Battle of Ankara
Other source: 140,000
Other source: 85,000
In the battle of Ankara ( also Battle of Angora; Turkish Ankara Muharebesi ). Defeated on 20 July 1402, led by Tamerlane Turco- Mongol army of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. In this battle the Ottoman forces was one of the worst defeats in history added. Here, the Ottoman Sultan was imprisoned, where he died in 1403. The Ottoman Empire disintegrated in the wake of the controversy reign of Bayezid's four sons, and was only after a decade of constant struggles as a major power.
Prehistory
Bayezid had previously been subjected over the years the Turkmen Beyliks in Anatolia gradually, but a part of them fled to the court of Tamerlane. Bayezid, in turn, protected Tamerlane's enemies, the Qara Qoyunlu ( "black sheep ") and Dschalairidenherrscher.
In August 1400 Tamerlane occupied Sivas in Central Anatolia, Bayezid set then caught the ruler of Erzincan in eastern Anatolia.
The military historian David Nicolle draws attention to the importance of changes in the Ottoman army in the Battle for the chosen and had become necessary tactics:
" During Timur's army was still a highly mobile Turkish- Mongolian troops, there was in the army of the Ottomans already large infantry units ... played a key military role. Bayezits men were therefore obliged to enterprise-wide marches on to ... "
A similar difference between the opponents had 160 years previously affected the outcome of the battle of Köse Dağ ( 1243 ).
Battle Record
On July 20, 1402, the armies met on the field of Çubuk, near Ankara, together. Tamerlane was at this time almost blind. Thousands of soldiers were dying of thirst, even before they reached the battlefield, because all wells were far and destroyed. The number of combatants on both sides is controversial in the history of science, the figures of contemporary chroniclers are considered to be greatly exaggerated. This ( alleged ) exaggerations of earlier chroniclers speak of 200,000 Turks against 400,000 Mongols. After the exhausting march apparently only 20,000 men, including 5,000 Janissaries and the predominantly mounted troops of the Serbian allies Stefan Lazarević were fully combat capable. Tamerlane's troops were outnumbered, but the combat power of its multi-ethnic troupe based on the Mongolian cavalry, which accounted for only a fraction of his army. Both armies were originally insofar equally strong. Bayezid Turkmen vassals deserted to the Mongols and thus decided the battle in favor of Tamerlane.
After nearly twenty hours' fighting, the Serb forces of the Sultan, which Nicolle certify that they are distinguished " by skill and determination ", and fled tasks. Her commander, Stefan Lazarević, escaped from the battlefield. Bayezid was captured by Tamerlane in Europe famous. Three of the sons of Sultan fled, while a fourth son was captured with him. Bayezid died in 1403 in Mongolian captivity. According to legend, the Sultan committed suicide during captivity suicide because he could not bear the defeat and disgrace. A fact that supports this theory is the fact that he was at his death only 42 years old.
Follow the battle
Tamerlane pushed further west before, sat along the Aegean coast emirs one, such as in Aydin, and even that of the Hospitallers held Smyrna (Izmir) was occupied. However, Tamerlane then turned east again to take up his plans for the conquest of China.
For the rise of the Ottoman Empire to Empire the heavy defeat at Ankara was ultimately only episode, especially as Tamerlane died in 1405. The Byzantine Empire rendered this battle a few years of expansion, mainly in the south of Greece, before the Ottomans could ramp up to the conquest of the rest of Reich territory.