George Castriot, commonly known as Skanderbeg (from Turkish: İskender Bey; Albanian: Skënderbeu or Gjergj Kastrioti/Skënderbej, ; 1405 – 17 January 1468), was a 15th-century Albanian nobleman.Skanderbeg was born in 1405 to the noble Kastrioti family. Sultan Murad II took him hostage at a young age and he served the Ottoman Empire during the next twenty years. He was appointed as sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Dibra by the Ottomans in 1440.