Siege of Bursa

Siege of Bursa
Part of the Byzantine-Ottoman wars

Gate of Bursa castle
Date1317 – April 6, 1326[1]
Location
Bursa, Turkey
Result
  • Ottoman victory
  • The Ottomans capture Bursa and establish their first capital
  • Bursa becomes the first Official Capital of the Ottoman Beylik
Belligerents
Ottoman Beylik Byzantine Empire
Commanders and leaders
Osman I #
Orhan I
Köse Mihal		 Saroz
Strength
Unknown Unknown

The siege of Bursa occurred from 1317 until the capture on 6 April 1326,[1] when the Ottomans deployed a bold plan to seize Prusa (modern-day Bursa, Turkey). The Ottomans had not captured a city before; the lack of expertise and adequate siege equipment at this stage of the war meant that the city fell only after six or nine years.[2]

The historian, Laonikos Chalkokondyles, notes that the Ottomans took advantage of the Byzantine civil war of 1321–1328 to capture the city: "Andronikos decided that he should hold the throne himself, as his grandfather had already grown old, and so they fell out with each other. He was too stubborn to submit and caused endless trouble. He brought in the Serbs and allied himself with the leading Greeks in his struggle for the throne. As a result they could do nothing to prevent the Turks from crossing over into Europe. It was at this time that Prusa was besieged, starved out, and taken by Osman, and other cities in Asia were captured."[3]

According to some sources Osman I died of natural causes just before the fall of the city,[2] while others suggest that he lived long enough to hear about the victory on his death-bed[1][4][5] and was buried in Bursa afterwards.

  1. ^ a b c Rogers, Clifford (2010). The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 261. ISBN 9780195334036.
  2. ^ a b Nolan, Cathal J. (2006). The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Vol. 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 100–101. ISBN 9780313337338.
  3. ^ Kaldellis, Anthony. (2014). The Histories, volume 1, p.25. Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-674-59918-5.
  4. ^ Hore, A. H. (2003). Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church. Gorgias Press LLC. p. 455. ISBN 9781593330514.
  5. ^ Pitcher, Donald Edgar (1972). An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire: From Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century. Brill Archive. p. 37.