Bayezid I

	Bayezid I Ottoman Period
Preceded by Murad I	Ottoman Sultan 1389–1402	Succeeded by Interregnum

Bayezid I (Ottoman: بايزيد الأول, Turkish: Beyazıt, nicknamed Yıldırım (Ottoman: ییلدیرم), "the Thunderbolt"; 1354 – 1403) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He was the son of Murad I who was of Turkish origin^[1][2] and Gülçiçek Hatun who was of ethnic Greek descent.^[1][3]

History

Bayezid ascended to the throne following the death of his father Murad I in the first Battle of Kosovo.

One year later, faced with a Hungarian threat from the North, the Serbs agreed to become his vassals and he took as a wife Olivera Despina, the daughter of Prince Lazar of Serbia, allying himself with Serbs and enabling his offspring to claim Serbia as a dynastic privilege. He recognized Stefan Lazarević, the son of Lazar, as the new Serbian leader, with considerable autonomy.

In 1394 Bayezid crossed the Danube river attacking Wallachia, ruled at that time by Mircea the Elder. The Ottomans were superior in number,^{[citation needed]} but on October 10, 1394 (17 May 1395 ?), in the Battle of Rovine, which featured a forested and swampy terrain, the Wallachians won the fierce battle^{[citation needed]} and prevented Bayezid from conquering the country.^{[citation needed]}

In 1394 Bayezid laid siege to Constantinople^[4], the capital of the Byzantine empire. On the urgings of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologus a new crusade was organized to defeat him. This proved unsuccessful: in 1396 the Christian allies, under the leadership of the King of Hungary and future Holy Roman Emperor (in 1410) Sigismund, were defeated in the Battle of Nicopolis. Bayezid built the magnificent Ulu Camii in Bursa, to celebrate this victory.

Thus, the siege of Constantinople continued, lasting until 1401. The Emperor left the city to seek aid. The beleaguered Byzantines had their reprieve when Bayezid fought the Timurid Turks on the East.

Stanisław Chlebowski, Bayezid prisoned by Timur, 1878

In 1400, the Central Asian warlord Timur Lenk (or Tamerlane) had succeeded in rousing the local Turkic beyliks that had been vassals of the Ottomans to join him in his attack on Bayezid. In the fateful Battle of Ankara, on 20 July 1402, Bayezid was captured by Timur. His sons, however, escaped, and fled to Serbia until Timur's death (see also Ottoman Interregnum). Some contemporary reports claimed that Timur kept Bayezid chained in a cage as a trophy. Likewise, there are many stories about Bayezid's captivity, including one that describes how Timur used him as a footstool. Another one describes how Timur made Bayezid's wife dance naked at his court. However, these accounts are thought to be false, as writers from Timur's court reported that Bayezid was treated well, and that Timur even mourned his death. Likewise, Timur's own history with other rulers demonstrated that he was true to his word when he later claimed to have aimed at re-establishing Bayezid on the Ottoman throne. One year later, Bayezid died — some accounts claim that he committed suicide by smashing his head against the iron bars of his cage. Others claimed that he had taken the poison concealed in his ring.

Marriages of Bayezid I:

• (m. 1381) Devlet Şah Hatun - Daughter of Süleyman Shah of Germiyan
• Devlet Hatun - Daughter of Yakub Shah of Germiyan. Descendant of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi through his son Sultan Veled's daughter Mutahhara Hatun who was an ancestor of Yakub Shah
• Hafsa Hatun - Daughter of Isa Bey of Aydınoğlu
• Sultan Hatun - Daughter of Süleyman Shah of Dulkadir
• Olivera Despina - Daughter of Prince Lazar of Serbia

Issue of Bayezid I:

• Ertuğrul - son
• Emir Süleyman (d. 1411) - son
• Musa Çelebi (d. 1413) - son of Devlet Shah Hatun
• Sultan Mehmed I Çelebi (1389-1421)- son of Devlet Hatun
• Kasım - son
• Isa - son of Devlet Shah Hatun
• Mustafa (d. 1401) - son of Devlet Shah Hatun
• Erhondu - daughter
• Hundi - daughter
• Fatma - daughter

Notes

References

• Goodwin, Jason - Lords of the Horizons (book)

See also

• Bajazet an opera by Vivaldi on the story of Bayezid I and Timur Lenk

The only complete recording of this opera was released by Virgin Classics on May 10, 2005

• Georg Friedrich Haendel - Tamerlano - English Concert with Trevor Pinnock [1]

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Bayezid I

• http://www.baerenreiter.com/html/vosco/tamerlano.htm
• Creative Commons MP3 Recording

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