Cem Sultan
Cem Sultan | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (claimant) | |||||
Reign | 28 May 1481 − 20 June 1481 | ||||
Sanjak-bey of Karaman | |||||
Reign | 1474 – 1481 | ||||
Sanjak-bey of Kastamonu | |||||
Reign | 1469 – 1474 | ||||
Born | December 22, 1459 Adrianople Palace, Edirne, Rumelia, Ottoman Empire | ||||
Died | February 25, 1495 Capua, Kingdom of Naples | (aged 35)||||
Burial | |||||
Spouse | Gülşirin Hatun | ||||
Issue |
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Dynasty | Ottoman | ||||
Father | Mehmed II | ||||
Mother | Çiçek Hatun | ||||
Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
Tughra |
Cem Sultan (also spelled Djem or Jem) or Sultan Cem or Şehzade Cem (December 22, 1459 – February 25, 1495, pronounced : Zizim), was a claimant to the Ottoman throne in the 15th century.
Cem was the third son of Sultan
After being defeated by Bayezid, Cem went in exile in Egypt and Europe, under the protection of the
.Early life
Cem was born on December 22, 1459, in Edirne. His mother was Çiçek Hatun. In accordance with the custom for a Şehzade (prince) Cem was appointed to a provincial governorship of Kastamonu in 1469. In December 1474, Cem replaced his deceased brother Mustafa as governor of Karaman in Konya.[1]
Succession dispute
At the death of
Contrary to
However, Bayezid had already established a political network of influential
After the death of Karamanlı Mehmet Pasha, there was widespread rioting among the janissaries in Constantinople as there was neither a sultan nor a grand vizier to control the developments. Understanding the danger of the situation, former grand vizier Ishak Pasha took the initiative of beseeching Bayezid to arrive with all due haste. In the meantime, Ishak Pasha took the cautionary measure of proclaiming Bayezid's 11-year-old son, Sehzade (prince) Korkut, as regent until the arrival of his father.[2]
Prince Bayezid arrived at
In Cairo
The Mamlūk sultan
In Cairo, Cem received a letter from his brother, offering Cem one million akçes (the Ottoman currency) to stop competing for the throne. Cem rejected the offer, and in the following year he launched a campaign in Anatolia under the support of Kasım Bey (Qāsım Beğ), heir of the ruling house of Karaman, and the sanjek bey of Ankara. On May 27, 1482, Cem besieged Konya but was soon defeated and forced to withdraw to Ankara. He intended to give it all up and return to Cairo but all of the roads to Egypt were under Bayezid's control. Cem then tried to renegotiate with his brother. Bayezid offered him a stipend to live quietly in Jerusalem but refused to divide the empire, prompting Cem to flee to Rhodes on July 29, 1482.
Imprisonment
Knights Hospitaller
Upon arriving at Rhodes, Cem asked the protection of the French captain of
Therefore, the Knights took the money and betrayed Cem, who thereafter became a well-treated prisoner at Rhodes. Afterwards, Cem was sent to the castle of Pierre d'Aubusson in France.
France
Cem had reached Nice, at that time in the Duchy of Savoy, on 17 October 1482, en route to Hungary, but the Knights were playing for time. After the agreement about his confinement was finalised, he became a hostage, as well as a potential pawn. Those who hoped to use his name and person to foment turmoil in the Ottoman realm included the Mamlūk sultan Qāʾit Bāy, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, and Pope Innocent VIII. Others, such as the Knights of Saint John, the Venetians, the king of Naples, and Popes Innocent VIII and Alexander VI, viewed his presence in Europe as a deterrent to Ottoman aggression against Christendom and an opportunity for profit. For his part, Bayezid II dispatched ambassadors and spies to the West to assure that his rival was detained indefinitely, and he even attempted to eliminate him through assassination.[1]
Cem spent a year in the Duchy of Savoy. After the death of King
Rome
Innocent VIII rebuffed overtures from the Mamlūks and prepared to launch a crusade against the Ottomans, but it was postponed when Matthias Corvinus of Hungary died on April 6, 1490. These developments worried Bayezid, who contacted D'Aubusson and also sent Mustafa Bey (later a grand vizier) to Rome, to conclude a secret agreement, in December 1490. The sultan promised not to attack Rhodes, Rome, or Venice, as well as to pay Cem's allowance of 40,000 ducats to the Pope (10,000 of which were earmarked for the Knights of Saint John), in return for the prince's incarceration. Apparently, Cem found life in Rome more pleasant than in France, and he had lost hope of seizing the Ottoman throne, but he wanted to die in a Muslim land. His wish would not be realized.[1]
Pope Innocent VIII unsuccessfully attempted to use Cem to begin a new crusade against the Ottomans.[4] The Pope also tried to convert Cem to Christianity, without success. Cem's presence in Rome was useful nevertheless, because whenever Bayezid intended to launch a military campaign against Christian nations of the Balkans, the Pope would threaten to release his brother.
