Ottoman Interregnum

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The Ottoman Interregnum (20 July 1402 – 5 July 1413) (also known as The Ottoman Triumvirate; Fetret Devri in Turkish) began in 20 July 1402, when chaos reigned in the Ottoman Empire following the defeat of Sultan Bayezid I by the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur (Tamerlane). Although Mehmed Çelebi was confirmed as sultan by Tamerlane, his brothers refused to recognize his authority.^[1] Civil war was the result. The Interregnum lasted until 5 July 1413, when Mehmed Çelebi emerged as victor in the strife, crowned himself sultan as Mehmed I, and restored the empire.

Civil war

Civil war broke out among the sons of Sultan Bayezid I upon his death in 1403. His oldest son, Suleyman, with his capital at Adrianople, ruled northern Greece, Bulgaria and Thrace. The second son, İsa Çelebi, established himself as an independent ruler at Bursa after the Timurids retired from Asia Minor. Mehmed, the youngest of the brothers, formed a kingdom at Amasya. War soon broke out between Mehmed and İsa, in which Mehmed took Bursa which had been in İsa's hands.

Süleyman crossed the straits. At first Suleyman was successful. He invaded Anatolia and captured Bursa and Ankara in 1404. Meanwhile the other surviving son of Bayezid, Prince Mûsa, who had been captured at the battle of Ankara in 1402 and later released in 1403, had been captured by the Seljuk Prince of Germiyan, through whose territories he was passing with the remains of his father, whom he was to bury at Bursa. Mehmed freed Mûsa, and Prince Mûsa fought on Mehmed's side against Suleyman in Anatolia.

Mûsa persuaded Mehmed to let him cross the Black Sea to Thrace with a small force to attack Suleyman's territories. This maneuver soon recalled Suleyman to Thrace, where a short but sanguinary contest between him and Mûsa ensued. At first Suleyman had the advantage, winning the battle of Kosmidion in 1410, but in 1411 his army defected to Mûsa at Edirne and Suleyman was executed on the orders of Musa.^[2][3] Mûsa was now master of the Ottoman dominions in Thrace.

War against the Byzantines

The Byzantine Emperor, Manuel II Palaiologos, had been the ally of Suleyman; Mûsa therefore attacked him, and besieged his capital. Manuel called on Mehmed to protect him, and the Anatolian Ottomans now garrisoned Constantinople against the Ottomans of Thrace. Mehmed made several unsuccessful sallies against his brother's troops, and was obliged to re-cross the Bosporus to quell a revolt that had broken out in his own territories. Mûsa now pressed the siege of Constantinople. Mehmed returned to Thrace, and obtained the assistance of Stephan, the Serbian King.

The armies of the rival Ottoman brothers met on the plain of Chamurli (today Samokov, Bulgaria), near the southern Serbian frontier. Hassan, the Aga of the Janissaries on the side of Mehmed, stepped out before the ranks and tried to get the troops to change sides. Mûsa rushed against Hassan and killed him, but was himself wounded by an officer who had accompanied Hassan. Mûsa's Rumelian forces fought well, but the battle was won by Mehmed and his allies. Mûsa's army fled and he himself fled with them until he was shot from his horse then killed by one of Mehmed's commanders. With Mûsa dead Mehmed was the sole surviving son of the late Sultan Bayezid I and became Sultan Mehmed I. The Interregnum was a striking example of the fratricide that would become common in Ottoman successions.

Notes

1. ^ Fine, John Van Antwerp, The Late Medieval Balkans, (University of Michigan Press, 1994), 499.
2. ^ Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, (Basic Books, 2004), 32.
3. ^ Kastritsis, Dimitris J., The Sons of Bayezid: Empire Building and Representation in the Ottoman Civil War of 1402-13, (BRILL NV, 2007), 155-156.

References

• Fine, John Van Antwerp, The Late Medieval Balkans, University of Michigan Press, 1994.
• Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, Basic Books, 2004.
• Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978 0 30011786 8
• Imber, Colin, The Ottoman Empire. London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0 333 613872

See also

• Incorporates text from “History of Ottoman Turks” (1878)

Military history of the Ottoman Empire portal

Preceded by: Bayezid I

Ottoman Interregnum 1402–1413

Succeeded by: Mehmed I