Murad I

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Murad I, called Hüdavendiğar, “the Divine”, and also called by Christians Amurates I (Bursa, June 29, 1326-Kosovo Polje, June 15, 1389) was the bey (prince) of the Ottoman Empire between 1359 and 1383, and then sultan, from 1383 until his death. He was the son of Orhan I Gazi and the Byzantine noblewoman Nilüfer Hatun.

Origins and temperament

Murad, the second son of Orhan and a Christian mother, was a very capable and energetic man, very prone to luxury (unknown until then by the Turks, but not by the Greeks)^{[citation required ]} and, unlike his father and grandfather, Osman I Gazi, who had relied mainly on his nomadic cavalry forces, he set out to transform his Asian tribal state into a European empire, endowing it with of a standing army and bureaucratic apparatus based on those of the Byzantine Empire.

Ruler of the Ottoman Beylicate

In 1359, due to his advanced age, his father Orhan handed him command of the Ottoman Army, a position held by his older brother, Süleyman Paşa, who had died shortly before. Murad set out to expand the Ottoman conquests in Europe. With the European lands conquered, he created and organized a new Ottoman province: the Eyālet-i Rūm-ėli (in Ottoman Turkish, Eyelet of Rumelia ). To administer this new provincial entity, Murad appointed his former teacher, the Turkmen general Lala Şahin Paşa, with the title of Beylerbeyi. Lala Şahin Paşa set out to advance from Gallipoli (the base that Süleyman Paşa had left on the European continent), on the Byzantine territory of Thrace, taking in 1360, after years of siege, Demotika, one of the two largest cities of Thrace. In this city Murad was established and thus it was the European capital of the Ottoman Empire for a few years. It was during this short period of time that the great mosque and public baths were built, both being the first in Europe. Definitely retired from politics, Orhan finally died in Bursa in 1361. Murad, then in Demotika, upon receiving this news, was acclaimed by his troops as the new Bey (emir) of the Ottoman emirate.. However his new leadership was contested in Anatolia by his brothers, the Şehzade (princes) Ibrahim, Sultan Bey and Halil. Ibrahim, who was the governor of Eskişehir and grandson on his mother's side of the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus III Palaiologos, was the main rival of the three rebellious brothers, since he was older than Murad himself. Young Halil, on his part, was a grandson on his mother's side of the Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. Murad, leaving sufficient troops, under the command of beylerbey Lala Şahin Paşa, in Europe, crossed the Dardanelles with his army and had no difficulty in defeating Şehzade Ibrahim, who was taken prisoner with his two brothers in 1362. Murad inaugurated a policy that would be practiced by his successors every time they came to the Ottoman throne and that would later be legalized by Mehmed II: fratricide to ensure power. By order of bey Murad, Ibrahim, Sultan Bey and young Halil were executed by strangulation.

Early European conquests: Adrianople and Thrace

With the succession issue resolved, Murad again turned his attention to Europe. While he was in Anatolia fighting with his brothers, the Turkish forces left behind in Thrace did not abate his attacks, but they lacked a unified leadership. The Byzantines were unable to counter-attack and missed the chance to drive the Turks out of Europe. Reorganized the leadership of the Ottoman forces in Europe, under the leadership of Lala Şahin Paşa, who led the final Ottoman campaign in Thrace. This conquest was crowned in 1362 with the capture of Adrianople, which was henceforth renamed Edirne. As Edirne was the Byzantine capital of Thrace, its capture provided the Ottomans with the necessary tools to lay the foundations of their European empire. And since it was the most powerful fortress at the time between Constantinople and the Danube, straddling the main invasion route from the Balkans, its conquest not only secured the Ottoman position in Europe, but was also the key to a further northward expansion. After the conquest of Thrace, Murad repopulated with people from Anatolia, in order to protect the borders of the State. From this fact arose the problems of the Turkish minority of western Thrace, which since the XX century belongs to Greece and which it is one of multiple unresolved minority conflicts in the Balkans.

