Cem Sultan

Upon arriving at Rhodes, Cem asked the protection of the French captain of Bodrum Castle, Pierre d'Aubusson, grand master of the Knights of St. John, the Latin Catholic order on the island. On July 29, Cem arrived at Rhodes and was received with honor. In return for the overthrow of the new sultan Bayezid, Prince Cem offered perpetual peace between the Ottoman Empire and Christendom if he regained the Ottoman throne. However, Pierre d'Aubusson realized that conflict with Bayezid would be imprudent, so he secretly approached Bayezid, concluded a peace treaty, and then reached a separate agreement on Cem's captivity in March 1483. D'Aubusson promised Bayezid to detain Cem in return for an annual payment of 40,000 ducats for his maintenance.

Therefore, the Knights took the money and betrayed Cem, who thereafter became a well-treated prisoner at Rhodes. Afterwards, Cem was sent to the castle of Pierre d'Aubusson in France.

The Zizim Tower in Bourganeuf, France.

Cem had reached Nice, at that time in the Duchy of Savoy, on 17 October 1482, en route to Hungary, but the Knights were playing for time. After the agreement about his confinement was finalised, he became a hostage, as well as a potential pawn. Those who hoped to use his name and person to foment turmoil in the Ottoman realm included the Mamlūk sultan Qāʾit Bāy, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, and Pope Innocent VIII. Others, such as the Knights of Saint John, the Venetians, the king of Naples, and Popes Innocent VIII and Alexander VI, viewed his presence in Europe as a deterrent to Ottoman aggression against Christendom and an opportunity for profit. For his part, Bayezid II dispatched ambassadors and spies to the West to assure that his rival was detained indefinitely, and he even attempted to eliminate him through assassination.[1]

Cem spent a year in the Duchy of Savoy. After the death of King Louis XI of France (August 30, 1483), who had refused to accept a Muslim in his lands, the Knights of Saint John transferred him to Limousin (D'Aubusson's birthplace). Cem spent the next five years there, mostly at Bourganeuf. He was well treated, but essentially a captive (a fortified tower was constructed to house him). Bayezid II negotiated both with D'Aubusson, to have Cem returned to Rhodes, and with representatives of the new French monarch, Charles VIII, to have him kept in France. When the king of Hungary and Pope Innocent VIII sought custody of the prince, the Pope prevailed, and Cem arrived in Rome on 13 March 1489.

Cem in St Catherine's Disputation by Pinturicchio

Innocent VIII rebuffed overtures from the Mamlūks and prepared to launch a crusade against the Ottomans, but it was postponed when Matthias Corvinus of Hungary died on April 6, 1490. These developments worried Bayezid, who contacted D'Aubusson and also sent Mustafa Bey (later a grand vizier) to Rome, to conclude a secret agreement, in December 1490. The sultan promised not to attack Rhodes, Rome, or Venice, as well as to pay Cem's allowance of 40,000 ducats to the Pope (10,000 of which were earmarked for the Knights of Saint John), in return for the prince's incarceration. Apparently, Cem found life in Rome more pleasant than in France, and he had lost hope of seizing the Ottoman throne, but he wanted to die in a Muslim land. His wish would not be realized.[1]

Pope Innocent VIII unsuccessfully attempted to use Cem to begin a new crusade against the Ottomans.[4] The Pope also tried to convert Cem to Christianity, without success. Cem's presence in Rome was useful nevertheless, because whenever Bayezid intended to launch a military campaign against Christian nations of the Balkans, the Pope would threaten to release his brother.

In exchange for maintaining the custody of Cem, Bayezid paid Innocent VIII 120,000 crowns (at the time, equal to all other annual sources of papal revenue combined), a relic of the Holy Lance (which allegedly had pierced the side of Christ), one hundred Moorish slaves, and an annual fee of 45,000 ducats. Much of the costs associated with the Sistine Chapel were paid with funds from the Ottoman ransoms.[5]

Cem had two diwans in Turkish and Persian, and he also spoke Arabic.[6]

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  A man on horseback, probably Cem, by The Borgia Apartments, by Pinturicchio[7]
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  Portrait of Cem Sultan, 1586

Cem had only one know consort:

• Gülşirin Hatun.[8]

Cem had at least two sons:

• Şehzade Oğuzhan (murdered by Bayezid II, Istanbul, 1482), called also Şehzade Oğuz[9]
• Şehzade Murad (murdered by Suleiman the Magnificent, Rhodes, December 1522), later Pierre Mehmed Sayd; married and had four sons and three daughters[10][11]

Cem had at least two daughters:

• Gevhermelik Hatun, called also Gevhermuluk Hatun,[12] married firstly in 1496 to Sultan An-Nasir Muhammad, son of Qaitbay (d. 1498), married secondly in 1503 to Sinan Pasha Beylerbey of Anatolia;[10]
• Ayşe Hatun,[13] married in 1503 to Mehmed Bey, son of Sinan Pasha, Sanjak-bey of Ioannina[12]

In the 1490s, a book in Latin was written about Cem's life. It was illustrated by Guillaume Caoursin, vice-chancellor of the Knights Hospitaller. It was published in several European cities that possessed printing capability: Venice, Paris, Bruges, Salamanca, Ulm and London. The many illustrations in the book are the first accurately described representations in Western Europe of costumes and weapons of the Turkish people.

An account of Cem's captivity—and of the political machinations that kept him captive—forms the basis of the historical novel, Francesca: Les Jeux du Sort (1872), written by the Haitian writer and political exile, Demesvar Delorme.[14]

Cem's life also served as inspiration for a character in the book The Damned Yard (1954) by the Yugoslav Nobelist writer Ivo Andrić. It is widely considered to be one of his masterpieces[15] and has been translated into over 30 languages.[16] Cem Sultan appears as one of the main characters in a multiple-layered narration and serves as a metaphor for the human condition.

Bulgarian Ottoman historian Vera Mutafchieva, inspired by Cem Sultan's importance in European politics of the 15th century, wrote a novel (The Cem Case) about him in 1967. The book strives for historical accuracy and was translated into Turkish, German, Rumanian, Polish, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, French, Estonian, Greek and Croatian.

In 1951, was released historical film Cem Sultan, which main protagonist was portrayed by Bülent Ufuk.

In 1969 was released historical adventure film Malkoçoğlu Cem Sultan, which directed by Remzi Aydın Jöntürk, the character of Cem Sultan, was portrayed by Cihangir Ghaffari.

• In the Showtime series The Borgias, Cem is played by British actor Elyes Gabel, and is depicted in Rome under the papacy of Innocent VIII's successor, Pope Alexander VI. He is also portrayed to have sought to convert to Christianity, and to have been assassinated by Alexander VI's son, Juan Borgia.
• In the Canal+ series Borgia, the character of Cem, played by Nicolás Belmonte, dies from fever when traveling with Cesare Borgia in Charles' campaign against Naples.
• In the MBC series Kingdoms of Fire, Cem fought against Bayezid II, then he sought refuge with the crusaders, who agreed to host him in exchange to annual tribute from the Ottoman Sultan.

• In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Cem was mentioned to possess an Apple of Eden, then he became a Templar acquainted with Rodrigo Borgia, however, he was eventually killed by the Assassins.[17]