17 Facts About Turahan Bey

Turahan Bey or Turakhan Beg was a prominent Ottoman military commander and governor of Thessaly from 1423 until his death in 1456.

Turahan Bey participated in many Ottoman campaigns of the second quarter of the 15th century, fighting against the Byzantines as well as against the Crusade of Varna.

Turahan Bey's repeated raids into the Morea transformed the local Byzantine despotate into an Ottoman dependency and opened the way for its conquest.

Turahan Bey's father was a prominent general of Yoruk origin who conquered Skopje in 1392 and was the first Ottoman governor of Bosansko Krajiste.

Turahan Bey attacked some Byzantine towns and settlements, such as Mystras, Leontari, Gardiki and Dabia.

In 1431, Turahan Bey again breached and destroyed the Hexamilion and took Thebes in 1435, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Moreot Byzantines.

Turahan Bey persuaded Sultan Murad II to abandon Sofia as well, and follow a consequent scorched earth strategy against the Hungarian advance.

Turahan Bey fell from favour as a result and was banished by the Sultan to a prison in Tokat.

Murad was reportedly disheartened by the strength of the Hexamilion, but Turahan Bey insisted on an assault.

Turahan Bey again stormed the Hexamilion and penetrated into the Morea, raiding from Corinth through the Argolid and Arcadia to Messenia.

Turahan Bey advised the two despots to compose their differences and rule well, and then departed the peninsula.

Turahan Bey was buried at Kirk Kvak near Uzun Kopru in Thrace, but his memorial tomb survives to this day in the city.

Turahan Bey was instrumental in the establishment of Ottoman rule in Thessaly and central Greece in general.

Turahan Bey took several measures to restore order and prosperity in his province, most notably the foundation of the town of Tyrnavos, which before was a small pastoral settlement.

Turahan Bey endowed it with both a mosque and a church, St Nicholas Turahan, which survives to this day.

Turahan Bey endowed many other public buildings such as mosques, monasteries, madrasas, schools, caravanserais, bridges and baths across the province.

Turahan Bey took care to maintain and foster the Thessalian cotton, silk and wool textile industry, to the extent that later generations attributed to him the introduction of new dye techniques based on yellow berries, madder and the kali plant, used in the manufacture of potash.