AND ASIA MINOR
AT THE TIME OF THE ENTRY OF THE OTTOMANS INTO EUROPE
1353.
London. T. Fisher Unwin. Ltd. _Stanford’s Geog.^l Estab.^t London._]
III
MURAD I
1359-89
MURAD succeeded his father, Orchan, at the age of forty. He soon proved
himself to be eminently qualified to rule by his untiring activity and
vigour, his genius for war, and his wise and sane statesmanship. He
was illiterate. He could not even sign his name. There is extant in
the archives of the city of Ragusa a treaty with its petty republic,
which Murad, in 1363, signed by dipping his hand in ink and impressing
it with his finger marks. The ‘tughra’ thus formed became the official
signature of subsequent Sultans of Turkey. Osman and Orchan between
them created the Ottoman dynasty and State, but Murad must be credited
with having founded the Empire in the sense of imposing Ottoman rule on
subject races.
On Murad’s accession his territory, though greatly increased by Orchan,
was less in extent than some other Turkish Emirates in Anatolia. It
consisted of an area on both sides of the Sea of Marmora, two hundred
miles in length by about one hundred in depth. It included both shores
of the Dardanelles, but only one side of the Bosphorus. Constantinople,
on the other side, though nearly hemmed in by the Ottomans, was
nominally independent, and its communications with the Greek province
of Thrace were still open. Deducting the area of the Sea of Marmora,
the territory under Murad’s rule was not of greater area than twenty
thousand square miles. Its population probably did not amount to a
million in number. It is difficult to understand how Murad from this
small territory so enormously increased his Empire in Europe. It may
be surmised that large numbers of Turks from other parts of Anatolia
flocked to his standard in search of adventure and booty in Europe.
The ownership of both sides of the Dardanelles did not, in the days before
the invention of gunpowder, give command of the Straits, and as Murad
was without a navy, the passage of his armies between Asia and Europe
was at the mercy of any naval Power. The Genoese, who had important
commercial settlements on the shores of the Black Sea and on the
Bosphorus at Galata, and who maintained a large naval force in the
Ægean Sea, might easily have barred the way of the Ottomans to Europe,
but they hated the Greeks and were greedy of money, and they could
be relied on to convey Murad’s armies across the Straits for a full
consideration. It will be seen that Murad, during his reign of thirty
years, increased by more than fivefold the Ottoman possessions, and
at one point brought them up to the Danube. He compelled other States
also, including the Greek Empire itself, to accept the position of
tributaries to his Empire. His fame in Ottoman history must be regarded
as on a level with that of Mahomet, the Conqueror of Constantinople,
and of Solyman the Magnificent, who raised the Empire to its zenith.
Murad’s great extensions of his Empire may more conveniently, than in a
chronological order, be treated under three distinct heads:—
1. His conquest of the possessions of the Greek Empire in Thrace and
Bulgaria and the reduction of that decadent Empire to the humiliating
position of vassalage. 2. His great conquests in Bulgaria, Macedonia,
and Serbia. 3. His extensions in Anatolia by the absorption of Turkish
Emirates or parts of them.
1. THE CONQUESTS IN THRACE.
The Greek Empire, under John Palæologus V, the most unfortunate and
incompetent of men, on the accession of Murad, was in a perilous and
decadent condition. We have already shown how small were its remaining
possessions in Europe. It had no friends on whom it could rely to stem
the advance of the Moslems. The old spirit of the early Crusaders in
Europe was almost extinct. There was a bitter feud between the Latin
and Greek Churches. They hated one another more than they feared the
Turks. It was a condition of any assistance of the Latin Christians
that the Greeks should come into the fold of the Pope of Rome. The
Greeks, on their part, flatly refused this, even for the purpose of
saving their Empire from extinction by the Moslem Turks.
It was under these conditions that Murad, in the first year of his
reign, determined to follow up the designs of his father by conquests
in Europe. Leaving Brusa, the then capital of his State, he crossed
the Dardanelles, and at the head of a great army marched into Thrace.
His generals, Evrenos and Lalashahin, commanded the two wings of it.
