Murad I
| Murad I | |
|---|---|
|
Caliph of Islam Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Hüdavendigâr | |
 | |
| Reign | 1362 – 15 June, 1389 (27 years) |
| Predecessor | Orhan |
| Successor | Bayezid I |
| Sultan of the Ottoman Empire | |
| Consort |
Gülçiçek Hatun Maria Thamara Hatun Paşa Melek Hatun |
| Royal house | House of Osman |
| Father | Orhan |
| Mother | Nilüfer Hatun |
| Born |
29 June 1326 Amasya,[1] in present-day Turkey |
| Died |
15 June 1389 Kosovo Polje, in present-day Prishtina District, Kosovo[lower-alpha 1] |
| Burial |
Tomb of Sultan Murad, Kosovo Polje, in present-day Prishtina District, Kosovo[lower-alpha 1] 42°42′07″N 21°06′15″E / 42.70194°N 21.10417°ECoordinates: 42°42′07″N 21°06′15″E / 42.70194°N 21.10417°E |
| Religion | Islam |
| Tughra |
 |
Murad I (Ottoman Turkish: مراد اول) (Turkish: I. Murat Hüdavendigâr) (nicknamed Hüdavendigâr, from Persian خداوندگار Khodāvandgār, "the God-like One" – but meaning "sovereign" in this context) (29 June 1326, Amasya – 15 June 1389, Kosovo Polje) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1362 to 1389. He was a son of Orhan and the Valide Sultan Nilüfer Hatun.
Murad I conquered Adrianople, renamed it to Edirne,[1] and in 1363 made it the new capital of Ottoman Empire.[2] Then he further expanded the Ottoman realm in Southeast Europe by bringing most of the Balkans under Ottoman rule, and forced the princes of northern Serbia and Bulgaria as well as the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos to pay him tribute.[1] Murad I administratively divided his empire into the two provinces of Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Rumelia (the Balkans).
Wars
Murad fought against the powerful emirate of Karaman in Anatolia and against the Serbs, Albanians, Bulgarians and Hungarians in Europe. In particular, a Serb expedition to expel the Turks from Adrianople led by the Serbian brothers King Vukašin and Despot Uglješa, was defeated on September 26, 1371, by Murad's capable second lieutenant Lala Şâhin Paşa, the first governor (beylerbey) of Rumeli. In 1385, Sofia fell to the Ottomans. In 1386 Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović defeated an Ottoman force at the Battle of Pločnik. The Ottoman army suffered heavy casualties, and was unable to capture Niš on the way back.
Battle of Kosovo
In 1389, Murad's army defeated the Serbian Army and its allies under the leadership of Lazar at the Battle of Kosovo. There are different accounts from different sources about when and how Murad I was assassinated. The contemporary sources mainly noted that the battle took place and that both Prince Lazar and the Sultan lost their lives in the battle. The existing evidence of the additional stories and speculations as to how Murad I died were disseminated and recorded in the 15th century and later, decades after the actual event. One Western source states that during first hours of the battle, Murad I was assassinated by Serbian nobleman and knight Miloš Obilić by knife.[3][4] Most Ottoman chroniclers (including Dimitrie Cantemir) [5] state that he was assassinated after the finish of the battle while going around the battlefield. Others state that he was assassinated in the evening after the battle at his tent by the assassin who was admitted to ask a special favour. His older son Bayezid, who was in charge of the left wing of the Ottoman forces, took charge after that. His other son, Yakub Bey, who was in charge of the other wing, was called to the Sultan's command center tent by Bayezid, but when Yakub Bey arrived he was strangled, leaving Bayezid as the sole claimant to the throne.
In the earliest preserved Christian record, a letter of Florentine senate to the King Tvrtko I of Bosnia, dated 20 October 1389, Murad I's killing was described. A warrior, allegedly Miloš Obilić, had managed to get through the Ottoman army and kill Murad I.
Sultan Murad's internal organs were buried in Kosovo field and remains to this day on a corner of the battlefield in a location called Meshed-i Hudavendigar which has gained a religious significance by the Muslims (which had been renamed Obilić by the Serbs). It has recently been renovated. His other remains were carried to Bursa, his Anatolian capital city, and were buried in a tomb at the complex built in his name.
Establishment of Empire
He established the Empire by building up a society and government in the newly conquered city of Adrianople (Edirne in Turkish) and by expanding the realm in Europe, bringing most of the Balkans under Ottoman rule and forcing the Byzantine emperor to pay him tribute. It was Murad who established the former Osmanli tribe into an empire. He established the title of sultan in 1383 and the corps of the janissaries and the devşirme recruiting system. He also organised the government of the Divan, the system of timars and timar-holders (timariots) and the military judge, the kazasker. He also established the two provinces of Anadolu (Anatolia) and Rumeli (Europe).
Marriages and progeny
He was the son of Orhan and the Valide Sultan Nilüfer Hatun, daughter of the Prince of Yarhisar or Byzantine princess Theodora Kantakouzene (also named Nilüfer), who was of ethnic Greek descent[6][7][8]
Marriages of Murad I:
- In 1359 Valide Hatun Gülçiçek Hatun – daughter of a Byzantine Emperor
- In 1365 Paşa Melek Hatun – daughter of Kızıl Murad Bey
- In 1370 Maria Thamara Hatun – daughter of Bulgarian Czar Ivan Alexander
Progeny of Murad I:
- Yakub Çelebi (? – d. 1389) – son. In the first recorded fratricide in the history of the Ottoman dynasty, Bayezid I had Yakub killed during or following the Battle of Kosovo at which their father had been killed.
- Sultan Bayezid I (1354–1402) – son of Gulcicek Hatun
- Savcı Bey – son. He and his ally, Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologus' son Andronicus,[9] rebelled against their fathers. Murad had Savcı killed. Andronicus, who had surrendered to his father, was imprisoned and blinded at Murad's insistence.[10]
- Ibrahim Bey – son
- Yahşi Bey – son of Gülçiçek Hatun
- Halil Bey – son
- Nefise Hatun – daughter
- Sultan Hatun – daughter
Sultan Murad in literature
- Murad (as "Amurath the First") is the subject of Thomas Goffe's play The Courageous Turk, published in 1632.
Further reading
- Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8
- Imber, Colin, The Ottoman Empire. London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0-333-61387-2
Notes and references
Notes:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. Kosovo's independence has been recognised by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states.
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Murad I". Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.
- ↑ "In 1363 the Ottoman capital moved from Bursa to Edirne, although Bursa retained its spiritual and economic importance." Ottoman Capital Bursa. Official website of Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
- ↑ Helmolt, Ferdinand. The World's History, p.293. W. Heinemann, 1907.
- ↑ Fine, John. The Late Medieval Balkans, p. 410. University of Michigan Press, 1994. ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
- ↑ Cantemir, Dimitrie, History of the Growth and Decay of the Osman Ottoman Empire, London 1734.
- ↑ The Fall of Constantinople, Steven Runciman, Cambridge University Press, p. 36
- ↑ The Nature of the Early Ottoman State, Heath W. Lowry, 2003 SUNY Press, p. 153
- ↑ History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Stanford Jay Shaw, Cambridge University Press, p. 24
- ↑ Gibbon, Edward, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Modern Library, v. iii, p. 651
- ↑ Finkel, C., Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire, 2005, p. 19, Basic Books
External links
Media related to Murad I at Wikimedia Commons
| Murad I House of Osman Born: 1326 Died: 1389 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Orhan |
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1359– 15 June, 1389 |
Succeeded by Bayezid I |
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