| Bayezid I | |
| Succession: | Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Padishah) |
| Reign: | 16 June 1389 – 20 July 1402 |
| Predecessor: | Murad I |
| Successor: | Mehmed I |
| Spouse: | Devletşah Sultan Hatun Devlet Hatun Olivera Despina Lazarević Hafsa Hatun Maria Fadrique Others |
| Spouse-Type: | Consorts |
| Issue: | Fatma Hundi Hatun Süleyman Çelebi İsa Çelebi Musa Çelebi Mustafa Çelebi Mehmed I |
| Issue-Link: |
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| Issue-Pipe: | Among others |
| Full Name: | Bayezid Han bin Murad Han |
| House: | Ottoman |
| House-Type: | Dynasty |
| Father: | Murad I |
| Mother: | Gülçiçek Hatun |
| Birth Place: | Ottoman Beylik |
| Death Place: | Akşehir, then under Timurid occupation |
| Burial Place: | Bayezid I Mosque, Bursa |
| Signature Type: | Tughra |
| Religion: | Sunni Islam |
| Signature: | Tughra_of_Bayezid_I.svg |
Bayezid I (Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: بايزيد اول; Turkish: I. Bayezid), also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt (Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: link=no|یلدیرم بايزيد; Turkish: Yıldırım Bayezid|link=no; – 8 March 1403),[2] was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He adopted the title of Sultan-i Rûm, Rûm being the Arabic name for the Eastern Roman Empire.[3] In 1394, Bayezid unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople. Bayezid vanquished all the Beyliks and proceeded to conquer and vassalize the entirety of Anatolia. In 1402, he once more besieged Constantinople, appearing to find success, but he ultimately withdrew due to the invasion of the Mongol conqueror Timur.[4] He defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Nicopolis in what is now Bulgaria in 1396. He was later defeated and captured by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 and died in captivity in March 1403, which triggered the Ottoman Interregnum.
Bayezid was the son of Murad I[5] and his Greek wife, Gülçiçek Hatun.[6] His first major role was as governor of Kütahya, a city that he earned by marrying the daughter of a Germiyanid ruler, Devletşah.[7] He was an impetuous soldier, earning the nickname "Thunderbolt" in a battle against the Karamanids. 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.
Meanwhile, the sultan began unifying Anatolia under his rule. Forcible expansion into Muslim territories could have endangered the Ottoman relationship with the gazis, who were an important source of warriors for this ruling house on the European frontier. Thus Bayezid began the practice of first securing fatwas, or legal rulings from Islamic scholars, to justify wars against these Muslim states. However, Bayezid doubted the loyalty of his Muslim Turkish followers, so he relied heavily on his Serbian and Byzantine vassal troops in these conquests.[9]
In a single campaign over the summer and fall of 1390, Bayezid conquered the beyliks of Aydin, Saruhan and Menteshe. His major rival Sulayman, the emir of Karaman, responded by allying himself with the ruler of Sivas, Kadi Burhan al-Din and the remaining Turkish beyliks. Nevertheless, Bayezid pushed on and overwhelmed the remaining beyliks (Hamid, Teke, and Germiyan), as well as taking the cities of Akşehir and Niğde, as well as their capital Konya from the Karaman. At this point, Bayezid accepted peace proposals from Karaman (1391), concerned that further advances would antagonize his Turkoman followers and lead them to ally with Kadi Burhan al-Din. Once peace had been made with Karaman, Bayezid moved north against Kastamonu which had given refuge to many fleeing from his forces, and conquered both that city as well as Sinop.[10] However, his subsequent campaign was stopped by Burhan al-Din at the Battle of Kırkdilim.
From 1389 to 1395 he conquered Bulgaria and northern Greece. In 1394 Bayezid crossed the River Danube to attack Wallachia, ruled at that time by Mircea the Elder. The Ottomans were superior in number, but on 10 October 1394 (or 17 May 1395), in the Battle of Rovine, on forested and swampy terrain, the Wallachians won the fierce battle and prevented Bayezid's army from advancing beyond the Danube.[11]
In 1394, Bayezid laid siege to Constantinople,[4] the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Anadoluhisarı fortress was built between 1393 and 1394 as part of preparations for the second Ottoman siege of Constantinople, which took place in 1395. On the urgings of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II 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 1433) Sigismund, were defeated in the Battle of Nicopolis. Bayezid built the magnificent Ulu Cami in Bursa, to celebrate this victory.
Thus the siege of Constantinople continued, lasting until 1402.[12] The beleaguered Byzantines had their reprieve when Bayezid fought the Timurid Empire in the east.[13] At this time, the empire of Bayezid included Thrace (except Constantinople), Macedonia, Bulgaria, and parts of Serbia in Europe. In Asia, his domains extended to the Taurus Mountains. His army was considered one of the best in the Islamic world.
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 Turco-Mongol emir Timur. Finally, Bayezid occupied Elbistan and Malatya.
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: