Bayezid

Bayezid I , nicknamed Yıldırım (Ottoman: ییلدیرم), "Thunderbolt"; 1354 – March 8, 1403) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He was the son of Murad I^[1][2] and Valide Sultan Gülçiçek Hatun. Bayezid ascended to the throne following the death of his father Murad I, who was killed by Serbian knight Miloš Obilić during (June 15), or immediately after (June 16), the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, by which Serbia became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. Immediately after obtaining the throne, he had his younger brother strangled to avoid a plot. In 1390, Bayezid took as a wife Princess Olivera Despina, the daughter of Prince Lazar of Serbia,^[3] who also lost his life in Kosovo. Bayezid recognized Stefan Lazarević, the son of Lazar, as the new Serbian leader (later despot), with considerable autonomy.

 

From 1389 to 1395 he conquered Bulgaria and northern Greece. In 1394 he crossed the River Danube to attack Wallachia, ruled at that time by Mircea the Elder. The Ottomans were superior in number, but on October 10, 1394 (or 17 May 1395), in the Battle of Rovine, on forested and swampy terrain, the Wallachians won the fierce battle and prevented Bayezid from conquering the country. Meanwhile, he begin the reunification of the Turkish Anatolia, conquering the beyliks of Aydin, Saruhan in 1390, the beyliks of Mentese, Germiyan and Kastamonu in 1391; and finally the great emirate of Karaman and the ex-emirate of Burhan-ad-Din in Tokat, Sivas and Kayseri(1397–98). Next he occuped the cities of Malatya and Elbistan, in a war with the mamluk sultan of Egypt.

 

In 1394, Bayezid laid siege to Constantinople,^[4] the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Anadoluhisarı fortress was built between 1393 and 1394 as part of preparations for the Second Ottoman Siege of Constantinople, which took place in 1395. On the urgings of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus a new crusade was organized to defeat him. This proved unsuccessful: in 1396 the Christian allies, under the leadership of the King of Hungary and future Holy Roman Emperor (in 1433) Sigismund, were defeated in the Battle of Nicopolis. Bayezid built the magnificent Ulu Camii in Bursa, to celebrate this victory.

 

Thus, the siege of Constantinople continued, lasting until 1402.^[5] The beleaguered Byzantines had their reprieve when Bayezid fought the Timurid in the East.^[6] At this time, the empire of Bayezid included Thrace (except Constantinople), Macedonia, Bulgaria, and parts of Serbia in Europe. In Asia, his domains extended to the Taurus Mountains. His army was considered one of the best in the Islamic world. In 1400, the Central Asian warlord Timur succeeded in rousing the local Turkic beyliks that had been vassals of the Ottomans to join him in his attack on Bayezid, who was also considered one of the most powerful rulers in the Muslim world during that period. In the fateful Battle of Ankara, on 20 July 1402, Bayezid was captured by Timur and the Ottoman army was defeated. Many writers claim that Bayezid was mistreated by the Timurids. However, writers and historians from Timur's own court reported that Bayezid was treated well, and that Timur even mourned his death. One of Bayezid's sons, Mustafa Çelebi, was captured with him and held captive in Samarkand until 1405. Four of Bayezid's sons, specifically Süleyman Çelebi, İsa Çelebi, Mehmed Çelebi, and Musa Çelebi, however, escaped from the battlefield and later started a civil war for the Ottoman throne known as the Ottoman Interregnum.^[7] After Mehmed's victory, his coronation as Mehmed I, and the death of all four but Mehmed, Bayezid's other son Mustafa Çelebi emerged from hiding and began two failed rebellions against his brother Mehmed and, after Mehmed's death, his nephew Murat II.