Bayezid II (3 December 1447 – 26 May 1512), born Bayezid bin Mehmed, was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. He was the son of Mehmet II, brother of Cem, and also the father of Ahmet, Korkut and Selim I, as well as the grandfather of Suleiman I.
Bayezid ruled the Ottoman Empire justly, and also controlled a great naval power. The Sultan welcomed many escaped Jewish refugees from the Inquisition of Queen Isabella I in Spain and King Manuel I in Portugal. The King of Spain, Ferdinand II - under the influence of the Templars - tried to send his own agents with the refugees to infiltrate Constantinople, but was foiled by the Italian Assassins, who killed the agents and took their places.
Sultan Bayezid II had originally chosen his son Ahmet as the next Sultan, but he soon faced fierce opposition from the Ottoman Janissaries who were supporting Bayezid's son Selim. Selim had secretly gained the Janissaries' support to aid him in his ascension to the throne, and so, he begun a tough war against his father in order to dethrone him from the title of Sultan. In 1512, Bayezid eventually handed over the throne to Selim instead of Ahmet, and Selim became the new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
- His date of death was one of the dates shown in the beginning of the reveal video for Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
- Damat Ali Pasha once served him as a high-ranking officer, though he discontinued after Bayezid's plans for conquering the world became inactive.
- Bayezid is variant of an Arabic name with the meaning "a devoted saint."