Bayezid I
Bayezid I | |||||
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Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Padishah) | |||||
Reign | 16 June 1389 – 20 July 1402 | ||||
Predecessor | Murad I | ||||
Successor | Interregnum (1402 – 1413)
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Issue Among others | Süleyman Çelebi İsa Çelebi Musa Çelebi Mehmed I Mustafa Çelebi | ||||
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Dynasty | Ottoman | ||||
Father | Murad I | ||||
Mother | Gülçiçek Hatun | ||||
Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
Tughra |
Bayezid I (
Biography
Bayezid was the son of
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, the battle in 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,[8] 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.
Upper Serbia resisted the Ottomans until Bayezid captured Skopje in 1391, converting the city into an important base of operations.
Efforts to unify Anatolia
Meanwhile, the sultan began unifying Anatolia under his rule. Forcible expansion into Muslim territories could have endangered the Ottoman relationship with the
In a single campaign over the summer and fall of 1390, Bayezid conquered the beyliks of
From 1389 to 1395 he conquered
In 1394, Bayezid
Thus the siege of Constantinople continued, lasting until 1402.
Clash with Timur
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 the
In 1400, 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. Years of insulting letters had passed between Timur and Bayezid. Both rulers insulted each other in their own way while Timur preferred to undermine Bayezid's position as a ruler and play down the significance of his military successes.
This is the excerpt from one of Timur's letters addressed to Ottoman sultan:
Believe me, you are but pismire ant: don't seek to fight the elephants for they'll crush you under their feet. Shall a petty prince such as you are contend with us? But your rodomontades [braggadocio] are not extraordinary; for a Turcoman never spoke with judgement. If you don't follow our counsels you will regret it.[14][15]
In the fateful Battle of Ankara, on 20 July 1402, the Ottoman army was defeated. Bayazid tried to escape, but was captured and taken to Timur.[16] Historians describe their first meeting as follows:
When Timur saw Bayezid, he laughed. Bayezid, offended by this laugh, told Timur that it was indecent to laugh at misfortune; to which Timur replied: "It is clear then that fate does not value power and possession of vast lands if it distributes them to cripples: to you, the crooked, and to me, the lame."[17]
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.[18] One of Bayezid's sons, Mustafa Çelebi, was captured with him and held captive in Samarkand until 1405.
Four of Bayezid's sons, specifically
Bayezid in captivity
In Europe, the legend of Bayazid's humiliation in captivity was very popular. He was allegedly chained, and forced to watch how his beloved wife,
Different versions on Bayezid's death existed, too. One of them mentioned the suicide of Bayezid.
In the descriptions of contemporaries and witnesses of the events, neither a cell nor humiliation is mentioned.
German traveller and writer
First references to a disrespectful attitude towards Bayazid appear in the works of
Ibn Arabshah wrote the following about the captivity of Bayezid:
Ibn Usman became a prey and was locked up like a bird in a cage.[27]
However, this is just a "flowery style", and not a real cell. According to literary historian
Constantine of Ostrovica wrote neither about the cell, nor about the nudity of Bayezid's wife; though he did write that Bayezid committed suicide. In the story of Constantine, just like in that of ibn Arabshah, the sultan was so struck by the fact that his wife carried wine to a feast that he poisoned himself with a poison from his ring.[29]
Ottoman historian
The complete set of legends may perhaps be found in the work of Pope Pius II Asiae Europaeque elegantissima descriptio, written in 1450–1460 (published in 1509): Bayezid is kept in a cage, fed with garbage under the table, Timur uses Bayezid as a support to get on or off a horse. Further development can be found in later authors, such as Theodore Spandounes. The first version of his story was written in Italian and completed in 1509, and a French translation was published in 1519. In these versions of the text, Spandounes wrote only about the golden chains and that the sultan was used as a stand. Spandounes added the cell only in later versions of the text. Later versions of the text also include a description of the public humiliation of Bayezid's wife:
He had a wife of Ildrim [Yıldırım, i.e., Bayezid], who was also a captive. They ripped off her clothes to the navel, exposing shameful areas. And he (Timur) made her serve food to him and his guests like that.[31]
Family
Consorts
Bayezid I had at least six consorts:[33][34][35]
- Devlet Hatun (? – 23 January 1414). Slave concubine, mother of Mehmed I.
- Süleyman of Germiyan and Mutahhare Abide Hatun, granddaughter of Rumi, she married Bayezid in 1378.
- Prince Lazar of Serbia and Princess Miliza, she married Bayezid in 1390. She was the Bayezid's favorite consort, but was extremely unpopular with the Ottomans court and people: she was accused of bribing the sultan and introducing alcohol to the court. She was captured by Timur together with her husband, and possibly forced to serve him naked.
- Hafsa Hatun. Daughter of Fahreddin Isa Bey of the Aydinids, she married Bayezid in 1390.
- Fülane Hatun. Daughter of Constantine of Kostendil. Her older sister married Murad I and an other her sister married Yakub Çelebi, son of Murad and half-brother of Bayezid.
- A daughter of John V Palaiologos and Helena Kantakouzene. Her older sister Maria married Murad I and an other her sister married Yakub Çelebi.