Evrenos advanced on the left, recaptured the fortress of Tchorlu, five
miles from Constantinople, massacred its garrison, and razed its walls.
Lalashahin, on the right, captured Kirk Kilisse, and thus protected the
army from a possible landing of the enemy from the Black Sea. Murad
then advanced with the centre of his army, formed a junction with the
two wings, and fought a great battle at Eski Baba, in 1363, in which he
completely defeated the Byzantine army opposed to him, with the result
that Adrianople surrendered without a struggle and almost the whole of
Thrace fell into Murad’s hands. Lalashahin then advanced up the Maritza
Valley into Bulgaria and captured Philippopolis, a Byzantine possession
south of the Balkans.
As a result of this successful invasion the Greek Emperor found himself
compelled to enter into a treaty with Murad, by which he bound himself
to refrain from any attempt to recover what he had lost in Thrace, to
abstain from giving aid to the Serbians and Bulgarians in resisting
a further advance of the Ottomans in Europe, and to support Murad
against his Anatolian enemies, the Turkish Emirs. Murad thereupon
returned to Brusa to cogitate over new enterprises and to organize his
forces. He was soon recalled to Europe by most serious events. The
Christian Powers had shown no disposition to help the Greeks against
the Ottoman invasion, while their possessions in Asia and Europe were
being invaded, but the advance into Bulgaria seems to have caused
alarm to them. Pope Urban V stirred up Louis, the King of Hungary, and
the Princes of Serbia, Bosnia, and Wallachia to resist. They combined
together and sent an army of twenty thousand men into Thrace, with the
avowed object of driving the Turks out of Europe. Murad hastened to
confront them, but before he could arrive on the scene of action his
general, Lalashahin, led an army against the allies. The two armies
met on the River Maritza, not far from Adrianople, in 1363. Ilbeki, in
command of the Ottomans, made a sudden night attack, when the Christian
troops were heavy with sleep after a festive revel. A stampede took
place. The Turkish historian says of the allied army: “They were caught
even as wild beasts in their lair. They were driven as flames are
driven before the wind, till, plunging into the Maritza, they perished
in its waters.”
The Christian army was practically exterminated. The King of Hungary
escaped by a miracle. It was the first conflict of the Ottomans with
the Hungarians, who were destined to bar the way into Europe for a
hundred and fifty years. As a result of this battle all the country
south of the Balkan Mountains was incorporated in the Ottoman Empire.
Ilbeki, who devised the night attack, and so successfully carried it
out, was made away with by poison, at the instance of Lalashahin, who
was madly jealous of his great victory.
The battle of the Maritza was a crushing blow to the Christians. One
result of it was that Murad decided in favour of a scheme of conquest
in Europe rather than in Asia. In this view he transferred the seat of
his government from Brusa to Thrace, and made Demotika the capital of
his Empire. Three years later he transferred it to Adrianople, which
for ninety years, till after the capture of Constantinople, held this
position, and from thence he organized his great invasion of the Balkan
States. Another result was that the Greek Emperor, John Palæologus V,
was forced into a further step towards subjection to the Ottomans. He
agreed to become a tributary to the Sultan and to send a contingent to
the Ottoman army in future wars.
After a time the Emperor fretted under this position of vassalage, and
in 1369 he went on a mission to Rome, in the hope of inducing the Pope
to stir up the Christian Powers of Europe to another crusade against
the Ottomans. He left his eldest son, Andronicus, in charge of the
government at Constantinople during his absence. Arriving at Rome, he
submitted to the most humiliating conditions with the object of gaining
the support of the Pope Urban V. He abjured at St. Peter’s, before the
High Altar, the principles of the Greek Church, so far as they differed
from those of Rome. He admitted the ecclesiastical supremacy of the
Pope. He was then permitted to bend his knee, and to kiss the Pope’s
feet and hands. He was privileged also to lead the Pope’s mule by the
bridle. He obtained, however, no return for these abject humiliations.
The Pope was unable to induce the Christian Powers again to take up
arms against the Ottomans.
