 Turkish orientalist Halil Inalcik (1916–2016) believed that Ishak Pasha was created by the confusion between several Ottoman Ishak Pashas (particularly Ishak bin Abdullah and Ishak bin Ibrahim) and Ishak Bey, but according to him Ishak Pasha was Albanian .According to German orientalist Franz Babinger (1891–1967) he was a convert of Greek origin.In circa 1451 he was appointed as the "beylerbey" (provincial governor) of Anatolia; the same year, the newly ascended Sultan Mehmet II ("the Conqueror") forced him to marry his father Murad II's widow Sultan Hatun.