1354 (or 1356)
Ankara, 1354
In 1354 Orhan’s son Süleyman takes Ankara and Gerede to the north of it. Other accounts date the capture of Ankara to 1356. The town on the central plateau has no prince of its own and is run by its akhis, the masters of the craft brotherhoods, who have kept order there since Seljuk and Ilkhanid rule weakened.
The Arslanhane or Ahi Şerafeddin Mosque in Ankara, completed in 1290Wikimedia Commons, Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Arslanhane Mosque 01.jpg)
Ankara lies at the western edge of the lands of Eretna, a former Ilkhanid governor who rules much of central Anatolia as an independent prince. By the Turkish accounts Süleyman uses the disorder after Eretna’s death in 1352 to take the town. It is the first Ottoman town on the central plateau, far from the Byzantine frontier.
The citadel of Ankara on its rock above the old townWikimedia Commons, Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Ankara Castle.jpg)
Sources
- Aşıkpaşazade, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân (late 15th century).
- Halil İnalcık, “Orhan”, in TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 33 (2007).
- Neşet Çağatay, Bir Türk Kurumu Olan Ahilik (1974).
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