Şehzade Korkut (1467-1513) was a Şehzade of the Ottoman Empire, the third and least capable son of Bayezid II of Turkey.
Biography[]
Korkut was born in Amasya in Turkey, a part of the Ottoman Empire, to Sultan Bayezid II of Turkey and his wife Gulbahar Hatun. He was the full brother of the future Selim I of Turkey and a younger half-brother of Şehzade Ahmet. He was incapable as Governor of Manisa, and was later made the Governor of Antalya. However, he interpreted his posting far away of Constantinople as disfavor by his father and demanded his former post. When his father refused, he escaped to Egypt in 1509 and was greeted by the Mamelukes. During his voyage, he avoided a Knights Hospitaller attack on his ship.
During the interregnum after the 1509 Earthquake in Constantinople, Korkut was one of the potential claimants to the title of Sultan as his father was inactive and dying. Korkut was seized by the Knights Templar and held in Bursa by thugs, but in 1511 he was rescued by Akilas Romanos, who was sent by Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a member of the Assassins Order. The Assassins would later spy on an assembly between him and Mameluke Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri.
Death[]
In 1513, the interregnum ended when Selim, his older brother, took power. Selim had Korkut executed after he felt that he would rebel, testing his loyalty by sending him rebellious letters under the alias of pro-Korkut bureaucrats.