1357–1362
Murad becomes sultan, 1357–1362
After Süleyman’s death in 1357 Orhan sends his son Murad to command the frontier in Thrace, with his tutor (lala) Şahin. While Genoese pirates hold Orhan’s young son Halil, from 1357 to 1359, the Ottomans keep the peace with Byzantium. After Halil’s release Ottoman troops raid eastward from 1359, and the Florentine chronicler Matteo Villani reports Turkish raiders before the walls of Constantinople.
Murad I in an Ottoman miniature of the 16th century, Topkapı Palace MuseumWikimedia Commons, unknown Ottoman painter, Public domain (Murad I.jpg)
The Ottomans take Didymoteicho in 1359, lose it, and take it again in 1361, probably under Hacı İlbey, a frontier commander from Karesi. By the Ottoman chronicles Murad and Lala Şahin also take Çorlu (Tzurulon) and Lüleburgaz (Arkadiopolis) on the road to Constantinople, while Adrianople stays Byzantine.
Orhan dies in Bursa in March 1362, and Murad succeeds him. By the Ottoman chronicles the Byzantines then retake Çorlu, the akhis of Ankara drive out the Ottoman garrison, Murad’s half-brother İbrahim revolts and the Byzantines urge Halil, the youngest, to refuse him. Murad retakes Ankara, has his brothers put to death and makes Lala Şahin beylerbey, commander of the troops in Europe.
The cenotaph of Orhan in his tomb in the citadel of BursaWikimedia Commons, Maurice Flesier, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Tomb of Sultan Orhan of the Ottoman Empire.jpg)
Sources
- Aşıkpaşazade, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân (late 15th century).
- Halil İnalcık, “Murad I”, in TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 31 (2006).
- Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1481 (1990).
- Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453 (2nd ed., 1993).
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