Battle of Bapheus

Bapheus - Catalan campaign - Bursa - Pelekanon - Nicaea - Nicomedia - 1 Gallipoli - Adrian Opel - 2nd Gallipoli - Philadelphia - 1st Konstantin Opel - Thessalonica - 2 Konstantin Opel

The Battle of Bapheus ( Turkish Bafeus Muharebesi, Koyun Hisar Muharebesi, Koyunhisar Muharebesi, Yalakova Muharebesi ) took place on July 27, 1302 between the Ottoman army under Osman I, and the Byzantine army held under Georgos Mouzalon. The battle ended with an Ottoman victory. The Battle of Bapheus heralded the complete conquest of the Byzantine Bithynia by the Ottomans. Halil Inalcik According to the Ottoman state received its characteristic imprint in this battle.

Strategic background

Osman I went to 1282 to the domination of the Turks and introduced in the next two decades pillaging in the borderlands of the Byzantine Bithynia by. In 1301, the Ottomans besieged Nicaea, the former capital of the Byzantine Empire. The Turkish raids meant a famine for the port city of Nicomedia, since the constant attacks prevented the introduction of the harvest.

In the spring of 1302, the Emperor Michael IX. (reigned 1294 /95 to 1320) his troops on a campaign to Magnesia, today Manisa. The Turks avoided a pitched battle because of the size of the army. Michael wanted to force the Turks to battle, but his generals brought him from. The Turks took her instead Plünderzüge again and joined the Emperor at Magnesia one. His army broke up without a battle, the men returned to their families in order to protect them from Turkish raids. Michael was forced to withdraw by sea.

Battle

To combat the threat of Nicomedia, co-emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos sent Michaels (reigned 1282-1328 ), a Byzantine army (about 2,000 men strong) under the megas hetaireiarches Georgos Mouzalon over the Bosphorus to liberate the city.

In the plain of Bapheus (Greek Βαφεύς, not localized, perhaps east of Nicomedia, but within sight of the City Locality ) the Byzantine troops met on July 27, 1302 5000 Turkish horsemen who were commanded by Osman himself and by Turkish allies Paphlagonia and the region of the river meanders were strengthened. The Turkish horsemen attacked the Byzantines and broke their line of battle, what Mouzalon forced to retreat to Nicomedia.

Follow

Bapheus was one of the first victories of the emerging Ottoman Empire and of great importance for his later expansion: The Byzantines lost control of the rural Bithynia and retreated to their fortresses. These were due to their isolated location in sequence to the Ottomans. The Byzantine defeat also caused an exodus of the Christians of Asia Minor in the European parts of the empire, which shifted the demographics in Asia Minor in favor of the Turks. Along with the disaster at Magnesia, which allowed the Turks to settle on the coast of the Aegean Sea, Bapheus heralded the final loss of Asia Minor to the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman conquest of Bithynia was still a gradual process, the last Byzantine possession, Nicomedia, fell only to the Turks in 1337.