by Saqet Veseli. Translation Petrit Latifi

Mahmud Pasha Đanjelović (Krushevci, 1420 – Istanbul, 1474) was a Serbian military leader, poet, defender of Islam and Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. His brother, Mihailo Đanjelović, during this time served at the court of the Serbian despot, Đurađ Branković. Mahmud Pasha Đanjelović is the first poet of the Serbian people, who appears in Eastern literature (under the pseudonym Adni). His origin is from Kruševci in present-day Serbia.

It is claimed that he was taken by the Turks for service in the army. After graduating from military school in Turkey, Sultan Murat took him to his court, where he became friends and formed a great friendship with the then heir to the throne, Mehmet II, who, after the conquest of Constantinople, appointed Mahmud Pasha Đanjelović Grand Vizier of the Empire.

Mahmud Pasha Angjelovic organized expeditions to punish the Albanians who survived the conquest of Constantinople, against whom Sultan Mehmed II had ordered genocide to be committed, which actually happened in most of their geographical area. Numerous historical testimonies suggest that Mahmud Pasha Angjelovic’s hatred for Skanderbeg and his followers was extremely great.

This hatred of Mahmud Pasha Angjelovic can be compared and equated with the hatred that the Serbs and neo-Ottomans settled in Illyricum continue to have and cultivate against the Albanian nation today. Mahmud Pasha Angjelovic’s influence at the court of the Serbian despotate, where his brother Mihailo Angjelovic served, was extremely great.

In addition to Mahmud Pasha Angelovic, the Serbian despot Brankovic also exerted influence in the Ottoman Empire through his daughter, Mara Brankovic, the beloved wife of Sultan Murat, who raised and educated Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror, in the anti-Albanian spirit of the Muslim Slavs, in the Arban (Albanian) territories.