Çelebi Mehmed followed one of the most unusual paths to the throne in Ottoman history. When his father Bayezid the Thunderbolt was defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara in 1402, the state effectively fell apart. The prince, then fifteen or sixteen years old, withdrew to Amasya, and for eleven years, until he took the throne alone at Edirne in 1413, he fought his brothers for the succession. For most of that struggle his base was Amasya and the surrounding Tokat-Sivas region, where he had been sent as governor three years before. Later historiography called him the "second founder of the Ottoman state"; his contemporaries knew him as "Çelebi" or "Kirişçi". The sources on his life are plentiful, but they disagree on dates and details more often than one might wish.

Birth, Name and Epithet

Çelebi Mehmed was a son of Bayezid the Thunderbolt. According to Halil İnalcık's entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, he was born in 788 (1386) or 789 (1387), the fourth son of Bayezid by a concubine named Devlet Hatun. Other years have been proposed: some sources give 1379, 1382, 1383, 1390 or 1391, and the Tuhfe-i Nâilî says 781 (1379). The place of birth is equally uncertain, with some sources naming Edirne and others Bursa. The safest statement is therefore "1386-1387, place unknown". The ancestry of his mother Devlet Hatun is also disputed. İnalcık describes her as a concubine; a later account makes her a descendant of Mevlânâ and explains the epithet "Çelebi" in that way, but no encyclopedic support is given for this second version.

"Çelebi" is a title used for princes in Ottoman sources. Modern historiography applies it to all of Bayezid's sons, although in contemporary sources it is used only of Mehmed and Musa. According to İnalcık, the epithet "Kirişçi" derives from the Greek kyritzes, "young lord", and appears in Arabic and Byzantine sources as "Kirişçi" and "Kiri". Popular tradition linked the name to bowstring-making or to wrestling and at times misread it as "wrestler"; the story that he served as an apprentice to a bowstring-maker in his youth is an unsourced rumor. On coins and inscriptions he appears as "Sultân Gıyâseddîn Mehmed", and in some sources as "Sultân Çelebi", "Çelebi Sultân" or "Mehmed Bey". It is also said that his education was completed in the palaces of Bursa and Edirne and that his teachers were Sofi Bayezid of Amasya and Bicaroğlu Hamza of Tokat, but this has no encyclopedic basis and should be treated with caution.

The dynasty's situation at the time was as follows. The eldest brother, Ertuğrul, had died in 1400. The second, Mustafa, was taken prisoner together with his father by Timur in 1402 and carried off to Samarkand. That left Süleyman, İsa, Musa and Mehmed; the youngest brother, Kasım, was in the palace at Bursa. In Ottoman custom each of the sultan's sons had an equal claim to succeed his father, and no law regulated the succession. Drawing on the Menâkıbnâme as preserved in Neşrî, İnalcık reports that the majority of the people, when the princes fought to be recognized, held that winning the war was a sign of God's help. Mehmed had at first accepted that his elder brother Süleyman represented authority, but seniority in age was not a binding principle.

Appointment to the Sanjak of Amasya

In Shawwal 801 (June 1399) Mehmed was sent as governor to the province of Rûm, which embraced Amasya, Tokat, Sivas and Ankara. The province had earlier belonged to the Eretna dynasty. The appointment follows the usual practice of sending princes out to a sanjak in adolescence to gain experience, with seasoned statesmen called lalas (tutor-guardians) assigned to them; Mehmed would have been twelve or thirteen at the time. Some accounts draw a different picture. According to them Bayezid the Thunderbolt took his sons along on the Canik campaign of 1391, an army under Mehmed was sent to take over Amasya after Kadı Burhaneddin of Sivas abandoned the city, and the prince remained sanjak governor from 1391 to 1402; some infobox entries give the start as 1392. An article in the journal of the Faculty of Theology at Amasya University even reckons the governorship at twenty-four years. These figures do not agree with the TDV's date of 1399. Since Kadı Burhaneddin died in 1398, and given Mehmed's year of birth, 1391 would be early even for a child; this text therefore follows the TDV's date of 1399.

Amasya's history as a princely sanjak is older. According to Selim Özcan's article, the first sanjak governor of the age of the princes was Bayezid the Thunderbolt himself; Amasya, strategically placed on the eastern frontier against the Timurid danger approaching Anatolia in the early fifteenth century, was given to Mehmed Çelebi as the second. The princes resided in the palace within the inner citadel, known since Seljuk times as the "Palace of the Beys" and called by the Ottomans the "Palace of the Princes". Also known among the people as the Saraydüzü Barracks, it had been the residence of sultans and commanders since the Danishmendids. The same article says the building took its definitive form during Çelebi Mehmed's governorship, when in 1396 the place then known as the Gümüşlüzâde mansion was bought from Gümüşlüzâde Hoca Celaleddin Çelebi and a large palace was built on it. The palace was used for roughly 350 years of Ottoman rule, and Murad II, his son Ahmed Çelebi, Şehzade Ahmed son of Bayezid II, and Selim I were born there. The date of 1396 in the article conflicts with the information that Mehmed was sent to the sanjak in 1399; there may be a confusion either in the date or in the identity of the builder. No detailed council record or building inscription is known for the daily life of these years. For the three years from 1399 to 1402 all we have is the statement that an eastern province had a governor who was still a child.

The Battle of Ankara and the Withdrawal to Amasya

In July 1402 Bayezid the Thunderbolt was defeated by Timur on the Çubuk plain and taken prisoner. The TDV's entry on the Battle of Ankara gives the date as 28 July 1402; other sources say 20 July, so "July 1402" is sufficient. The consequences of the defeat went beyond the dispersal of an army. The vassal states in Byzantium and the Balkans became independent, and the Anatolian principalities recovered their lands under Timur's suzerainty; in İnalcık's words, each of these became a center of power that could play the Ottoman princes against one another.

