ABSTRACT
The transformation of the early Ottoman state under Sultan Meḥmed II (1451-81) into an empire controlling the greatest part of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor not only inaugurated a centuries-long period of Turkish supremacy in south-east Europe, but also completely reversed the balance of power among Christian and Muslim principalities in the Levant. The kingdom of Cyprus, along with the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, was the south-easternmost outpost of Latin Christendom in the region. Though far too weak to play a leading role, Cyprus was in one way or another always involved in this process. In some instances it was even at risk of getting caught in the proverbial eye of the storm. This paper intends to examine the role of the kingdom of Cyprus in the framework of the political constellations and networks of Christian-Muslim diplomacy in the period from Meḥmed II’s accession to the throne on 18 February 1451 until the decisive turning point of
the first Ottoman-Venetian war in the summer of 1473, in which the joint invasion of Asia Minor by the coalition of the Christian league and the Akkoyunlu Empire of Uzun Ḥasan eventually met with defeat. The highly complex and multifaceted developments of this crucial period regarding the establishment and consolidation of Ottoman supremacy in Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean have been repeatedly investigated, but almost exclusively from the perspective of the major players, that is, Venice, the Ottomans or the Akkoyunlu confederation.1 As far as Cyprus is concerned, the events in question are partly taken into consideration in studies on the so-called Mamluk protectorate or in general surveys over the last decades of the kingdom’s independent existence, but the main focus of these works lies much more on internal elements, such as the civil war of Queen Charlotte and James II or the latter’s marriage with Catherina Cornaro and other aspects of the Venetian takeover.2 By contrast, the multifold involvement of Cyprus in the diplomatic and military affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 1450s and 1460s has been treated but cursorily on the basis of the source material published by Enrico Cornet, Guglielmo Berchet and Louis de Mas Matrie.3 Likewise, the
1 For the Venetian viewpoint, see Guglielmo Berchet, La Repubblica di Venezia e la Persia (Turin, 1865), 1-15; Barbara von Palombini, Bündniswerben abendländischer Mächte um Persien, 1453-1600 (Wiesbaden, 1968), 12-27; Kenneth M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571), vol. 2: The Fifteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1978), 240-321; for the Ottoman viewpoint, see Joseph von HammerPurgstall, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 10 vols. (Pest, 1827-35; repr. Graz, 1963), 2:79-91, 98-122; Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches in Europa, 7 vols. (Gotha, 1840-63), 2:280-326, 334-35, 343-58, 397-411; Nicolai Jorga, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 5 vols. (Gotha, 1908-13), 2:127-36, 147-55, 160-67; İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Osmanlı Tarihi, 9 vols., Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınlarından XIII. Seri – No. 16 (Ankara, 1947-96), 2:25-27, 38-41, 55-57, 88105, 111-25; Franz Babinger, Mehmed der Eroberer und seine Zeit: Weltenstürmer einer Zeitenwende (Munich, 1953), 241-45, 249-62, 288-312, 318-24, 325-48; Selâhattin Tansel, Osmanlı Kaynaklarına göre Fatih Sultan Mehmed’in siyasî ve askerî faaliyeti, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınlarından XI. Seri – No. 4 (Ankara, 1953), 197-209, 264-66, 281-328; Şerafettin Turan, “Fâtih Mehmet – Uzun Hasan Mücadelesi ve Venedik,” Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi 3 (1965): 63-138; Halil Inalcik, “The Ottoman Turks and the Crusades, 1451-1522,” in Setton, Crusades, 6:325-29; Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1481 (Istanbul, 1990), 185-94, 198-218; Shai Har-El, Struggle for Domination in the Middle East: The Ottoman-Mamluk War 1485-91, The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage 4 (Leiden, 1995), 80-99; Theoharis Stavrides, The Sultan of Vezirs: The Life and Times of the Ottoman Grand Vezir Mahmud Pasha Angelović (1453-1474), The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage 24 (Leiden, 2001), 160-65, 168-81, 212-34; for the Akkoyunlu viewpoint, see John E. Woods, The Aqquyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire, rev. ed. (Salt Lake City, 1999), 110-20.
