Umur Ghazi, Ghazi Umur, or Umur The Lion[Donald MacGillivray Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453, Cambridge University Press, 1993, , p. 144.] (Turkish language: Aydınoğlu Umur Bey, c. 1309–1348), also known as Umur Pasha
Career
Umur Ghazi was a loyal ally and friend of Emperor John Cantacuzenus of the
Byzantine Empire and provided him with material aid during his military campaigns, especially during the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347.
[Nicol, Last Centuries, p. 202] He apparently sent 380 ships and 28,000 men to aid him in the conflict and besieged the city of
Didymoteicho in Thrace, Greece.
[Najeebabadi, History of Islam Vol.3, p.374-375] The emperor John reportedly mourned his death.
[Nicol, Last Centuries, p. 203] At the height of its power, the Beylik of Aydin possessed 350 ships and 15,000 men.
Umur's preying on Christian shipping led to the declaration of the Smyrniote crusades against him by Pope Clement VI in 1343. In 1348, his fleet was destroyed by an allied fleet from Venice, the Knights of Rhodes and Cyprus. Umur was killed by a barrage of arrows, climbing the walls of Smyrna Castle during a recapture attempt. His older brother Hızır Bey was appointed in his place.[Kenneth Meyer Setton, The Papacy and the Levant, 1204–1571, vol. I (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976), pp. 184–223]
Modern İzmir's district Gaziemir (Ghazi Emir) is named after him.
Personality and appearance
Umur was described in an epic chronicle
Düstürnâme-i Enverî, written by poet and historian
Enveri during the reign of
Sultan Mehmed II, as "the 'Lion of God' leading a just and
Jihad of conquest against the 'miscreants' and infidel
Christians".
According to an unreliable but colorful source, two Venetian ambassadors remarked that he was immensely fat with a stomach "like a wine casket". They had found him wearing silks, drinking
almond milk and eating spiced eggs from a golden spoon.
As a writer, poet and patron of the arts and sciences,
Panchatantra was first translated to
Persian language during his reign.
Sources
