Bayezid I (Ottoman Turkish: بايزيد اول; Turkish: I. Bayezid, Yıldırım Bayezid (nicknamed Yıldırım (Ottoman Turkish: یلدیرم), "Lightning, Thunderbolt"); 1360 – 8 March 1403) was the Ottoman Sultan from 1389 to 1402. He was the son of Murad I and Gülçiçek Hatun. He built one of the largest armies in the known world at the time and unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople.
He adopted the title of Sultan-i Rûm,Rûm being an old Islamic name for the Roman Empire. He decisively defeated the Crusaders at Nicopolis (in modern Bulgaria) in 1396, and was himself defeated and captured by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 and died in captivity in March 1403, triggering the Ottoman Interregnum.
Biography
The first major role of Bayezid was as governor of Kütahya, a city that was conquered from the Germiyanids. He was an impetuous soldier, earning the nickname Lightning in a battle against the Karamanids.
Bayezid ascended to the throne following the death of his father Murad I, who was killed by Serbian knight Miloš Obilić during (15 June), or immediately after (16 June), the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, by which Serbia became a vassal of the Ottoman Sultanate. 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, 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.
The upper Serbia resisted the Ottomans until general Pasha Yiğit Bey captured the city of Skopje in 1391, converting the city to an important base of operations.
Bayezid I, "The Thunderbolt," Routs the Crusaders at the Battle of Nicopolis, from the Hunernama of Loqman, 1584
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper
single page
Jerome Wheelock Fund
1935.13. (LINK)
Meanwhile, the sultan began unifying Anatolia under his rule. Forcible expansion into Muslim territories could endanger the Ottoman relationship with the gazis, who were an important source of warriors for this ruling house on the European frontier. So Bayezid began the practice to first secure fatwas, or legal rulings from Islamic scholars, justifying their wars against these Muslim states. However he suspected the loyalty of his Muslim Turkoman followers, for Bayezid relied heavily on his Serbian and Byzantine vassal troops to perform these conquests.
In a single campaign over the summer and fall of 1390, Bayezid conquered the beyliks of Aydin, Saruhan and Menteshe. His major rival Sulayman, the emir of Karaman, responded by allying himself with the ruler of Sivas, Kadi Burhan al-Din and the remaining Turkish beyliks. Nevertheless, Bayezid pushed on and in the fall and winter of 1390 overwhelmed the remaining beyliks — Hamid, Teke, and Germiyan — as well as taking the cities of Akşehir and Niğde, as well as their capital Konya from the Karaman. At this point, Bayezid accepted peace proposals from Karaman (1391), concerned that further advances would antagonize his Turkoman followers and lead them to ally with Kadi Burhan al-Din. Once peace had been made with Karaman, Bayezid moved north against Kastamonu which had given refuge to many fleeing from his forces, and conquered both that city as well as Sinop.However, his subsequent campaign was stopped by Burhan al-Din at the Battle of Kırkdilim.
From 1389 to 1395 he conquered Bulgaria and northern Greece.
In 1394 Bayezid crossed the River Danube to attack Wallachia, ruled at that time by Mircea the Elder. The Ottomans were superior in number, but on 10 October 1394 (or 17 May 1395), in the Battle of Rovine, on forested and swampy terrain, the Wallachians won the fierce battle and prevented Bayezid’s army from advancing beyond the Danube.
In 1394, Bayezid laid siege to Constantinople, 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.
A 15th century CE illustration by Sébastien Mamerot of the Battle of Nicopolis (aka Nicopolis Crusade) of 1396 CE when a Christian army was routed by the Ottoman Turks.
Thus the siege of Constantinople continued, lasting until 1402.The beleaguered Byzantines had their reprieve when Bayezid fought the Timurid Empire in the East. 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 1397, Bayezid defeated the emir of Karaman in Akçay, killing him and annexing his territory. In 1398, the sultan conquered the Djanik emirate and the territory of Burhan al-Din, violating the accord with Timur. Finally, Bayezid occupied Elbistan and Malatya.
In 1400, the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur succeeded in rousing the local Turkic beyliks who 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.
