Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey ( ; 1435 – 1484 ) was an Ottoman general and governor . The son of the famed Turahan Bey , he was active chiefly in southern Greece : he fought in the Morea against both the Byzantines in the 1440s and 1450s and against the Venetians in the 1460s , while in 1456 , he conquered the Latin Duchy of Athens . He also fought in Albania , north - east Italy , Wallachia and Anatolia . Family . Ömer was the son of the prominent " akıncı " leader and governor of Thessaly , Turahan Bey , and grandson of Pasha Yiğit Bey , the conqueror of Skopje . He had a brother , Ahmed Bey , and two sons , Hasan and Idris , the latter of whom was a notable poet and translator of Persian poetry . Wars against the Byzantines . The exact date of Ömer ' s birth is unknown ; as a young man , he was presented to the Byzantine envoy George Sphrantzes in 1435 , and by 1444 he was old enough to assume his father ' s duties as " uç beyi " ( " marcher - lord " ) of Thessaly during Turahan ' s temporary disgrace . In the same year , Ömer led a raid against the Duchy of Athens , which was falling under the influence of the energetic Byzantine prince Constantine Palaiologos , the ruler of the Despotate of the Morea . This display of force , coupled with the decisive Ottoman victory in the Battle of Varna , convinced the Duke of Athens , Nerio II Acciaioli , to revert to his Ottoman allegiance . Ömer also participated in the retaliatory campaign of Sultan Murad II against Palaiologos in late 1446 . The Ottomans breached the Hexamilion wall and devastated the Morea , forcing the despots to become Ottoman vassals . In 1449 , as Constantine Palaiologos became the new Byzantine emperor and left the Morea , his brothers Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos began to quarrel about their share of the rule of the Despotate . Eventually the dispute was settled through the mediation of Constantine and Ömer , who used the opportunity to completely demolish the Hexamilion . In October 1452 , Ömer and his brother accompanied Turahan in another expedition against the Morea , which was designed to prevent the Despotate from assisting in the forthcoming Ottoman attack on the Byzantine capital , Constantinople . After the Turks breached the rebuilt Hexamilion , the Byzantines put up little resistance , and Turahan ' s troops plundered their way from Corinthia to Messenia . Ahmed however was captured in an ambush at Dervenakia and imprisoned in Mistra . The Fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453 had great repercussions in the Morea . The two despots continued their rivalry and were unpopular among their own subjects . A rebellion broke out against them in autumn , supported both by the local Albanian immigrants and the native Greeks , and spread quickly . As the Sultan ' s vassals , the despots called upon Turahan for aid , and he dispatched Ömer in December . Ömer achieved a few successes , but departed after securing the release of his brother from captivity . The revolt did not subside , and in 1454 Turahan himself , again accompanied by his sons , was forced to intervene and quell the revolt . In 1456 , Ömer succeeded his father as governor of Thessaly , and in the same year his troops occupied the city of Athens . The duke , Francesco II Acciaioli , and the inhabitants fled to the Acropolis , where they held out for two years until they surrendered in June 1458 . In the same year , the Sultan Mehmed II campaigned in person against the Morea , where the two despots had returned to their quarrels and were negotiating with Western powers for aid against the Ottomans . Mehmed overcame the Byzantine resistance at Hexamilion and stormed the strategically important Acrocorinth . Thereupon the despots hastened to reconfirm their allegiance , but the northeastern quarter of the Morea was annexed as a full Ottoman province and Ömer became its first governor . Ömer accompanied Mehmed on the Sultan ' s visit to Athens in August 1458 , and took up residence in the ducal palace in the Propylaea . In 1459 the despot Thomas rebelled against the Sultan with assistance from Italy , and Ömer was for a time removed from his offices for failing to prevent it , although some contemporary sources suggest that he was himself encouraging the rebellion . The Sultan sent Hamza Pasha to depose and arrest him and replaced him as governor the Morea with Zagan Pasha . Ömer nevertheless participated in the subsequent campaign against the Morea , which saw the final extirpation of the despotate . In 1461 / 1462 Ömer served with distinction