17 Facts About Murad II

Murad II's reign was a period of important economic development.

In 1432, the traveller Bertrandon de la Broquiere noted that Ottoman annual revenue had risen to 2,500,000 ducats, and that if Murad II had used all available resources he could easily have invaded Europe.

In 1410, Murad II came along with his father to the Ottoman capital, Edirne.

Murad II remained at Amasya until the death of Mehmed I in 1421.

Murad II was solemnly recognized as sultan of the Ottoman Sultanate at sixteen years of age, girded with the Sword of Osman at Bursa, and the troops and officers of the state willingly paid homage to him as their sovereign.

Many Ottoman soldiers joined him, and he defeated and killed the veteran general Bayazid Pasha, whom Murad II had sent to fight him.

Murad II then crossed the Dardanelles to Asia with a large army but Murad out-manoeuvered Mustafa.

Murad II had to abandon the siege of Constantinople in order to deal with his rebellious brother.

Murad II then declared war against Venice, the Karamanid Emirate, Serbia and Hungary.

Murad II won the Battle of Varna in 1444 against John Hunyadi.

Murad II relinquished his throne in 1444 to his son Mehmed II, but a Janissary revolt in the Empire forced him to return.

In 1450 Murad II led his army into Albania and unsuccessfully besieged the Castle of Kruje in an effort to defeat the resistance led by Skanderbeg.

When Murad II ascended to the throne, he sought to regain the lost Ottoman territories that had reverted to autonomy following his grandfather Bayezid I's defeat at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 at the hands of Timur.

Murad II drew from the noble behavior of the nameless Caliphs in the Battalname, an epic about a fictional Arab warrior who fought against the Byzantines, and modelled his actions on theirs.

Murad II was careful to embody the simplicity, piety, and noble sense of justice that was part of the Ghazi King persona.

Murad II successfully painted himself as a simple soldier who did not partake in royal excesses, and as a noble ghazi sultan who sought to consolidate Muslim power against non-Muslims such as the Venetians and Hungarians.

Murad II is portrayed by Ilker Kurt in 2012 film Fetih 1453, by Vahram Papazian in the Albanian movie The Great Warrior Skanderbeg in 1953, and by Tolga Tekin in the 2020 Netflix series Rise of Empires: Ottoman.