Catholic bishops of [[Shkodër]] and [[Bar, Montenegro|Bar]].
+From 1603 on, Alexander made frequent trips to northern and western Europe to gain support for his claim to the throne (visiting Florence, Madrid, Rome, Kraków, Antwerp, Prague, and other cities). At one point he managed to win the support of the Tatar Khan Shahin, and of the Cossacks as well.<ref name="faroqhi">{{cite book|first=Suraiya|last=Faroqhi|title=The Ottoman Empire and the World around it|publisher=I. B. Tauris|date=December 20, 2005|isbn=978-0-857-73023-7}}</ref> Between 1614 and 1617, he schemed with [[Serbia]]n Orthodox Christian bishops in the [[Sanjak of Prizren]] and Western Roman Catholic bishops and leaders as part of his strategy to gain the Ottoman throne. A few years later, with the assistance of Russian and Ukrainian [[cossacks]], he led a fleet of 130 ships and unsuccessfully attacked Constantinople. He died in 1648 or 1649<ref name="faroqhi"/> on the [[Montenegro|Montenegrin]] coast, where he was involved in a rebellion organized by the Roman Catholic bishops of [[Shkodër]] and [[Bar, Montenegro|Bar]].
 None of Alexander's statements regarding his identity or his temptative to conquest of the Ottoman throne are supported by historical evidence, and he currently receives no academic credence.
@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 ==Family==
-Yahya married an Albanian noblewoman named Anna Caterina of Drisht, the daughter of Duke Peter, Count of [[Drisht]], in the early 1630s, when Yahya started calling himself Duke of that region. Anna Caterina was supposedly descended from the national Albanian hero [[Skanderbeg]]. They had two children, Maurice (born 1635) and Elena (born 1638).<ref>Giammanco, p. 43, 60</ref>
+Alexander married an Albanian noblewoman named Anna Caterina of Drisht, the daughter of Duke Peter, Count of [[Drisht]], in the early 1630s, when Yahya started calling himself Duke of that region. Anna Caterina was supposedly descended from the national Albanian hero [[Skanderbeg]]. They had two children, a son and a daughter:<ref>Giammanco, p. 43, 60</ref>
+* Maurice of Drisht (1635 - 1693). Born in [[Turin]] and dead in [[Palmanova]] as captain of Venice. He married Eleonora Romano of [[Gorizia]] and had two daughters:
+** Maria Anna of Drisht (1674 - 14 August 1694). Born in Palmanova, dead in [[Udine]].
+** Elena of Drisht (4 August 1675 - 29 August 1727). Born in Palmanova, dead in Udine. She married Lucrezio Treo of Udine.
+* Elena of Drisht (1638 - 1697). Born in Turin. In 1658 she married the [[Pisa|pisan]] noble Andrea Biagi and had two children:
+** Caterina Biagi. She married Ottaviano Alasio of Pisa.
+** Vincenzo Biagi. Unmarried and without issue, he was captain under the King of Spain.
 == In popular culture ==
-In the TV series "[[Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem]]" the count Alexander was played by [[Berk Cankat]]. In the series he calls Iskender or Alex (presumably diminutive of Alexander). In the series he is not a European count, but a [[janissary]], then an agha. He fell in love with [[Kösem Sultan]], [[Haseki sultan|Haseki]] and legal wife of [[Ahmed I]], but she does not reciprocate his feelings and finally has him killed when he tries to usurp the throne from her sons.
+In the TV series "[[Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem]]" Alexander was played by [[Berk Cankat]]. In the series, the name Alexander was an alias: his real name was Iskender and he was in fact a real son of Sultan Murad III and Safiye Sultan, saved from the execution of the Law of Fratricide by his mother. Having grown up believing himself a commoner, Iskender made no claim for the throne and expressed a great disinterest in becoming sultan. However, news of his true identity gave Sultan Ahmed's enemies a powerful potential claimant in whose name they might rise to rebellion, and so Iskender was executed under his nephew's orders.
 ==References==
@@ Line 45: / Line 52: @@
 == Sources ==
 * {{cite book|first=Victor|last=Ostapchuk|title=The Ottoman Black Sea Frontier and the Relations of the Porte with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovy: 1622-1628|publisher=Harvard University|year=1989|pages=92}}
-* {{cite book| author = Королёв В. Н. | url = http://providenie.narod.ru/0521.html | script-title=ru:Босфорская война |location= М. |year= 2007 |publisher= Вече | isbn = 978-5-9533-2099-3| ref = Королёв|language=ru}}
+* {{cite book |author= Королёв В. Н. |url= http://providenie.narod.ru/0521.html |script-title= ru:Босфорская война |location= М. |year= 2007 |publisher= Вече |isbn= 978-5-9533-2099-3 |ref= Королёв |language= ru |access-date= 2017-08-08 |archive-date= 2017-08-08 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170808115948/http://providenie.narod.ru/0521.html |url-status= dead }}
 * {{cite journal |author = Усенко О. Г. |journal= Limba Română: Revistă Trimestrială|url= https://www.academia.edu/4520521 |script-title=ru:Ототоманус, или сын турецкого султана |type= журнал |edition= Родина  |date=  2006  |number= 6|pages = 45–52 |issn = 0235-7089 |ref= Усенко |language=ru}}
 * {{cite book| author = Faroqhi S. | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Fy-C2gHkpecC | title = The Ottoman Empire and the World around it |year= 2005 |publisher= I. B. Tauris | isbn = 978-0-857-73023-7| ref = Faroqhi}}
@@ Line 54: / Line 61: @@
 * {{cite book| author = Malcolm N. | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_FMZQQAACAAJ | title = Kosovo: A Short History |year= 2002 |publisher= Pan | isbn = 0330412248| ref = Malcolm}}
 * {{cite book| author = Peirce, Leslie P. | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=L6-VRgVzRcUC | title = The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire |location= Oxford |year= 1993 |publisher= Oxford University Press | isbn = 0195086775| ref = Peirce}}
-* {{cite book| author = Setton K.M. | url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_XN51y209fR8C | title = Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century |year= 1991 |publisher= American Philosophical Society |volume= 192 | isbn = 0871691922| ref = Setton}}
+* {{Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century|ref = Setton}}
 * Dorothy M. Vaughan, ''Europe and the Turk: A Pattern of Alliances, 1350-1700'', Liverpool, 1954, pp.&nbsp;220–236 <!-- cited in Krokar as "the most extensive discussion of Yahya/Jachia"-->
@@ Line 65: / Line 72: @@
 [[Category:Pretenders to the Ottoman throne]]
 [[Category:Ottoman princes]]
-[[Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Islam]]
+[[Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Sunni Islam]]
-[[Category:1585 births]]
+[[Category:1580s births]]
 [[Category:1649 deaths]]

