İsa Çelebi
İsa Çelebi (?-1406) was an Ottoman prince (Turkish: şehzade) and a co-ruler of the empire during the Ottoman Interregnum. (Çelebi is an honorific title meaning gentleman)
Background
İsa was one of the sons of Beyazıt I, the Ottoman sultan. His mother was Devlet Hatun , the daughter of Germiyan bey. (Germiyan was the name of an independent Turkish principality in center-west portion of Anatolia. ) İsa worked as a sanjak governor in Antalya and fought in the battle of Ankara (1402) together with his father. Ottoman army was defeated and İsa escaped to west Anatolia.
İsa in the interregnum
In 1403, after learning about his father's death in captivity, he began struggling for the vacant throne. He fought against his brother Musa Çelebi to gain the control ofBursa, the Anatolian capital of the empire. He defeated Musa and began controlling a part of Anatolian territory of the empire. But the European territory, so called Rumeli was under the control of Süleyman Çelebi and the east part of Anatolian territory was under the control of Mehmet Çelebi (future Mehmet I). Feeling unsecure between the two competitors, he signed a treaty of friendship with the Byzantine emperor and he refused Mehmet's suggestion to partition the Anatolian part of the empire on the ground that he was the older brother. But following this refusal he fought against Mehmet and was defeated in the battle of Ulubat in 1405. In this battle he also lost his vizier Timurtaş who was an experienced statesman. He escaped to Rumeli over Byzantine territories.[1]
Süleyman's support
He met with Süleyman who supported his cause in Anatolia. With fresh troops provided by Suleyman he returned to Anatolia and tried to recapture Bursa. Although he failed, allying himself with the Anatolian beyliks (small Turkish principalities which had been annexed by his father but were set free after the battle of Ankara), he continued to fight against Mehmet. But after a series of defeats his allies betrayed him and he gave up.[2]
Death
According to Hammer after losing the struggle he hid himself. But according to other sources, he was spotted in a public bath (Turkish: hamam) in Eskişehir and killed by Mehmet's partisans. in 1406.