Sons
Bayezid I had at least eight sons:[36]
- Ertuğrul Çelebi; (1378–1400).
- Süleyman Çelebi (d. 1411). Sultan of Rumelia, claimant to the Ottoman throne during the Ottoman Interregnum (r. 1402–1411).
- İsa Çelebi (d. 1403) – with Devletşah Hatun. Governor of Anatolia, claimant to the Ottoman throne during the Ottoman Interregnum (r. 1403).
- Musa Çelebi (d.1413) – with Devletşah Hatun. Sultan of Rumelia (1410–1413), claimant to the Ottoman throne during the Ottoman Interregnum (1406–1413).
- Mehmed I (c. 1386–1421) – with Devlet Hatun. Governor of Anatolia, he won the civils wars during the Ottoman Interregnum and later became Sultan.
- Mustafa Çelebi (1393–1422). Sultan of Rumelia, claimant to the Ottoman throne during the Ottoman Interregnum (reign 1419–1422).
- Yusuf Çelebi. He left the Ottoman Empire and convert to Christianity, changed his name to Demetrios.
- Kasım Çelebi. Sent as a hostage to Constantinople together with his sister, Fatma Hatun.
Daughters
Bayezid I had at least five daughters:[37]
- Fatma Hündi Hatun (1375–1430). She married to Seyyid Şemseddin Mehmed Buhari Emir Sultan in 1390 and she had four sons, Emir Ali and other three, and two daughters. Legend has it that Hundi and Seyyid were married in secret after having a vision of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and that Bayezid only accepted their marriage after a miracle saved his son-in-law from soldiers sent to kill him. According to another version, Seyyd, guest of Bayezid, took advantage of his absence from court to seduce Hundi and marry her.
- Erhundi Hatun. She married to Yakup Bey, son of Pars Bey.
- Fatma Hatun (1393–1417). She was sent as a hostage to Constantinople together with her brother, Kasim Çelebi. Later she married a sanjak-bey in 1413.
- Öruz Hatun – with Despina Hatun. She married Abu Bakar Mirza, son of Jalal ud-din Miran Shah, son of Timur. They had at least a daughter, Ayşe Hatun.
- Paşa Melek Hatun – with Despina Hatun. In 1403 she married Emîr Celaluddîn İslâm, a Timur's general.
Personality
According to the British orientalist, Lord Kinross, Bayezid was distinguished by haste, impulsivity, unpredictability and imprudence.[38] He cared little for state affairs, which he entrusted to his governors. As Kinross writes, between campaigns Bayezid was often engaged in pleasures: gluttony, drunkenness and debauchery. The court of the sultan was famous for its luxury and was comparable to the Byzantine court during its heyday.[39]
At the same time, the sultan was a talented commander.[38] In all 13 years of his reign, Bayezid suffered only one defeat, which eventually turned out to be fatal for him.[40] Despite his lust for earthly pleasures, Bayezid was a religious man and used to spend hours in his personal mosque in Bursa. He also kept Islamic theologians in his circle.[41]
In the words of the contemporary Greek historian Doukas:[42]
[Bayezid] was a feared man, precipitate in deeds of war, a persecutor of Christians as no other around him, and in the religion of the Arabs a most ardent disciple of Muhammad, whose unlawful commandments were observed to the utmost, never sleeping, spending his nights contriving intrigues and machinations against the rational flock of Christ.... His purpose was to increase the nation of the Prophet and to decrease that of the Romans. Many cities and provinces did he add to the dominion of the Muslims.
Evaluation of rule
Bayezid managed to expand the territory of the Ottoman empire to the
In fiction
The defeat of Bayezid became a popular subject for later Western European writers, composers, and painters. They embellished the legend that he was taken by Timur to
In 1648, the play Le Gran Tamerlan et Bejezet by
The historical novel The Grand Cham (1921) by Harold Lamb focuses on the quest of its European hero to gain the assistance of Tamerlane in defeating Bayezid.[45] Bayezid (spelled Bayazid) is a central character in the Robert E. Howard story Lord of Samarcand,[46] where he commits suicide at Tamerlane's victory banquet. Bayazid is a main character in the novel The Walls of Byzantium (2013) by James Heneage.[47]
In popular culture
Sultan Bayezid was portrayed in the Serbian 1989 historical drama film Battle of Kosovo, as a participant of the
In the 29th Degree of the Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, Bayezid appears as a central figure in a drama that is historical fiction.
See also
References
- ^ Kemal Çiçek; Ercüment Kuran; Nejat Göyünç; Halil İnalcık; İlber Ortaylı; Güler Eren (2000). The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilisation: Philosophy, science, and institutions. Yeni Türkiye. p. 31.
In the letter coming with the envoy, Sultan Bayezid I became pleased for it addressed him as "Sultanu'l-Guzat ve'l-Mücahidin" (The Sultan of Ghazis and Holy Warriors)...
