Product overview

Everything worth knowing.

A detailed, evidence-led view of the product—not a generic sales summary.

At the end of the thirteenth century, with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in terminal decline, Anatolia was divided into several small independent Turkish principalities, called beyliks. One of these beyliks, bordering the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire, was led by Osman I. Osman's tiny state would gradually expand over the next two hundred years to become one of the world's great empires, known to posterity as the Ottoman (Osmanli) Empire, after their first leader. At first the Ottomans battled against the Byzantines for control of the local Anatolian cities, but in 1354 they seized their first European territory when they took Gallipoli. This brought them into conflict with the other Balkan Christian states, including Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Wallachia, Moldavia and Albania. The Ottomans were generally victorious in these wars for the next fifty years, resulting in them becoming the dominant Balkan power. Their advances led to the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, where a western crusade met with disaster. In the east, most of Anatolia had been conquered from the other Turkic beyliks. This run of success was briefly interrupted in 1402 when the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Ankara. With Sultan Bayezid I captured, and dying in captivity the following year, the empire was thrown into a chaotic civil war between Bayezid’s sons, with order only being restored in 1413 when Mehmed I became Sultan. The conquests resumed, and another Crusade was defeated at Varna in 1444. Finally, the Turks conquered the great city of Constantinople in 1453, making it the Ottoman capital. A number of brilliant Balkan leaders rose during the 15th century to challenge Ottoman hegemony; John Hunyadi and his son, Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, the Albanian hero