Uç bey

An uç bey or uch bey (Ottoman Turkish: اوج بگ‎, romanized: uc beğ, lit. 'marcher-lord') was the title given to semi-autonomous warrior chieftains during the Sultanate of Rum[1] and Rise of the Ottoman Empire. As leaders of akinji warrior bands, they played a leading role during the conquests of the Byzantine Empire and the Balkans.

The term is borrowed from the time of the Sultanate of Rum and is analogous to Persian marzban or Western European margrave. Uç beys were proclaimed ghazis and as a rule were dervishes. After Michael VIII Palaiologos removed the akritai and the land grants[2] through which they survived, many Byzantine renegades went over to Ottoman service (cf. the so-called "Renegade thesis").

Rumelia's first uç bey was Lala Şahin Pasha, who conquered Edirne, Boruj, Plovdiv, and was later the beylerbey of the Rumelia Eyalet. Pasha Yiğit Bey was an uç bey from Skopje to the Serbian and Greek lands, advancing to Bosnia and the Morea.[3]

References and notes
  1. Stanford J. Shaw, Ezel Kural Shaw, (1976), History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, p. 14
  2. Boundaries and Frontiers in Medieval Muslim Geography; American Philosophical Society; Ralph W. Brauer; 1995 ;p. 84 ISBN 9780871698568
  3. Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P., eds. (2000). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume X: T–U. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 838. ISBN 90-04-11211-1.

See also
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