According to the tradition, Mehmed commanded the reserve and rear guard in the battle; since he was not in the front line he was able to leave the field easily after the rout. With his own troops he withdrew toward Amasya, his sanjak, fought and defeated a detachment of the Candaroğulları that blocked his road, and then went on to Tosya and from there to Bolu. At Bolu he wished to proceed to Bursa but gave up the plan at the objection of his advisers Hacı İvaz Pasha and Bayezid Pasha of Amasya. These details belong to an account whose sources are not clearly given; the TEİS entry of Yesevi University says only that the prince, realizing the battle was lost, withdrew first to Bolu. In another account the brothers are rescued from the battlefield, and it is Bayezid Pasha who saves Mehmed and takes him to his own home town, Amasya. The common ground is this: Mehmed came out of the defeat alive, among his close companions was Bayezid Pasha, a native of Amasya, and the prince made for Amasya. Bayezid Pasha later became Mehmed's vizier (1413-1421). He is often described as the prince's "lala"; the TDV entry says he was in Mehmed's retinue during his governorship, but no encyclopedic record of the title of lala has been found. As lala of Murad, by contrast, Yörgüç Pasha is named.

Kara Devletşah and the Emirate of Amasya

When he reached Amasya a political vacuum awaited him. According to İnalcık, Kara Devletşah, the Kubadoğulları, Mezid Bey and the Taşan family were local dynasties who, after the Battle of Ankara, accepted Timur's suzerainty and challenged Ottoman rule. Mehmed too accepted Timur's sovereignty and so legitimized his administration in the Tokat-Amasya region. In establishing his authority against his rivals he gained the support of the ulema and the notables of the towns; the local beys and their Tatar and Turkmen dependents had neither the legitimacy of an Ottoman prince nor sufficient prestige against him. This assessment rests on volume III of Yasar's Amasya Tarihi (pp. 157-198).

The process is told in more detail as follows. Timur had appointed Kara Devletşah as administrator of Amasya and its surroundings. The people of Amasya were dissatisfied with him and summoned Mehmed. In 1403 Mehmed secretly left Bolu with a force of about a thousand men, fell by surprise on Kara Devletşah, who was busy raiding the towns and villages of the region for plunder, killed him and entered Amasya. The Ottoman-period account of the governorship of Amasya also records that Kara Devletşah was defeated through local resistance and Mehmed's intervention. Mehmed then fought the rulers of regions such as Canik, Tokat and Niksar and in 1403 brought under his control the Amasya-Sivas-Tokat region known as "Rûmiye-i Suğrâ".

In the following years his task was to enlarge his small domain. Niksar was a place his father had given him as a fief and it was under siege by Kubadoğlu Ali Bey; Mehmed defeated him in battle and retook Niksar. He fought and eliminated Turkmen principalities such as the Kubadoğulları, İnaloğulları and Taşanoğulları of the Canik region, and Mezid Bey, son-in-law of Kadı Burhaneddin, as well as the brigand bands called Köpekoğlu and Gözleroğlu, and extended his emirate to Tokat and Sivas. İnalcık notes that these struggles are narrated in epic style in the Menâkıbnâme incorporated in some Ottoman histories, and that the outcome was a settlement in which the local beys accepted his sovereignty and Mehmed confirmed their ownership of their lands. This question of hereditary property and timar would become a serious problem when centralization was later reestablished. The Turkmen and Tatar forces under the control of these local dynasties formed an important part of Mehmed's army; when he fought Musa in 1413 he had Tatar and Turkmen divisions with him.

The relationship with Timur is interesting. During Timur's siege of İzmir (December 1402-January 1403) Süleyman was given a yarlıgh defining his authority over the lands across the straits. Mehmed, summoned to Kütahya for talks, did not obey, or could not. According to the account, Mehmed set out but turned back to Amasya when Turkmen beys blocked his way twice near Osmancık and Mürted. Timur accepted this excuse and sent a diploma confirming Mehmed's emirate over Rumiye-i Suğra, comprising Amasya-Tokat-Sivas, together with a crown, a belt and a robe. Mehmed also had coins struck in Timur's name: on these coins Timur's name appears as "Demür Han Gürgân" and Mehmed's as "Mehmed bin Bayezid Han", and a silver akçe dated 1404 shows Timur as sovereign. It is also related that in Bursa, in 806 AH, silver coins bearing both names, a "sikke-i müşterek", were struck. This practice is interpreted as an effort to justify his taking of Bursa after the Battle of Ulubat in the eyes of Timur; Timur, busy with preparations to return to Central Asia, did not interfere in the situation in Anatolia. This is one of the odd features of the Interregnum: an Ottoman prince survived by accepting the overlordship of the ruler who had brought down the Ottomans.

Children Born in Amasya and Family Life

Çelebi Mehmed's best-known son was born in Amasya. That Murad II was born in Amasya in June 1404 is also stated in the TDV's entry on Murad II. The younger Mustafa Çelebi is recorded as born in Amasya in 1408, and Kasım Çelebi as having lived between 1405 and 12 January 1407. Murad's mother was Emine Hatun, who is said to have married Mehmed in 1403 and was a daughter of Nâsıreddin Mehmed Bey, ruler of Dulkadir. Mehmed's other wives were Şahzade Hatun, Kumru Hatun and Dilfiruz Hatun. The sources diverge on the identity of Şahzade Hatun's father: in some accounts she is a daughter of Sadgeldi Ahmed Pasha of Amasya, in others of Dividdar Ahmed Pasha, third ruler of Kutluşah in Canik; in either case a local identity is involved. The Dulkadir marriage can be read as one of the early political ties Mehmed formed with Anatolian principalities beyond his own region.

