Chapter 1 A Firman Issued by Mustafa the Son of Bayezid I Surnamed Düzme (1422)
In: Dimensions of Transformation in the Ottoman Empire from the Late Medieval Age to ModernitySearch for other papers by Elizabeth A. Zachariadou in
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Abstract
The focus of this chapter is on a firman text, dated March 1422, and copied from the library of the Droviani Monastery in southern Albania. Due to the rarity of pre-1453 Ottoman documents, this text provides a unique glimpse into a period following the Ottoman interregnum when Sultans Mehmed I and Murad II were still in the process of re-establishing central authority over the provinces. During this period, Mehmed I’s brother Mustafa Çelebi, previously captured by the Turko-Mongol conqueror Timur in 1402 and deported to Samarkand, claimed the Ottoman sultanate for himself. This firman was issued by Mustafa Çelebi nicknamed “the Impostor” (Düzme), while he was in temporary control of the western Balkans and rebelling against his nephew Murad II. The author discusses the documentary importance of this firman, which was addressed to the kadı of Delvinë and concerned the territorial rights of the Droviani Monastery.