His Empire was at the largest it had ever been. At the zenith of his power, Ottoman
Sultan Bayezid I had been besieging the ancient city of Constantinople for years. It would
be his greatest victory, boosting the prestige of the Ottomans. The Byzantine Emperor had
even fled the city to appeal to Christian courts to send a relief force. The Ottomans
instilled fear in all those who crossed their paths, and rightly so. But then news from
the east reached Bayezid. His rapid expansion and success had reached the courts of another,
arguably mightier Empire. What Bayezid could not have foreseen then was that the army marching
into his lands would bring his Empire to nothing short of the brink of collapse.
Towards Ankara (1396-1402)
In 1396 at Nikopolis Sultan Bayezid’s forces attained a great victory over a combined crusader
force commanded by Hungarian King Sigismund. This victory not only cemented the Ottoman’s
position south of the Danube, but it also ended the Bulgarian Empire and isolated Constantinople
from its European allies. After his victory, Bayezid besieged the city and its mighty fortifications,
planning to take his time. The situation to the Byzantines was so perilous that Emperor
Manuel II travelled to the French and English court, trying to garner sympathy for his cause
and have the siege be relieved by a new crusader army. Manuel could not know that Constantinople’s
relief would not come from the west, but the east.
Bayezid’s expansion had not gone unnoticed among other rulers in the region. Rulers of
smaller states, such as the Empire of Trebizon, were fearful for the ever-expanding Ottomans
and tried to pacify them with recurring tributary payments. But at its eastern border lay something
different: the enormous Timurid Empire, an heir of the Mongols.
Whereas Bayezid had been incredibly successful in subjugating the Balkan rulers and expanding
his Empire both on Anatolia and in Rumelia, Timur had made a similar name for himself
in central Asia. By 1398 he was planning his invasion of India when several dethroned Beys
of Anatolian principalities arrived at his court in Samarkand. Worried about the growing
contender, he demanded Bayezid recognise him as suzerain, which the Sultan unequivocally
refused. Instead, Bayezid wrote the Caliph of Cairo to grant him the title ‘Sultan
of Rum’. A provocation that could not go unanswered.
As Timur began his trek westward, Bayezid was still patiently besieging Constantinople.
Finally, in 1400 Timur reached the Ottoman Empire’s eastern border, capturing the city
of Sivas. He made sure Bayezid knew of his doings. He received Bayezid’s envoys at
Sivas, and he made a spectacular happening of reviewing his troops in front of the envoys.
Bayezid’s response was just as swift as when he raised an army to defeat the crusaders
at Nikopolis a few years before. First, he raised an army of vassals from the Balkan,
among whom Serbians under Stefan Lazarevic, famous for their strong heavy cavalry. He
then made his way eastward, collecting troops in Anatolia along the way. Among them was
recently conquered Tartar cavalry and the former subjects of the beyliks he annexed.
Bayezid understood many Rumelian territories he recently conquered could show wavering
loyalty. As such he secured his rear by stationing nine ships at Gallipolli and 20 more in the
Aegean sea. Once taken care of this, he rapidly moved his army towards the east to prevent
Timur from conquering any more of his territories. Harvest season had just ended and his advisors
pressured him into postponing his campaign. When he arrived at Ankara, they warned him
to remain near the city and wait for Timur. Instead, Bayezid left a garrison there and
trekked eastward, convinced he would be able to use the vast water sources in his rear
when he met Timur. What Bayezid did not know was that Timur had
ample scouts in the region reporting his every move. When he heard Bayezid was trekking east,
he moved south-west from Sivas, evading the Ottomans. After six days of unopposed marching,
they took the city of Kayseri, where they rested for four days and replenished their
supplies. It took four more days to reach Kirsehir. Here, Timur made the first minor
contact with Ottoman scouts who barely posed a threat to Timur’s mighty army. They continued
their trek, and after three days, they reached the northeast of Ankara.
The Battle of Ankara
As Timur arrived, he immediately ordered the besiegement of Ankara and the taking of positions
of his army. He also ordered the building of dams to divert the city’s water supply.
This would turn out to be crucial, for Timur’s troops would be replenished in the late-summer
heat, whereas Bayezid’s army was running low on supplies.
When Bayezid received news of Timur’s arrival at Ankara he immediately turned his armies
around. To Timur’s surprise, they arrived sooner than expected. Bayezid hurried, and
arrived at Ankara in two instead of three days. On July 28 1402 the two armies met each
other.
As Bayezid’s army made its entry to the valley where the battle would take place,
they had suffered from the lack of water and scorching sun. Stephen Turnbull writes that
the army was in a very poor state. Timur had blocked the only creek that gave them access
to water, and the summer heat dried the soldiers out. In the distance, they saw Timur’s troops
scale the walls of Ankara, and the dams they built to divert the water from them. As a
result, they would have to face the upcoming battle exhausted and thirsty.
