Bajazet I

Bajazet I., or Bayazid, born in 1347, succeeded his father, Amurath I, in 1389, as Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, when he forthwith put to death his only brother Yakub. His life was spent in vigorous efforts to reduce the few independent states in Asia Minor, and to push the conquests of the Mussulmans in Europe. He was successful in both quarters. Before 1393 he had reduced nearly all the East as far as Erzeroum and the Euphrates, and in that year he practically got into his power the Greek Emperor of Constantinople. In 1396 he crushed near Nicopolis a great army of Crusaders under Sigismund, King of Hungary, and extended his dominions to the Morea. He now came into contact in the East with Timur, or Tamerlane, the Mongolian conqueror. Their forces met (1401) in the plain of Angora, and Bajazet was utterly defeated, taken prisoner, and, according to some, humanely treated; but the more popular story represents him to have been shut up in a cage and carried about by his oppressor till he died in 1403.