Who is Murad I?
Sultan Murad I
Was born in Bursa on June 29, 1326. He is the third ruler of the Aliyye. Sultan Murad, who does not have much information about his youth and princehood, was declared ruler by the decision of the Bursa ahis after the death of his father Orhan Gazi, while he was in a war environment in Rumelia, and was summoned to Bursa. The enemies immediately took action to take advantage of this change of ruler. Byzantium immediately took back Çorlu, Burgaz and Malkara
The Ahis in Ankara expelled the Ottoman castle guards from Ankara. At the same time, Byzantium was born to VI on his mother's side. He provoked prince Halil, the grandson of Yannis Kantakouzenos, and made him refuse to accept his brother's sultanate. While all this was happening, Karamanoğulları was preparing an army to attack the Ottomans. Sultan Murad first held a meeting with experienced commanders, members of the ulema and other notables and found a solution to all of these problems that year. He first attacked Ankara, captured the castle and the city, and eliminated the subversives. Then he captured Sultan Mound (Eskişehir) and returned to Bursa and directed against Karamanoğulları.
Meanwhile, he had his brothers Ibrahim and Halil, who were preparing to revolt, captured and executed. After putting things in order in Anatolia, he returned to Rumelia in 1361 and recaptured Lüleburgaz and Çorlu, which had been captured by the Byzantine Empire. A war council was established in Lüleburgaz. In this parliament, it was decided to take Edirne. Ottoman troops under the command of Lala Şahin Pasha won the battle at Sazlıdere against a complex Byzantine-Bulgarian army; It led to the conquest of Edirne. Thus, Murad I conquered Edirne, the center of Byzantium in Thrace and the third largest city in the empire, in 1361. Lala Şahin Pasha sent a cavalry unit under the command of Hacı İl-Beyi to reconnoitre for the defense of Edirne. At that time, the Crusaders were camping comfortably on the banks of Meriç. On September 26, 1364, Hacı İl-Beyi's unit made a sudden raid at daybreak and started an attack. The panicked crusader unit could not resist this attack, and thousands of Bulgarian, Serbian, Hungarian and Wallachian Crusader soldiers were killed or drowned in Evros. Ottoman historians refer to this magnificent raid as Serbian Sanctuary.
In 1371, the Serbs, who wanted to take revenge for the Serb Sındık, were defeated by the Ottomans in the Battle of Çirmen. In the same year, Çatalca, near Istanbul, was also captured. The borders of the Ottoman Empire were based on the Serbian Despotate. In accordance with the agreement made with the Serbian Despot Lazar in 1374, Serbia became a vassal country under the supreme sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire by paying annual taxes. These developments also closely affected Byzantium. Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos entered into negotiations with Murad I and made an agreement in early 1373, agreeing that the Byzantine Empire would pay annual taxes and become a vassal country under the supreme sovereignty of the Ottomans. Thus, only twenty years after the Ottoman invasion of Rumelia, all three states in the Balkans accepted the supreme sovereignty of the Ottomans.
ŞEHZADE SAVCI BEY REBELLION
While Sultan Murad was on campaign, his son, Prosecutor Bey, who had the status of deputy to the throne, started a prince revolt. In 1373, the vassal ruler Yannis V Palaiologos went on an Anatolian expedition together with Sultan Murad. His eldest son Andronikos, who was in Istanbul, took advantage of his father's absence in the capital and declared himself emperor. For some reason, the Ottoman prince Sözcü Bey, who was only 14 years old, also participated in this uprising, declared his sultanate and had a sermon read on his behalf. After a while, the army under the command of Sultan Murad dispersed the army of Prosecutor Bey and Andronikos. Prosecutor Bey fled to Dimetoka and was caught and executed there. This incident is a tragic case that has been the subject of poems and novels.
WAR WITH THE KARAMANOĞLU
Alaeddin Bey broke the Ottoman borders and attacked Beyşehir in 1386. Thereupon, Sultan Murad marched on Konya with a large army and did not accept Alaeddin Bey's request for forgiveness. The Ottoman and Karamanli armies engaged in a battle near the city of Konya. Alaeddin Bey was defeated and confined to Konya Castle. The Ottoman army surrounded the castle and conquered it in a short time. Damat Alaeddin Bey was forgiven when his wife Nefise Melek Hatun appeared before her father and asked for forgiveness. On June 28, 1389, the Crusader Army and the Ottoman army fought a major battle in the Kosovo Plain, north of Skopje. In this battle, called the First Kosovo War, the Ottoman army and the Christian Serbian, Bosnian, Wallachian, Hungarian and Croatian alliance armies engaged in a conflict that lasted eight hours. The Christian army eventually suffered a major defeat. After the battle ended or during the battle, Murad I was stabbed and martyred by the Serbian Miloš Obilić. Thus, Murad I became the only Ottoman Sultan to be killed during the war.
The body of Murad I was brought to Bursa and buried in his mausoleum. In order for the body to be transported safely, it was buried in Kosovo, where the internal organs were located. In the Turks and the Islamic world, Murad I began to be respected to the degree of holiness with the nickname Hüdavendigar. Thus, the place where the internal organs were buried in Kosovo was named "Meşhed-i Hüdavendigar" and the tomb of Murad I in Çekirge became places of pilgrimage.