It is also written that Mehmed had a "Prince's Tomb" built in Amasya for his son Kasım Çelebi, who died there. This information could not be compared with other records; since the name "Kasım" also occurs in the TDV as Mehmed's brother, it has not been possible to establish whom the tomb in Amasya belongs to.

The Struggle with İsa Çelebi

The first phase of the Interregnum concerning Mehmed is the struggle with İsa Çelebi. İsa had first settled around Balıkesir (Karesi). He fought Musa Çelebi, who had taken power in Bursa with Timur's diploma, and prevailed over him. In 1403 Mehmed, in Amasya, on the advice of the subaşı Eyne Bey, wrote İsa a letter proposing that Anatolia be shared between the two. İsa rejected the offer, saying that he was the "ulu karındaş", that is, the elder brother. Mehmed then marched from Amasya on Bursa with an army, and the two armies met at Ulubat. The date of this encounter is given as 1404 or March-May 1403; the TDV's entry on the Interregnum says that after the defeat at Ulubat Mehmed proclaimed his sovereignty in Bursa and dates this to 1404. According to İnalcık, İsa was defeated by Mehmed in most of these encounters even though he had secured an alliance of the western Anatolian beys and İsfendiyar of Kastamonu.

İsa went first to Yalova, then to Istanbul, then to Süleyman at Edirne. Süleyman gave him an army and İsa appeared before Bursa. A fire that broke out in Bursa at this point is told in two ways: that the people set it to support Mehmed and hinder İsa, or that İsa's partisans set it when they realized they could not take the city. Defeated, İsa took refuge with İsfendiyar Bey of the Candaroğulları. With the support of Cüneyd Bey, Hızırşah of Saruhan and İlyas Bey of Menteşe, he attacked Bursa three more times in 1404-1405 and was defeated each time. Finally he took refuge with the Karamanoğlu; Karamanoğlu Mehmed Bey came to terms with Mehmed and expelled him from his country. The sources diverge on İsa's end. According to one account, in 1406 he was seized in a bath at Eskişehir by Mehmed's men, strangled, and buried in Bursa beside the tomb of Murad Hüdavendigâr. The TDV writes that Mehmed caught and killed him at Eskişehir and dates it to 806 (1403-1404), but adds that Elizabeth Zachariadou states İsa was killed by Süleyman in 1403. The time and the perpetrator of İsa's death are disputed, though the account that attributes it to Mehmed is the widespread one.

Süleyman Çelebi and Two Returns to Amasya

After İsa the only rival was Emir Süleyman in Edirne. Süleyman had commanded the left wing at Ankara; he had fled to Rumeli with Çandarlı Ali Pasha and in early 1403 had signed a treaty with Byzantium, Venice, Genoa, the Knights of Rhodes and the Serbian Despot. İnalcık notes that this treaty meant that Byzantium controlled the crossings between Anatolia and Rumeli. When Süleyman decided to cross into Anatolia and march on Mehmed at Bursa, he left his younger brother Kasım and his sister Fatma with the emperor as hostages. In later years, as a policy of appeasement, he also gave his son Orhan to Manuel II as a hostage.

According to the TDV, after the struggle with Süleyman Çelebi, Mehmed lost Bursa and Ankara in 806 (1403-1404), was forced to fall back on his Tokat-Amasya base, and encouraged Musa to go to Rumeli. Another account places the same event in 1406. According to it, Süleyman crossed into Anatolia and attacked Bursa while Mehmed was away, Mehmed withdrew to Amasya, and Süleyman took Ankara and plundered the places formerly under Mehmed's administration. Mehmed then came before Bursa and the two armies met on the plain of Yenişehir. Süleyman's chief vizier, Çandarlı Ali Pasha, deceived Mehmed's advisers by various maneuvers and caused the army to disperse without fighting. This time Mehmed returned to Amasya without an army. The sources differ on which of the dates is correct, but the sequence of events is the same. One sentence in this account stands out: Çelebi Mehmed stayed in Amasya for three years, making plans and preparations to take the Ottoman throne again. The death of Çandarlı Ali Pasha at the end of 1406 (17 Rajab 809 / 28 December 1406) is presented as the beginning of the collapse of Süleyman's power. The role of Amasya in these two withdrawals was that of the only secure base to be had. What was gathered there and what preparations were made appear in the sources only in general terms; we have no documentary account.

The Alliance with Musa: Cemele Castle

The most important political product of these years of waiting was an alliance with one of the brothers. In 1409 Mehmed devised a new strategy: Musa would go to Rumeli and keep Süleyman occupied, and when Süleyman crossed into Rumeli, Mehmed would retake Bursa in Anatolia. Musa was then sheltering with the Karamanoğlu; the two brothers met and reached agreement at Cemele Castle near Kırşehir. With the help of the Candaroğulları, Musa crossed by ship from Sinop to Wallachia and was well received by the Voivode Mircea. On the timing the TDV gives a different date: Musa's arrival in Wallachia is written as 809 (1406), and İnalcık bases this on Neşrî and other sources. Since some accounts give 1409, both dates should be noted.

The first stage of the plan worked. When Süleyman heard that Musa was gathering an army in Wallachia, he crossed into Rumeli, made an agreement of support with the Byzantine emperor Manuel II, and gave his brother Kasım and his sister Fatma as hostages. Mehmed at once entered Bursa and took over the administration of Anatolia. According to the TDV this is the second period, 1410-1413, in which Mehmed controlled western Anatolia and Bursa. In 1410 Musa fought a series of engagements with Süleyman between Edirne and Eyüp (Kosmidion). After his first victory at the battle of Yanbolu (13 February 1410) he was defeated twice (June 1410), and in the end he took Edirne by a sudden attack and killed Süleyman (17 February 1411). According to tradition Süleyman died when he was recognized in the village of Döğenciler while fleeing; some accounts give the date of death as 13 February 1411. After Süleyman's departure from Anatolia, Mehmed retook Bursa, and so in 1411 the empire was effectively divided in two: Mehmed in Anatolia, Musa in Rumeli.

