In 1396, on a battlefield in what is now Bulgaria, an army led by Murad's son Bajazed (by-yuh-ZEED; ruled 1389-1402) defeated a combined Hungarian and Venetian force, organized by the pope to protect Europe from an Islamic invasion. The Ottomans seemed poised to begin absorbing more and more of Europe; then from the east came the Mongol armies of Tamerlane, who in 1402 captured Bajazed himself.
As it turned out, Mongol power was as shortlived in Anatolia as in most parts of the world, and upon Tamerlane's death in 1405, the sons of Bajazed began vying for power. The restored line of Ottoman rulers faced numerous military challenges: from Venice in the Aegean Sea; from Hungary in the Balkans; and from rebel forces in Anatolia and Albania. The leader of the Albanian revolt, Skander-beg or George Kastrioti (1405-1468), was celebrated throughout the Western world for his brave resistance to the Turkish armies, and Albanians remember him as their national hero.
Had the Ottoman Empire kept going the way it was, it would not have lasted much longer, but in fact it continued until 1922. Its recovery began under Mehmed (meh-MET) the
Conqueror, who ruled from 1451 to 1481. It was Mehmed who finally brought down the Byzantine Empire in 1453, after which Constantinople became the new Ottoman capital, Istanbul. Mehmed added Bosnia and Herzegovina (hurt-ze-GOH-vi-nuh) to the empire, and by the end of his reign Turkish power extended from the coast of the Adriatic (ay-dree-AT-ik) Sea, which faces Italy, to the region known as the Caucasus (KAW-kuh-sus) in southern Russia.
World History
