Mehmed I

Mehmed I
Ottoman Sultan
Reign	1413 – May 26, 1421
Period	Rise of the Ottoman Empire
Full Name	Mehmed I Çelebi
Predecessor	Interregnum
Successor	Murad II
Royal House	House of Osman
Dynasty	Ottoman Dynasty

Mehmed I Çelebi (Ottoman: چلبی محمد, Mehmed I or Mehmed Çelebi) (1390, Bursa – May 26, 1421, Edirne, Ottoman Empire) was a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Rûm) from 1413 to 1421. He was one of the sons of Bayezid I and Devlet Hatun.

Reign

After the Ottoman Interregnum, when Mehmed stood as victor in 1413, he crowned himself sultan in Edirne. He restored the empire, moved the capital from Bursa to Edirne, and conquered parts of Albania, the Jandarid emirate, and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia from the Mamelukes. Taking many of his achievements into consideration, Mehmed is widely known as the "second founder" of the Ottoman Empire.

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  Mehmed I with his dignitaries. Ottoman miniature painting, kept at Istanbul University.

Death

His mausoleum in Bursa

Reign of Mehmed I, as Sultan of the re-united empire, had lasted only eight years. But he had been an independent prince for nearly the whole preceding period of eleven years that passed between his father's captivity at Ankara and his own final victory over his brother Musa Çelebi at Chamurli.

He was buried in Bursa, in a mausoleum erected by himself near the celebrated mosque which he built there, and which, from its decorations of green porcelain, is called the Green Mosque. Mehmed I also completed the mosque at Bursa, which his grandfather Murad I had commenced, but which had been neglected during in reign of Bayezid. Mehmed founded in the vicinity of his own mosque and mausoleum two other characteristic institutions, one a school, and one a refectory for the poor both of which he endowed with royal munificence.

Wives

1. Sheh-Zade Kumru Hatun: The granddaughter of a Pasha from Amasya
2. Valide Sultan Emine Hatun, daughter of Suleyman Bey, ruler of Dulkadirids, third consort, which marriage served as an alliance between the Ottoman's and this buffer state, mother of Murad II

Further reading

• Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8
• Imber, Colin, The Ottoman Empire. London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0-333-61387-2

References

• Incorporates text from History of Ottoman Turks (1878)

Mehmed I House of Osman Born: 1382 Died: May 26, 1421
Regnal titles
Preceded by Bayezid I	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1413 – May 26, 1421	Succeeded by Murad II