in the wars against Vlad III Dracula , Prince of Wallachia : he wiped out a force of 6 , 000 Wallachians and deposited 2 , 000 of their heads at the feet of Mehmed II . As a reward , he was reinstated in his old gubernatorial post in Thessaly . Wars against the Venetians . At this time , tensions became heightened with the Venetians as a slave of the Ottoman commander of Athens fled to the Venetian fortress of Coron ( Koroni ) with 100 , 000 aspers from his master ' s treasury . The Venetians refused to hand him back , and in retaliation , Ömer attacked the port town of Lepanto ( Nafpaktos ) in November 1462 but failed to capture it . A few months later , Isa Bey , governor of the Morea , took the Venetian fortress of Argos through treason . These events precipitated the outbreak of a long war between the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire . In the summer of 1463 , Ömer led the eastern wing of the Ottoman army that conquered Bosnia . In the weeks after their declaration of war on 28 July 1463 , the Venetians made good progress in the Morea , occupying most of the peninsula , and laid siege to the Acrocorinth in early autumn . Ömer Bey marched returned from Bosnia and marched to relieve the siege , but did not attempt to breach the Hexamilion wall due to the presence of numerous Venetian cannons and the small size of his own army . Ömer was disheartened enough to oppose any action to be undertaken even after the arrival of substantial reinforcements under the Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha Angelović , and preferred to await the arrival of the Sultan himself . Nevertheless , Mahmud Pasha decided to move , and the Venetians , whose army had been depleted by dysentery , abandoned the Hexamilion without a fight . The Ottomans razed the wall yet again and advanced into the Morea . Argos surrendered and was razed , and several forts and localities that had recognized Venetian authority reverted to their Ottoman allegiance . Zagan Pasha was re - appointed governor of the Morea , while Ömer Bey was given Mahmud Pasha ' s army and tasked with taking the Republic ' s holdings in the southern Peloponnese , centred around the two forts of Coron and Modon ( Methoni ) . Ömer raided the districts around the two fortresses and captured numerous prisoners , but the onset of winter precluded any serious operations from being undertaken against them . In August 1464 , the new Venetian commander - in - chief in the Morea , Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta , besieged the fortress of Mistra , the one - time capital of the Byzantine despotate . Ömer with his army marched against him , forcing him to raise the siege . Over the next year , the war in the Morea was dominated by raids and sieges of isolated forts . Ömer held the initiative and moved at will against the Venetians and their supporters , for the mostly mercenary Venetian troops , starved of supplies , pay and reinforcements , were largely confined to their coastal forts and unable or unwilling to venture into the interior . In late July / early August 1466 , Ömer achieved two major victories against the Venetians . With 12 , 000 men he destroyed an army of 2 , 000 that was besieging Patras and killed its commander , Jacomo Barbarigo , and 600 of his men . A few days later he defeated another Venetian expeditionary force under Vettore Cappello , which lost 1 , 200 men . Cappello himself barely escaped and died a few months later of grief . Ömer reappears in the historical sources in 1470 . Following the Ottoman conquest of Negroponte ( Chalkis ) in July after a long and bloody siege , Ömer led an army of 25 , 000 in the Morea , where he quickly conquered Vostitza ( Aigion ) . In 1473 , he participated in the campaign against Uzun Hasan , Venice ' s ally in the East ; and was one of the many senior commanders captured in an ambush on 1 August 1473 . His captivity however did not last long , for Uzun Hasan ' s army suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Otluk Beli on 11 August . In autumn 1477 he was sent to Slovenia to fight against the Venetians . There he ambushed and routed the army of the Venetian Captain - General , Girolamo Novella , and with his cavalry raided Venetian territory in the region of the Isonzo , Piave and Tagliamento rivers . Finally , in 1478 he captured the fortress of Scutari ( Shkodër ) in Albania , which along with the conquest of Krujë by Mehmed II ended the League of Lezhë and Albanian independence . The date of his death is unknown , but he was still alive in 1484 , when his will was written .