Gedik Ahmed Pasha

Gedik Ahmed Pasha
کدك احمد پاشا
16th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
In office 1474–1477
Monarch	Mehmed II
Preceded by	Mahmud Pasha Angelović
Succeeded by	Karamanlı Mehmed Pasha
Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Fleet Sanjakbeyi of Avlonya
In office 1478–c.1481
Monarch	Mehmed II
Preceded by	unknown
Succeeded by	Mesih Pasha
Beylerbeyi of Anatolia
In office c.1462–1470
Monarch	Mehmed II
Preceded by	Ishak Pasha
Succeeded by	Koca Davud Pasha
Beylerbeyi of Rum
In office c.1451–1462 – c.1451–1462
Monarch	Mehmed II
Personal details
Born	Punoševce (Serbian Despotate)
Died	18 November 1482 Edirne Palace, Edirne, Ottoman Empire
Cause of death	Strangling
Citizenship	Ottoman
Education	Enderun School
Profession	Statesman
House	Member of minor Serbian feudal family from the area of Vranje
Military service
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire
Branch/service	Ottoman Army (c.1450s–1477 and 1481–1482) Ottoman Navy (1478–1481)
Rank	Army Commander Grand Admiral
Battles/wars	Ottoman-Karamanid wars Ottoman-Aq Qoyunlu wars  • Battle of Koyulhisar (1461)  • Battle of Otlukbeli  • Battle of Kıreli Ottoman-Genoese War Ottoman invasion of Otranto Siege of Mangup Siege of Negroponte (1470)

Very little was known about Gedik Ahmed Pasha in primary sources until late in historiography. Serbia and Albania had both been proposed as geographical regions for his birthplace and Mükrimin Halil Yinanç had even claimed that he was descended from the Byzantine Greek Palaiologos dynasty based on unnamed Western sources Yinanç claimed to have access to. Later research in the Ottoman archives of Vranje (southeastern Serbia) by Aleksandar Stojanovski established that Gedik Ahmed Pasha was a member of the local Serbian feudal families of the area and was born in the village Punoševce.

Leading the Ottoman Army, he defeated the last Anatolian beylik (principality) resisting Ottoman expansion in the region, the Karamanids. The Karamanids had been the strongest principality in Anatolia for nearly 200 years, even stronger than the Ottomans in the latter's beginning. They effectively succeeded the Sultanate of Rûm in the amount of possessions they held, among them the city of Konya, the former Selçuk capital. Gedik Ahmed Pasha's victory against the Karamanids in 1471, conquering their territory as well as the Mediterranean coastal region around Ermenek, Mennan and Silifke, proved crucial for the future of the Ottomans.^{[citation needed]}

Gedik Ahmed Pasha also fought against Venetians in the Mediterranean and was dispatched in 1475 by the Sultan to aid the Crimean Khanate against Genoese forces. In Crimea, he conquered Caffa, Soldaia, Cembalo and other Genoese castles as well as the Principality of Theodoro with its capital Mangup and the coastal regions of Crimea. He rescued the Khan of Crimea, Meñli I Giray, from Genoese forces. As a result of this campaign, Crimea and Circassia entered into the Ottoman sphere of influence.

In 1479, when he was a sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Avlona, Sultan Mehmet II ordered him to lead a force of between 10,000 and 40,000 troops for the siege of Shkodra. Later that year, the sultan ordered him to lead the Ottoman Navy in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the war against Naples and Milan. During his campaign, Gedik Ahmed Pasha conquered the islands of Santa Maura (Lefkada), Kefalonia, and Zante (Zakynthos). Since he had conquered Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II saw himself as the inheritor of the Roman Empire and seriously considered the conquest of Italy to reunite Roman lands under his dynasty. As part of this plan, Gedik Ahmed Pasha was sent with a naval force to the heel of the Italian peninsula.

After a failed attempt to conquer Rhodes from the Knights of St. John, Ahmed successfully took the Italian harbor city of Otranto in 1480. However, due to lack of food and supplies, he had to return with most of his troops to Albania in the same year, planning to continue the campaign in 1481.

The death of Mehmed II prevented this. Instead, Ahmet sided with Bayezid II in the struggle for who would succeed the sultan. However, Bayezid II did not fully trust Ahmed and had him imprisoned and later killed on 18 November 1482.

• Ottoman invasion of Otranto
• Ottoman Navy
• List of Ottoman grand viziers
• List of Kapudan Pashas