Bayezid I captured and taken to Tamerlane
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. 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.
Murad was killed during the Battle of Kosovo. His son and successor, Bayezid I, was unable to take advantage of his father’s victory to achieve further European conquest. In fact, he was compelled to restore the defeated vassals and return to Anatolia. That return was precipitated by the rising threat of the Turkmen principality of Karaman, created on the ruins of the Seljuq empire of Anatolia with its capital at Konya. Bayezid’s predecessors had avoided forceful annexation of Turkmen territory in order to concentrate on Europe. They had, however, expanded peacefully through marriage alliances and the purchase of territories. The acquisition of territory in central Anatolia from the emirates of Hamid and Germiyan had brought the Ottomans into direct contact with Karaman for the first time. Murad had been compelled to take some military action to prevent it from occupying his newly acquired Anatolian territories but then had turned back to Europe, leaving the unsolved problem to his successor son.
Karaman willingly cooperated with Serbia in inciting opposition to Ottoman rule among Murad’s vassals in both Europe and Anatolia. That opposition strengthened the Balkan Union that was routed by the Ottomans at Kosovo and stimulated a general revolt in Anatolia that Bayezid was forced to meet by an open attack as soon as he was able. By 1390 Bayezid had overwhelmed and annexed all the remaining Turkmen principalities in western Anatolia.He attacked and defeated Karaman in 1391, annexed several Turkmen states in eastern Anatolia, and was preparing to complete his conquest in the area when he was forced to turn back to Europe to deal with a revolt of some of his Balkan vassals, encouraged and assisted by Hungary and Byzantium. Bayezid quickly smashed the rebels (1390-93), occupied Bulgaria and installed direct Ottoman administration for the first time, and besieged Constantinople. In response, Hungary organized a major European Crusade against the Ottomans. The effort was beaten back by Bayezid at the Battle of Nicopolis (Niğbolu) on the Danube in 1396.Europe was terrorized, and Ottoman rule south of the Danube was assured; Bayezid’s prestige in the Islamic world was so enhanced that he was given the title of sultan by the shadow ʿAbbāsidcaliph of Cairo, despite the opposition of the caliph’s Mamlūk masters (the rulers of Egypt, Syria, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina), who wanted to retain the title only for themselves.
Turning back to Anatolia to complete the conquests aborted by his move against the Crusaders, Bayezid overran Karaman, the last Turkmen principality, in 1397.
His advances, however, attracted the attention of Timur(Tamerlane), who had been building a powerful Tatar empire in Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Mesopotamia and whose invasion of India in 1398 had been halted by his fear of the rising Ottoman power on his western flank. Encouraged by several Turkmen princes who had fled to his court when their territories were taken by Bayezid, Timur decided to destroy Bayezid’s empire before turning his attentions back to the east and thus invaded Anatolia. As Bayezid and Timur moved toward battle, the former’s Turkmen vassals and Muslim followers deserted him because he had abandoned the old Ottoman ghazi tradition of advancing against the infidel.Left only with forces provided by his Christian vassals, Bayezid was decisively overwhelmed by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. Taken captive, Bayezid died within a year.
Timur’s objective in Anatolia had been not conquest but rather a secure western flank that would enable him to make further conquests in the east. He thus followed his victory by retiring from Anatolia after restoring to power the Turkmen princes who had joined him; evidently Timur assumed that a divided Anatolia would constitute no threat to his ambitions. Even Bayezid’s sons were able to assume control over the family’s former possessions in western Anatolia, and the Ottoman Empire in Europe was left largely untouched.At that time a strong European Crusade might have pushed the Ottomans out of Europe altogether, but weakness and division south of the Danube and diversion to other matters to the north left an opportunity for the Ottomans to restore what had been torn asunder without significant loss.