They planned a defensive battle. Sources estimate they numbered around 85.000 troops. Bayezid
centred his army around his cavalry and infantry together with his son Isa. Isa’s soldiers
mainly consisted of Serbs, Rumelians and archers. He positioned himself on a hill, together
with his trusted infantry. His left flank was manned by his son Suleyman, while his
right flank was composed of 20.000 Serbian heavy cavalry and Rumelian troops such as
Wallachians from the recently annexed Thessaly commanded by Stefan Lazarevic.
The infantry consisted of janissaries, an elite infantry corps composed of men from
the Christian Balkan lands. These janissaries were often taken away from their families
as young boys and brought up at Ottoman military schools, swearing loyalty to no one but the
Sultan.
A large contingent of Bayezid’s cavalry was composed of Tartars, who he placed in
the front line to take the major hits from Timur’s attacks. Both armies were positioned
similarly, with the infantry surrounding their commanders and cavalry on the wings.
Sources estimate Timur’s army numbered approximately 140.000 troops, primarily cavalry, both melee
and horse archers, and 32 war elephants from India. He had ample time to organise his battle
formations. Among the commanders of his armies were two of his grandsons commanding the vanguard.
His son Miran Shah commanded the right wing, and his other son Shah Rukh commanded the
left wing. His army was strengthened by several exiled Ottoman beys, namely the emirs from
the Aydin, Saruhan, Mentese and Germiyan.
[Battle progress]
Bayezid’s command to his Anatolian left flank to launch a large attack marked the
start of the battle. Immediately the Ottomans knew what they were in for, as Timurid horse
archers chipped away at the cavalry charge.
The Ottoman’s right flank saw a cavalry charge against the Serbians. In their heavy
armour, they held firm, easily repelling the light-armoured Timurid horsemen. Up to three
times, Lazarevic broke through Timurid ranks, each time facing large reinforcements sent
by Timur. Finally, when he risked breaking through and getting cut off from the main
Ottoman army, Bayezid ordered Lazarevic to retreat. A costly, but strategically necessary
manoeuvre. Chroniclers reveal even Timur exclaimed ‘The wretches fight like lions!” as a
testament to their tenacity. Being attacked on their left flank by Timurid reinforcements,
the Serbian cavalry was finally pushed back, exposing Bayezid’s right contingent of janissaries.
But as the battle went on, another problem emerged: the Tartar cavalry was prone to defection.
In fact, within too soon the entire Tartar cavalry deserted from the frontline. Sources
reveal that the defecting tartars charged the rear of the fighting Anatolian cavalry
on Bayezid’s left flank. Prince Mehmed took the reserves to charge against the Tartars,
but the Timurids significantly outnumbered the encircled Anatolian cavalry even with
these reinforcements.
Seeing this defection, and probably recognising many of their former emirs fighting on Timur’s
side, the cavalry of recently annexed beyliks too deserted. Thus, Bayezid had already lost
a quarter of his army, just to defection.
An eyewitness account describes how aside from the hails of arrows, the cavalry was
sprayed with ‘greek fire’ from the backs of war elephants. This caused mass casualties,
confusion and routs. Bayezid suffered approximately 15000 losses at this point, and Suleyman ordered
a retreat to prevent the complete destruction of his cavalry. Launching a charge to break
through the Tartars, he managed to reach the main force again. But seeing the battle around
him, Suleyman and his younger brother Mehmed figured there was no winning the battle anymore.
Together with their soldiers they retreated from the battlefield altogether.
Lazarevic’s cavalry on the right wing managed to hold back the advancing Timurid cavalry.
When they realised the Anatolians had defected, they too returned to their original lines
and charged against the Anatolians. But soon after engaging them in battle, they learned
Suleyman’s cavalry had withdrawn from the battlefield entirely. The Serbs saw no hope
for a victory. Lazarevic tried to convince the Sultan to flee, who refused. Instead,
he retreated to the hill in their rear, trying to find strategic high ground to fend off
the attacks. Lazarevic and his Serbian cavalry were not planning to make a costly last stand
and retreated from the battlefield as well.
Merely left behind with his janissaries and around 1000 horsemen, the Sultan was utterly
surrounded by Timur’s troops. As nighttime fell and the end of the battle neared, most
of his janissaries were killed and Bayezid was left with only between 300 horsemen. In
the middle of the night, he ordered a break-out, but to no avail. Finally, he was captured
together with his son Musa.
Although probably fiction, many paintings and accounts survive of Timur parading Bayezid
around Anatolia in a cage. Ankara quickly surrendered to Timur. After his victory, a
year of plundering and besiegements followed, and the main trading hubs such as Bursa were
ravaged. Ottoman chroniclers agree Bayezid lost the battle due to the desertion of his
troops. The Sultan had gone from the zenith of power to no more than a prisoner.
Timur returned Bayezid’s annexed territories to their former lords. The disgraced sultan
passed away not too long after. After his death, the so-called Ottoman Interregnum broke
out: a civil war between the brothers Suleyman, Isa, Mehmed and Musa. If you would like to
know more about the political history preceding- and following the Battle of Ankara, check
out my video on the history of the Ottoman Empire before Constantinople.