Introduction the Battle of Ankara and Its Consequences

INTRODUCTION THE BATTLE OF ANKARA AND ITS CONSEQUENCES On 28 July 1402, a great battle was fought on a plain outside Ankara. On one side was the army of Timur (Tamerlane, r. 1370–1405), “the last of the great nomad conquerors,” who had spent the two preceding decades building a vast empire on the Mongol model.1 On the other was that of the Ottoman ruler Bayezid I ‘the Thunderbolt’ (Yıldırım,r. 1389–1402), who styled himself “Sultan of Rum” (Sul.t¯an-ı R¯um)inorder to lay claim to the legacy of the Seljuks of Rum.2 Like Timur, Bayezid had spent most of his reign on campaign, enlarging the Ottoman domains toward the east and west to include almost all of the territory that had once belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). In an effort to create a seamless, centralized state, Bayezid had threatened his Christian vassals in the Balkans (Ottoman Rumili or Rumeli)with elimination, crushed the knights of Western Christendom at Nicopo- lis (1396), and subjected the Byzantine capital of Constantinople to a harrowing eight-year siege (1394–1402). In the east, he had carried out a series of campaigns against rival Muslim states, the Turkish beyliks or emirates of Anatolia (Asia Minor). Through these campaigns, which were unpopular with his Muslim subjects and therefore had to be carried out by armies consisting largely of slaves (kul) and Christian vassals, Bayezid had expanded his domains in Anatolia to match Ottoman expansion in Europe. But this eastward expansion brought Bayezid into conflict with Timur, whose interests also extended into eastern Anato- lia.3 1 Beatrice Forbes Manz, TheRiseandRuleofTamerlane(Cambridge: Cambridge Canto, 1989), 1–2. 2 The Ottomans were not the only post-Seljukid dynasty in Anatolia to use the title, nor was Bayezid I the first Ottoman ruler to do so. However, Bayezid went further than his predecessors, asking that the title be conferred upon him by the Abbasid puppet- caliph in Cairo. See Paul Wittek, “Le Sultan de Rûm,” Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves 6 (1938), 381–382. 3 Beatrice Forbes Manz, “T¯ımur¯ Lang,” EI2; Halil Inalcık,˙ “Bayaz¯ ¯ıd I,” EI2. 2 introduction In the Battle of Ankara, the Ottomans were completely crushed and their Sultan was taken prisoner. Contingents from the absorbed Ana- tolian beyliks crossed over to their former lords, who were on Timur’s side, and Sultan Bayezid was left with his janissaries and Serbian vassals. Following his victory, Timur spent nine months in Anatolia with his armies, pillaging the countryside, looting Bursa and other Ottoman towns, and reconstituting the Turkish beyliks that Bayezid had dispos- sessed in creating his empire.4 Despite the scale of the destruction in Anatolia, however, Timur’s armies never set foot in Rumeli, the western half of Bayezid’s empire, and Timur left the Ottoman dynasty intact, apart from Sultan Bayezid who died in captivity and his son Mustafa who was apparantly taken captive to Samarkand.5 After Timur returned to Central Asia in the spring of 1403, Bayezid’s sons Emir Süleyman, Isa˙ Beg, Mehmed Çelebi, and later also Musa Çelebi began to fight over the provinces that still remained in Ottoman hands. These included Rumeli, Bithynia, and the province of Rum in North Central Anatolia, centered around the cities of Amasya and Tokat. 6 For a period of eleven years usually referred to as the Ottoman interregnum (Turkish Fetret Devri), Bayezid’s sons fought the first (and arguably also the worst) succession struggle in the six hundred years of Ottoman history. Mehmed I finally emerged as the winner after defeat- ing his brother Musa at the Battle of Çamurlu (5 July 1413). From 1413 until his death in 1421,MehmedI(knownasSultanMehmedÇelebi,or Kyritzes in Greek) reigned as sole Ottoman sultan, although he was not uncontested.7 In 1415, Timur’s successor Shahrukh released Mehmed’s older brother, ‘the false’ (düzme) Mustafa, who formed an alliance with Byzantium and revived the succession struggle for about a year (1416). Mustafa’s challenge coincided with a major social rebellion under the 4 For Timur’s campaign in Anatolia, the standard work is Marie Mathilde Alexan- drescu-Dersca, La campagne de Timur en Anatolie (1402) (Bucharest: Monitorul Oficial si Imprimeriile Statului, 1942). 5 Halil Inalcık,˙ “Mehemmed. I,” EI2, 974, 976. 6 For the name of this province, see Wittek, “Le Sultan de Rûm,” 364–366. 7 In this period, the title çelebi meant ‘prince’ or ‘young lord.’ Contemporary sources suggest that during the civil war, both çelebi and its Greek translation kyritzes were associated primarily with Mehmed. Musa was also called çelebi because of his young age, while Süleyman was invariably called emir. The title beg was also used, especially for Isa˙ and Musa. Mehmed’s Greek title kyritzes entered Turkish as kiri¸sçi,whichwas sometimes misinterpreted as güre¸sçi, ‘the wrestler.’ On the question of Mehmed’s name, see Paul Wittek, “Der ‘Beiname’ des osmanischen Sultans Mehemmed I,” Eretz-Israel 7 (1964): 144–153..

Load more