Murad I

Murad I
Bey Emîr-i a’zam Gazi Han Hüdavendigâr Sultânü’s-selâtîn Melikü’l-mülûk
Murad I rests after a triumph. Hünername (1584). TSMK H.1523
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Padishah)
Reign	March 1362 – 15 June 1389
Predecessor	Orhan
Successor	Bayezid I
Born	29 June 1326 Bursa, [1] [2] Ottoman Beylik
Died	15 June 1389(1389-06-15) (aged 62) Kosovo field, District of Branković
Burial	Organs buried at Tomb of Murad I, Kosovo 42°42′07″N21°06′15″E / 42.70194°N 21.10417°E / 42.70194; 21.10417 Body buried at Sultan Murad Türbe, Osmangazi, Bursa
Consorts	Gülçiçek Hatun Thamara Hatun Paşa Melek Hatun Others
Issue Among others	Savci Bey Bayezid I Yakub Çelebi Nefise Hatun
Names Murad bin Orhan
Dynasty	Ottoman
Father	Orhan
Mother	Nilüfer Hatun
Religion	Sunni Islam
Tughra

Murad I (Ottoman Turkish : مراد اول; Turkish : I. Murad), nicknamed Hüdavendigâr , (from Persian : خداوندگار, romanized: Khodāvandgār, lit.  'the devotee of God ' – meaning "sovereign" in this context; 29 June 1326 – 15 June 1389) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1362 to 1389. He was the son of Orhan Gazi and Nilüfer Hatun. Murad I came to the throne after his elder half-brother Süleyman Pasha's death.

Murad I conquered Adrianople in 1360s and made it the new capital of the Ottoman Sultanate. Then he further expanded the Ottoman realm in Southern Europe by bringing most of the Balkans under Ottoman rule, and forced the princes of Serbia, the emperor of Bulgaria as well as the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos to pay him tribute. ^[2] Murad I administratively divided his sultanate into the two provinces of Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Rumelia (the Balkans).

Titles

According to the Ottoman sources, Murad I's titles included Bey , Emîr-i a’zam (Great Emir), Ghazi , Hüdavendigâr, Khan , Padishah, Sultânü’s-selâtîn (Sultan of sultans), Melikü’l-mülûk (Malik of maliks), while in Bulgarian and Serbian sources he was referred to as Tsar. In a Genoese document, he was referred to as dominus armiratorum Turchie (Master lord of Turks). ^[3]

Wars

Map of the conquests of Murad I

16th century miniature depicting Murad I

Murad fought against the powerful beylik 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, the important Bulgarian city 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

Tomb of Sultan Murad on Kosovo field

Tomb of Sultan Murad

Main article: Battle of Kosovo

In 1389, Murad's army fought 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 the first hours of the battle, Murad I was assassinated by Serbian nobleman and knight Miloš Obilić by knife. ^{[4] [5]} Most Ottoman chroniclers (including Dimitrie Cantemir) ^[6] state that he was assassinated while he was inspecting the battlefield after the battle had finished. 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 a letter from the Florentine senate (written by Coluccio Salutati) to the King Tvrtko I of Bosnia, dated 20 October 1389, Murad I's (and Yakub Bey's) killing was described. A party of twelve Serbian lords slashed their way through the Ottoman lines defending Murad I. One of them, allegedly Miloš Obilić, had managed to get through to the Sultan's tent and kill him with sword stabs to the throat and belly. ^{[7] [ page needed ]}

Murad's internal organs were buried in Kosovo field and remain to this day on a corner of the battlefield in a location called Meshed-i Hudavendigar which has gained a religious significance for the local Muslims. It was vandalized between 1999 and 2006 and was renovated recently.^{[ when? ]} His other remains were carried to Bursa, his Anatolian capital city, and were buried in a tomb at the complex built in his name. ^[8]

Appearance and character

Murad I is described in Ottoman sources as a medium-height, round-faced, aquiline-nosed, charitable, just ruler who devoted his life to the holy war. In Byzantine sources, he is remembered as a sultan who spoke little but spoke eloquently, was fond of hunting, tireless, merciful to Christians, but did not tolerate mistakes and could resort to harshness, and was always successful against his enemies. ^[3]

Family

Murad was the son of Orhan and Nilüfer Hatun, a slave concubine who was of ethnic Greek descent. ^{[9] [10]}

Consorts

Murad I had at least seven consorts: ^{[11] [12] [13] [14] [15]}

• Gulçicek Hatun. Slave concubine, mother of Bayezid I. ^[16]
• Fülane Hatun. Daughter of Ahî Seyyid Sultân, married Murad in 1366. ^[17]
• Paşa Melek Hatun. Daughter of Kızıl Murad Bey. ^{[18] [16] [19]}
• Fülane Hatun. Daughter of Konstantin of Kostendil, she married Murad in 1372. Two of her sisters married two of Murad's sons, Bayezid I and Yakub Çelebi. ^[17]

