Orchan prosecuted with vigour the ambitious de signs of his father. He defeated the Christians headed by Andronicus in person, who was wound ed in the engagement near Philocrene; and, having taken Nice and Nicomedia, extended his dominion to the Hellespont. In the civil war, which suc ceeded the death of Andronicus, between the Em press Anne and John Cantacuzene, for the regency of the empire, the latter solicited the aid of the Turkish emir, and secured his friendship and ser vices by bestowing upon him in marriage his daugh ter Theodora. The services of ten thousand horse led by Soliman, the son of Orchan. repaid the ob ligation; but, by the admission of these auxilia ries into Europe, the empire received a deep and deadly wound which succeeding emperors in vain endeavoured to heal. The Turks. as the friends of Cantacuzene, had seized upon the fortresses of Thrace: and though their restitution was demand ed, and a ransom paid, they still held the most im portant; and Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, was peopled by a Turkish colony.
At the same time that Soliman was securing a footing in Europe, and had opened a gate by which he could enter at will into the empire, his father had brought many of the neighbouring emirs by force or by fraud to seek his protection, and resign their independence. But while he was enlarging his dominions and cementing his power, his death was hastened by the intelligence that his favourite son Soliman was killed by a fall from his horse. Orchan is extolled by his countrymen for his jus tice, clemency, and liberality to the poor. He adorned the city of Brusa with a magnificent mosque, hospital, and academy, and was the first of the Turks who assigned regular pay to their troops while on duty.
Amurath succeeded to the sceptre. and wielded with dreadful effect the scymetar of his father. He overran the whole of Thrace from the Helles pont to Mount Ilmmus, and established Adrianople as the capital of his European dominions. From the numerous Christian captives which he carried off in this war, he selected the stoutest and most persona ble, whom having instructed in the Mahomedan faith and disciplined to arms, he formed into a body of infantry called Janissaries (Yengicheri, new sol diers.) These troops continued the firmest and most faithful supporters of the Ottoman throne, and to them he was indebted for many of his most im portant victories. He was, however, recalled from his European conquests by disturbances in Asia. Aladdin, sultan of Caramania, who had married a daughter of Amurath, and was the most powerful of the Turkish emirs, by his influence with the minor princes of Anatolia, had collected a nume rous army, and, taking advantage of the absence of his father-in-law, invaded his dominions. Amu rath hastened to repel this aggression. They en gaged on the plains of Dorylxum, and, after a well contested field, the Caramanians fled, and Aladdin shut himself up in the city of Iconium. At the in tercession of his queen, who was dear to her father, Aladdin was again received into favour, and had his kingdom restored to him. In this expedition war was prosecuted with comparative mildness, both parties being Mahomedans; and a proclama tion was issued by Amurath, prohibiting his sol diers, upon pain of death, from using violence to wards the peaceable inhabitants, to show to the world that he made war upon his brethren, not for the sake of aggrandizement, but to repel unmer ited injury and wrong; and he punished severely some Christian auxiliaries for transgressing his orders. These auxiliaries had been sent by Laza
rus, prince of Servia, who, being informed of their treatment, was so otTended that he broke off his alliance with the Ottoman, and having formed a confederacy of the neighbouring tribes, appeared at the head of a mighty army, consisting of Bulgari ans, Macedonians, Bosnians, Wallachiaus, Hunga rians, Etc. Amurath having collected his tributa ries, hastened to meet him on the plains of Cassova. The battle was long and doubtful, until the Turks, pretending to give way, threw the Christian ranks into disorder. A dreadful slaughter ensued, when the confederates fled, leaving the field to the victo rious Ottomans. Lazarus fell in the engagement; and the triumph of Amurath was but short-lived, for, while walking over the field of battle and view ing the heaps of slain, a Servian, starting from the ground, pierced him in the belly with a fatal wound. This prince was fortunate in all his enterprises, and was a more zealous promoter of religion and learn ing than any of his predecessors. He encouraged an impartial administration of the laws, and sub mitted to the reprimand of the mufti, who rejected his evidence as unworthy of credit in a court of jus tice, because he never joined in common prayer with his brother mussulmans. The erection of a spa cious mosque at Adrianople was the consequence of this challenge, and as an atonement for his former neglect in this respect. (See AMURATH, VOL I.) Bajazet, the son of Amurath, introduced the un natural and inhuman custom of securing his own elevation by the murder of his brother, an example which has been too invariably followed by his suc cessors. During the whole of his reign, he was incessantly engaged in hostilities alternately in Asia and Europe, and obtained the surname of Ilderim, or lightning, from the energy and rapidity of his move ments. Following up the victory of Cassova, he took the cities of Cratova and Widin, and stripped of their hereditary possessions the emirs of Aidin, Sarukham, and Caras. In the same year he over ran the whole of Moldavia, and defeated prince Stephen on the banks of the Sirct. The fugitive prince was refused admittance into the fortress of Nemza by his own mother, who branded him with cowardice, and exhorted him to return and retrieve his honours. Having collected 12,000 of the dis persed Moldavians, Stephen fell upon the Turkish army while intent on plunder, and routed them with great slaughter. The haughty Bajazet with difficulty escaped with a few followers to Adriano ple. More enraged than discouraged by this dis aster, he delayed his revenge until his return from Asia, whither he was summoned to quell an inroad of the Caramanians. These he scattered at the first onset; and having put their prince to death. seized his dominions, and thus annexed the whole of Anatolia to the Ottoman sceptre.