Ottoman Interregnum 14021413

1
Ottoman Interregnum (1402-1413)

• The Ottoman Interregnum (also known as the
  Ottoman Triumvirate Fetret Devri in Turkish)
  was a period in the beginning of the 15th century
  when chaos reigned in the Ottoman Empire
  following the defeat of Sultan Bayezid I in 1402
  by the Mongol warlord Tamerlane.
• The Ottoman Empire, which during the fourteenth
  century had acquired considerable territories in
  Anatolia and in the Balkans, was at the beginning
  of the fifteenth century in ruin in Anatolia.

2

• Besides the fatal day at Ankara, when the Ottoman
  army, veteran of the wars against several
  Christian armies in the second half of the 14th
  century, was destroyed, and it long-victorious
  sovereign taken captive.
• The ancient rivals of the Ottoman dynasty in
  Anatolia, the beys of Karamanids, Aydin,
  Germiyan, and other territories which the first
  three Ottoman sovereigns had conquered, were
  reinstated by Timur in their dominions.
• In Rumelia, the Byzantine Empire accomplished
  another partial revival, and regained some of its
  lost provinces.
• But the heaviest and seemingly the most fatal
  blow to the Ottoman state was the civil war which
  broke out among the sons of Bayezid, and which
  threatened the young empire with disintegration.

3

• At the time of Bayezids death, his oldest son,
  Suleyman, ruled at Edirne.
• The second son, Isa, established himself as an
  independent ruler at Bursa after the Mongols
  retired from Asia Minor.
• Mehmed, the youngest and probably the ablest of
  all princes (sehzade), formed a little
  principality at Amasya.
• War soon broke out between Mehmed and Isa in
  which Mehmed was successful. Isa fled to Europe
  where he sought protection and aid from Suleyman,
  who in return attacked Mehmed, so that Rumelian
  and Anatolian sides of the shaken state were now
  confronting each other.

4

• At the beginning Suleyman was successfull. He
  invaded Anatolia, and captured Bursa and Ankara.
• Meanwhile while the other surviving son of
  Beyazit, Prince Musa, had, after his liberation
  by Timur, been detained in custody by the Bey of
  Germiyan, through whose territories he was
  passing with the remains of Bayezid, which he was
  to bury at Bursa. The intervention of Mehmed in
  favour of his brother had put an end to this
  detention, and Musa fought on Mehmeds side
  against Suleyman in Anatolia.
• After some reverses which they sustained from
  Suleyman in the first campaign, Musa persuaded
  Mehmed to let him cross over to Thrace with a
  small force, and effect a diversion in Mehmeds
  favour by attacking the enemy in his own
  territories.

5

• This maneuver soon recalled Suleyman to Thrace,
  where a short but sanguinary contest between him
  and Musa ensued.
• However, the cruelty and arrogance of Suleyman
  discredited him among his troops in spite of his
  commanding qualities. The result was that his
  army passed over to the side of Musa, and
  Suleyman was killed while trying to escape to
  Constantinopolis in 1410.
• Musa was now master of the Ottoman dominions in
  Thrace, and speedily showed that he inherited a
  full proportion both of the energy and of the
  strength of his father Bayezid.

6

• The Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Paleologus, had
  been the ally of Suleyman, Musa therefore
  attacked him, and besieged his capital.
• Emperor Paleologus called over Mehmed to protect
  him, and the Anatolian Ottomans garrisoned
  Constantinopolis against the Ottomans of Rumelia.
  Mehmed made several gallant but unsuccessful
  sallies against his brothers troops, and was
  obliged to re-cross the Bosphorus is, to quell a
  revolt that had broken out in his own
  territories. Musa now pressed the siege of the
  Byzantine capital but Mehmed speedily returned
  to Thrace, and obtained the assistance of
  Stephan, the Serbian King.

7

• The armies of the rival Ottoman brethren met at
  last for a decisive conflict on the plain of
  Çamurlu near the southern Serbian frontier.
• However, Musa had alienated the loyalty of his
  soldiers by conduct similar to that of Suleyman
  while Mehmed was as eminent for justice and
  kindness towards those who obeyed him (thus
  nicknamed as Çelebi), as for valor and skill
  against those who were his opponents.
• According to the chronicles of the age, when the
  two armies were about to close in battle, Hasan,
  the Aga of the Janissaries on the side of Mehmet,
  stepped out before the ranks, and exhorted his
  old comrades, who were on the side of Musa, to
  leave the cause of a madman from whom they met
  with constant outrage and humiliation, and to
  range themselves among the followers of the most
  just and virtuous of the princes of the house of
  Osman.