Against Musa: İnceğiz, Vize and Çamurlu

Both brothers wanted to be sole ruler. According to the TDV, Musa did not keep to his agreement with Mehmed and began to act independently, adopted the harsh policies of the frontier lords, and alienated the vassal states, which went over to Mehmed's side. In 1411 Mehmed made two unsuccessful attempts against Musa. The Byzantine emperor Manuel II, faced with Musa's siege of Constantinople, wished to ally with Mehmed and sent a secret envoy to Bursa in early 1412. Mehmed was received by the emperor at Üsküdar, went to Constantinople on a Byzantine ship and was entertained in the palace; at the same time the Anatolian army was carried across the straits to the Rumeli shore, an army of 15,000 men being ferried over in four days, as the story goes.

In October 1412 the Battle of İnceğiz was fought near Çatalca. Musa prevailed; Mehmed was wounded and withdrew first to Istanbul and then to Bursa. At the end of the year he met Musa again with a new army, reinforced by Byzantine and Serbian troops, and Musa won this engagement as well. Citing Dukas, İnalcık writes that Mehmed's ultimate success rested largely on his conciliatory attitude toward the Byzantine emperor, whom he addressed as "father". Musa's harsh temper and centralizing, autocratic policy had offended the frontier lords and the ghazi raiders. His relations with frontier lords such as the Mihaloğlu had deteriorated, and this resentment drew them to Mehmed. It is also related that Musa's appointment of Sheikh Bedreddin as kadı or şeyhülislam angered the ulema and the wealthy, and that the Çandarlı viziers began secret correspondence with Mehmed and Manuel.

On 15 June 1413 Mehmed landed troops in Thrace from the Black Sea and defeated Musa at the Battle of Vize. Musa fled; the people of Edirne, fearing that Musa might return, did not let Mehmed into the city. Musa was pursued and on 5 July 1413 was cornered at the Çamurlu pass near Samokov, not far from Sofia. His death is told in two ways: that while fleeing he fell into a rice-paddy ditch, was caught and strangled, or that he was seized as he lay badly wounded in his tent and killed on Mehmed's orders. His body was sent to Bursa and buried beside his brothers İsa and Süleyman, in the tomb of Bayezid the Thunderbolt. It is also written that an army of about 20,000 under Süleyman Bey, son of Mehmed's father-in-law Dulkadiroğlu Nâsıreddin Mehmed Bey, came to his aid and after the victory stayed three months in Bursa to secure the throne; since the source of this account is not given and the TDV has no counterpart to it, it needs separate verification.

So the Interregnum, the period of vacancy in the sultanate, came to an end. It had lasted from 20 July 1402 to 5 July 1413, about eleven years. Drawing on the Menâkıbnâme in Neşrî, İnalcık reports that, counting from 1402, Süleyman ruled eight years, ten months and seventeen days, Musa two years, seven months and twenty days, and Mehmed seven years and eleven months.

Why the Interregnum Was Won

The sources do not give a single answer to this question. According to one assessment, Mehmed did not give up the struggle even when events turned against him, was free of his brothers' faults, and behaved in a more balanced and mature way despite being younger. The last explanation in the same assessment is that Mehmed's greatest difference from his other brothers may have been his upbringing and maturation as a many-sided person in Amasya, an important center of Anatolian civilization and culture; this is offered as a possibility, not a firm judgment. İnalcık's assessment stresses another aspect. In his view Mehmed's ultimate success rested on his conciliatory attitude toward Byzantium and on the support of the frontier lords and vassal states who were disturbed by Musa's autocratic policy. At the same time, the same piece notes that in the Amasya and Tokat region he had won the support of the ulema and the notables of the towns.

İnalcık also says that the Anatolian principalities, that is, the Candaroğulları, the Karamanids, Germiyan, Saruhan and Aydın, actually took part in the struggle for Bursa, but that their policy aimed at preserving the status that had emerged after the Battle of Ankara. Each prince sought to win their support or neutrality by declaring that he would respect the autonomy of these beys, and some beys, realizing that with Timur's departure Ottoman power was an unshakable fact, acknowledged the sovereignty of whichever prince took Bursa. The vassals in Byzantium and the Balkans played the same game, supporting one prince against another and granting them asylum, and used the other princes against anyone who grew strong enough to claim sovereignty over them. The maneuvers of Mircea, Voivode of Wallachia, and of Manuel II therefore had a serious effect on the struggle among the princes. The outcome of the Interregnum was thus the outcome not only of a war between brothers but also of a regional balance of power.

Sole Sultan: Edirne and Reunification

Having taken the throne at Edirne in 1413 as sole ruler, Mehmed received the envoys of the tribute-paying vassal states, among them Byzantium, Serbia, Wallachia, the Despotate of the Morea and the Principality of Athens, and sent them back with firm guarantees of peace and friendship. Feeling secure in the Balkans, he devoted the next two years to reestablishing his authority in Anatolia and punishing the beys who had helped Musa against him. According to the account, he stayed at first in Edirne in the palace Musa had surrounded with high walls; Bedreddin was removed from the office of şeyhülislam and exiled with his family to İznik, Mihaloğlu Mehmed Bey was sent into exile in Anatolia, and the area around Thessaloniki, which Musa had taken from Byzantium, was given back to Byzantium. Mehmed's permanent residence in Edirne shows that the center of gravity of the empire had shifted to Rumeli. Edirne became the more important of the two capitals; Bursa kept its prestige as the first capital, and Mehmed's külliye (mosque complex) rose there.

