George Amiroutzes (Greek: Γεώργιος Αμιρουτζής) (1400–1470) was a Pontic Greek Renaissance scholar and philosopher.
He was born in Trebizond, lived and taught in Italy and eventually died in Constantinople. He is considered as a controversial figure of the late Byzantine era. He was praised and respected for his outstanding knowledge not only of theology and philosophy, but also of the natural sciences, medicine, rhetoric and poetry, all of which earned him the epithet the Philosopher (o Φιλόσοφος).
Amiroutzes was first attested as a lay advisor to the imperial delegation to the Council of Ferrara-Florence.[1][2] There he strongly supported the union of churches but upon return to Constantinople he made statements against the papal primacy and Filioque. According to a papal document 100 florins were given to protonotarios George as a subsidy; it was conjectured that Amiroutzes was thus bribed to support the union.[3]
However, he was denounced by his fellow Greeks as an opportunist, a traitor and a renegade for his familiarity with Mehmed the Conqueror. He was a nephew to the Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, and helped speed the fall of the Empire of Trebizond by persuading Emperor David to surrender to the Ottomans to prevent bloodshed to its inhabitants. Although the Emperor was granted pardon and kept his wealth and lands, he and some of his sons were found guilty of treason and executed some years later. George himself was very popular with the Ottoman court, and one of the advisors of Mehmed the Conqueror on Christianity and Greco-Roman philosophy. He was granted land by the Ottoman Sultan and one of his sons, named after Mehmed the Conqueror, was charged with responsibility for the Greek scriptoria in the Empire. [4]