Orhan Ghazi (Orkhan), was the second sultan of the Ottoman empire reigning from 1323/4 to 1362. He was the son of Osman Ghazi and Malhun Hatun. His grandfather was the great Ertugrul ghazi. Orhan Ghazi was tall, with a blonde beard and blue eyes. He was a benign, forgiving, religious and fair in his approach and therefore become a good ruler. Orhan Ghazi held the reign of Kayi Clan after the death of Osman Gazi, in 1320s.
Orhan ghazi had married first time to Teodora who was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Yoannis Kontakuzinas XI. His second wife was Holofira, who the daughter of the Byzantine Prince of Yarhisar. It is said that Holofira eloped with Orhan by leaving her marriage ceremony with the Prince of Bilecik. After the marriage she embraced Islam and her name was changed as Nilufer Hatun. She gave birth to Murad who later had been the third sultan of the Ottomans.
Following the tribel tradition, Orhan after succeeding his father, proposed his brother Alaeddin to share the emerging empire but latter refused on the fact that their father Osman had designated Orhan as sole successor and that the empire should not be divided. He only accepted as his share the revenues of a single village near Bursa which shows the commitment and good will of the early ruler of the ottoman empire.
During thr early stages of his rule, Orhan focused firmly on conquering most of northwestern Anatolia. The majority of these areas were under the rule of Byzantine empire and Orhan ghazi won his first battle at Pelekanon against the Byzantine ruler Andronikos III Palaiologos. Orhan also annexed the lands of the Karasids of Balikesir and the Ahis of Ankara. A chain of civil wars covered by the ascension of the nine year old Byzantine ruler John V Palaiologos greatly benefited Orhan.
According to sources, Alaeddin asked Orhan ghazi that the Ottomans should stoped acting like vassals and dependent to the Seljuk ruler that they will no longer stamped money with his image or used his name in public prayers. These changes are associated with Osman himself, but the vast majority of the writers occur to attribute it to Alaeddin. The introduction of laws respecting the costume of the various aspects of the empire, and the foundation and funding of a standing army of regular troops.
It was by his advice that the celebrated corps of Janissaries was formed, an institution which European writers mistakenly record much later and associated it to Murad I. Orhan’s predecessors, Ertugrul ghazi and Osman I, fought wars at the head of the armed vassals and volunteers. They rode on horse back with their prince’s banner when asked for each expedition and were abolished as soon as the campaign was over. Alaeddin was commited to ensure any future success by forming a corps of paid infantry which was always supposed to be kept ready for war.
These troops were known as Yaya or piyade. They were organized and divided into tens, hundreds, and thousands with their commanders. With time out of this arose the very well known corps of Janissaries which was considered the scourge of the Balkans and Central Europe for a long time, until it was displaced by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826.
Orhan was one of the longest living and one of the longest reigning Sultan among the future Ottoman Sultans. During his last years in the reign he had leave most of the powers of empire and transfer it to his second son Murad and lived a secluded and simple life in Bursa. In the year 1356 Orhan son Khalil, was kidnapped some where around the Bay of Izmit.
A Genoese commercial boat captain who was carrying out the acts of piracy along with commercial activities, was succeeded in kidnapping the young prince and take him over to Phocaea located on the Aegean Sea which was under Genoese control. Orhan got very much upset by this abduction and held talks with his brother in law and at times the only Byzantine Emperor John V Palaeologos.
As a result John V along with a Byzantine naval fleet went to Phocaea paid the demanded ransom of 0.1 million hyperpyra and brought Khalil back to Ottoman territory. In the year 1357 Orhan’s eldest and most experienced son and the expected heir of the empire, Suleyman Pasha died after receiving some serious injuries falling from a horse near Bolayir on the beach of the sea of Marmara.
The horse to whom Suleyman fell from was buried along with him and their tombs are still present there and could be seen today. It is said that Orhan was greatly affected by the death of his son and he died soon after that tragedy. He is most likely deceased from natural causes. It looked like the death of his son put hazardous effects on his health. Orhan ghazi died in 1362, in Bursa, at the age of 80 years and after a reign of thirty six years at the throne. He is buried along with his wife and children and his tomb is located in Kumbet in Bursa.
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Zeshan Nisar is a student of International Relation. He looks closely at international affairs and political situation of world.. Social issues are his favorite subject.Contact him : zeshan.kiani170@gmail.com
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