On the Background and the Šibenik Relatives of Murat-Beg Gajdić, the First Sanjak Bey of Klis

Abstract

This paper uses primary sources, archives of and related to Šibenik, to present new information on the background and the relatives of the local commander (ćehaja) serving under Gazi Husref Bey, the administrator of Bosnia, and the first sanjakbey of Klis, known in previous sources as Murat Bey Tardić. It has been established that his family name was Gajdić rather than Tardić, and that his father Mihat and his grandfather Toma moved in the late 15th century from their village of Mokra, in the Gornje Polje plateau near Šibenik, to Šibenik proper, fleeing the imminent threat of Ottoman incursions. The paper emphasizes the well-established facts about cross-border meetings and close ties between Murat Bey and his brother Juraj, a canon and an abbot in Šibenik – a likely source of influence over the resolution of border disputes on the Šibenik section of the Venetian-ottoman Border in the 1520s and 1530s.