Though his successor Alexander was spared by the Ottomans, he was forced into accepting Islam and was exiled to Asia Minor so as to keep him far from his father's previous domains.
Alexander, subsequently referred to as Iskender in Ottoman sources, was installed as governor of Samsun and the neighbouring territories (“the land of Canik”).
[3] Alexander possibly remained governor of Samsun until 1402, when this region was conquered by the Timurids in the wake of the Battle of Ankara on 20 July of that year.
Until then, Smyrna had been ruled by Cüneyt, the bey of Aydin, who was exiled as governor of the previously Bulgarian city of Nikopol on the Danube.
He remained in charge of the city until 1418, when he attempted to suppress a rebellion to the south of Smyrna headed by Sheikh Bedrettin's follower Börklüce Mustafa.
[5][7][8] According to the theory of Bulgarian historian Plamen Pavlov, during his time as governor of Smyrna, Alexander may have been in active contact with his possible half-brother, the future Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople.