Siege of Bursa
| Siege of Bursa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Byzantine-Ottoman wars | |||||||
Gate of Bursa castle |
|||||||
|
|||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
(Kayı tribe) |
|||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 12,000 | 10,000 | ||||||
The Siege of Bursa (also called Prusa, Prousa, Brusa or Broussa) occurred from 1317/20 until the capture on 6 April 1326,[1] when the Ottomans deployed a bold plan to seize Prusa (modern-day Bursa, Turkey). The Ottomans had not captured a city before; the lack of expertise and adequate siege equipment at this stage of the war meant that the city fell only after six or nine years.[2] According to some sources Osman I died of natural causes just before the fall of the city,[2] while others suggest that he lived long enough to hear about the victory on his death-bed[1][3][4] and was buried in Bursa afterwards.
Aftermath[edit]
After the fall of the city, his son and successor Orhan made Bursa the first official Ottoman capital and it remained so until 1366, when Edirne became the new capital.[2] As a result, Bursa holds a special place in Ottoman history as their founding city, and also as the birthplace of Ottoman architecture (Bursa Grand Mosque (1399), Bayezid I Mosque (1395), Hüdavendigar Mosque (1385), and Yeşil Mosque) (1421).[5] During his reign Orhan encouraged urban growth through the construction of buildings such as imarets, Turkish baths, mosques, inns and caravanserais,[6] and he also build a mosque and a medrese in what is now known as the Hisar district,[7] and after his death was buried there in his türbe (mausoleum) next to his father.[5] The Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta who visited Bursa in 1331 was impressed by the sultan and found Bursa an enjoyable city[5] "with fine bazaars and wide streets, surrounded on all sides by gardens and running springs."[8]
Importance[edit]
Paul K. Davis writes, "The capture of Brusa established Osman I (Othman) and his successors as the major power in Asia Minor, beginning the Ottoman Empire."[9]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Rogers, Clifford (2010). The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 261. ISBN 9780195334036.
- ^ a b c Nolan, Cathal J. (2006). The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 100–101. ISBN 9780313337338.
- ^ Hore, A. H. (2003). Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church. Gorgias Press LLC. p. 455. ISBN 9781593330514.
- ^ Pitcher, Donald Edgar (1972). An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire: From Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century. Brill Archive. p. 37.
- ^ a b c Dumper, Michael R. T.; Stanley, Bruce E. (2007). Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 101. ISBN 9781576079195.
- ^ Ágoston, Gábor; Masters, Bruce Alan (2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 105. ISBN 9781438110257.
- ^ Levine, Lynn A. (2010). Frommer's Istanbul (2 ed.). John Wiley & Sons. p. 238. ISBN 9780470915790.
- ^ Finkel, Caroline (2007). Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. Basic Books. p. 13. ISBN 9780465008506.
- ^ Paul K. Davis, 100 Decisive Battles from Ancient Times to the Present: The World’s Major Battles and How They Shaped History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 151.
Coordinates: 40°11′00″N 29°04′00″E / 40.1833°N 29.0667°E
| This Byzantine Empire-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| This Ottoman Empire-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |