Restoration of the Ottoman Empire, 1402–81

Timur’s objective in Anatolia had been not conquest but rather a

secure western flank that would enable him to make further
conquests in the east. He thus followed his victory by retiring from
Anatolia after restoring to power the Turkmen princes who had
joined him; evidently Timur assumed that a divided Anatolia
would constitute no threat to his ambitions. Even Bayezid’s sons
were able to assume control over the family’s former possessions in
western Anatolia, and the Ottoman Empire in Europe was left
largely untouched. At that time a strong European Crusade might
have pushed the Ottomans out of Europe altogether, but weakness
and division south of the Danube and diversion to other matters to
the north left an opportunity for the Ottomans to restore what had
been torn asunder without significant loss.

BRITANNICA QUIZ

Turkish and Ottoman History Quiz

When was the Battle of Varna fought?

Internal divisions, however, were to hinder Ottoman efforts to

restore their power during a period that has come to be known as
the Interregnum (1402–13), during which four of Bayezid’s sons
competed for the right to rule the entire empire. His eldest
son, Süleyman, assumed control in Europe, establishing a capital
at Edirne, and gained the support of the Christian vassals and those
who had stimulated Bayezid to turn toward conquest in the East.
The descendants of the Turkmen notables who had assisted the
early Ottoman conquests in Europe supported the claims of
Mehmed. With the additional support of the Anatolian Muslim
religious orders and artisan guilds, Mehmed was able to defeat and
kill his brothers Mûsa Bey, who had established his capital at Bursa,
and İsa Bey of Balıkesir in southwestern Anatolia, as well as
Süleyman, and so assume undisputed possession of the entire
empire as Sultan Mehmed (Muḥammad) I.

Mehmed I and Murad II
Under Mehmed I (ruled 1413–20) and Murad II (ruled 1421–51),
there was a new period of expansion in which Bayezid’s empire was
restored and new territories were added. Mehmed restored
the vassal system in Bulgaria and Serbia, promising that he would
not undertake new European adventures. Murad II was also
compelled to devote most of the early years of his reign to internal
problems, particularly to the efforts of the ghazi commanders and
Balkan vassal princes in Europe, as well as the Turkmen vassals and
princes in Anatolia, to retain the autonomy and—in some areas—
independence that had been gained during the Interregnum. In
1422–23 Murad suppressed the Balkan resistance and
put Constantinople under a new siege that ended only after
the Byzantines provided him with huge amounts of tribute. He then
restored Ottoman rule in Anatolia and eliminated all Turkmen
principalities left by Timur, with the exceptions of Karaman
and Candar (Jandar), which he left autonomous though tributary so
as not to excite the renewed fears of Timur’s successors in the East.
Mehmed I, miniature from a 16th-century manuscript illustrating the dynasty; in the Istanbul
University Library, Istanbul (MS Yildiz 2653, fol. 261).Courtesy of Istanbul University Library

Murad II, detail of a miniature painting, 16th century; in the Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul. Sonia
Halliday Photographs