Rebuilding Anatolia

According to İnalcık, Mehmed defeated Cüneyd, who had left Musa and returned to İzmir to revive his principality, in 1414 and took all of western Anatolia. Aydın-ili was occupied and made an Ottoman sanjak. In this struggle the Germiyanoğulları, the Menteşeoğulları, the Genoese of Chios, the lord of Mytilene, Foça and the Knights of Rhodes, taking Cüneyd's harsh conduct into account, sided with Mehmed. Mehmed destroyed the fortress that the Knights had rebuilt at İzmir; the Menteşeoğulları also accepted his sovereignty.

The Karaman front was harder. While Mehmed was advancing in Rumeli against Musa, Mehmed of Karaman had besieged Bursa and burned the quarters around the fortress. It is told that İvaz Pasha, the subaşı of Bursa, broke the siege by setting fire to mines he had dug; the TDV, however, writes that when news of the victory over Musa arrived, the Karamanids lifted the siege, which had lasted thirty-one days, and withdrew. Mehmed set out on the Karaman campaign after sending an envoy with costly gifts to the Mamluk sultan in Egypt, regarded as the patron of the Karamanids. In March 1415 he defeated the Karamanids and besieged Konya. The Karamanoğlu asked for peace; Hamid-ili (the Isparta region) and Said-ili were annexed to Ottoman territory. The story that Karamanoğlu Mehmed Bey broke his oath of peace by means of a pigeon is presented as "counter-propaganda" against the Ottomans.

On the return from Karaman, it is said, Mehmed fell ill at Ankara and was treated by Mevlana Sinan, physician of Yakub Bey of Germiyan, that is, the poet Şeyhî, who recast the episode in his mesnevi (narrative poem in couplets) Harname. According to the TDV, because Mehmed was seriously ill in 1417 the campaign against Karaman was organized by Bayezid Pasha and the Bey of Karaman was captured; İnalcık also notes that in the early Ottoman compilations the various campaigns against Karaman are confused with one another. It is related that the principalities of Saruhan (1415) and Menteşe (1416) in western Anatolia were abolished, that the principality of the Tekeoğulları was also ended, and that of the Germiyanoğulları only Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya were handed over to Ottoman administration. Against İsfendiyar Mehmed marched in early 1417, and peace was made when he acknowledged Mehmed's sovereignty. All this shows why the epithet "refounder" given to Mehmed applies not only to Rumeli but to Anatolia as well: central authority had been reestablished on both shores.

The Naval Battle at Gallipoli

The reestablishment of Ottoman administration in Anatolia and Rumeli also caused alarm in neighboring states. According to İnalcık, the Byzantine emperor, the Pope and Venice began diplomatic activity to call for a crusade against the Ottomans. Venice, which had taken advantage of the confusion of the Interregnum to extend its control to western Greece, Albania and the Morea, saw its negotiations for an agreement with Mehmed fail with his victory over his brothers.

The bitterest naval page of the reign is 1416. In 1415, when the Duke of Naxos did not join the Latin lords, Mehmed sent the sea ghazis of western Anatolia raiding the Venetian possessions in the Aegean; the Gallipoli fleet under Çalı Bey (112 ships, thirteen of them galleys) was sent to the Cyclades. The Venetian fleet under Pietro Loredano made a surprise attack and destroyed the Ottoman fleet at Gallipoli (29 May 1416). It is related that this was the first naval battle between the two states, that the fighting off Çanakkale lasted until about 2:00 in the afternoon, and that Çalı Bey and the ship captains were killed. After the battle the first peace treaty between the two states was made, and the envoy Mehmed sent to Venice in 1417 was received with a splendid ceremony; this last detail does not appear in the TDV.

The Balkans: Wallachia, Dobruja, Albania

Mehmed's reign is associated in the Balkans with the conquest of Dobruja in 1419. Mircea, Voivode of Wallachia, who emerged during the Interregnum as the most important rival to Ottoman rule in the Balkans, was supported by King Sigismund of Hungary. Mehmed's 1419 campaign against Mircea is linked to Sigismund's plan to invade the Balkans. His vassals in Anatolia, the lords of Karaman and the Candaroğulları, sent forces under their sons on this campaign. Mehmed raided Wallachia, built the fortress of Yeni Yergöğü (later Rusçuk) on the right bank of the Danube, and then took the fortress of Severin. According to Neşrî, Mircea surrendered, sent three sons as hostages and agreed to pay tribute. İnalcık also notes that the dates 1414 and 1416 in Neşrî must belong to earlier raids by the frontier lords.

It is also written that in 1416 Mehmed set out on a Rumeli campaign and took the fortresses of Avlonya (Vlorë) and Akçahisar (Kruja) in Albania, sent raiders to the Morea, raided Bosnia every year, and that King Tvrtko II of Bosnia accepted dependence on the Ottomans; for some of this information no detailed source is given. Between these campaigns he had to fight in Rumeli at the same time against Mustafa, against Bedreddin and against the beys in Anatolia. The years of the reign should therefore be read less as a succession of victories than as a period of government squeezed by one crisis after another.

The Movement of Sheikh Bedreddin

The greatest internal test of the reign was the movement begun by Sheikh Bedreddin, son of the kadı of Simavna. Bedreddin, born at Simavna to a Greek mother and a Muslim father, was a scholar whom Musa had appointed army judge. The movement began on the European side and spread to western Anatolia. İnalcık places the uprising in the summer and autumn of 1416: while Mehmed was fighting Mustafa in Rumeli, he had to deal with the revolt Bedreddin organized in western Anatolia and in Deliorman. Mircea, who supported the sheikh, occupied Deliorman and attacked Silistra. Mehmed caught the sheikh at Zagra and had him executed at Serres. Meanwhile the Anatolian beys stirred again; Mehmed first marched against İsfendiyar Bey, who had helped the sheikh cross to Wallachia (early 1417). Other accounts place the uprising between 1416 and 1420 or in 1418-1419, and relate that the revolts of the sheikh's deputies such as Börklüce Mustafa and Torlak Kemal around İzmir and Manisa were suppressed by Bayezid Pasha and Şehzade Murad, sanjak governor of Manisa. The dates differ; it can be said that the movement occupied Mehmed's reign between 1416 and 1420. The event has not been directly linked to Amasya. Yet the vizier Bayezid Pasha, a native of Amasya, was the commander who pursued the sheikh in Deliorman.