Confrontation with the Byzantines and the Savoyard Crusade

Confrontation with Serbia and Bulgaria

The northern Balkan states (Serb Empire and Second Bulgarian Empire) began to realize the immense threat posed to them by the Ottoman advance. A few years earlier, under King and then Tsar Stephen IX Uroš IV Dušan (1331-1355), a powerful Serbian Empire had gained control of Macedonia, Albania, Thessaly, and Epirus, and had begun to examine the possibility of replacing the Byzantine Empire. in the government of their European territories. But now, weak inside after the death of the powerful Dušan, and suddenly faced with the Ottoman advance, the Serbian nobles, nominally led by the weak Tsar Stephen X Uroš V (Dušan's son and successor), allied with Louis I. of Hungary, with Tsar Ivan Sishman of Bulgaria and with Ban Tvrtko I of Bosnia, in the first of the "crusades" that the Europeans would organize with the intention of expelling the Ottomans from Europe. At the same time the Byzantine Emperor John V marched on Rome in order to mobilize aid from the West.

The left wing of the Ottoman expansion was under the command of General Gazi Evrenos Bey (a Byzantine convert to Islam) whose goal was the conquest of Macedonia. His main opponents were the Bulgars, but they were too divided internally to offer effective resistance. The most powerful of the Bulgarian rulers, Tsar Ivan Shishman allied himself with the Serb despot of Macedonia, but both were defeated by Evrenos Bey at the Battle of Samokov, which gave the Ottomans control of the Iron Gates at the same time as it opened the way for them to Serbia. The Serbian nobility then tried to form a united army with the Bulgarians, which would cut off the Turkish advance. Finally, an allied Serbian-Bulgarian army of 70,000 men, commanded by Serbian nobles Vukašin Mrnjavčević, king of Prilep, and his brother the despot Jovan Uglješa, determined to stop the Ottoman advance advanced into the southeast. Despot Uglješa wanted to make a surprise attack on the Ottomans in his capital, Edirne, while Murad I was in Asia Minor. On September 26, 1371, the decisive battle began: the Ottoman generals Lala Şahin Paşa and Gazi Evrenos Bey, despite the inferiority of their forces, surprisingly attacked and defeated the allied Serb-Bulgarian forces at the Battle of Maritza. Vukašin and his brother Uglješa were killed in the fight. His ruler, the Serbian Tsar Stephen X Uroš V died suddenly at the end of that year and his country was divided into numerous principalities. This victory consolidated the Ottoman position in Thrace, strengthened their confidence in the new Ottoman army, allowed the occupation of Macedonia, and ensured the vassalage of the Byzantine Emperor John V, demonstrating to Europe for the first time Ottoman military might.

Murad completed his triumph on the banks of the Maritza by undertaking a well-organized campaign to extend his rule over the remaining Balkan territories south of the Danube. The left wing of the Ottoman expansion under Evrenos Bey crossed the Rodope Mountains and seized almost all of Macedonia (1371-1373), a conquest that culminated in the capture of Serres in 1373.

The first immediate result of Murad I's victory was the recognition of Ottoman suzerainty by most of the surviving states of south-eastern Europe, beginning with the Byzantine Empire itself, which in 1373 re-accepted its vassal position. This inaugurated and stimulated the creation of an empire of vassals of the Ottomans in Europe.

Joint rebellion of Andronicus IV Palaiologos and Savci Bey

Andronicus IV Palaiologos, Byzantine co-emperor and regent of his father John V (during his trip to Europe), had shown little support for cooperation with the Ottomans and, taking advantage of the fact that his father was still absent from the capital, in 1373, organized a conspiracy with a son of bey Murad, named Savci Bey, who was also at odds with his father. Both princes joined forces in a strange Byzantine-Turkish rebellion, which was quickly crushed. Murad ordered his son Savci to be arrested, who was blinded and executed and ordered Emperor John V (recently arrived) to do the same with his. However Andrónico IV, caught, was partially blinded and stripped of his imperial investiture which was granted to Manuel II Palaiologos (second son of the Byzantine emperor). In that year, the Byzantine Emperor John V again became a vassal of bey Murad I and, in that capacity, joined his Asia Minor army.

New rebellion of Andrónico IV Palaiologos and the counterrevolution of Juan V and Manuel II. Murad I performance

In 1376, Andronicus IV escaped from prison in the Byzantine capital and crossed into the Genoese colony of Galata. There he contacted Murad and with the help of the Genoese and the Ottomans he entered Constantinople, where he imprisoned John V and his brothers Manuel II and Theodore. Murad demanded as a reward not only increased tribute, but also the return of Gallipoli. In this way, after ten years of Byzantine rule, Gallipoli returned to the hands of the Ottomans. In 1377, Bey Murad was already so secure in his control over the straits that he established Edirne as his first European capital.

Andronicus IV ruled as emperor for three years, in a very unstable way. In June 1379, agents of the Republic of Venice helped John V and Manuel II escape from prison, who in turn obtained quick help from Murad I (who had again switched sides) in taking Constantinople. Bey Murad is said to have given citizens the option of having John V as emperor or him as sovereign. Andronicus fled with his Genoese friends from Galata, taking with him her mother, Empress Helena Kantakoukenos, and her aged father, the former Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. For more than a year there was a civil war between John V, based in the Byzantine capital, supported by the Venetians and the Turks, and Andronicus IV, based in Galata, supported by the Genoese. This contest ended only when John V agreed to recognize again Andronicus IV and his son, John VII Palaiologos, as heirs to the throne and grant them possessions in Thrace that was still under Byzantine control. Manuel would take possession of Thessaloniki as emperor, and no longer as heir. Theodore, the youngest of the sons of John V, was sent to Morea to replace his maternal uncle Mateo Cantacuceno as despot.

New regions won in Anatolia

In 1376, at the age of fifty, Murad returned to Bursa and spent the last 5 years without war in his palace there.

In 1381, his son Bayezid married Devlet Şah Hâtûn, daughter of the bey Süleyman Şah of Germiyan. The dowries that Germiyan bestowed on the bride were Kütahya, Simav, Tavşanlı and Emet which were handed over to the Ottomans. In Bursa, Murad received the ambassador of Hamid's bey Kemaleddin Hüseyin. An offensive-defensive alliance treaty was signed between the Ottomans and Hamid, through this treaty Murad bought the territories of Akşehir, Yalvaç, Beyşehir, Seydişehir, Karaağaç, Eğirdir and Isparta for 80 thousand gold from Hamid. As a result of this policy, the Ottomans would soon come to grips with Karaman.

Murad I. The first Ottoman Sultan

In 1383, in recognition of the campaign against the Christians in the Balkans, the Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo appointed bey Murad as sultan.

New Ottoman offensive in the Balkans

An Ottoman offensive, led by General Kara Timurtash Bey (an Anatolian Turkmen), advanced up the Tundzha River into the heart of Bulgaria and occupied Sofia and Niš. The offensive motivated, however, the union of the Serbian principalities, which, under the command of Prince Lazar Hreveljanovič, defeated Kara Timurtas at Plosnik (1388) and forced the Ottomans to withdraw to Thrace and Macedonia. Lazar used this victory to arm the Balkan union against the Turks.

In response, Murad sent General Lala Shahin Pasha to reconquer Bulgaria, an objective he accomplished: he took Sofia and the capital, Tirnova. Ivan Shishman again submitted to Murad, depriving Lazar of valuable help.

Murad I vs. Karaman

Murad, already in his 60s, was in Bursa and his main forces were now engaged in Rumelia. His son-in-law, the bey Alâeddin Ali I of Karaman saw an opportunity for him and broke relations with the Ottomans. In 1386, Karaman's forces crossed the Ottoman border and took Beysehir, an Ottoman stronghold. Murad returned the bulk of his forces to Anatolia, invaded Karaman with a large army, and defeated the forces of his son-in-law Ali at a place called Frenkyazısı, near Konya, the capital of Karaman. The importance of this battle was that it demonstrated the superiority of the regular army over the undisciplined tribal forces. Finally the Ottoman army besieged the castle and conquered the city of Konya. However, after the mediation of Nefise Melek Hatun (daughter of Sultan Murad I and wife of Alâeddin Ali I Bey), Murat agreed to withdraw on the condition that Beyşehir be handed over to the Ottomans.

Final victory and death

Determining to end Serbian resistance, Murad I moved his troops from Plovdiv to Ihtiman in the spring of 1389. From there, they advanced through Velbužd and Kratovo (present-day Macedonia). Despite being a longer route than the alternative through Sofia and the Nišava river valley, this route was aimed at Kosovo, one of the most important crossroads in the Balkans. From Kosovo, the Ottoman army could attack the territories dominated by the Serb noblemen Lazar Hrebeljanović and Vuk Branković. After staying in Kratovo for some time, Murad and his troops marched through Kumanovo, Preševo, and Gnjilane toward Pristina, where they arrived on June 27, 1389. Although there is less information about Lazar's preparations, he is known to have assembled his troops near Niš, on the right bank of the Južna Morava. His army probably remained there until word reached him that Murad had moved to Velbužd, at which point he marched his troops through Prokuplje into Kosovo. This was the best strategic location for Lazar to choose as a battlefield, since he controlled all the routes that Murad's contingent could take. Murad finally defeated the Serbian army of Prince Lazar in the Battle of Kosovo on June 28, 1389. There are different accounts from various sources as to when and how Murad was killed. Contemporary sources mainly noted that the battle took place and that both Prince Lazar and the Sultan lost their lives in the battle. Existing evidence for the stories and further speculation about how Murad I died was disseminated and recorded in the 15th century and later, decades after the actual event. A Western source claims that during the first hours of the battle, Murad I was assassinated by a Serbian nobleman Miloš Obilić who, posing as a deserter, managed to reach the sultan's tent and stab him with a poisoned dagger. Most Ottoman chroniclers state that he was killed after the end of the battle while touring the battlefield. Others claim that he was killed in the night after the battle in his tent by the assassin who was brought in to ask a special favor. His eldest son Bayezid, who was in charge of the left wing of the Ottoman forces, upon learning of the death of his father, immediately took command. His other son, Yakub Bey, who was in charge of the other wing, was called by Bayezid to the sultan's command headquarters. 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 King Tvrtko I of Bosnia, dated 20 October 1389, the assassination of Murad I (and Yakub Bey) was described. A group of twelve Serbian lords forced their way through the Ottoman lines defending Murad I. One of them, supposedly Miloš Obilić, managed to reach the sultan's tent and kill him with stab wounds to the throat and abdomen.

Sultan Murad's internal organs were buried in the Kosovo countryside and to this day remain in a corner of the battlefield at a place called Meshed-i Hudavendigar, which has gained religious significance by local Muslims. It has been vandalized between 1999 and 2006 and has been recently restored. The other remains of him were brought to Bursa, the capital city of Anatolia, and were buried in a tomb in the complex built in his name.

At his death, the empire Murad left to his heir spanned half a million square kilometers.

The Ottoman Empire to the Death of the Sultan Murad I.

Sultan Murad I and the rise of the Ottoman Empire

During the rule of Murad I the Ottoman dynasty completed its transformation: from being simple tribal chiefs they became uç beys (border beys) and chiefs of the ghazis, under the sovereignty of the Seljuq sultanate of Rum and later of the Ilkhanate, and at last independent beys (circa 1300), were finally elevated as sultans in 1383.

Administrative Background

As uç beys and even as bey the Ottoman rulers were little more than a Turkmen tribal chieftain. The administrative and military government was shared with the subordinate beys, who surrounded the main bey, who during peace collected taxes and in war led the fight against the enemy. The bey was entitled to the loyalty and obedience of his tribe in relation to his military prowess and, therefore, as long as he led it to victory. He was one of his equals in the tribal councils that decided the internal decisions. In this situation the Ottoman beys were accessible not only to the clan chiefs, but also to their followers. The beys could intervene in disputes that took place between the clans or within them, but it was a very limited jurisdiction. Islamic law and its jurists had very little influence and Turkmen custom and customary law prevailed. Each clan or family accepted Ottoman military leadership solely for the economic advantages that such an association could bring. Each clan gathered all the booty obtained in the conquered lands as members of the Ottoman army; and as a continuation of the conquest he had the right to collect taxes on the same territory regularly. The only advantage that the Ottoman bey obtained was, as tribal warlord, the right to keep the pençik, a tax that consisted of one fifth of the booty, in exchange for his services as a military leader. The only reason why the fortune of the bey was greater than that of the other beys of tribes or clans that followed him was that apart from the pençik i>, he was also entitled to the loot he obtained from his military activities. Due to these causes, the first Ottoman beys did not possess the means to perform more than the limited powers to which their position as military leader and head of the council of clan beys they gave him the right

Administrative and economic reforms

As Ottoman territory expanded, the simple Turkmen tribal organization was replaced by a more complex form of government, and in the process Ottoman rulers acquired far more extensive powers than they already possessed. The Turkmen tribal organization was sufficient as long as the state was so small that the tribal chiefs remained in their territory and, at the same time, fought against the enemy. However, it was when the Ottoman territory increased and the borders and enemies moved further and further away from the previously conquered areas, when the administrative functions became more difficult and were separated from the organization and military functions. The bey's treasury was separated from the state treasury, so that they had independent and regular income.

Throughout the 14th century, the growing Ottoman state regularly evolved its institutions of government and military to respond to the needs of the moment. Thus, logically, this nascent Ottoman state was influenced not only by those it had preceded in the areas it conquered, but also by the lands of its ancestors. In this way he was influenced by the nomadic traditions of the ancient Turkic states of Central Asia, particularly as regards organization and military tactics. It inherited the tradition of classical Islamic civilization from the ancient Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad through the Seljuks, especially in Sunni orthodoxy as the basis of the State and its religious, governmental, legal and cultural institutions, restructuring its administrative organization through the system decentralized iqtā' or muqāṭaʿa. In terms of court hierarchy and etiquette, the central financial system, the administrative and fiscal organizations in their European territories, the Ottomans took influence from the Byzantine, Serbian and Bulgarian empires which had preceded them. This orthodox Christian influence was natural in the nascent Ottoman Empire, since all the territories, for the most part, inherited the living tradition of Byzantine administration. Another important source of Byzantine influence was the close relations between the Ottoman and Christian courts. An example of this was Murad's father, Orhan Bey, who had at least four Christian wives. The Byzantine Nilüfer Hatun, was the mother of Murad I, who in turn married a Greek noblewoman and a Bulgarian princess. His son and successor, Bayezid I (of a Greek mother) married a Serbian noblewoman. Each one of them arrived at the Ottoman court with her retinue, and as it happened while the Ottomans developed the evolution of their institutions, logically they had a particular influence on the protocol and ceremonial of this court. Under this influence, Murad I and his son Bayezid I abandoned the simple nomadic courts of their predecessors and began to isolate themselves from their subjects behind an elaborate system of hierarchy and ceremonies borrowed from the Byzantines.

In this process of isolating the sultans, not only from their subjects, but also from the day-to-day government administration, more formal administrative institutions were necessary. Needing help, the sultans were forced to delegate their civil and military duties to executive ministers, who had the title of visir', borrowed from the Ghaznavid and Seljuq examples. Most of the early viziers were Turkmen beys in the service of the Ottomans, but some were converts or Christians who had entered the ruler's service. State policy was now discussed and decided by a council of viziers called the diwan, dominated by the sultan. As time passed, the duties of the state and the army became more complex, the viziers increased in political and financial power. To confirm his withdrawal from state affairs, the sultan began appointing one of his viziers as his chief minister, sadr-i-Azam (grand vizier). His task was to replace the sultan in his duties as head of the diwan and to coordinate and direct the activities of the other viziers. Within this process by which the simple tribal organization evolved into a complex hierarchy of government, the Turkmen families that remained loyal to the Ottomans (led by Çandarlı Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha, Murad I's vizier) did not they only maintained their power but increased it considerably.

Attitude towards Christian subjects and implantation of the Devşirme

Within the borders of the conquered countries, Murad I's policy was to use his Christian subjects for the advancement of the Ottoman state. The Christian towns were never disturbed by this monarch: they could keep their religion and customs, as long as they paid the taxes. As for the Christians who decided to enter the state service and convert to Islam, they were well received in the Turkish community and had a brilliant career. In this way many Byzantine soldiers, administrators and common subjects voluntarily converted to Islam in order to achieve a normal situation in the new empire. Thus, a new class of civil servants was formed, apart from these aforementioned voluntary converts, they made use of those recruited through the system called Devşirme, which consisted of the acquisition of non-Muslim children from the rural Christian populations of the Balkans, who were raised as Muslims and educated in both warfare and cultural training: calligraphy, theology, literature, law and languages. Upon reaching adolescence, these children were enrolled in one of the four royal institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious, and the Military. Numerous Balkan ethnic groups (especially Greeks, Albanians and South Slavs) were represented in the devşirme. His role was to serve the sultan for life (for a salary paid from the sultan's own treasury), maintain Ottoman unity, and put Turkish principles into practice. This attitude of Murad was favorable to himself, since he had a group of officials loyal to the State and subservient to his person, to counterbalance the old Turkish aristocracy that many times was reluctant to obey the orders of the Ottoman monarch. The number of its members and the income of this new political class grew rapidly, with which the devşirme and its associates achieved considerable political power and were able to obtain participation in the state affairs of the day.

The New Ottoman Army

In the first quarter of the XIV century all the nascent Ottoman army were Turkmen nomads who had been pushed into the Anatolia not only because of the Byzantine rout that followed the battle of Mantzikert (1071), but because of the successive threatening advances of the Mongols of Genghis Khan and his successors through Central Asia and Iran. The vast majority of these nomads had superficially converted to Islam in Central Asia, beginning in the late X century, and now they remained under the control and influence not only of their own beys (tribal chiefs), but also of the sheikhs of the ubiquitous Sufi orders who entered Anatolia along with them. In military affairs they only accepted the command of their own beys. They essentially constituted the cavalry, which lived off loot, and their weapons were limited to the kiliç (Turkish-Mongolian cutlass), the compound bow and arrows, the spear and some axe. For those who had been assigned to the border areas or to conquer and/or plunder Christian lands, they were assigned, in addition to a remuneration in the form of taxes on the lands they garrisoned, rates configured with muqāṭaʿa. In these areas the beys collected taxes from their muqāṭaʿa and used them to feed, supply and arm their followers, and in return they were required to do military service in the Ottoman army., when the beys required it. Thus, the timar system was born, whose function was the maintenance of the army.

These tribal forces dominated the army for most of the rule of Orhan Bey, father of Murad I. However, he warned that these undisciplined horsemen were of limited value when used to besiege and conquer large cities. Besides, once the regular state was established, Orhan found it difficult to maintain order and security, as they preferred to loot and loot their own way. As had happened before to the great Seljuk sultans and the Seljuk sultans of Rum, the Ottomans also found in the nomadic Turkmen excellent conquerors but they found their influence extremely detrimental in the states that were later constituted and for this reason they strove to expel them. Orhan Bey and his son and successor Murad I continued to use them as outposts and in expeditions to demoralize and disorganize the enemies, but as soon as the conquest was consummated and consolidated they pushed them to the borders against the infidel Christians, in order to channel their destructive instincts towards the enemy lands. The nomads were content to move on, disgusted by the limitations of sedentary life and the increasing Ottoman tendency to adopt the institutions of orthodox Sunni civilization in the face of the Sufi heterodoxy accepted by the nomads. Apart from the ghazi spirit, the motivator of the jihad (holy war), it forced the Turkmen nomads to keep moving on the border against the kafir (infidel) Christian.