- ^ "Bayezid I - Ottoman sultan". britannica.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-19-508677-5. Archivedfrom the original on 23 September 2017 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Mango, Cyril. The Oxford History of Byzantium. New York: Oxford UP, 2002. pp. 273–274[ISBN missing]
- ^ Runciman, Steven The Fall of Constantinople. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 36
- ^ Lowry, Heath W. (2003) The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, p. 153
- ^ Halil Inalcik. "Bayezid I". TDV.
- ^ Halil Inalcik, "Bayezid I", The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. I, Ed. H.A.R. Gibb, J.H. Kramers, E. Levi-Provencal and J. Schacht, (Brill, 1986), 1118.
- ^ Stanford Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey (Cambridge: University Press, 1976), vol. 1 p. 30
- ^ Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire, vol. 1 pp. 30f
- ^ John V.A. Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans, (The University of Michigan Press, 1994), 424.
- ^ Nancy Bisaha, Creating East And West: Renaissance Humanists And the Ottoman Turks, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 98.
- ^ Dimitris J. Kastritsis, The Sons of Bayezid: Empire Building and Representation in the Ottoman Civil War of 1402–13, (Brill, 2007), 5.[ISBN missing]
- Sharaf al-Dīn ʻAlī Yazdī (1723). The History of Timur-Bec. J. Darby. p. 150.
- ^ Rhoads Murphey, Exploring Ottoman Sovereignty: Tradition, Image and Practice in the Ottoman Imperial Household 1400–1800; published by Continium, 2008; p. 58
- ^ ISBN 5-232-00732-7
- ^ Ivanin M.I. On the art of war and the conquests of the Mongol-Tatars and Central Asian peoples under Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. St. Petersburg, 1875. p. 315.
- ISBN 978-0-674-04095-3.
- ^ Dimitris J. Kastritsis, 1–3.
- ^ Alderson A. D. The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
- ^ Milwright M., Baboula E. Bayezid's Cage: A Re-examination of a Venerable Academic Controversy. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 2011. Vol. 21, iss. 3. p. 243
- ^ ISBN 978-9090261-08-9
- ISBN 978-9090261-08-9
- ^ Milwright M., Baboula E. Bayezid's Cage: A Re-examination of a Venerable Academic Controversy. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 2011. Vol. 21, iss. 3. p. 242
- ISBN 978-9943-322-16-5
- ^ Ibn Arabshah. History of Amir Temur. Translated by Bababekova, H. N. Tashkent: Makhpirat Institute of the History of the Peoples of Central Asia, 2007. p. 188
- ^ Ibn Arabshah. History of Amir Temur. translated by Bababekova, H. N. Tashkent: Makhpirat Institute of the History of the Peoples of Central Asia, 2007. p. 184
- ^ Gibb H. A. R. Muslim historiography. translated by Gryaznevich P. A. Arabic literature. Classical period. ed. Belyaev, V. I. Publishing house of Eastern Literature, 1960. pp. 117–156, 188
- ^ Constantine from Ostrovitsa. Notes of the Janissary. Written by Constantine Mikhailovich of Ostrovica. Introduction. Translation and comm. by Rogova, A. I. published by Nauka, 1978. p. 136 (Monuments of the Medieval history of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe)
- ^ Mehmed Neshri. Bogged down into the light: History on the Ottoman court. ed: Maria Kalitsin. Sofia: Fatherland Front, 1984. p. 420
- ^ Theodore Spandounes. On the Origins of the Ottoman Emperors. transl. and ed. by: Donald M. Nicol. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. p. 200
- ^ "Battle of Nicopolis (1396)" from Seyyid Lokman (1588): Hünernâme
- ^ Köprülü, Mehmet Fuat (1966). Edebiyat araştırmaları. Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. p. 76.
- ^ Öztürk, Necdet (2014). Osmanlı Sosyal Hayati. Işık Yayıncılık Ticaret.
- ^ Uluçay, M. Çağatay (1985). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Türk Tarih Kurumu. pp. 24–25.
- ^ Kastritsis (2007, p. 41)
- ^ Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara, Ötüken. pp. 25–26.
- ^ ISBN 5-232-00732-7
- ISBN 5-232-00732-7
- ISBN 5-232-00732-7
- ISBN 5-232-00732-7
- ISBN 978-0-8143-1540-8.
- ^ London: Printed & sold by J. Cluer, [1725]
- ^ Finkel, C. (2006) The History of the Ottoman Empire: Osman's Dream. New York: Basic Books; p. 30
- ISBN 978-0-8032-2620-3(p. 603)
- ^ Howard, Robert E. (1973) Sowers of the Thunder, Ace Science Fiction
- ^ " The Walls of Byzantium...[where] The Armies of the Ottoman Emperor Bayazid threaten Constantinople and the few remaining outposts of its empire". Cited in "Three More Tales of the Byzantine Empire". BBC History Magazine, 10 September 2015 (p. 74).
Notes
Sources
- OCLC 495469456.
- Harris, Jonathan (2010) The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8
- Imber, Colin (2009). The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-57451-9.
- Kastritsis, Dimitris (2007). The Sons of Bayezid: Empire Building and Representation in the Ottoman Civil War of 1402–13. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15836-8.
- Nicolle, David (1999) Nicopolis 1396: The Last Crusade. Oxford: Osprey Books ISBN 978-1-85532-918-8