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Sultan Mehmed the Gentleman
His Father's Name: Bayezid the Lightning
His Mother’s Name: Dawlat Khatun
Date of Birth: 1326 (A.D.)
Date of Death:1389 (A.D.)
His Sultanate: 1359-89 (30 years)
also called ÇELEBI SULTAN MEHMED (d. May 26, 1421,
Edirne, Ottoman Empire), Ottoman sultan who reunified the
dismembered Ottoman territories following the defeat of Ankara
(1402). He ruled in Anatolia and, after 1413, in the Balkans
as well.
--------------------------------------------
Tamerlane), victorious over the Ottoman
sultan Bayezid I at Ankara, restored to the Turkmen their
principalities that had been annexed by the Ottomans and divided
the remaining Ottoman territory among three of Bayezid's sons.
Thus Mehmed ruled in Amasya, Isa in Bursa, and Suleyman in
Rumelia (Balkan lands under Ottoman control). Mehmed defeated
Isa and seized Bursa (1404-05), then sent another brother,
Musa, against Süleyman. Mûsa was victorious over
Süleyman (1410) but then declared himself sultan in Edirne
and undertook the reconquest of the Ottoman territories in
Rumelia. Mehmed, assisted by the Byzantine emperor Manuel
II Palaeologus, defeated Mûsa in 1413 at Camurlu (in
Serbia) and declared himself sultan in both Anatolia and Rumelia,
with his capital at Edirne.
During his reign Mehmed pursued a policy
of relative restraint in the Balkans, although he reduced
Walachia to vassal status (1416), made territorial gains in
Albania (1417), and conducted raids into Hungary. In Anatolia
he reestablished Ottoman control over much of the western
provinces and reduced the Karaman principality (in Konya)
to submission. He was successful in crushing a socio-religious
revolt (1416) inspired by Bedreddin, who had been chief judge
under Musa. Mehmed also overcame a threat from a pretender,
who claimed to be his brother, Mustafa.
In 1421 Sultan Mehmed died of 32 years of
age. His corpse was brought to Bursa and interred in the Green
Tomb (Yeshil Turbe).
He had 5 sons, Moustafa Chelebi, Murad II,
Ahmed, Yusuf, Mahmoud, and two daughters whose names were
Fatima and Seljuk Khatun.
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