Internal divisions, however, were to hinder Ottoman efforts to restore their power during a period that has come to be known as the Interregnum (1402-13), during which four of Bayezid’s sons competed for the right to rule the entire empire. His eldest son, Süleyman, assumed control in Europe, establishing a capital at Edirne, and gained the support of the Christian vassals and those who had stimulated Bayezid to turn toward conquest in the East. The descendants of the Turkmen notables who had assisted the early Ottoman conquests in Europe supported the claims of Mehmed. With the additional support of the Anatolian Muslim religious orders and artisan guilds, Mehmed was able to defeat and kill his brothers Mûsa Bey, who had established his capital at Bursa, and İsa Bey of Balıkesir in southwestern Anatolia, as well as Süleyman, and so assume undisputed possession of the entire empire as Sultan Mehmed (Muḥammad) I.
Battle of Nicopolis 1396
Battle of Nicopolis 1396
Battle of Ankara 1402
🛑 TİMUR
Etnik olarak bir Mongol kabileye ait iken kültürel olarak Türkik sayılan Timur (1336-1405) (1370-1405)1370’te Transoxiana’ya yerleşti, bölgenin egemeni oldu, ve Semerkant’ı imparatorluğuna başkent yaptı.
14’üncü yüzyıl sonlarında Cengiz Han’ın imparatorluğunu yeniden kurmaya girişen Timur otuz beş yıl içinde tüm Orta Asya’yı, İran’ın büyük bölümünü ve Irak’ı, güney Rusya’nın ve Hint yarımadasının büyük bölümlerini denetimi altına aldı.
Timur’un acımasız düzeni sözcüğün gerçek anlamında insan kafatasları üzerine kuruldu; tahminlere göre 1370-1405 arasında öldürdüğü insanların sayısı 8 ile 20 milyon arasında idi.
Batıda, Timur’un orduları Suriye’de Memlük ve Ankara’da Osmanlı ordularını yendi (1400-02).
Timur 1405’te öldüğü zaman Çin seferine henüz başlamıştı.
Oğlu ve ardılı Shah Rukh (h. 1405-47) engin imparatorluğun sınırlarını korumayı ancak başarabildi.
Timur hanedanının sonraki prensleri kendi krallıklarını kurmaya çalıştılar ve iç çatışmaları ile imparatorluğu zayıflattılar.
Sonunda Timur ailesine geriye yalnızca Horasan ve Transoxiana kaldı.
Ottoman ghazi, Janissaries, and Balkan Christian vassals
Strength
140,000
85,000
Casualties and losses
up to 40,000
up to 40,000
Timur's conquests.
The Battle of Ankara or Angora was fought on 20 July 1402 at the Tchubuk plain near Angora between the forces of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I (Bajazet) and Timur (Tamerlane), ruler of the Timurid Empire. The battle was a major victory for Timur, and it led to a period of crisis for the Ottoman Empire (the Ottoman Interregnum). However, the Timurid Empire went into terminal decline following Timur's death just three years after the battle, while the Ottoman Empire made a full recovery, and continued to increase in power for another two to three centuries.
Background
Timur. Forensic facial reconstruction by M.Gerasimov. 1941.
Timur, a Turco-Mongol from Transoxiana (now Uzbekistan), had built an empire in Central Asia over the years, and became the most powerful ruler in Central Asia since Genghis Khan (from whom he also claimed descent). He sought to rebuild the once great Mongol Empire.In the 1380s and 1390s, he invaded and conquered parts of Persia (including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Upper Mesopotamia), ravaged southern Russia and Ukraine (1395–96), and invaded India (1398). Although there had been tensions between the Ottomans and Mongols, nothing would warrant a war, until Bayezid demanded tribute from an emir loyal to Timur, which he understood to be personal and a reason for war. In 1400-01 Timur took Sivasfrom the Ottomans, parts of Syria from the Mamluks, and next directed towards Anatolia.
Meanwhile, in 1402, the Ottomans had been campaigning in Europe. Bayezid broke off the blockade of Constantinople and marched to Ankara after Timur again moved his army to the southeast in the summer of 1402.
Troops
It is estimated that the Timurid army counted 140,000, mostly cavalry, and also 32 war elephants. Bayezid’s army numbered 85,000. Historical sources exaggerated the number of troops to unrealistic proportions: Ahmad ibn Arabshah claimed 800,000 Timurid troops, while a German witness claimed 1.6 million, for instance.
