SULTAN BAYEZID THE LIGHTNING

(1360 - 1403)

His father was Murad the Hudavendigar and his mother was Gulchichek Khatoun. He was born in 1360 and died on the 8th. of March, 1403; he ruled over the Empire for thirteen years, from 1389 to 1403.

Bayezid the Lightning was round-faced, quite white fleshed, ram-like nosed, grayish-blue eyed, light brown haired. thick bearded and broad shouldered. He was given the surname of Yilderim or Ilderim (lightning) because of his successes and braveries on battle-fields. When he was only in his fourteens, his father, Murad, gave him the proxy to administer the Ottoman Empire during his ab­sence owing to the Serbian Warfare.
A great army of the Crusaders which had been founded so as to rout the Turks and re-conquer Byzantium and seize Jerusalem. besieged the Nighbolou Fortress which was near the Danube. Sultan Bayezid Khan came around the castle. One night. Bayezid broke through the enemy troops, came in front of the citadel and leaning against the wall with one hand he shouted: "Bre Doghan!" ("bre" is an interjection whose meaning is fellow) and on hearing andrecognizing his scream Doghan Bey, the Commander-in-chief of the fortress of Nighbolou yelled down to the lightning: "What's going on. his Excellency?", and Bayezid replied the question:
have come with my army, do never yield the castle to the enemy'..." Giving that order to him he returned to the headquarters as quickly as a lightning.
As soon as he was made Sultan, he subdued easily all the rebellions breaking out in Anatolia on his father's death with rapid operations. The Principalities of Germian, Aydm, Menteshe, and Saroukhan were subjected to the Osmanlis in that era. Isparta, Bourdour, the District of lakes, which were in the land of the Principality of Khamid were taken, too. In 1391, Bayezid gained Shile from the Byzantine Empire. He besieged Istanbul for seven months. and sailing across the river Danube, he subjected Romania to the Empire.

Silivri and Salonica, in 1392, Bulgaria, in 1393, Kasta­monou with its surroundings and Albania with its surround­ings were annexed to the Othmanli lands. In 1396, The Frankish Crusaders were once more put to flight at Nigh­bolou, and thousands of their soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. In 1397, the Bishop of Salona invited the Turkish Emperor and requested him to save people from tyranny; and upon this, the Sultan Bayezid took Silivri, Morea and Attica from the Byzantines. That was the real story of how the Ottoman Turks captured Greece.
In 1397, The Principality of Caramania was subjected to the Osmanli Empire. Istanbul was besieged one more time. In 1393 the Kingdom of Cadi-Burhan-ud-din was destroyed; and next, the Principality of Dulkadir was cap­tured and subjected to the Empire.
Istanbul was sieged for the third time in 1400; and in 1402, without getting the fatwa (declaration by the Mufti on point of Islamic law) on the permission of the savants of Islam according to a story, he waged war on Tamerlane, or Timour, but he was defeated completely by the forces of Timour in the Battle of Angora. Sultan Bayezid the lightning, the grandfather of Mahomed the Conqueror, who had been kept a prisoner, expired of grief in prison after seven months and twelve days' prisonment at the time when he was just in his fourty-threes. His sacred corpse was brought to Bursa and interred into his mausoleum by his son Mousa Chelebi (May Allah have mercy upon his soul!)
One of the most important triumphs which had been gained in the reigning era of the Lightning by the Muham­medan Ottoman powers alone against the whole Christian European countries together, and which was also among the greatest victories in the world history up to that time and present time was the victory of Nighbolou whose result was also of great significance, that means to say:
The whole Europe, upto the coastal areas of the Atlantic Ocean, had recognized that a new Muslim Turkish country arose in Asia Minor; and the central Europe way opened to the Ottomans.
The Byzantines abandoned all their great expectations on Europe.
Still, as a consequence of that victory, the Eastern Moslem countries knew the existence of the Great Othmanli Empire. The Caliph of the Abbasides in Egypt addressed the Ottoman Sultan as the Sultan of the Country of the Greeks in his congratulatory letter that he had sent to him.
Of the most eminent personages of the Succession of the Descendants of Nakshibend, His Exalted Holiness Hadje Baha-oud-din Attar, Allame Saad-ud-din Teftazanee, Kemal-6d-din Hodjendee, the writer of the Sherkh-ee Me­kasid (Commentary on Purposes), Kemakid-din Mohammad Derniree, the author of the scientific book of the Hayatu'l­haivan (Animal Kingdom), Hodja Hafiz Shirazee and Cadi Ibnee Khaldoun (May Allah have mercy upon their souls!) were the great learned of the sultanate of the Sultan Bayezid the Lithtninc.