Murad then inaugurated the first Ottoman war with the city-state
of Venice (1423–30), which had maintained friendly relations with
the sultans in order to develop a strong trade position in the
Ottoman dominions but had accepted Salonika (present-
day Thessaloníki, Greece) from Byzantium in order to prevent
Ottoman expansion across Macedonia to the Adriatic Sea, its lifeline
for trade with the rest of the world. The war was indecisive for some
time. Venice was diverted by conflicts in Italy and in any case lacked
the force to meet the Ottomans on land, while the Ottomans needed
time to build a naval force sufficient to compete with that of the
Venetians. In addition, Murad was diverted by an effort
of Hungary to establish its rule in Walachia, between the Danube
and the Transylvanian Alps, a move that inaugurated a series of
Ottoman-Hungarian conflicts which were to occupy much of the
remainder of his reign. Murad finally built a fleet strong enough to
blockade Salonika and enable his army to conquer it in 1430.
Subsequent Ottoman naval raids against Venetian ports in the
Adriatic and the Aegean seas compelled Venice in 1432 to make a
peace in which it abandoned its efforts to prevent the Ottoman
advance to the Adriatic but was allowed to become the leading
commercial power in the sultan’s dominions.
Murad, who had been put on the throne by Turkish notables who
had joined the Ottoman state during the first century of its
existence, soon began to resent the power they had gained in return;
the power of those notables was also enhanced by the great new
estates they had built up in the conquered areas of Europe and
Anatolia. To counteract their power, he began to build up the power
of various non-Turkish groups in his service, particularly those
composed of Christian slaves and converts to Islam, whose military
arm was organized into a new infantry organization called
the Janissary (Yeniçeri; “New Force”) corps. To strengthen that
group, Murad began to distribute most of his new conquests to its
members, and, to add new supporters of that sort, he developed the
famous devşirme system, by which Christian youths were drafted
from the Balkan provinces for conversion to Islam and life service to
the sultan.
With their revenues and numbers increasing, the devşirme men and
their supporters achieved considerable political power. Because the
new European conquests were being used by the sultan to build up
the devşirme, they wanted the conquests to continue and expand,
while the Turkish notables, whose power was diminished by the
increasing status of the devşirme, opposed further conquest. Murad,
wanting to return to aggressive policies of European expansion in
order to help the devşirme reduce the power of the Turkish
notables, renewed the struggle with Hungary in Serbia
and Walachia in 1434. He took advantage of the death in 1437 of the
Hungarian king Sigismund to reoccupy Serbia (except Belgrade) and
to ravage much of Hungary. He then annexed Serbia in 1439,
beginning a policy of replacing the vassals with direct Ottoman rule
throughout the empire. Hungarian control of Belgrade became the
primary obstacle to large-scale advances north of the Danube.
Ottoman attacks on Belgrade and raids on Transylvania failed to
move the Hungarians, largely because of the leadership of János
Hunyadi, originally a leader of the Walachian border resistance to
the ghazis in 1440–42. Although Murad finally defeated Hunyadi at
the Battle of Zlatica (İzladi) in 1443, the increased influence of the
Turkish notables at Murad’s court led the sultan to agree to
the Peace of Edirne in 1444. By its terms Serbia regained
its autonomy, Hungary kept Walachia and Belgrade, and the
Ottomans promised to end their raids north of the Danube. In 1444
Murad also made peace with his main Anatolian enemy, Karaman,
and retired to a life of religious contemplation, voluntarily passing
the throne to his young son Mehmed II. Mehmed already showed
the leadership qualities that were to distinguish his long reign,
though at that time he relied primarily on devşirme supporters for
advice and assistance.
The Byzantines and Pope Eugenius IV sought to use the opportunity
created by the rule of a youthful and inexperienced sultan to expel
the Ottomans from Europe, organizing a new Crusade—joined by
Hungary and Venice—after the pope assured them that they were
not bound to honour the peace treaty they had signed with Muslim
infidels. A Crusader army moved through Serbia across the Balkan
Mountains to the Black Sea at Varna, Bulgaria, where it was to be
supplied and transported to Constantinople by a Venetian fleet that
would sail through the straits, while using its power to prevent
Murad from returning from Anatolia with the bulk of the Ottoman
army. Though the Crusaders reached Varna, they were left stranded
by a Serbian decision to remain loyal to the sultan and by Venetian
reluctance to fulfill its part of the agreement for fear of losing its
trade position in the event of an Ottoman victory. Further quarrels
among the Crusade leaders gave Murad time to return from Anatolia
and organize a new army. The Turkish victory at the Battle of
Varna on November 10, 1444, ended the last important European
Crusading effort against the Ottomans.
Murad reassumed the throne and restored the power of
the devşirme party, whose insistent demands for conquest led him
to spend the remainder of his reign eliminating the vassals and
establishing direct rule in much of Thrace, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and
Greece. In the process he divided the newly acquired lands into
estates, the revenues of which further increased the power of
the devşirme at the expense of the Turkish notables.
Only Albania was able to resist, because of the leadership of its
national hero, Skanderbeg (George Kastrioti), who finally was
routed by the sultan at the second Battle of Kosovo (1448). By the
time of Murad’s death in 1451, the Danube frontier was secure, and
it appeared that the Ottoman Empire was permanently established
in Europe. Whereas the victory at Varna brought new power to
the devşirme party, the grand vizier (chief adviser to the
sultan) Candarlı Halil Paşa was able to retain a dominant position
for the Turkish notables, whom he led by retaining the confidence of
the sultan and by successfully dividing his opponents. Prince
Mehmed therefore became the candidate of the devşirme, and it was
only with his accession that they were able to achieve the political
and military power made possible by the financial base built up
during the previous two decades.

Mehmed II
Under Sultan Mehmed II (ruled 1451–81) the devşirme increasingly
came to dominate and pressed their desire for new conquests in
order to take advantage of the European weakness created at Varna.
Constantinople became their first objective. To Mehmed and his
supporters, the Ottoman dominions in Europe could never reach
their full extent or be molded into a real empire as long as their
natural administrative and cultural centre remained outside their
hands. The grand vizier and other Turkish notables bitterly opposed
the attack, ostensibly because it might draw a new Crusade but in
fact because of their fear that the capture of the Byzantine capital
might bring about the final triumph of the devşirme. Mehmed
built Rumeli Fortress on the European side of the Bosporus, from
which he conducted the siege (April 6–May 29, 1453) and conquest
of Constantinople. The transformation of that city into the Ottoman
capital of Istanbul marked an important new stage in Ottoman
history. Internally, it meant the end of power and influence for the
old Turkish nobility, whose leaders were executed or exiled
to Anatolia and whose European properties were confiscated, and
the triumph of the devşirme and their supporters in Istanbul and
the West. Externally, the conquest made Mehmed II the most
famous ruler in the Muslim world, even though the lands of the
old caliphate still remained in the hands of the Mamlūks of Egypt
and Timur’s successors in Iran. Moreover, the possession of
Constantinople stimulated in Mehmed a desire to place under his
dominion not merely the Islamic and Turkic worlds but also a re-
created Byzantine Empire and, perhaps, the entire world of
Christendom.