16th century miniature of Murad I

• Kera Tamara Hatun. Bulgarian princess, daughter of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria. After Bulgaria was subjected to tribute, she married Murad I in 1376. There is no further information about her. ^{[16] [19] [17]}
• Fülane Hatun. Daughter of Cândâroğlu Süleyman II Paşah, she married Murad in 1383. Her mother was Sultan Hatun, daughter of Süleyman Pasha, Murad's older half-brother. ^{[16] [20] [17]}
• Maria Hatun. Born Maria Paleologa, she was the daughter of the Byzantine emperor John V and his wife Helena Kantakouzene. She married Murad in 1389. ^{[21] [17]}

Sons

Murad I had at least five sons: ^{[11] [12] [14] [15]}

• Savci Bey (died in 1374). Executed by his father after he rebelled against him. He had a son, Davud Murad Bey, who fled to Hungary when his father died. ^[22]
• Bayezid I (1360 - 1403) - with Gulçiçek Hatun. Ottoman Sultan. ^[22]
• Yakub Çelebi (c. 1362 - 20 June 1389). Strangled on Bayezid's orders. ^[22]
• İbrahim Bey (c. 1365 - c. 1385). Buried in the Osman I mausoleum. He died in Edirne at an early age. ^{[23] [22]}
• Yahşi Bey (? - before 1389) - with Gülçiçek Hatun.

Daughters

Murad I had at least five daughters: ^{[12] [14] [15]}

• Nefise Melek Sultan Hatun (c. 1363 - after 1402). In 1378 she was married off to Karamânoğlu Alâeddîn Alî Bey in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the war. She had at least three sons by him: Mehmed II Bey (1379 - 1423), Alaeddin Ali II Bey (1381 - 1424) and Oğuz Bey (probably died in infancy). Widowed in 1397, she returned to live in Bursa, but on the death of Bayezid I returned to Karaman, where her eldest son assumed the throne.
• Özer Hatun. ^[16] She married and had issue. In 1426 her grandson Mehmed Bey held a post at court of Murad II.
• Erhundi Hatun. She married Saruhânoğlu Hızır Bey before 1389.
• Mihriali Devlet Sultan Hatun. She married Karamânoglu Turgut Bey, by whom she had a son, Mahmud Bey.
• Nilüfer Hatun. She built a mosque at Bursa. ^[19]

Further reading

Rendition of Murad I by Paolo Veronese (active 1550-88)

• Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN   978-0-300-11786-8
• Imber, Colin (2009). The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power (Second ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-1-1370-1406-1.

References

1. "Murad I". TheOttomans.org.
2. "Murad I". Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.
3. Halil İnalcık (2006). "Murad I". TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. 31 (Muhammedi̇yye – Münâzara) (in Turkish). Istanbul: Presidency of Religious Affairs, Centre for Islamic Studies. pp. 156–164. ISBN   978-975-389-458-6.
4. Helmolt, Ferdinand. The World's History, p.293. W. Heinemann, 1907.
5. Fine, John. The Late Medieval Balkans, p. 410. University of Michigan Press, 1994. ISBN   0-472-08260-4.
6. Cantemir, Dimitrie, History of the Growth and Decay of the Osman Ottoman Empire, London 1734.^{[ page needed ]}
7. Wayne S. Vucinich, Thomas A. Emmert (1991). Kosovo: Legacy of a Medieval Battle. University of Minnesota. ISBN   9789992287552.
8. "Meşhed-i Hüdavendigar – www.sultanmurad.com" (in Turkish). Retrieved 2019-01-14.
9. Peirce, Leslie P. (1994). Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Studies in Middle Eastern History. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 33–35. ISBN   978-0-19-508677-5.
10. Lowry, Heath (2003). The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. Albany: SUNY Press. p. 153. ISBN   0-7914-5636-6.
11. Nikolay Antov - The Ottoman Wild West
12. Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay - Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları
13. Jennifer Lawler - Encyclopedia of the Byzantine Empire
14. Necdet Sakaoğlu - Bu Mülkün Kadın Sultanları
15. Yılmaz Öztuna, Devletler ve Hanedanlar Cilt 2
16. Said Öztürk, and Ahmet Akgündüz. Ottoman History - Misperceptions and Truths. IUR PRESS.
17. Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler (in Turkish). Alfa Yayınları. p. 64. ISBN   9786051710792.
18. Kepecioğlu, Kâmil. "Bursa Kütüğü" (PDF).
19. Uluçay, M. Çağatay. Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları (in Turkish). Ötüken Neşriyat. ISBN   9789754378405.
20. Alderson, Anthony Dolphin. The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Clarendon Press.
21. Several of John V's daughters and granddaughters married Ottoman princes: his daughter Maria married Murad I, two more his sons Bayezid I and Yakub, while a fourth, Irene, married Halil, Murad's half-brother. Two granddaughters, daughters of Theodore and Zampia, married a son and grandson of Bayezid I, Süleyman and Mustafa.
22. Taylan, Nermin (2015). Sıradışı Osmanlı Şehzadeleri (in Turkish). Ekim Yayınları. p. 29. ISBN   978-605-5476-56-4.
23. Maydaer, Saadet. "Klasik Dönemde Bursa'da Bir Semt: Hisar".

External links

Media related to Murad I at Wikimedia Commons

• "Murad § Murad I"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 19 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 14.

Murad I House of Osman Born: 1326 Died: 1389
Regnal titles
Preceded by Orhan	Ottoman Sultan 1362 – 15 June 1389	Succeeded by Bayezid I