Shishmanoğlu family

It was usual among Balkan notable of the time to assume medieval surnames and claim descent from the famous noble houses of their glorious past.

[1] The origin of the founder of the family can be traced to the village of Poreč (today Donji Milanovac, Serbia) on an island on the Danube.

He joined the forces of Michael the Brave in Banat with 2000 hajduks for the liberation of the Vlach lands and was made captain of the Brigands.

After many adventures he went back to Moscow, where he finally married to the niece of the patriarch and gave the foundations of the Russian noble family Saveliev–Rostislavic.

His successors are engaged in tailoring, while the marriage of a one their girl with influential Bosnian janissar, give unexpected rise of the family.

Emmanuel developed a finance house by installing each of his four sons in the main economic centres in Ottoman and Austrian Empires.

Unlike the Christian usurers of earlier centuries, who had financed and managed Turkish noble houses, but often lost their wealth through violence or expropriation, the system created by the Shishmanoğlu was impervious to local attacks.

His works include writings on Bulgaria’s literary ties with Russia and Ukraine and a series of lectures on comparative Western European literatures in the 18th century.