8

• Enraged at hearing his troops thus addressed,
  Musa rushed against his Janissary commander to
  kill him, but was himself wounded by an officer
  who had accompanied Hasan. Musa retreated wounded
  towards his own soldiers, who were seized with a
  panic, and broke their ranks, and fled from the
  battlefield.
• Musa tried to escape, but was found later by the
  pursuers lying dead in a marsh near the field
  where the armies had met. His death ended the war
  of succession in the Ottoman Empire, since Prince
  Isa had disappeared some years before, during the
  hostilities between Suleyman and Mehmed in
  Anatolia and Mehmed was now, after Musas death,
  the sole known surviving son of Bayezid I.

9
Mehmed I

• The fifth monarch and Sultan of the Ottoman
  dynasty (1413-1421)

10

• After the Ottoman Interregnum, when Mehmed stood
  as victor in 1413, he crowned himself sultan in
  Edirne. He restored the empire, moved the capital
  again - from Bursa to Edirne, and conquered
  parts of Albania, the Turkish emirate Candaroglu,
  and the Christian Kingdom of Cilicia.
• However, as part of the alliance, Mehmed
  recognized the Byzantine Emperor as his "father
  and overlord" and remained uncharacteristically
  loyalwhich must count as the last diplomatic
  triumph of the Byzantine Empire.
• Mehmed I died in 1421.

11

• Mehmed I was forty-seven years of age at the time
  of his death and his reign, as Sultan of the
  re-united empire, had lasted only eight years.
• However, he had been an independent prince for
  nearly the whole preceding period of eleven years
  that passed between his fathers captivity at
  Ankara and his own final victory over his brother
  Musa at Çamurlu.

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Murad II and the second foundation period of the
Ottoman Empire

• The sixth monarch and Sultan of the Ottoman
  dynasty (1421-1444, 1446-1451)

13

• Murad II was the sultan from 1421 to 1451 (except
  for a short period of time from 1444 to 1446).
  Murad's reign was marked by the long war he
  fought against the Christian kingdoms of the
  Balkans and the Turkish principalities in
  Anatolia, a conflict lasting for 25 years. He was
  brought up in Amasya, and ascended the throne on
  the death of his father.
• Murad II, when called from his vice-royalty in
  Asia Minor to become the sovereign of the Ottoman
  Empire, was only eighteen years of age. He was
  solemnly recognized as Sultan at Bursa and the
  troops and officers of the state paid willing
  homage to him as their sovereign. But his reign
  was soon troubled by insurrection.

14

• The Byzantine Emperor, despising the youth of
  Murad, released the pretender Mustafa Çelebi
  (known as Düzmece Mustafa) from confinement in
  Constantinopolis, and acknowledged him as the
  legitimate heir to the throne of Bayezid having
  first stipulated with him that he should if
  successful, repay the Byzantine Emperor for his
  liberation by cessation of a large number of
  important cities.
• The pretender was landed by the Byzantine galleys
  in the European domination of the Sultan, and for
  a time made rapid progress. Large contingents of
  Ottoman troops joined him, and he defeated and
  killed the veteran general Bayezid Pasha, whom
  Murad sent against him.

15

• Mustafa defeated Murad's army and declared
  himself Sultan in Edirne. He then crossed the
  Dardanelles to Asia with a large army but the
  young Sultan showed in this emergency that he
  possessed military and political abilities of his
  ancestors.
• Mustafa was defeated on the battlefield and his
  troops passed over large numbers to Murad.
  Mustafa took refuge in the city of Gallipoli but
  the Sultan, who was greatly aided by Genoese
  commander named Adorno, besieged him there, and
  stormed the city.
• Mustafa was captured and put to death.
• Murad II the Sultan then turned his arms against
  the Byzantine Empire and declared his resolution
  to punish the enmity of the house of Paleologus
  by the capture of Constantinopolis.

