Stavrides|61Orthodox Church. According to this story, the grand vizier and the sultan pun-
ished Patriarch Ioasaf I Kokkas (term 1465–1466) for refusing to grant a divorce
to George Amiroutzes, who had apparently remained a Christian even after set-
tling in Istanbul, despite allegations by some sources that he converted to Islam.
The Ambivalent Position of the Byzantine Aristocracy
Mahmud Pasha’s Byzantino-Serbian descent and his blood relations with many
Christians from the Balkans, and even Anatolian Trebizond, were very important
for the establishment of Ottoman domination in these areas. The use of converts
of Christian origin in high offices minimized the problems that the Ottomans
had to face in conquering and assimilating large areas inhabited by Christians.
This was especially true of Mahmud Pasha, whose ties of kinship facilitated the
surrender of Serbia, probably of Trebizond, and possibly of other areas.
Arguably, Mahmud Pasha’s family relations made Ottoman conquest and
the transition to Islamic rule less traumatic and easier to bear for the Christians
of the Balkans. The new conquerors were not purely foreign in their eyes, since
their high-level officials included men born Christian and who had close relatives
who remained Christian. Because of this, the struggle of the Christian states of
the Balkans and Anatolia against the Ottomans in the fifteenth century did not
always have the clear-cut and absolute nature of previous or subsequent wars be-
tween Christians and Muslims. In addition, many Orthodox Christians’ fear of
Latin rule, although not necessarily making them welcome Ottoman rule, often
led them to regard the Ottomans as a less undesirable conqueror than the Latins;
especially since among them they could sometimes find friends and relatives.
These cases suggest one of the principal choices available to the members
of the Byzantine aristocracy, faced with total Ottoman domination in the Bal-
kans and Anatolia: adapting to the new conditions through assimilation. Similar
choices, on another level, had to be made by other sections of Byzantine society,
from scholars to peasants.
Thus, it appears that the Christians associated with Mahmud Pasha either
found favor in the Ottoman court, like Michael Angelović and George Ami-
routzes, or were at least saved through his intervention, like the Bochalis fam-
ily, who later killed their Ottoman escorts and fled to Venice—a reminder that
assimilation was not the only choice for Byzantine aristocrats. Relations such as
these worked to the advantage of both the Ottomans and the Christian popula-
tions of the Balkans; they facilitated the conquest of the area and made the transi-
tion from Christian to Ottoman rule smoother.
Potential Dangers
The use of such connections, however, could also prove to be a double-edged
sword and create potential dangers for the Ottomans, since the networks of