In exchange for maintaining the custody of Cem, Bayezid paid Innocent VIII 120,000 crowns (at the time, equal to all other annual sources of papal revenue combined), a relic of the Holy Lance (which allegedly had pierced the side of Christ), one hundred Moorish slaves, and an annual fee of 45,000 ducats. Much of the costs associated with the Sistine Chapel were paid with funds from the Ottoman ransoms.[5]
Death
In 1494, Charles VIII invaded Italy, to take possession of the kingdom of Naples, and announced a crusade against the Turks. He compelled Pope Alexander VI to surrender Cem, who left Rome with the French army on January 28, 1495. The prince died in Naples on February 24. Some accounts attribute his death to poison, but he probably succumbed to pneumonia.[citation needed]
Cem died in Capua, while on a military expedition to conquer Naples under the command of King Charles VIII of France. Sultan Bayezid declared national mourning for three days. He also requested to have Cem's body for an Islamic funeral, but it was not until four years after Cem's death that his body was finally brought to the Ottoman lands because of attempts to receive more gold for Cem's corpse. He was buried in Bursa.[3]
Legacy
Personality
Cem had two diwans in Turkish and Persian, and he also spoke Arabic.[6]
Drawings of Cem
-
A man on horseback, probably Cem, by The Borgia Apartments, by Pinturicchio[7]
-
Portrait of Cem Sultan, 1586
Family
Consort
Cem had only one know consort:
- Gülşirin Hatun.[8]
Sons
Cem had at least two sons:
- Şehzade Oğuzhan (murdered by Bayezid II, Istanbul, 1482), called also Şehzade Oğuz[9]
- Şehzade Murad (murdered by Suleiman the Magnificent, Rhodes, December 1522), later Pierre Mehmed Sayd; married and had four sons and three daughters[10][11]
Daughters
Cem had at least two daughters:
- Gevhermelik Hatun, called also Gevhermuluk Hatun,[12] married firstly in 1496 to Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad, son of Qaitbay (d. 1498), married secondly in 1503 to Sinan Pasha Beylerbey of Anatolia;[10]
- Ayşe Hatun,[13] married in 1503 to Mehmed Bey, son of Sinan Pasha, Sanjak-bey of Ioannina[12]
Treatments and references
In literature
In the 1490s, a book in Latin was written about Cem's life. It was illustrated by Guillaume Caoursin, vice-chancellor of the Knights Hospitaller. It was published in several European cities that possessed printing capability: Venice, Paris, Bruges, Salamanca, Ulm and London. The many illustrations in the book are the first accurately described representations in Western Europe of costumes and weapons of the Turkish people.
An account of Cem's captivity—and of the political machinations that kept him captive—forms the basis of the historical novel, Francesca: Les Jeux du Sort (1872), written by the Haitian writer and political exile, Demesvar Delorme.[14]
Cem's life also served as inspiration for a character in the book The Damned Yard (1954) by the Yugoslav Nobelist writer Ivo Andrić. It is widely considered to be one of his masterpieces[15] and has been translated into over 30 languages.[16] Cem Sultan appears as one of the main characters in a multiple-layered narration and serves as a metaphor for the human condition.
Bulgarian Ottoman historian Vera Mutafchieva, inspired by Cem Sultan's importance in European politics of the 15th century, wrote a novel (The Cem Case) about him in 1967. The book strives for historical accuracy and was translated into Turkish, German, Rumanian, Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, French, Estonian, Greek and Croatian.
In film
In 1951, was released historical film Cem Sultan, which main protagonist was portrayed by Bülent Ufuk.
In 1969 was released historical adventure film Malkoçoğlu Cem Sultan, which directed by Remzi Aydın Jöntürk, the character of Cem Sultan, was portrayed by Cihangir Ghaffari.
In television
- In the Juan Borgia.
- In the Canal+ series Borgia, the character of Cem, played by Nicolás Belmonte, dies from fever when traveling with Cesare Borgia in Charles' campaign against Naples.
- In the MBC series Kingdoms of Fire, Cem fought against Bayezid II, then he sought refuge with the crusaders, who agreed to host him in exchange to annual tribute from the Ottoman Sultan.
In video games
- In
Notes
- ^ ISSN 1873-9830.
- ^ Finkel, 2006, pp. 81–82.
- ^ ISBN 0007150660.
- ^ Finkel, 2006, p. 87.
- ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 196.
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam (44+2 vols.) (in Turkish). Istanbul: Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, Centre for Islamic Studies.
- ISBN 978-1-4724-4926-9.
- ^ Gök, İlhan (2014). II. Bâyezîd Dönemi İn'âmât Defteri ve Ceyb-i Hümayun Masraf Defteri (Thesis). p. 580.
- ISBN 978-9-757-69989-7.
- ^ a b Thuasne, Louis (1892). Djem, Sultan, fils de Mohammed II, frère de Bayezid II, (1459–1495) d'après les documents originaux en grande partie inédits: Etude sur la question d'orient à la fin du XVe siècle. Leroux. pp. 388–9.
- OCLC 758546639.
- ^ a b Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara, Ötüken. pp. 50 n. 18, 48 n. 14.
- ISBN 978-9-756-59610-4.
- ^ Delorme, Demesvar. Francesca: Les Jeux du Sort. Paris: E. Dentu, Libraire-Editeur, 1872.
- ^ Ivo Andrić Foundation (in Serbian): https://www.ivoandric.org.rs/%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B0_/%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8/16-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0-%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B0
- ^ *Bibliography of Ivo Andrić*, p. 124 ff: https://www.ivoandric.org.rs/images/bibliografija/bai_sep2011.pdf
- ISBN 978-1-101-57100-2.
References
- ISBN 978-0-300-11597-0.
- ISBN 978-0-465-02396-7.
- ISBN 978-0-00-715066-3.
Further reading
- Özgüdenli, Osman G. (2008). "JEM SOLṬĀN". In ISBN 978-1-934283-07-3.