16

• Murad II then formed a new army in 1421, and
  marching through the Byzantine Empire, laid siege
  to Constantinopolis.
• Whilst besieging that city, the Byzantines, in
  coalition with some independent Turkish Anatolian
  emirates, sent the Sultan's younger brother
  Mustafa (who was only 13 years old) to rebel
  against the Sultan and besiege Bursa. Murad had
  to abandon the siege of Constantinopolis in order
  to deal with his rebellious brother.
• He caught Prince Mustafa and executed him. The
  Anatolian states that had been constantly
  plotting against him Aydin, Germiyan, Mentese
  and Teke were annexed and henceforth became part
  of the Ottoman Empire.

17

• Murad then went to war against Venice, the
  Karamanid emirate, Serbia and Hungary. The
  Karamanids were defeated in 1428 and Venice
  withdrew in 1432 following the defeat at the
  second Siege of Salonica in 1430. In the 1430s
  Murad captured huge territories in the Balkans
  and succeeded in annexing Serbia in 1439. In 1441
  the Holy Roman Empire, Poland and Albania joined
  the Serbian-Hungarian coalition. Murad won the
  Battle of Varna in 1444 against János Hunyadi but
  lost the Battle of Jalowaz and signed the
  Edirne-Szegedin Truce for 10 years with the
  kingdom of Hungary before abdicating in favour of
  his son Mehmed.
• In 1446 he regained command at the interference
  of the Janissaries and crushed the Christian
  coalition at the Second Battle of Kosovo (the
  first one had taken place in 1389).

18
Mehmed II

• The seventh monarch and Sultan of the Ottoman
  dynasty (1444-1446, 1451-1481)

19

• Mehmed II The Conqueror (Fatih) was first the
  Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time
  from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481.
  He was also the first Ottoman ruler to claim the
  title of Caesar of the Roman Empire (supreme
  ruler of all Christians), besides such usual
  titles as king, sultan (ruler of a Muslim state),
  Khan (Emperor of Turks).
• During his first reign, seeing the upcoming
  Battle of Varna, Mehmed sent for his father,
  Murad II, asking him to claim the throne again to
  fight the enemy, only to be refused. Enraged at
  his father, who had long since retired to a
  contemplative life in southwestern Anatolia,
  Mehmed wrote "If you are the sultan, come and
  lead your armies. If I am the sultan I hereby
  order you to come and lead my armies."

20

• It was upon this letter that Murad II led the
  Ottoman army in the Battle of Varna in 1444. It
  is also said that Murad's return was forced by
  Çandarli Halil Pasha, the prime minister
  (Sadrazam or grand vizier) of the time, who was
  not very happy about Mehmed's rule, since
  Mehmed's teacher (lala) was influential on him
  and did not like Çandarli. Çandarli was later
  executed by Mehmed during the siege of
  Constantinopolis on the grounds that he had been
  bribed by or had somehow helped the defenders.
• Two years after reclaiming the throne in 1451,
  Mehmed brought an end to the Byzantine Empire by
  capturing Constantinopolis in 1453 (during the
  well-known Siege of Constantinopolis), and other
  Byzantine cities left in the Balkans.

21

• His reign, mostly known for his capture of
  Constantinopolis, is also well known for the
  unusual tolerance with which he treated his
  subjects, especially among the conquered
  Byzantines. Within the conquered city he
  established a millet or an autonomous religious
  community, and he appointed the former Patriarch
  as essentially governor of the Greek Orthodox
  community.
• Mehmed II began after his conquest the Ottoman
  remodeling of the city, eventually turning it
  into the Ottoman Turkish capital, which it
  remained until the 1920s.

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Europe and the Near East in 1470
23

• Mehmed II thought of himself as the heir to the
  throne of the Roman Empire - which, technically,
  he was after capturing Constantinopolis - and, as
  a result, adopted the title "Kayser-i-Rum" (Roman
  Caesar) and invaded the south-eastern tip of the
  Italian peninsula in 1480.
• The intent of his invasion was to capture Rome
  and reunite the Roman Empire for the first time
  since 751, and, at first, looked like he might be
  able to do it with the easy capture of Otranto in
  1480.
• However, a rebellion in Albania later in 1480 cut
  into his military links, allowing a massive force
  led by the Pope to defeat and destroy his
  isolated army in Puglia in 1481.

24

• Administratively, Mehmed was better at continuing
  the old Byzantine ways, as he gathered Italian
  humanists and Greek scholars at his court, kept
  the Byzantine Church functioning, ordered the
  patriarch to translate the Christian faith into
  Turkish and called Gentile Bellini from Venice to
  paint his portrait.