Name: Timur seizes Bursa
Start: 1402
Location: Bursa

Overview

After Bayezid I's defeat at Ankara in 804/1402, Timur seized Nicaea (İznik) and Bursa among other towns and fortresses. ¹

End of the capital era

The seizure ended the period in which Bursa had been the main capital of the Ottoman state, since its conquest in 726/1326. ²

The battle of Ankara and the capture of Bayezid the Thunderbolt

The armies of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, called the Thunderbolt, and of Timur met near Ankara on the Cubuk plain in 804/1402; the Encyclopaedia of Islam gives 20 July in its articles on Timur and Ankara and 28 July in its article on Bayezid. Timur won and Bayezid was taken prisoner, dying in captivity in 805/1403 as his hastily founded empire collapsed. Al-Sallabi's account says many of Bayezid's soldiers died of thirst in the summer heat, that Tatar and recently conquered Asian levies went over to Timur, and that Western kings congratulated Timur. An interregnum among the Ottoman princes followed, 804-16/1402-13, during which they acknowledged Timur's suzerainty.

Timur seizes Bursa

At a glance

In time

In space

Sides

تمرلنك's army

Bursa

Overview

End of the capital era

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Time

The battle of Ankara and the capture of Bayezid the Thunderbolt