20 July 1402, or 28 July
The Anatolian troops change sides
The Black Tatars, horse archers settled in Anatolia, change sides and shoot into the Ottoman left from behind. The troops of Aydın, Saruhan, Menteşe and Germiyan see the banners of their old beys in Timur’s army and ride over to them. Ömer Halis Bıyıktay has the Tatars change sides early in the battle. In later Turkish accounts the troops of the beyliks are the Anatolian sipahis of the right wing, and they go over in the afternoon, when Timur has the beys unfurl their banners.
The tiled grave of Yakub II of Germiyan at KütahyaWikimedia Commons, Ömerserez, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Yakub bey mezar.JPG)
Timur’s right wing breaks the Ottoman left, and Süleyman Çelebi leaves the field for Bursa with the grand vizier Çandarlı Ali Pasha and the commander of the janissaries. Bayezid holds the centre against the elephants and the armoured horsemen of Transoxiana.
On the right Stefan Lazarević’s Serbs, whose heavy armour turns the arrows, cut through the Timurid ranks three times. Stefan urges Bayezid to break out with him, and when Bayezid refuses he fights his way off the field and retreats toward Bursa under attack from the Tatars. Stefan is wounded and Grgur Branković taken prisoner. Laonikos Chalkokondyles writes that the Serbs fought as heroes, each worthy of praise.
Sources
- Konstantin the Philosopher, Life of Despot Stefan Lazarević (1431).
- Doukas, Historia Turco-Byzantina (about 1462).
- Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Histories (after 1464).
- Ömer Halis Bıyıktay, Yedi Yıl Harbi İçinde Timur’un Anadolu Seferi ve Ankara Savaşı (1934).
- Spencer C. Tucker, “Battle of Ankara”, in Battles that Changed History (2010), 139–141.
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