The Mihaloğlu or Mihalzâde ("son of Michael"), in the collective plural Mihaloğulları ("Sons/descendants of Michael"), were a distinguished family of akıncı leaders and frontier lords (uç bey) of the early Ottoman Empire.
[1] He and his descendants bore, until the early 16th century, the hereditary title of "commander of the akıncıs".
According to the great Ottomanist Franz Babinger, along with the Evrenosoğulları, the Malkoçoğulları, the Timurtaşoğulları, and the Turahanoğulları, the Mihaloğulları were "among the most celebrated of the noble families of the early Ottoman empire".
[1] Köse Mihal had two sons, Mehmed, who played an important role in the Ottoman Interregnum and the early years of Murad II's reign, and Yahşi or Bahşi, who is relatively unknown.
[1] A Mihaloğlu Ahmed who lived at about the middle of the 16th century is possibly the last to have held and exercised the hereditary title of leader of akinjis, and the family begins to decline thereafter.