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In the late thirteenth century, the Seljuq empire had collapsed and Anatolia was divided into many small states. One of these states was Söğüt, a small tribe settled in river valley of Sakarya. The founder and bey (chief) of the tribe was Ertuğrul. When Ertuğrul died in 1281, Osman became the leader of the tribe.
Osman I
In 1299 the Byzantine city Bilecik fell to Osman I. It was but the first of many cities and villages captured by the Ottoman Turks during the 1300s and 1310s. Osman also conquered some of the nearby Turkish emirates and tribes. During the late 1310s Osman I laid siege to several important Byzantine forts.
Yenişehir was captured and with it as a base the Turks could lay siege to Prousas (Bursa) and Nicaea (Iznik), the largest Byzantine cities in Anatolia. Bursa fell in 1326, just before Osman's death. Orhan I
The son of Osman, Orhan I, conquered Nicaea in 1331 and Nicomedia in 1337 and established the capital in Bursa. During Orhan's reign the empire was organized as a state with new currency, government and a modernized army.
He married Theodora, the daughter of Byzantine prince John VI Cantacuzenus. In 1346 Orhan openly supported John VI in the overthrowing of the emperor John V Palaeologus. When John VI became co-emperor (1347-1354) he allowed Orhan to raid the peninsula of Gallipoli which gained the Ottomans their first stronghold in Europe.
Orhan died in 1360 and left a growing empire to his son and successor, Murad I. Murad I
In the early 1360s the Ottoman armies marched into Thrace through Gallipoli and captured Edirne (Adrianople) and Philippopolis (Plovdiv) and forcing the Byzantines to pay tribute. In 1366 the count Amadeus VI of Savoy (cousin to John V Cantacuzenus, the Byzantine emperor) initiated a minor crusade to aid the Byzantines. The count drove away the Turks from all of Europe except Gallipoli. The very next year Murad attacked anew and regained most of Thrace, including Adrianople.
During the early 1370s Murad launched his forces deeper into Europe. At the Battle of Maritsa, at the Maritsa River, Murad's second lieutenant Lala Şâhin Paşa encountered a 70,000 man strong Serbian-Bulgarian army under the Serbian king Vukasin. The Ottoman army was smaller, but due to superior tactics the enemy was defeated and king Vukasin killed. Now that the Serbian coalition was weakened by such a blow, Murad was quick to advance further into Bulgaria and capture the cities of Dráma, Kavála and Seres (Serrái).
In 1383 Murad declared himself sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Shortly thereafter he began a new campaign in Europe. Sofia fell in 1385 and the city of Niš the year after. The Ottoman Conquest halted in 1387 when the Serbs won the Battle of Plocnik but two years later Murad marched anew into the west. The Ottomans won a great victory over the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo but the sultan himself was killed on the end of battle . His son Bayezid stands after his murder.
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