v t e Ottoman princes
1st generation	Alaeddin Pasha Orhan
2nd generation	Süleyman Pasha Murad I Şehzade Halil
3rd generation	Savcı Bey Yakub Çelebi Bayezid I
4th generation	Süleyman Çelebi İsa Çelebi Mehmed I Musa Çelebi Mustafa Çelebi
5th generation	Murad II Küçük Mustafa
6th generation	Mehmed II Orhan Çelebi
7th generation	Bayezid II Cem Sultan
8th generation	Şehzade Ahmet Şehzade Korkut Selim I Şehzade Abdullah Şehzade Mahmud Şehzade Murad
9th generation	Suleiman I Şehzade Murad Üveys Pasha
10th generation	Şehzade Mustafa Şehzade Mehmed Şehzade Abdullah Selim II Şehzade Bayezid Şehzade Cihangir
11th generation	Murad III
12th generation	Mehmed III Sultan Yahya
13th generation	Şehzade Mahmud Ahmed I Mustafa I
14th generation	Osman II Şehzade Mehmed Murad IV Şehzade Bayezid Şehzade Süleyman Şehzade Kasım Ibrahim
15th generation	Şehzade Ömer Mehmed IV Suleiman II Ahmed II
16th generation	Mustafa II Ahmed III
17th generation	Mahmud I Osman III Mustafa III Abdul Hamid I
18th generation	Selim III Mustafa IV Mahmud II Şehzade Selim
19th generation	Abdulmejid I Abdulaziz Mustafa Efendi
20th generation	Murad V Abdul Hamid II Mehmed V Şehzade Ahmed Kemaleddin Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin Şehzade Ahmed Nureddin Şehzade Yusuf Izzeddin Şehzade Selim Süleyman Mehmed VI Şehzade Mahmud Celaleddin Abdulmejid II Şehzade Mehmed Şevket Şehzade Mehmed Seyfeddin
21st generation	Şehzade Mehmed Selaheddin Şehzade Mehmed Selim Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin Şehzade Ibrahim Tevfik Şehzade Mehmed Abdülkadir Şehzade Mahmud Necmeddin Şehzade Ahmed Nuri Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin Şehzade Ömer Hilmi Şehzade Mehmed Cemaleddin Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri Şehzade Mehmed Abdülhalim Şehzade Ömer Faruk Şehzade Ahmed Nureddin Mehmed Abdulaziz Şehzade Mahmud Şevket Şehzade Mehmed Şerafeddin Şehzade Ahmed Tevhid Şehzade Mehmed Abid Şehzade Mehmed Nizameddin Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul
22nd generation	Şehzade Ahmed Nihad Şehzade Osman Fuad Şehzade Mehmed Abdülkerim Mehmed Orhan Ertuğrul Osman Şehzade Mahmud Namık Bayezid Osman
23rd generation	Şehzade Ali Vasib Dündar Ali Osman Harun Osman

v t e Ottoman princes fighting for the throne
Against Murad I (1373)	Savcı Bey
Ottoman Interregnum (1402–1413)	Mehmet Çelebi Süleyman Çelebi İsa Çelebi Musa Çelebi
Against Mehmed I (1419)	Mustafa Çelebi
Against Murad II (1421–1423)	Mustafa Çelebi Küçük Mustafa
Against Bayezid II (1481-1482)	Cem Sultan
Against Bayezid II (1511–1512)	Selim Ahmet
Against Selim I (1512–1513)	Ahmet Korkut (?)
Against Suleiman I (1553–1561)	Mustafa (?) Bayezid
Against Ahmed I (1603–1617)	Sultan Yahya

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	Germany
People	Deutsche Biographie