Mustafa Çelebi and the "Impostor" Debate

The fate of Mustafa, the brother who was taken prisoner with his father at the Battle of Ankara and carried to Samarkand, is one of the most complicated matters of the reign. After being released by the Timurid Shahrukh, Mustafa reached Trabzon (January 1415); he passed to Konya and Kastamonu and from there by sea to Wallachia. Cüneyd Bey, whom Mehmed had removed from the lordship of Niğbolu, joined him. According to İnalcık this was Shahrukh's plan: the success of the Karakoyunlu in Azerbaijan and western Iran, and Mehmed's alteration of the status quo in Anatolia, amounted to a challenge to the Timurids. In a letter to Shahrukh Mehmed tried to prove that he was not supporting the Karakoyunlu Kara Yusuf, and argued that the division of the Ottoman state served the enemies of Islam and that because of this division many places, Thessaloniki among them, had passed out of Muslim hands. When in December 1420 Shahrukh asked that Kara Yusuf's son İskender not be helped, Mehmed expressed complete submission. In 1419-1421, when Shahrukh was preparing a great campaign in the east, the Ottomans watched developments with great anxiety.

Mustafa and Cüneyd, who despite Mircea's military support could not draw the frontier forces to themselves, returned to Istanbul; the emperor sent them to Thessaloniki in the spring of 1416. Mehmed declared war on Byzantium. Mustafa and Cüneyd took Serres, but Mehmed again forced them to take refuge in Thessaloniki. The emperor finally agreed to keep them in prison as long as Mehmed lived, and in return agreed to receive an annual compensation of 300,000 akçes (about 10,000 gold ducats). In another account, the person who in 1418 proclaimed himself sultan in Thessaly and Thessaloniki with Venetian help is Mustafa, and many historians accept that he was the real Mustafa Çelebi; the name "Düzmece Mustafa" (False Mustafa) was given afterward through Ottoman propaganda. It is added that Mustafa was eventually exiled to the island of Lemnos. The label "impostor" is thus a later expression reflecting the debate over the brother's identity. According to İnalcık, in Mehmed's last year Mustafa was a serious rival: although Süleyman's son Orhan had been blinded and held in a dungeon, Mustafa was recognized as sultan by some Ottoman leaders, and the Byzantine emperor could release him at a suitable moment.

The Last Year, Illness and the Order of Succession

In his last year Mehmed fell ill. According to İnalcık, his chief aim during his illness was to ensure that his eldest son Murad ascended the throne without provoking any crisis. Murad's supporters spread the rumor that Mustafa was dead and that the claimant was an "impostor". To secure Murad's succession Mehmed was generous to the officials and made an agreement with the emperor. By its terms Murad would succeed at Edirne, his son Mustafa would remain in Anatolia, his two younger sons Yusuf (eight years old) and Mahmud (seven) would be sent to Istanbul as hostages with Manuel, and the emperor in return would not release Mustafa. The emperor was to receive an annual payment for the protection of these two princes. It is also written that to secure the succession Mehmed had his nephew Orhan Çelebi (Süleyman's son) blinded.

Murad at this time was governor in Amasya. Özcan's article writes that Murad was born in Amasya during his father's governorship and was appointed sanjak governor of Amasya at the age of twelve together with his lala Yörgüç Pasha, remaining in that post until 1421. The same article states that when Mehmed became sultan he appointed his lala Yörgüç Pasha as Beylerbey of Amasya, and that Murad was assigned there when the Kara Tatars of the region and the beys of Kastamonu, Canik and Erzincan caused disturbances; these details rest on volume III of Yasar's Amasya Tarihi. These accounts show that throughout Mehmed's reign Amasya remained under a prince's administration. The city would lose its character as a princely sanjak only in the sixteenth century, after the sanjak governorship of Murad III.

Death and the Concealed Death

The date of death is given in two ways. The TDV writes that Mehmed I died at Edirne on 23 Jumada II 824 (25 June 1421). Other sources give 26 May 1421, while the TEİS entry says only May-June 1421. The difference of about forty-two days between these two dates is consistent with the concealment of the death, but the sources do not make this connection explicitly; both dates are therefore reported as they stand.

According to the account, on 26 May 1421, during a hunting party at Edirne, Mehmed suffered a stroke on horseback, fell and was injured. On his deathbed he summoned the chief vizier Bayezid Pasha of Amasya, İvaz Pasha and Çandarlı İbrahim Pasha and asked them to bring Murad, telling them to conceal his death since discord would arise if he died before Murad came. This conversation is reported in direct quotation, but since no source is given it should not be treated as established record. The news of the death was concealed for about forty-two days while Murad's arrival in Bursa was awaited; Mehmed is remembered as the first sultan whose death was concealed. It is reported as rumor that processions were held to reassure the soldiers and that the embalmed body was dressed in a kaftan and seated at the window. His body was brought to Bursa forty-two days after his death and buried near the Green Tomb.

The entry on Murad II states that Murad was summoned to Bursa, learned on arrival that his father was dead, was recognized there by the bureaucratic class and some Janissaries, and ascended the throne on 25 June 1421 at the age of seventeen; he also refused to send his brothers to the emperor. The end of Bayezid Pasha falls in these same days: according to the TDV, he was sent against Düzmece Mustafa in May 1421, surrendered when most of his soldiers went over to Mustafa, and was executed the next day at İzmir at the instigation of Cüneyd Bey. That Amasya's best-known vizier died immediately after the death of his patron shows how fragile that moment was.

