Bayezid I (Sultan-ı Klim-i rum )
Bayezid I (Sultan-ı Klim-i rum )
Bayezid I or Yıldırım Bayezid ( Ottoman : بايزيد اول ) ( c. 1360, Edirne – 8 March 1403, Akşehir ), the fourth Ottoman sultan . He reigned from 1389 to 1402. His father is Sultan Murad I and his mother is Gülçiçek Hatun.
His life before the sultanate
His father was Sultan Murad I and his mother was Gülçiçek Hatun , who was of Greek origin . His name comes from the name of his grandmother's father, Ebâ Yazîd, whom the Turkmens call Şeyh Edebali . From a young age, he received general Islamic education from the distinguished scholars of the time and military service, command and administration lessons from valuable commanders. The first mention of him in Ottoman history is due to his marriage to Devlet Sultan/Hatun, daughter of Germiyanoğulları Bey Süleyman Şah, in 1381. This marriage was the result of her father Murat I's policy of including almost all of the Germiyan lands as "bride dowry". In the years following his marriage in 1381, he was appointed as the principality of Sultanönü, Eskişehir and then Germiyan province Kütahya sanjaks to train himself in state administration. He sided with his father in the wars on the Anatolian and Rumelia sides with the soldiers of his banners. The events of the suppression of the rebellion of his brother Prince Savci Bey in 1385 , acting together with the Byzantine crown prince Andronikos Paleologos , and the murder of Prince Savci as a result of slicing his eyes, are also mentioned in Ottoman history. In 1389, he participated in the First Battle of Kosovo with the Crusader army, in which the majority of Serbs formed . He commanded the right wing of the Ottoman army; He showed great heroism in the war and made a significant contribution to the victory of the war by the Ottomans, when the Ottoman right wing under his command destroyed the Serbian army with a counter-attack against the Serbs. When his father, Sultan Murad, was killed by Milos Obilic, a Serbian nobleman, at the end of this war , he ascended to the Ottoman throne by the joint decision of the state dignitaries. 
His reign
Murder of Yakup Bey
When Bayezid I's father was assassinated and killed in the last hours of the First Battle of Kosovo , the wife of the murdered Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović , Milica, and his young son Stefan Lazarevic were called from the battlefield and made to swear allegiance to him. As soon as this allegiance ceremony was over, his brother Yakup Çelebi , who was after the fleeing enemy soldiers , was summoned and strangled in the tent. Thus, Bayezid became the sole heir to the throne. Âşıkpaşazâde , the historian of his time , says that the murder of Jacob made the soldier suffer that night .
Rumelian problems and expeditions
In 1389, Bayezid I was the first to put Anatolian affairs aside and deal with Rumelian problems. Serbia made an effort to put its affairs in order. A new agreement was made with Istvan Lazarovic, the successor of the Serbian King Lazar , who was killed in the Kosovo War , and an annual tax was paid for the Serbs, and an agreement was made for the new king's sister, Mara Despina, to marry Bayezid I. In order to prevent a new Christian alliance, raider units were dispatched to Vidin, Wallachia and Bosnia regions under the command of Pasha Yiğit, Hoca Firuz and other raider lords. A dense Turkmen group was settled in Skopje and its surroundings. The Sultan spent the winter in Edirne. He worked for the development of Edirne. He received the ambassadors who came to celebrate his reign. Francesko Kuirini, the ambassador of the Republic of Venice, was assured of the continuation of the privileges granted to the Venetian commercial colonies.
In 1393, while Bayezid I was in Amasya and its surroundings in Anatolia, he returned to Rumelia after the attacks of the Hungarians. He captured Tirnova, the capital of the Bulgarians. Silistra, Nicopolis and Vidin, which were the castles along the Danube that were occupied by the mixed Hungarian-Bulgarian armies, were brought under Ottoman rule again. Bulgarian King Şişman and his son Aleksander, who were confined to the Nicopolis Castle, were captured by Bayezid I after a short siege.
The Ottoman armies, who captured Thessaloniki and Yenişehir ( Mora Peninsula ) in 1394 , advanced to Thessaly and Albania .
n 1395, when the negotiations of the Byzantine emperor and princes in Serres failed, the Ottoman army under the command of Bayezid I attacked southwards on Greece and captured the cities of Tırhala, Domacia, Patras and Farsala. Then, it passed through the historical Thermopylae Pass and entered the Atika Peninsula region. After his success in Greece, Bayezid I again headed to Anatolia, Kastamonu, at the end of that summer.
On 23 September 1396 , he defeated the Crusader Army advancing in Rumelia in the Battle of Nicopolis . The Crusader Army was completely dispersed.
In 1397, raider groups in the Balkans, under the command of Evrenos Bey, Murtaza Bey and Yakup Pasha, raided the Venetian castles of Koron and Modon and the Peloponnese. These raids were aimed at intimidation and looting; It was not foreseen that they would conquer these castles and lands and settle new Turkmen families on their lands. On the contrary, the people in some parts of Rumelia were migrated to Anatolia en masse.