The Emperor’s concessions to the Pope were also disavowed by the
Hierarchs of the Greek Church at Constantinople. There never was
any prospect of a reunion of the two Churches. The Emperor, John
Palæologus, embarked on his homeward journey having nothing to show
for his pains. On his way back, when passing through Venice, he was
arrested, at the instance of his Venetian creditors, who had lent him
money to defray the cost of his mission. Not having the means to pay,
he could not discharge the legal process. Andronicus had no wish that
his father should ever return to Constantinople. He made no effort to
raise money for the release of the Emperor. He pleaded the poverty of
the Treasury. A younger son, Manuel, however, with more filial piety,
raised the necessary sum, by selling all his property, and obtained
the release of his father. Shortly after his return to Constantinople
the Emperor, as was to be expected, deprived Andronicus of all his
appointments, and replaced him by Manuel, whom he also made co-Emperor
with himself.
The son of Andronicus, of the same name, furious at this treatment of
his father, entered into a mad conspiracy with Saoudji, the youngest
son of Sultan Murad, with the object of dethroning both Emperor and
Sultan and reigning in their place. Saoudji, being in command of the
Sultan’s army in Europe, during the absence of Murad in Asia, was
able to tamper with the loyalty of the Ottoman troops. He assembled a
considerable force in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, where he
was joined by a large number of the sons of Greek nobles and by many
soldiers.
Murad, when he heard, at Brusa, of this mad outbreak, returned with all
haste to Europe, and organized resistance to it, in concert with the
Greek Emperor. They agreed that the two rebels, when captured, should
be deprived of their eyesight. Murad thereupon, taking what soldiers he
could get together, marched to meet Saoudji’s army. When within hearing
of it, he called out to the soldiers by night, urging them to return
to their duty and promising pardon to them. The soldiers, hearing the
voice of the Sultan, who had so often led them to victory, repented
of their treachery and deserted the cause which they had so foolishly
taken up. Saoudji and Andronicus and the band of Greek nobles, thus
deserted by the rank and file of the army, took refuge in the fortress
of Demotika. Murad had no difficulty in capturing this place, and
with it the two rebel princes and the Greek nobles. In pursuance of
his agreement with the Emperor, he then deprived his own son of his
eyesight and, going beyond his promise, had the young man executed.
He caused the Greek nobles to be bound, two and three together, and
thrown into the Maritza, while he stood on the bank and revelled in
the sight of their drowning struggles. In some cases he insisted on
parents themselves putting their sons to death in his presence. When
they refused, the parents were drowned in the river together with their
sons. In this instance Murad showed that he had in him the vein of
cruelty which was conspicuous, more or less, in all the descendants of
Othman. Andronicus was handed over to the Greek Emperor, who partially,
but not completely, carried out his promise of depriving his grandson
of eyesight.
As a result of these events, the Emperor John Palæologus found himself
compelled to enter into another treaty with Murad, by which, in order
“that he might enjoy up to the end of his life in peace his last
possession,” he recognized himself as vassal of the Sultan, promised
to do military service in the Ottoman army, and gave his son Manuel in
charge of Murad as a hostage.
2. THE CONQUESTS IN MACEDONIA, BULGARIA, AND SERBIA.
The conquest of Thrace by the Ottomans and the defeat of the allied
Christians at the Maritza were as great blows to the Bulgarians as to
the Greek Empire, though they had given no assistance to the allies.
The occupation of Adrianople and Philippopolis opened the way to a
further advance into Bulgaria and Macedonia. It was not, however, till
1366 that Murad availed himself of this advantage, and commenced the
series of attacks which ultimately made him master of Macedonia and of
a great part of Bulgaria and Serbia. The position of affairs in the
peninsula at this time was very favourable to him. The Bulgarians,
Serbians, Bosnians, and Greeks were madly jealous of one another; each
of them preferred the extension of the Ottoman rule to that of their
rivals. Bulgaria alone, if united, might have successfully resisted
Murad. But in 1365 its Czar, Alexander, died, and his kingdom was
divided between his three sons. Sisman, the elder, got the largest
share. The other two gave no assistance to their brother when the
Ottomans invaded his country. Between 1366 and 1369, Murad advanced
into Bulgaria, and took possession of the Maritza Valley, as far as the
Rhodope Mountains. In 1371 Lalashahin encountered an army of Bulgarians
and Serbians at Samakof, not far from the city of Sofia, and completely
defeated it, with the result that Bulgaria, up to the Balkan range, was
annexed to the Ottoman Empire. It remained so for over five hundred
years, till its release in our own times.