His Works in Bursa and Edirne

Mehmed's greatest buildings are in Bursa and Edirne. In Bursa he built a mosque (1419), a madrasa, an imaret (public kitchen) and a tomb (1421), and assigned endowments to them. The Old Mosque (Eski Cami) at Edirne was completed in his time (1414), and a bedesten (covered market) was built there as its endowment. The architect of the complex consisting of the Green Mosque, the Green Tomb and the Sultaniye Madrasa is said to have been Hacı İvaz. In Bursa Mehmed also had a mosque completed that his grandfather Murad I had begun but that was neglected under Bayezid; around the complex he founded a school and a soup kitchen for the poor and attached large endowments to them. The İpek Han in Bursa, the Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Mosque at Dimetoka, and the Çelebi Sultan Mehmed Mosque at Söğüt, whose original dates to his time, are among the other buildings cited. His daughter Ayşe Sultan built the Ayşekadın Mosque at Edirne, Hafsa Hatun the Hafsa Hatun Mosque at Bursa, and his son-in-law Karaca Bey his külliye at Ankara.

His Traces in the Amasya Region

The buildings in the Amasya region are mostly the work not of the ruler directly but of persons attached to him. The Amasya Bayezid Pasha Mosque, according to the Arabic inscription at its entrance, was built in Muharram 817 (April 1414), in the time of Sultan Mehmed, by the vizier Bayezid Pasha. A marble tablet names the architect as Ya'kub b. Abdullah and gives the date 822 (1419); that it carries many craftsmen's signatures is rare in Ottoman architecture. That the vizier built mosques, imarets and madrasas in Amasya and Bursa, and that his endowment deeds date from 1418-1420, is recorded in the TDV entry on Bayezid Pasha. Selim Özcan's article writes that the Bayezid Pasha Imaret was built in 1414 by Yahşi Beyzâde Bayezid Pasha.

The Yakup Pasha Imaret was built in 1412 by Yakup Pasha, one of the emirs of Çelebi Mehmed's time, in the quarter that bears his name. The date 1413 is given for the Yâkub Pasha (Çilehane) Mosque. The Yörgüç Pasha Complex was built in 1431 in the Gökmedrese quarter by Yörgüç Pasha, who had been lala to Murad II in his princehood; it consists of a mosque, a tomb, an imarethane and a madrasa of four rooms. This building belongs not to Mehmed's time but to Murad's, though it is cited as a continuation of the line of administration that Mehmed left in Amasya.

The Merzifon Çelebi Mehmed Madrasa was built in 1414 by Çelebi Mehmed through Ebubekir Mehmed b. Hamza. It follows the Seljuk madrasa plan, with four iwans and an open courtyard; the entrance is decorated in cut stone and marble, and the iwan portal with its red-and-white banded stonework and its carved wooden doors are famous, the original door being in the Ankara Ethnography Museum. In 1865 Ziya Pasha, the mutasarrıf of Amasya, added a cylindrical clock tower. According to the TDV's entry on the Mehmed I Madrasa, construction continued between 1414 and 1417. The Halîliye Madrasa at Gümüşhacıköy is written to have been built in 1413 by Çelebi Mehmed's beylerbey Halil Pasha. No building that Çelebi Mehmed had constructed in his own name in the city center of Amasya has been identified in the sources.

Culture, Poetry and Patronage

The TDV's list of related entries names those whom Mehmed patronized: Ahmedî (the poet who presented the Tervîhu'l-ervâh to him), Şeyhî (who for a time was in his service), the physician Şirvânî, Ahmed-i Dâî and the scholar Ibn Arabshah (Shihab al-Din and Taj al-Din). It is recorded that gatherings of poetry and literature were first formed in the time of Çelebi Mehmed, and that among the poets and scholars he supported closely were names such as Şeyhî, Arabshah of Syria, Fazlullah, Muhyiddin and Kara Yakub. It is related that he himself wrote poetry, but there is no record of any work. The first couplet of a ghazal attributed to him runs: "Cihân hasm olsa Hak'dan nusret iste / Erenlerden du'â vü himmet iste" ("Though the world be your foe, seek victory from God; ask the saints for prayer and aid"). This couplet is cited as the only example said to be his.

The TDV's list also includes the devshirme as a practice "first carried out in his time" and the surre as a practice "that he began". İnalcık summarizes the central matter of the reign as the reemergence of the Ottoman state as the dominant power in Anatolia and the Balkans after the catastrophe of 1402. Despite the military collapse at Ankara, the Ottomans had remained a great military power in both regions, and the dynasty had reestablished the imperial tradition as the sole source of legitimacy over local dynasties. The tahrir (land survey) and timar system was also developed and widely applied in this period, because the sipahis, infantry, müsellems, kapıkulus and peasants knew that their status and land rights depended on the existence of the Ottoman central government. The same assessment records that Ottoman officials intervened in 1405 and 1413 to resolve the quarrel among the Serbian princes.

Family

According to the TDV, Mehmed is known to have had six sons (Murad, Mustafa, Kasım, Ahmed, Yusuf, Mahmud) and seven daughters. Other sources count at least five sons and eight daughters, and some as many as eighteen male children; the difference in numbers comes from different lists. Emine Hatun died at Edirne on 4 May 1449. Among his daughters, Selçuk Hatun (about 1407-25 October 1485) married first İbrahim Bey II of the İsfendiyaroğulları and then Karaca Pasha, Beylerbey of Anatolia. Ilaldı Sultan Hatun married İbrahim Bey II of Karaman in 1425, Ayşe Sultan Hatun married Alaeddin Ali Bey of Karaman in 1427, Incu Hatun married İsa Bey of Karaman in 1427, and Fatma Sultan Hatun married Kıvameddin Kasım Bey of the İsfendiyaroğulları; Hafsa Hatun married Mahmud Bey, son of Çandarlı Halil Pasha, Hatice Hatun married Karaca Pasha, and Şahzade Sitti Hatun married Sinan Pasha. It is also written that Ilaldı Sultan's marriage was unhappy and that her husband bore a grudge against her and her sons because they carried Ottoman blood. These marriages show the family dimension of the political relations built with the Karamanids and İsfendiyarids. Among the children, Mahmud (1413-August 1429) and Yusuf (1414-August 1429) were buried in the Green Tomb; the young Mustafa (1408-1423) claimed the throne against Murad and was defeated and killed.