Orhan, in order to get rid of the undisciplined Turkmen ghazis nomads began to organize separate military units, made up of mercenaries, mostly non-Muslim foreigners, who were paid with wages, not with loot or with the timar system. These mercenaries organized into infantry units were called yayas, while those of cavalry were called müsellems. These forces included many Turkmen who accepted the new discipline for regular pay, but also many soldiers from the Balkans, who were not required to embrace Islam as long as they obeyed their commanders' orders. During Murad's rule, as Ottoman expansion conquered all of south-eastern Europe, while these predominantly Christian forces assumed a dominant role in the Ottoman army, the nomadic Turkmen ghazi cavalry subsisted. as an irregular shock force, called Akıncı, which was in the vanguard of the yayas and the müsellems to be the first to break positions enemies in a campaign or in a pitched battle. The akıncıs made expeditions into enemy territory; in the Balkans they were entrusted with areas of difficult access, where regular Ottoman forces could not operate, maneuver or hold out for too long, especially in the mountainous areas of Bosnia, Albania and Montenegro. The akıncıs were rewarded only with loot and only regular members of the regular army received salaries from the treasury. But the Ottoman state treasury quickly proved incapable of amassing the amount of money to pay them, so they were mostly supported by their own commanders, members of the Turkish aristocracy, whose funds came from loot and timars established in recently conquered territories. The new regular army acquired and developed siege techniques and battle tactics that made possible the Ottoman conquests of the 14th century both in Asia like in Europe; however, as this army was led and maintained by the Turkish aristocracy, it became their main vehicle for gaining power against the sultan.

In the second half of the XIV century, the first efforts to restore the power of the Ottoman ruler against the Turkish aristocracy began. Murad I and his son and successor Bayezid I, sought to achieve this by creating a personal guard made up of slaves, which they called Kapıkulları (sing. Kapıkulu ; in Turkish, Slave to the Gate). The basis of the new armed force was the sultan's pençik, his right to a fifth of the spoils of war, and in particular the interpretation of this right by Murad I who stated that captives taken in battle they should be included in said loot. Murad also began to use the devşirme system to nurture his personal guard of kapıkulları, which would eventually be nurtured permanently by this system, of slave children converted to Islam and educated like Ottoman Turks. Through this system, the sultans had loyal soldiers at their immediate service. While the yayas and müsellems were salaried mercenaries, both Turks and Christians of various nationalities who were under the control of the Turkish aristocracy, the kapıkulları were all converted Islamic, under the direct control of the sultan. By the last quarter of the XIV century these kapıkulları became the most important force within of the Ottoman army. The kapıkulları divided into a force of seven cavalry divisions, called the Kapıkulu Süvarileri (divided into one of Kapıkulu Sipāhiyān, one of Silah-dārān, two from Ulufeciyān and two from Garibān) and, above all because of their importance, in an infantry force called Yeni Çeri (in Turkish, New soldiers) or janissaries. Almost at the same time the provincial forces supplied by the Turkish aristocrats bearing the timar formed the main cavalry of the army, called the Sipahi, which became the mainstay of the Turkish aristocracy., and the provincial, light and irregular infantry, called Azab, made up of Turkish villagers. Irregular akıncıs and salaried yayas and müsellems were eventually relegated to rearguard duty and quickly lost their military and political importance,

Marriages

Murad I had at least seven consorts:

Gül-Çiçek Hatun (Mary, of Christian name) (1335 -?), concubine slave, woman of Greek origin and mother of Beyazıd Yıldırım and of Yahşi Bey;
Marya Thamara Hatun (María Tamara of Bulgaria, a Christian name), daughter of the Czar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria;
Paşa Melek Hatun, daughter of Kizil Murad Bey and supposed mother of Nefise Melek Hatum;
Fûl-Dâne Hatun, daughter of bey Candaroglu and mother of Yakub Celebi and Savci Bey.
Fülane Hatun, daughter of Constantine of Kostendil, married to Murad in 1372.
Maria Hatun, born Maria Paleóloga, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor John V and of Helena Cantacucena.
Fülane Hatun, daughter of Ahî Seyyid Sultân, married to Murad in 1366.

Offspring

He had five sons and two daughters:

Beyazıd Bey (1354/1360-1403), successor of his father with the name Beyazid I Yıldırım;
Yahşi Bey (?-?
Yakub Celebi (? 1389), executed by order of his brother Beyazid I;
Savci Bey (? 1374), blinded and executed by order of his own father;
Şehzade Ibrahim (?-?
Nefise Melek Hatum (1363-1400), married to Damad Alâeddin Ali I Bey of Karaman and mother of Sultanzâde Mehmed II Bey of Karaman;
Sultan Hatum (?-?).

Predecessor: Orhan I	Bey Ottoman 1359-1383	Successor: Bayaceto I
Predecessor: Orhan I	3rd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1383-1389	Successor: Bayaceto I

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