G Ruler
Gazi Ömer Bey One of the Ottoman raider (akıncı) commanders, son of Turahan Bey , conqueror of Thessaly; a frontier lord active in the Morea, Thessaly and around Athens in the reign of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, and builder of the Gazi Ömer Bey Mosque and Tomb in Malkara. During the preparations for the conquest of Istanbul, in December 1452, he carried out important operations together with his father and his brother Ahmed to block aid coming from the Morea. During this campaign his brother Ahmed was taken prisoner by Demetrios, Despot of Sparta, and Ömer rescued him in December 1454. After Mehmed the Conqueror's Morea campaign of 860 (1456) he was charged with guarding the region. According to the source the two brothers acted together, but Ömer Bey's name appears more often in the sources; the Byzantine historian Chalkokondyles gives ample information about him and writes that he was active as bey of Trikala. In 1456 Ömer Bey took the lower parts of Athens, and in June 1458 he became fully master of the city. The following year he was dismissed by the Conqueror, who held him responsible for the disturbances in the Morea; after the Morea campaign he was again made governor of Thessaly and the Salonica region, and in this capacity took part in the Bosnian campaign. He then returned to the Morea, hastened to relieve the fortress of Gördüs besieged by the Venetians, drove them back and advanced as far as Modon and Koron (1463). In 1466 he defeated the Venetians who had attacked Balyabadra and went to Istanbul with his captives. In 1473 he was taken prisoner during the first clashes of the Battle of Otlukbeli against Uzun Hasan. It is known that he defeated the Venetians on the Isonzo in 882 (1477) and fought the Albanians the following year. After the death of his father Turahan Bey he took over the administration of the endowment his father had founded in the village of Kırkkavak (Kırıkkavak) near Uzunköprü. He has an endowment deed dated Muharram 889 (February 1484). The source states that his endowments were very rich: he built mosques, masjids, lodges, soup kitchens, baths, caravanserais, bridges and schools in Larissa, Trikala, Tırnova, Platamona, Çatalca, Fener, İzdin, Livadia, Serres, Drama, Malkara and Smederevo. His mosque in Malkara was built, according to the inscription over its portal, in 893 (1488); since the mosque and madrasa his father had built in Malkara have not survived, the source considers it possible that Ömer Bey had the old building pulled down and a new mosque built in its place. He died in Rabi' al-Akhir 908 (October 1502) and was buried in the tomb beside the mosque he had built in Malkara; Oruç Bey writes that he was ninety-six years old. Of his sons, Hasan Bey was a local administrator and has an endowment deed dated Shawwal 937 (May 1531); İdris Bey , who held the sanjaks of Niğde and Bayburt, won fame as a poet according to the biographical works of the time; another son named Durak Bey also served as a sanjak governor. His sons Hasan, Mustafa, Hamza, Eyüb and İbrahim beys are also recorded as having built charitable works. That Hasan Bey's son Ömer Bey appears as a raider commander in 961 (1554) indicates that the family kept up its tradition. His Tomb and Complex — The tomb stands in the courtyard of the mosque in the market area of central Malkara, immediately to the left (north-east) of the mosque. The three-line thuluth inscription in the tympanum over its door is dated 908 (1502); exactly when the tomb was built is not known. Octagonal and domed, the tomb is built of finely cut küfeki stone; traces show that a portico once stood before its door. Inside there is only Ömer Bey's stone sarcophagus. Restored together with the mosque in 2005, it has been made clean and well kept and is open for worship and visits.
TekirdağDied 908 AH View →