Orhan: the Ottoman ruler who made Bursa his capital

The city of Bursa lies at the foot of Uludağ in north-western Turkey. According to UNESCO, it was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the way it was built became a model for later Ottoman cities. The ruler who made it the centre of the Ottoman state was Orhan, the second ruler of the dynasty, who reigned from 1324 until his death. According to Britannica, the institutions that turned a small state into a powerful empire began in his time.

Family

According to Britannica, Orhan was born in 1288. He was the son of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty. At that time the Ottoman state was a small state in north-western Anatolia, neighbouring cities of the Byzantine Empire and several other Turkmen states. Orhan became ruler after his father’s death around 1324.

Bursa: the new capital

According to Britannica, the Byzantine city of Brusa, that is Bursa, fell to the Ottomans in 1324. Many books give the date as 1326. Nicaea (present-day Iznik) joined the Ottoman state in 1331, and Nicomedia (present-day Izmit) in 1337. After the annexation of the neighbouring Turkmen state of Karasi around 1345, the whole north-western corner of Anatolia came under Orhan.

Bursa became the seat of the Ottoman rulers. According to UNESCO, in the early 14th century an organisation of urban and rural life took shape here that laid the foundation of the Ottoman Empire.

Coins and army

According to Britannica, the institutions that made the Ottoman state a powerful empire began to form in Orhan’s time. In 1327 the first Ottoman silver coins were struck in Orhan’s name. In the same period the administration of the new territories in Anatolia was consolidated and the army was organised on a more permanent footing.

A new way of building cities

Orhan had buildings put up in new cities, especially Bursa. According to Britannica, these included caravanserais, which were important for trade.

According to UNESCO, Bursa was laid out by the first Ottoman rulers under a new and distinctive urban plan. Outside the old walled city, complexes of buildings called “külliye” were built. They usually contained a bath, a madrasa, a soup kitchen for the poor and other public facilities. According to UNESCO, these complexes provided basic services before residential districts had formed, and new neighbourhoods grew up around them. Their costs were met from waqf (endowment) properties.

According to UNESCO, a commercial area grew up around one of these complexes, with merchants’ inns (khans) and bazaars. Commercial life was run by the “Akhi” associations of craftsmen and traders. In UNESCO’s words, a living and lasting capital of a rapidly expanding empire was thus established very quickly. Its architecture shows Byzantine, Seljuk, Arab and Iranian influences side by side.

Diplomacy and Europe

In Orhan’s time the Ottoman state also developed political ties with the Byzantine Empire. According to Britannica, in 1346 Orhan became an ally of John VI Kantakouzenos, a claimant to the Byzantine throne. Under this alliance he married John VI’s daughter Theodora. According to Britannica, in 1354 the Ottomans took Gallipoli, on the European shore of the Dardanelles, as their permanent base. Their presence in Europe began from there.

In the eyes of Ibn Battuta

The famous Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta passed through Anatolia in the 14th century. Orhan is mentioned in his travel account. He is commonly quoted as saying that Orhan was the greatest of the Turkmen kings and the richest in wealth, lands and military strength.

Death

According to Britannica, Orhan died in 1360, while other sources give March 1362. He died in Bursa and was buried there. He was succeeded by his son Murad I.

Legacy

UNESCO has inscribed eight sites in Bursa as World Heritage under the name “Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire”. They include the tomb of Orhan Ghazi. According to UNESCO, Bursa, as the first Ottoman capital, became a model for all later Ottoman cities. Orhan’s reign is remembered because the first Ottoman coins, the first permanent military organisation and the first regular capital came into being in it.