Murad II
Murad II (June
1404,
Amasya –
February 3,
1451,
Edirne) (
Arabic: مراد الثاني) was the
Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire from
1421 to
1451 (except for a period from
1444 to
1446).
Murad II's reign was marked by the long war he fought against the Christians of the
Balkans and the
Turkish emirates in
Anatolia, a conflict lasting for 25 years. He was brought up in
Amasya, and ascended the throne on the death of his father.
Murad II, when called from his vice-royalty in
Asia Minor to become the sovereign of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, was only eighteen years of age. He was solemnly recognized as
sultan, girded with the sabre of Osman at Brusa and the troops and officers of the state willing paid homage to him as their sovereign.
But his reign was soon troubled by insurrection. The
Byzantine emperor, released the pretender
Mustafa Çelebi (known as Düzmece Mustafa) from confinement and acknowledged him as the legitimate heir to the throne of Bayezid I (1389–1402) having first stipulated that he (Mustafa) should, if successful, repay the Greek emperor for his liberation by ceding a large number of important cities. The pretender was landed by the Byzantine galleys in the European dominion of the sultan and for a time made rapid progress. Large bodies of
Turkish soldiers joined him and he defeated and killed the veteran general
Beyazid Pasha whom Murad had sent to fight him.
Mustafa defeated Murad's army and declared himself Sultan of Adrianople (modern
Edirne). He then crossed the Dardanelles to Asia with a large army; but the young sultan showed in this emergency that he possessed military and political abilities worthy of his best ancestors. Mustafa was out-maneuvered in the middle of the field and his troops, whose confidence in his person and cause he had lost by his violence and incapacity, passed over in large numbers to Murad II. Mustafa took refuge in the city of
Gallipoli but the sultan, who was greatly aided by a Genoese commander named Adorno, besieged him there and stormed the place. Mustafa was taken and put to death by the sultan who then turned his arms against the Greek emperor and declared his resolution to punish Paleaogus' unprovoked enmity by the capture of Constantinople.
Murad II then formed a new army called
Azeb in
1421 and marched through the
Byzantine Empire, laying siege to its capital
Constantinople. While Murad was besieging that city, the
Byzantines, in league with some independent
Turkish Anatolian states, sent the
sultan's younger brother
Mustafa (who was only 13 years old) to rebel against the sultan and besiege Bursa. Murad had to abandon the siege of Constantinople in order to deal with his rebellious brother. He caught Prince Mustafa and executed him. The Anatolian states that had been constantly plotting against him —
Aydin,
Germian,
Menteshe and
Teke were annexed and henceforth became part of the
Ottoman Empire.
Murad II then went to war against
Venice, the
Karamanid emirate,
Serbia and
Hungary. The Karamanids were defeated in
1428 and
Venice withdrew in
1432 following the defeat at the second
Siege of Salonika in
1430. In the
1430s Murad captured huge territories in the
Balkans and succeeded in annexing Serbia in
1439. In
1441 the
Holy Roman Empire,
Poland and
Albania joined the
Serbian-Hungarian coalition. Murad II won the
Battle of Varna in
1444 against
János Hunyadi but lost the
Battle of Jalowaz and was forced to abdicate.
In
1446 he regained command at the interference of the
janissaries and in
1448 he crushed the
Christian coalition at the
Second Battle of Kosovo (the first one took place in
1389). When the
Balkan front was secured Murad II turned east to defeat
Timur's son,
Shah Rokh, and the emirates of
Karamanid and Çorum-Amasya.
In
1450 Murad II advanced his army into
Albania and laid an unsuccessful siege to the
castle of
Kruje in efforts to defeat the sporadic resistance lead by
Skanderbeg. In the winter of
1450–
1451, Murad II became ill, and died in
Edirne. He was then was succeeded by his son
Mehmed II (1451–81).
* Incorporates text from "History of Ottoman Turks" (1878)
*
Encyclopædia Britannica