After this great victory at Samakof, Lalashahin was instructed by Murad
not to pursue his conquest of Bulgaria north of the Balkan range, but
to proceed westward, and, in concert with Evrenos, to invade Macedonia
as far as the River Vardar. This occupied the two generals in the years
1371-2. Kavalla, Druma, and Serres fell into their hands. In 1372 they
crossed the Vardar River and penetrated into Old Serbia, Albania, and
Bosnia. The main part of Serbia, however, remained in the hands of
Lazar, its prince. But he was compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty
of the Sultan. As regards the part of Bulgaria not annexed, its prince,
Sisman, was allowed to retain his independence. His daughter entered
the harem of Murad, with the understanding that she was not to be
compelled to adopt the Moslem religion. It was not till 1381 that a
further advance was made by Murad. He then sent his armies across the
Vardar River and captured Monastir. He also took possession of Sofia,
and in 1386 of Nisch, after a fierce struggle with the Serbians.
3. MURAD’S ACQUISITIONS IN ASIA MINOR.
Between the years 1376 and 1380 Murad found himself able to turn his
attention in the direction of Asia Minor. In the first of these years
he induced the Emir of Kermia, doubtless by threats of war, to give a
daughter in marriage to Bayezid, his eldest son. She brought with her
as dowry a considerable part of Kermia and the fortress of Kutayia, a
position of great strategic importance. In 1377 he followed this up
by inducing the Emir of Hamid to sell a great portion of his Emirate
lying between Tekke, Kermia, and Karamania, including the district
of Ak-Sheir. The effect of this acquisition was to make his frontier
conterminous with that of Karamania. Again, in 1378, he declared war
against the Emir of Tekke, and annexed a part of his territory, leaving
to him Adalia.
Murad made no further effort to extend his dominion in Asia till 1387,
when he led a large army against Alaeddin, the Emir of Karamania. For
this purpose he called upon the Greek Emperor and the Princes of Serbia
and Bulgaria as vassals of the Empire to send their contingents. His
two sons, Bayezid and Yacoub, commanded the wings of this army. With
a view to conciliate the peasantry of the district he passed through,
and to ensure full supplies of food to his army, he gave strict orders
that there was to be no pillage, and that the lives and property of the
country people were to be respected. Among his troops were two thousand
Serbians, whom the Prince of Serbia was bound by his recent treaty
to supply. These men refused to obey Murad’s order, and committed
atrocious depredations on the route of the army. Murad inflicted severe
punishment on them, and directed many of them to be put to death as a
warning to the others. The army then marched to meet the Karamanians.
A battle again took place on the plain of Angora. Bayezid especially
distinguished himself by the fierceness of his cavalry charges and
earned for himself the sobriquet of ‘the Thunderbolt.’
There are different versions as to the issue of this battle. Some
historians describe it as a great victory for Murad, and claim that
he treated the vanquished Emir of Karamania with great generosity,
insisting only on a token of submission. Murad, however, was not in
the habit of neglecting to take full advantage of any successes of
his armies. It is very certain that, in this case, he did not succeed
in extending his Empire. Karamania retained its independence for many
years to come, and did not even submit to a nominal vassalage. It seems
more probable, therefore, that this battle was indecisive, and that
Murad withdrew, without having effected his purpose.
Murad, who was now near the age of seventy, would have been glad to end
his life in repose, but he was recalled to Europe by an outbreak of
the Serbians. It appeared that the Serbian soldiers, on their return
to their homes, after the campaign against the Karamanians, told the
story of the execution of their comrades by order of Murad. It caused
universal indignation among the Serbians. They could not understand
a war conducted without the levy of booty from the enemy’s country.