His Character

In popular accounts Çelebi Mehmed's appearance is described as that of a man of medium height, round-faced, fair-skinned, red-cheeked, dark-eyed, thickly bearded and strong; his gentleness, sweet speech, patience and kindness are emphasized. This description is an unsourced account and should be read not as a historical document but as the portrait left by tradition. It is also said that he took part in 24 battles and received about 42 wounds, but the basis of this figure is not stated. In his conduct during the Interregnum the same pattern recurs: when defeated he withdraws, waits, forms alliances and attacks again. Unlike his brothers, he followed a conciliatory course toward Byzantium and the frontier lords. The sources do not say where this patience came from; the memory of Amasya tends to present it as a quality the city itself bred in him, but this is an interpretation and does not rest on any document.

His Place in Amasya's Memory

Amasya's being called the "city of princes" is attributed to the fact that many future sultans, Çelebi Mehmed among them, served here as governor. According to Özcan's article, Amasya hosted princes for about 182 years, and most of those who held the post later took the throne; the longest sanjak governorship was that of Ahmed, eldest son of Bayezid II, at thirty years, followed by Bayezid II at twenty-seven years and Çelebi Mehmed at twenty-four. The figure of twenty-four years in the article does not agree with the TDV's date of 1399 and appears to rest on a start in 1392.

The role of Amasya in the Interregnum should not be exaggerated. It is often repeated that the city functioned as a "provisional capital" and that the council and the diplomas were conducted from there; no document or encyclopedic record confirming this has been found. What is certain is this: the city where he twice withdrew after defeat, where he once suppressed Kara Devletşah and established an emirate, where his son was born and where his vizier built his mosque, is Amasya. Çelebi Mehmed's contribution to the later centuries' identity of Amasya as the "city of princes" continued with his sending his son Murad to the same sanjak.

Chronology

1386-1387: Birth by the commonly accepted view; mother Devlet Hatun. Place and year are disputed in the sources.

June 1399 (Shawwal 801): Sent as governor of the province of Rûm, comprising Amasya, Tokat, Sivas and Ankara.

July 1402: Battle of Ankara; Bayezid the Thunderbolt is captured, and Mehmed withdraws toward Amasya.

1403: Enters Amasya against Kara Devletşah; with Timur's approval continues the emirate of Rumiye-i Suğra; marries Emine Hatun, daughter of the ruler of Dulkadir.

1403-1404: Battle of Ulubat against İsa Çelebi; Mehmed takes control of Bursa (dates vary by source).

June 1404: His son Murad is born in Amasya.

1406 (or 1403-1404): With Süleyman's crossing into Anatolia Mehmed withdraws to Amasya; is defeated at Yenişehir and returns again to Amasya.

1409 (TDV: Musa's passage to Wallachia in 1406): Plan with Musa at Cemele Castle; Mehmed retakes Bursa.

17 February 1411: Musa seizes Edirne; Süleyman dies.

October 1412: Battle of İnceğiz; Mehmed is defeated and wounded.

15 June 1413: Battle of Vize; Mehmed wins.

5 July 1413: Defeats Musa at the Çamurlu pass; becomes sole sultan at Edirne.

1414: Defeats Cüneyd and takes western Anatolia; Bayezid Pasha Mosque at Amasya (inscription of April 1414); Merzifon Madrasa; completion of the Old Mosque at Edirne.

January 1415: Mustafa Çelebi, released by Shahrukh, reaches Trabzon.

March 1415: Karaman campaign; Konya is besieged.

29 May 1416: The Venetian fleet destroys the Ottoman fleet at Gallipoli.

1416-1420: The movement of Sheikh Bedreddin; Bedreddin is executed at Serres (dates vary by source).

1419: Campaign against Mircea; fortress of Yeni Yergöğü; the mosque at Bursa is completed.

26 May or 25 June 1421: Death at Edirne; the news is concealed for about forty-two days.

25 June 1421: Murad takes the throne at Bursa.

Sources

Primary sources

  • Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. III (through the citations of the TDV and Özcan).

Academic studies

  • Halil İnalcık, "Mehmed I", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 28, 2003, pp. 391-394 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mehmed-i). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Selim Özcan, "Amasya'da Sancak Beyliği Yapan Şehzadeler Döneminde Amasya Şehri", Amasya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, no. 5 (DergiPark).

Official sources

  • Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kültür Portalı, "Çelebi Mehmet Medresesi - Amasya".
  • Amasya Governorship, "Osmanlı Dönemi" page.

Other sources

  • TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, entries "Murad II", "Bayezid Paşa", "Bayezid Paşa Camii", "Fetret Devri" and "Mehmed I Medresesi".
  • Wikipedia, "I. Mehmed" and "Fetret Devri" (Turkish); "Mehmed I" and "Ottoman Interregnum" (English). tr.wikipedia.org
  • Ömer Savran, "Muhammed/Mehmed, Çelebi Mehmed", Yesevi University, Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (TEİS), 2014, updated 2020. teis.yesevi.edu.tr
  • Somuncubaba.net, "Osmanlı'nın İkinci Kurucusu: Sultan Çelebi Mehmed".
  • Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay, Padişahların Kadınları ve Kızları, Ankara 2011 (through the citation in English Wikipedia). tr.wikipedia.org

Online sources