Editing Caesar (title) (section)

===Ottoman Empire===
{{Main|Ottoman claim to Roman succession}}
[[File:Gennadios II and Mehmed II.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Mehmed II]] and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople [[Gennadius Scholarius|Gennadios]].]]
"Caesar" is the title officially used by the [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanid Persians]] to refer to the Roman and Byzantine emperors.<ref>{{langx|pal|[[wikt:𐭪𐭩𐭮𐭫𐭩|𐭪𐭩𐭮𐭫𐭩]]}} kysly ([[Inscriptional Pahlavi]]), kysl ([[Book Pahlavi]]), transcribed as ''kēsar''</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hurbanič |first1=Martin |title=The Avar Siege of Constantinople in 626: History and Legend |date=2019 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-030-16684-7 |page=234 |language=en}}</ref> In the [[Middle East]], the Persians and the Arabs continued to refer to the Roman and Byzantine emperors as "Caesar" (in {{langx|fa|قیصر روم}} ''Qaysar-i Rum'', "Caesar of the Romans", from [[Middle Persian]] ''kēsar''). Thus, following the [[Fall of Constantinople|conquest of Constantinople]] in 1453, the victorious [[Ottoman sultan]] [[Mehmed II]] became the first of the rulers of the [[Ottoman Empire]] to assume the title (in {{langx|ota|قیصر روم}} ''Kayser-i Rûm''). 

After the Fall of Constantinople, having conquered the Byzantine Empire, Mehmed took the title ''[[Kayser-i Rûm]]'', claiming succession to the Roman imperium.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Michalis N. Michael|author2=Matthias Kappler|author3=Eftihios Gavriel|title=Archivum Ottomanicum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SjwMAQAAMAAJ|year=2009|publisher=Mouton|page=10|isbn=978-3447057530}}</ref> His claim was that, by possession of the city, he was emperor, a new dynast [[Right of conquest|by conquest]], as had been done previously by the likes of [[Heraclius]] and [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo III]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Christine Isom-Verhaaren|author2=Kent F. Schull|title=Living in the Ottoman Realm: Empire and Identity, 13th to 20th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZX2_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|date=11 April 2016|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-01948-6|pages=38–}}</ref> Contemporary scholar [[George of Trebizond]] wrote "the seat of the Roman Empire is Constantinople ... and he who is and remains Emperor of the Romans is also the Emperor of the whole world".<ref name="Crowley2009">{{cite book|first=Roger |last=Crowley|title=Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftOp1cR7VK8C&pg=PT13|year=2009|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-25079-0|pages=13–}}</ref> 

[[Gennadius Scholarius|Gennadius II]], a staunch antagonist of the West because of the [[Sack of Constantinople]] committed by the Western Catholics and theological controversies between the two Churches, had been enthroned the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople-New Rome]] with all the ceremonial elements and [[ethnarch]] (or ''milletbashi'') status by the Sultan himself in 1454. In turn, Gennadius II formally recognized Mehmed as successor to the throne.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://global.britannica.com/biography/Gennadios-II-Scholarios|title= Gennadios II Scholarios |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=13 July 2020}}</ref> Mehmed also had a blood lineage to the Byzantine Imperial family; his predecessor, Sultan [[Orhan]] had married a Byzantine princess, and Mehmed may have claimed descent from [[John Tzelepes Komnenos]].<ref name="Norwich 1995 413–416">{{Cite book| last = Norwich | first = John Julius | author-link = John Julius Norwich  | year = 1995 | title = Byzantium:The Decline and Fall | pages = 81–82 | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf  | location = New York | isbn = 0-679-41650-1}}</ref> Ottoman sultans were not the only rulers to claim such a title, as there was the [[Holy Roman Empire]] in Western Europe, whose emperor, [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]], traced his titular lineage from [[Charlemagne]] who obtained the title of Roman Emperor when he was crowned by [[Pope Leo III]] in 800, although he was never recognized as such by the Byzantine Empire. 

In diplomatic writings between the Ottomans and Austrians, the Ottoman bureaucracy was angered by their use of the Caesar title when the Ottomans saw themself as the true successors of [[Roman Empire|Rome]]. When war broke out and peace negotiations were done, the Austrians ([[Holy Roman Empire]]) agreed to give up the use of the [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]] title according to [[Treaty of Constantinople (1533)]] (though they would continue to use it and the Roman imperial title until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806). The Russians, who defined [[Moscow]] as the [[Third Rome]], were similarly sanctioned by the Ottomans, who ordered the [[Crimean Khanate]] to raid Russia on numerous occasions.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Kırım Hanlığı Tarihi Üzerine Araştırmalar 1441–1700: Seçme Eserleri – XI|last=Halil|first=Inançik|year=2017|publisher=Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları |isbn=978-6052952511}}</ref> The Ottomans stopped claiming political superiority over the Holy Roman Empire with the [[Peace of Zsitvatorok|Treaty of Zsitvatorok]] in 1606, and over the [[Russian Empire]] with the [[Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca]] in 1774, by diplomatically recognising the monarchs of these two countries as equals to the Ottoman Sultan for the first time.