Mehmed I . Ottoman Sultan from 1413 to 1421 . After the period of civil war called Interregnum , he was recognized as sultan.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Interregnum
- 2 Reign
- 3 Death
- 2 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born in Bursa , Turkey . Son of Sultan Bayezid I and one of his wives, Devlet Hatun, daughter of the Emir of Germiyan, a principality of Anatolia .
Interregnum
At the Battle of Ankara , Tamerlane defeated and captured Sultan Bayezid I , his father. Due to this, Mehmed and his brothers Suleiman, Isa and Muza, divided the empire into three zones, starting a civil war that gave way to the Interregnum. Tamerlane did not allow Bayezid to return, and the sultan ended up committing suicide.
Mehmed expelled his brother Isa from the city of Brussa in 1404 . Disappeared this, the fight was concentrated between Mehmed and Suleiman. The latter takes the city of Ankara away from his brother, but fails before Brussa. Mehmed wasted no time in restoring his situation, thanks to his alliance with the Emir of Karamania and the intervention of Muza. Putting himself against Suleiman, Muza passed to Europe and in July 1409 he allied himself with the Romanian prince Mircea.
He penetrated Bulgaria , expelling the troops loyal to Suleiman, and seized his residence in Andrinopolis on February 13 , 1410 . Suleiman went to their states, and the fight between the two brothers lasted for nine months with alternatives. Soliman is defeated and killed the 17 of February of 1411 , being owner of Adrianople Muza and European provinces. From then on there were already two Ottoman states, one in Europe and the other in Asia .
Muza renews the treaty concluded by Suleiman with Venice on August 12 , 1411 , while taking the offensive against Manuel Palaiologos, his enemy. He made a vain demonstration in front of Constantinople , which he could not lay siege to due to the lack of siege engines and had two successive failures before Selymbra and Thessalonica.
Manuel lured Mehmed to Europe and requested his intervention against Muza, providing him with ships to transport his troops. Called to Asia because of a rebellion by the Djuneid emir, Mehmed returned in June 1413 and invaded Thrace , being equally well received by Muslim leaders and Christians, who detested Muza’s tyranny. Soon his army was increased with numerous Bulgarian and Serbian contingents. Mehmed confronts his brother in Tschamuril on July 5 ; Muza was defeated and dies in battle.
Mehmed as the victor in the contest was crowned sultan as Mehmed I, thus concluding the Interregnum .
Reign
At the beginning of his government he undertook the reorganization of the empire. He removed from the Ottoman court the Christian and Byzantine influences that had led Bayezid I to abandon the Gazi tradition. Turkish replaced Greek as the language of administration. The feudal cavalry was once again the center of the Turkish army, after the elimination of the Byzantine kapikullari.
Through the alliance with the Hospitallers of Rhodes and with the Genoese of Chio and Lesbos , he was able to suppress the rebellion of Djuneid, taking possession of Smyrna and the fortresses of Ionia; in addition, in four campaigns he subdued Karamania. In this way, he regained the territory lost after the Battle of Ankara and his might in Asia Minor was even more solid than his father’s had been.
He managed to consolidate the Ottoman presence in Albania by conquering Konya, and restored his sovereignty over the Prince of Wallachia. Peace allowed him to face internal dangers embodied in Bedreddin, Muza’s former minister who had been sent into exile by Mehmed, and preached new doctrines based on the community of goods, closer to Christianity than to Islam.. This found support from Prince Mircea of Wallachia, to start an insurrection throughout the European part of the empire, which also spread through areas of Anatolia. Two expeditions launched against Bedreddin were defeated, but finally the vizier Bayecid Pasha defeated the rebels and sentenced their leaders to death. Mustafa, a pretender to the throne, who claimed to be the son of Bayezid I and therefore brother of Mehmed I, organized an uprising in Thrace and Thessaly , taking advantage of Mehmed’s campaigns in Anatolia against Bedreddin. Mustafa seized Edirne and declared himself sultan in 1418 . In 1419 the impostor was defeated, although his life was spared at the request of the Byzantine emperor, Manuel, and a year later his movement was dismantled.
Weakened by poor health, the sultan’s greatest concern in his later years was to secure the throne for his eldest son Murad. An agreement was concluded with Emperor Manuel where Murad would be recognized as his successor, Mustafa would remain in Anatolia, and the two youngest sons, Yusuf and Mahmud, aged eight and seven, would be handed over to Manuel, who would keep them, in custody in Constantinople , together with Mustafa, Mehmed’s brother, and would obtain an annual sum for his maintenance.
Tomb of Mehmed I, in the Green Mosque
Death
He died of a stroke in Edirne on May 26 , 1421 . His death was hidden to give time for Murad II , his son and successor, to return from Asia and take over the throne.
He was buried in the Green Mosque of Bursa, a mausoleum that his grandfather Murad I had begun to build and was completed in the mandate of Mehmed I.
