Manuc Bey
Manuc Bey
Born1769
Rusçuk, Ottoman Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire
Died1817
Hîncești, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire
Resting placeArmenian Church in Chișinău
NationalityArmenian
Occupation(s)merchant, diplomat, and inn-keeper
Signature

Manuc Bey (the common Romanian rendering of Manuk Bey, the Armenian name of Emanuel Mârzayan; 1769–1817) was an Armenian merchant, diplomat, and inn-keeper.

Life

Coat of arms of the Manuc Bei family

He was born in Rousse (modern-day Ruse, Bulgaria) as a subject of the Ottoman Empire. A grain merchant, he amassed considerable wealth, and was rumored at the time to be the wealthiest man in the Balkans. In 1803, he was awarded the boyar rank of paharnic by Constantine Ypsilanti, Prince of Wallachia.

The yard of Manuc's Inn in 1841

In 1808, the highly influential Manuc was advanced by his protector, the Ottoman general Alemdar Mustafa Pasha, to occupy the Moldavian throne, but was prevented from taking the throne by the fall of his protector; he himself had to flee Istanbul to avoid execution. Settling in Bucharest (after a short period of refuge in Transylvania), Manuc-Bey kept the inn known today as Manuc's Inn; in time, he also acquired estates in Bessarabia, near Hîncești and Reni, and was to remain the main financial backer of Ypsilanti, lending the treasury 160,000 thalers in all.

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–1812, he was also a mediator (1809) between the Russian Imperial Army of Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich and a rebel Ottoman garrison in Giurgiu. A Russian agent, Manuc took part in the negotiations for the 1812 Treaty of Bucharest between the Russian and Ottoman empires, which were held in his inn in Bucharest.

Manuc Bei's Mansion in Hîncești
Manuc Bei's tomb at the Armenian Church of Chișinău

Towards the end of his life, he retired to his estate of Hîncești, where his son later built a manor house.

Manuc died in an accident in 1817, and was buried in the Armenian Church in Chișinău.

References

  • Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient și Occident. Țările române la începutul epocii moderne ("Between Orient and Occident. The Romanian lands at the beginning of the modern era"), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995, pp. 169, 287, 348–349
  • Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Bucureștilor. Din cele mai vechi timpuri pînă în zilele noastre ("History of Bucharest. From the earliest times to this day"), Editura Pentru Literatură, Bucharest, 1966, pp. 270–271.
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