Mechanisms of Ottoman Conquest and Expansion in the Balkan Peninsula/Greece in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

This study of Ottoman Political expansion in the Balkans sheds light on the initial period of the mechanisms of the Ottoman social, cultural, economic, and political establishments in Northern and Central Greece. It examines not only the formation of two important frontier families, Evrenosogullari and Turahanogullari, in the target regions but also these families’ fluctuating relationships with the Ottoman central state structure. It argues that these frontier families spearheaded the initial Ottoman conquests in Greece, relying on accommodationist policies to acclimatize the local populations to Ottoman rule. They implemented a constructive policy with the local landholders, religious institutes, and military, political, and economic groups, incorporating them into their regional rules. While these families initially protected their semi-independent political rule, the Ottoman center significantly increased its central authority in frontier territories in the early to mid-fifteenth century. This resulted in a central-periphery conflict in the Ottoman Balkans, as a result of which the center was able to overcome the frontier lords, relying on several strategies including but not limited to the dissemination of the land tenure system in the lords’ areas of political activity.