Anatolian problems and expeditions
In 1389, a greater reaction against Bayezid I came from the Anatolian Turkmen principalities. Germiyanlı , Aydınlı , Saruhanlı , Menteşeli , Hamitli principalities and even Sivas Ruler Kadı Burhaneddin took action, supposedly to avenge Yakup Çelebi . Their aim was to break the power of the ever-growing Ottoman state and to take back any lands they had lost.
Bayezid I, who spent the winter of 1391-92 in Bursa, marched on Kastamonu in the spring of 1392 and captured the lands of Candaroğlu . The leading Ottoman troops sent against Kadı Burhaneddin first captured Osmancık Castle. However, he was defeated in the Battle of Kırkdilim against the armies of Kadı Burhaneddin and the commander of this army, Prince Ertuğrul Çelebi, the eldest son of Bayezid I, was martyred in this war. Kadı Burhaneddin's Mongolian raiders spread into Anatolian Ottoman lands. Bayezid I had to return to Rumelia in order to prevent the attacks of the Hungarian armies in Rumelia.
Bayezid I organized this strategically important border region as a new Ottoman province and appointed his son Mehmet Çelebi as the governor of the province . That year, Bayezid I had to return to Rumelia and deal with the problem of the Bulgarian and Hungarian occupation of the Danube castles.
In 1394, Timur crossed the Tigris and entered Anatolia. The lords who had lost or were in danger of losing their local sovereignty in Anatolia and Syria approached Timur. In response, Bayezid I sent an ambassador to Egypt with the intention of establishing friendly relations with the Mamluks based in Egypt, who dominated southern Anatolia.
After an expedition against Greece in Rumelia in 1395, he quickly returned to Anatolia that summer and besieged the Sinop Castle of the Candaroğulları . Candaroğlu İsfendiyar Bey made a peace offer and with the agreement he became a dependent vassal state. Bayezid I spent the winter in Bursa.
The most important event in 1396 was the Battle of Nicopolis . Bayezid I, who won a very important victory against a large Crusader army, returned to the capital of Bursa in Anatolia to spend the winter with great booty from this war. He started to spend the spoils of war on the reconstruction of Bursa. Bursa Grand Mosque is one of the works where these spoils were used. Additionally, a hospital, a darûlhayr, Abu İshakane and two madrasas were built in Bursa.
In 1397, Karamanoğulları Bey Alâeddin Bey , brother-in-law of Bayezid I , had formed a large army from the Turkmens of the Oghuz tribes and was preparing to take over the lands he had lost to the Ottomans in 1390. Bayezid I left the siege of Istanbul and went against the Karamanids with an army. The Akçay Plain War, fought between the Karamanids and the Ottomans, ended with the decisive victory of Bayezid I. Karamanoğlu Ahmet Bey escaped from the battlefield and took shelter in Konya Castle. Alaeddin Bey was captured and executed in Konya, which was captured by Bayezid I with a short siege. The Ottomans also took Karaman (Larende) Castle. Bayezid I sent his sister Nefise Melek Hatun , the wife of Karamanlı Alaeddin Bey, and his nephews Mehmed and Bengi Ali to Bursa.
Bayezid I, who organized another Anatolian expedition in 1399, this time marched to the southern and southeastern Anatolian regions under the control of the Egyptian Mamluk State . In this way, the mutual agreements that had maintained peace with the Mamluks for years were violated. However, Bayezid I tried to defend this aggressive military action by putting forward the thesis that the agreement between the Ottomans and the Mamluks was no longer valid due to the death of the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Berkuk . He captured Malatya, Darende and Divriği castles, which were the border castles of Egypt. He entered the lands of Dulkadiroğulları .
In the first months of 1400, while Bayezid I was again involved in the siege of Istanbul, he received news that Timur had taken Sivas , defeated and dispersed an Ottoman Anatolian provinces army near Kayseri, and landed in Malatya and captured this castle. Although he left the siege of Istanbul in August, Bayezid I did not campaign in Anatolia that year.
In 1401, news came that Timur was heading towards Baghdad. Bayezid I launched an expedition against Erzincan Emir Mutahharten that summer. Caught between the Ottomans and Timur, Mutahharren offered his allegiance to the Ottomans. However, Bayezid I, who knew that Timur helped take Sivas and did not trust him, captured Erzincan and Kemah and, upon the request of the people of Erzincan, recognized the sultanate of Mutahharten, provided that he was subordinate to him. Despite this, Mutahharten continued his relationship with Timur and attempted to provide support to take back Kemah Castle, which had been captured by Bayezid I.
Timur retired to winter quarters in Karabakh that year. Timur wanted Bayezid I to return the other Anatolian principalities to their legal rulers. That year, a letter diplomacy full of mutual insults began between the two rulers to provoke each other. On the one hand, Timur had started relations with France, Genoa and Byzantium; On the other hand, in the letters he sent to Bayezid I, he was making demands that would infuriate Bayezid I, with a so-called conciliatory approach. Although Bayezid I made diplomatic attempts for solidarity with the Egyptian Mamluks, this was unsuccessful.