The whole of Serbia rose in rebellion. An alliance was formed with
Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Albania. Assistance was obtained from Hungary
and Wallachia. Murad again took the field in command of an Ottoman
army, and, crossing the Balkans, captured Schumla and Tirnova, and
then marched towards the Danube. Sisman, the King of Bulgaria, shut
himself up in Nicopolis, on the Danube, but was soon compelled to come
to terms. He agreed to give up Silistria to the Turks, and to pay a
tribute in the future.
Lazar, the King of Serbia, in spite of this defection, continued the
struggle against the Ottomans, and Sisman himself broke the treaty
almost before the ink was dry. He refused to give up Silistria, and
sent a contingent in aid of the Serbians. Murad sent part of his army,
under Ali Pasha, against Sisman, who was again shut up in Nicopolis.
This fortress was captured. Murad was again generous in sparing
Sisman’s life, but this time he deprived the southern part of Bulgaria
of its autonomy, and insisted on its being completely incorporated in
the Turkish Empire.
Lazar, the King of Serbia, continued the war. Murad, in spite of his
seventy years, led his army, supported, as in Asia Minor, by his two
sons. The decisive battle took place on the plain of Kossova, at
the point of junction between Serbia and Bulgaria. It was fiercely
contested. At a critical point of it a Serbian noble, Milosch
Kobilowitch, who on the previous day had been falsely charged in
the Serbian camp with disaffection and treason, gave signal proof of
his patriotism by riding boldly into the Turkish lines, as though he
was a deserter, and claiming that he had a most important message to
deliver to the Sultan. He was allowed to approach Murad, and, while
kneeling before him, plunged a dagger into his heart, causing a mortal
wound. Milosch then made a desperate rush to escape, but in vain. He
was captured and brought to the Sultan’s tent. Meanwhile Murad, in
spite of his approaching death, was able to give orders for the charge
of his reserves, which decided the battle in favour of the Ottomans.
The Serbians and their allies were completely defeated and routed.
Lazar was taken prisoner and was brought to the Sultan’s tent. Murad
lived long enough to direct the execution in his presence of Lazar and
Milosch. He then expired.
To complete the tragedy of the day, Bayezid, on hearing of the death
of his father, and his own consequent accession to the throne, gave
immediate orders for the murder of his brother Yacoub, who had been his
valiant companion in arms in so many battles. This was effected in the
presence of the dead body of the father. The brutal deed was justified
by a verse from the Koran, “Rebellion is worse than execution.” It was
assumed by Bayezid that his brother would claim the throne against
him. This was the first recorded case of fratricide in the Othman
royal race. Thenceforth it became the settled practice for a Sultan of
Turkey, on his accession to the throne, immediately to put to death
his brothers and other collaterals, lest they should dispute the
succession with him. By the law of succession the eldest living male
of the reigning family, and not the eldest son of a defunct Sultan,
was entitled to the throne. This supplied an additional motive for the
practice of fratricide, for the new Sultan, by murdering his brothers
and uncles, ensured the succession, after his own death, to his eldest
son free from competition. In later times, however, when public opinion
would no longer justify fratricide, and when the law of succession of
the oldest male in the family was more fully recognized, the Sultan,
on his accession to the throne, directed the close confinement of his
next heir, generally his brother. It followed from this practice that
the heir to the throne, instead of being employed on State affairs,
or as a general, and gaining experience, was treated as a prisoner,
and was forbidden to take any part in public affairs. It will be seen
that this practice of forced seclusion of the heir to the throne during
the lifetime of the reigning Sultan was one of the main causes of the
degeneracy of the Othman dynasty.
Reverting to Murad, it has been shown how important an epoch his
reign was in the growth of the Ottoman Empire. During the twenty-four
years of war, in which he led his armies in the field, he never met
with a reverse. He extended the Empire for the first time into vast
territories inhabited not by Turks or by Byzantines, but by sturdy
Christian races, such as the Bulgarians, Serbians, and Bosnians. For
the first time also the Turks came into conflict with the Hungarians,
and defeated them. The influence of the Empire was extended practically
to the Danube. Some of the intervening territory was not treated as
conquered country and added to the Empire, but was allowed to retain
the position of tributary or vassal States, as in the case of Serbia.
Other parts, such as Thrace, Macedonia, and Bulgaria, were fully
incorporated in the dominion of the Sultan.