Bayezid reluctantly withdrew his forces from the blockade of Constantinople and marched them through the midsummer heat. When they arrived, they were tired and thirsty, but were allowed no time to rest or recuperate. Bayezid was advised by his generals to take up defensive positions and, when Timur's forces pushed back the Ottomans, to withdraw into the mountains and force Timur to break ranks and attempt to hunt the Ottomans in their own terrain during the midsummer heat. Bayezid instead chose to take an offensive stance and marched eastward. Advancing Ottoman scouts found no traces of the Timurids, who secretly marched southwest, rested, and were situated to the rear of the Ottomans. The Timurids encamped in the same locations that the Ottomans had previously occupied, making use of abandoned tents and water sources.
In the Timurid army, Timur commanded the centre, his sons Miran and Rukh the right and left, respectively, and his grandsons the vanguard.
In the Ottoman army, Bayezid commanded the centre with Janissaries, his son Suleyman the left flank with the best troops, Stefan Lazarević the right with the Balkan troops, and his son Mehmed the rear guard.
Battle
Army positions at the beginning of the battle. (W)
The battle began with a large-scale attack from the Ottomans, countered by swarms of arrows from the Timurid horse archers. Several thousand were killed and many surrendered to Timur. Stefan Lazarević and his knights together with Wallachian forces successfully fought off the Timurid assaults and cut through the Mongol ranks three times. Each time Stefan advised Bayezid to break out with him, Bayezid declined to do so. But the Serbians managed to save one of Bayezid's sons and the treasury from the Mongols and made their way to Constantinople. The Serbian troops wore heavy black plate armour which was very effective against the Timurid arrows. Timur admired the Serbian troops who according to him "fight like lions". During the battle the main water supply of both armies, Çubuk creek, was diverted to an off-stream reservoir near the town of Çubuk by Timur, which left the Ottoman army with no water. The final battle took place at Catal hill, dominating the Çubuk valley. The Ottoman army, both thirsty and tired, was defeated, though Bayezid managed to escape to the nearby mountains with a few hundred horsemen. However, Timur had the mountains surrounded and, heavily outnumbering Bayezid, soon captured him. He died in captivity three months later. Already heavily outnumbered, the Ottoman army was further weakened by the desertion ofthe Black Tatars and the Sipahis from the Anatolian beyliks, who left Bayezid’s side and joined Timur’s forces.
Aftermath
After the battle, Timur moved through western Anatolia to the Aegean coast, where he besieged and took the city of Smyrna, a stronghold of the Christian Knights Hospitalers.
The battle was catastrophic for the Ottoman state, fracturing what remained and bringing almost total collapse of the empire. This resulted in a civil war among Bayezid's sons. The Ottoman civil war continued for another 11 years (1413) following the Battle of Ankara.
The battle is also significant in Ottoman history as being the only time a Sultan was captured in person.
📹 Battle of Ankara 1402 / Ottoman-Timurid War (VİDEO)
Battle of Ankara 1402 / Ottoman-Timurid War (LINK)
Despite heavy casualties during the battle of Kosovo (1389) against a broad alliance of the Balkan peoples led by Serbian lord Lazar and battle of Nicopolis (1396) against European Crusaders led by Jean of Never, Sigismund I of Hungary and Mircea I of Wallachia, Ottoman empire continued to expand under the leadership of sultan Yildirim Bayezid I.
To the east new empire under amir Timur (Tamerlane) was on the rise and as the borders of two empires touched, the war was inevitable.
The battle of Ankara of 1402 was one of the biggest fought between the Muslim empires. At the same time, results of this massive battle impacted Ottoman, Timurid, Byzantine empires and changed the course of the history of Europe, Asia, Middle East and Balkans.
Bayezid I.
 of 1396 CE when a Christian army was routed by the Ottoman Turks.jpg)
A 15th century CE illustration by Sébastien Mamerot of the Battle of Nicopolis (aka Nicopolis Crusade) of 1396 CE when a Christian army was routed by the Ottoman Turks.
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