In 1402, Timur started an Anatolian campaign with a large army. In the spring of that year, he besieged and captured Kemah Castle and marched on Sivas. Bayezid I came to Tokat with his army and set up camp there. Both sides did not consent to war in this region and came to Ankara, one following Kızılırmak from the north and the other from the south. The Battle of Ankara started here on July 22, 1402 . Timur achieved great success in the Battle of Ankara.
Yıldırım Bayezid went on military campaigns year after year and became the first Ottoman ruler to establish the Anatolian Turkish political unity. As a result of these activities, Yıldırım Bayezid received the title of Sultan-ı Klim-i Rum (Sultan of the Anatolian country) from the Abbasid caliph. In a sense, this legitimized Bayezid's actions.
Byzantine problems and the siege of Istanbul
In 1389, the first year of Bayezid I's sultanate, he also paid attention to the problems of sultanate conflict in the Byzantine Empire. John V was on the throne; but his nephew VII. John was in Genoa during the Kosovo War and was preparing a coup against his uncle. He managed to dethrone his uncle John V for the second time, with the help of Bayezid I and the support of a Turkish contingent provided by Yıldırım on April 11, 1390. But VII. John began to defend himself in the Golden Gate fortress, which is where Yedikule is today, and called his son Manuel from the island of Lesbos. Manuel and his father, who came from Lesbos with the ships of the Knights of St. John of Rhodes, brought John V to the throne of the Byzantine Empire after a 3-week civil war. Bayezid I, who did not like the dethronement of the person he supported, asked for help from Byzantium, a vassal state that was obliged to provide annual compensation and military aid to the Ottomans, for his Anatolian expedition in 1390, and Manuel had to join Yıldırım's Anatolian expedition.
In 1390, Byzantine Emperor John V , taking advantage of Bayezid's presence in Anatolia, reinforced the area around the Golden Gate, the ceremonial gate of the city walls of Istanbul, which is now inside Yedikule, with stones and marble taken from disused and ruined churches in and around the city. Bayezid I, who was angry with this project, threatened to demolish these new structures and that if this demolition was not done, a war would start between the two states and the Emperor's son and heir Manuel, who was next to Yıldırım, would be blinded. Desperate, John V had to fulfill the Sultan's wishes and had these new wall repairs demolished. John V, who found this very embarrassing, had a nervous breakdown because of this; He died on February 16, 1391 and was succeeded by his son II. Manuel passed.
II. When Manuel did not accept Yıldırım's requests to establish a Turkish neighborhood in the city, to build a mosque, and to increase the annual tax, Yıldırım began to surround Istanbul by land (intermittently between 1391 and 1400) and implement a land blockade.
In 1391, Istanbul was besieged by land and sea. At the end of the 7-month siege, which was carried out to intimidate the Byzantines, some privileges were obtained from the Byzantines.
In 1395, Yıldırım Bayezid besieged Istanbul for the second time, which he had blockaded for a long time. As winter approached, the siege was ended.
In 1396, Yıldırım Bayezid besieged Istanbul for the third time, but to no avail.
In 1400, when the Byzantine emperor tried to organize European countries for a new crusade, Yıldırım Bayezid besieged Istanbul for the fourth time. The siege was lifted after Timur entered Anatolia.
Timur and the Battle of Ankara
Anatolian lords, who lost their lands after Bayezid I entered the lands of Karaman in 1398 and Dulkadirli in 1399 , took shelter in Timur , who returned from the India campaign , and provoked him against the Ottoman sultan. Meanwhile, the Karakoyunlu and Celayirli lords who escaped from Timur were provoking Bayezid I against Timur . These provocations aside, the Timur army, which posed a great threat to the Ottomans, had begun to advance towards Anatolia. Timur 's capture of Sivas , which belonged to the Ottomans , resulted in the Ottoman and Timur's armies facing each other in Ankara .
Bayezid I found Timur's army camping in the Çubuk Plain. Thereupon, although all his viziers, pashas and sons suggested attacking immediately, he bravely gave Timur the opportunity to recover and stayed. Menteşeoğulları , Germiyanoğulları , Saruhanoğulları lords and their forces, who had previously agreed with Timur , betrayed and crossed over to the other side. The viziers of Bayezid I also kidnapped his eldest son Emir Suleiman from the battlefield for the continuation of the Ottoman Empire. Seeing this incident, Mehmet Çelebi and Mustafa Çelebi also left the battlefield to fight for the throne. Black Tatars in the Ottoman army also joined the ranks of Timur. Despite this defeat, which occurred without even fighting, Beyazıt I attacked with the 10 thousand most loyal soldiers he had left. He inflicted tremendous damage on the Timur-Tatar army. In order to bring those who escaped from his army back to the battlefield, he went out despite the warnings of the force he was at the center of and the pashas next to him, "Do not go out, we will hold out until the evening, and we will retreat at night." He was caught by Tatar soldiers and was taken prisoner (July 28, 1402).
Results:
- Turkish political unity in Anatolia was broken down.
- The Principalities Period started again.
- Conquest of Istanbul was delayed.
