Gazi Evrenos

Who was Gazi Evrenos?

Evrenos or Evrenuz was an Ottoman military commander, with an unlikely long-lived career and lifetime. He served as general under Süleyman Pasha, Murad I, Bayezid I, Süleyman Çelebi and Mehmed I.

Byzantine sources mention him as Εβρενός, Ἀβρανέζης, Βρανέζης, Βρανεύς, Βρενέζ, Βρενέζης, Βρενές. A persistent Greek legend maintains that Evrenos' father was a certain Ornos, renegade Byzantine governor of Prusa who defected to the forces of Osmanli, and then on to Karasi, after the fall of Prusa, in 1326. He was known as Isa Bey Prangi, buried in the village of Prangi, a busy ferry-place on the Evros river about 6 km east from Didymoteicho. Stanford J. Shaw and Joseph von Hammer regard Evrenos as a Byzantine convert to Islam.

Οriginally, Gazi Evrenos was a noble dignitary, a beg in the principality of Karasi, joining the Ottomans only after their conquest of the beylik in 1345. He led many crucial Ottoman campaigns and battles in Rumelia, Thrace, Thessaly, Macedonia and Serbia. After having participated in the Ottoman conquest of Adrianopolis in 1362, Evrenos was appointed to Ucbeyi of Thessaly. He and his akincis fought in the Battle of Kosovo and the Battle of Nicopolis. Evrenos conquered Keşan, İpsala, Komotini, Feres, Xanthi, Maroneia, Serres, Monastir, and, in 1397, Corinth. He founded the town Yenice-i Vardar, modern Giannitsa. The Greek inhabitants of Gianitsa down to this century displayed reverence for "Gazi Baba", that is "papa Gazi".