to the insulting tone adopted towards him by Bayezid and to the entreaties of the dispossessed princes of Asia Minor. Most of the latter were reinstated, with the object of reducing the Turkish power. Timur did not cross into Europe, and contented himself with accepting some trifling presents from the Greek emperor. After capturing Smyrna he returned to Samarkand (1405). Some years of strife followed between the sons of Bayezid, in which three of them fell; Mussa, seizing Adrianople, laid siege to Constantinople, and Manuel Palaeologus, the emperor, appealed for aid to Mahommed, the other son, who had established himself at Brusa.
In 1413 Mahommed defeated Mussa, and thus remained sole heir to Bayezid 's throne; in seven or eight years he succeeded Mahommed I., 1413–1421. in regaining all the territories over which his father had ruled, whereas Timur's empire fell to pieces at the death of its founder. Two years after his accession Mahommed overcame a rebellion of the prince of Karamania and recaptured his stronghold Konia (1416), and then, turning northwards, forced Mircea, voivode of Walachia, who in the dispute as to the succession had supported Prince Mussa, to pay tribute. The Turkish dominions in Asia Minor were extended, Amasia, Samsun and Janik being captured, and an insurrection of dervishes was quelled. In 1421 the sultan died. His services in the regeneration of the Turkish power can hardly be over-estimated; all agree in recognizing his great qualities and the charm of his character; even Timur is said to have admired him so much as to offer him his daughter in marriage. The honour was declined, and Mahommed took a bride from the house of Zulfikar. Amid the cares of state he found time for works of public utility and for the support of literature and art; he is credited with having sent the first embassy to a Christian power, after the Venetian expedition to Gallipoli in 1416, and the Ottoman navy is first heard of in his reign.
At the time of Mahommed's death his eldest son Murad was at Amasia; and, as the troops had lately shown signs of insubordination, Murad II., 1421–1451. it was deemed advisable to conceal the news of the sultan's death and to send a part of the army across to Asia. The men, however, refused to march without seeing their sultan, and the singular expedient was resorted to of propping up the dead monarch's body in a dark room and concealing behind it an attendant who raised the hands and moved the head of the corpse as the troops marched past. Shortly after Murad's accession the emperor Manuel, having applied in vain for the renewal of the annual subsidy paid him by the late sultan for retaining in safe custody Mustafa, an alleged son of Bayezid, released the pretender. Adherents flocked to him, and for a whole year Murad was engaged in suppressing his attempts to usurp the throne.
At last the armies of sultan and pretender met at Ulubad (Lopadion) on the Rhyndacus in Asia Minor; Mustafa's troops fled at the first onset; Lampsacus, where the pretender took refuge, was captured with the aid of the Genoese galleys under Adorno. Mustafa, who had crossed the strait and fled northwards, was taken, brought to Adrianople, and hanged from a tower of the serai (1422). Murad now laid siege to Constantinople to avenge himself on the emperor, and on the 24th of August the desperate valour of the defenders succeeded in driving back an assault led by a band of fanatical dervishes. The siege was raised, however, not owing to the bravery of the defence, but because the appearance of another pretender, in the person of Murad's thirteen-year-old brother Mustafa, under the protection of the revolted princes of Karamania and Kermian, called the sultan to Asia. Mustafa, delivered up by treachery, was hanged (1424); but Murad remained in Asia, restoring order in the provinces, while his lieutenants continued the war against the Greeks, Albanians and Walachians. By the treaty signed on the 22nd of February 1424, shortly before his death, the emperor Manuel II., in order to save the remnant of his empire, agreed to the payment of a heavy annual tribute and to surrender all the towns on the Black Sea, except Selymbria and Derkos, and those on the river Strymon. Peace was also made at the same time with the despot of Servia and the voivode of Walachia, on the basis of the payment of tribute. By 1426 the princes of Kermian and Karamania had submitted on honourable terms; and Murad was soon free to continue his conquests in Europe. Of these the most conspicuous was that of Salonica. Garrisoned only by 1500 Venetians, the city was carried by storm (March 1, 1428); the merciful precedent set by Mahommed I. was not followed, the greater part of the inhabitants being massacred or sold into slavery, and the principal churches converted into mosques.
The capture of Salonica had been preceded by renewed troubles with Servia and Hungary, peace being concluded with both in 1428. But these treaties, each of which marked a fresh Turkish advance, were short-lived. The story of the next few years is but a dismal record of aggression and of reprisals leading to fresh aggression. In 1432 the Turkish troops plundered in Hungary as far as Temesvar and Hermannstadt, while in Servia Semendria was captured and Belgrade invested. In Transylvania, however, the common peril evoked by the Turkish incursion and a simultaneous rising of the Vlach peasantry had knit together the jarring interests of Magyars, Saxons and Szeklers, a union which, under the national hero, the voivode János Hunyadi (q.v.), was destined for a while to turn the tide of war. In 1442 Hunyadi drove the Turks from Hermannstadt and, at the head of an army of Hungarians, Poles, Servians, Walachians and German crusaders, succeeded in the ensuing year in expelling them from Semendria, penetrating as far as the Balkans, where he inflicted heavy losses on the Turkish general. Meanwhile, again confronted by a rebellion of the prince of Karamania, Murad had crossed into Asia and reduced him to submission, granting him honourable terms, in view of the urgency of the peril in Europe. On the 12th of July 1444 a ten years' peace was signed with Hungary, whereby Walachia was placed under the suzerainty of that country; and, wearied by constant warfare and afflicted by the death of his eldest son, Prince Ala-ud-din, Murad abdicated in favour of his son Mahommed, then only fourteen years of age, and retired to Magnesia (1444). The pope urged the king of Hungary to take advantage of this favourable opportunity by breaking the truce solemnly agreed upon, and nineteen days after it had been concluded a coalition was formed against the Turks; a large army headed by Ladislaus I., king of Hungary, Hunyadi, voivode of Walachia, and Cardinal Cesarini crossed the Danube and reached Varna, where they hoped to be joined by the Greek emperor. In this emergency Murad was implored to return to the throne; to a second appeal he gave way, and crossing over with his Asiatic army from Anatoli Hissar he hastened to Varna. The battle was hotly contested; but, in spite of the prowess of Hunyadi, the rout of the Christians was complete; the king of Hungary and Cardinal Cesarini were among the killed. Murad is said to have abdicated a second time, and to have been again recalled to power owing to a revolt of the Janissaries. In 1446 Corinth, Patras and the north of the Morea were added to the Turkish dominions. The latter years of Murad's reign were troubled by the successful resistance offered to his arms in Albania by Scanderbeg (q.v.). In 1448 Hunyadi, now governor of Hungary, collected the largest army yet mustered by the Hungarians against the Turks, but he was defeated on the famous field of Kossovo and with difficulty escaped, while most of the chivalry of Hungary fell. Little more than two years later Murad died at Adrianople, being succeeded by his son Mahommed.
After suppressing a fresh revolt of the prince of Karamania, the new sultan gave himself up entirely to the realization of Mahomed II. the Conquerer, 1451–1481. the long-cherished project of the conquest of Constantinople. He began by building on the European side of the Bosporus the fort known as Rumeli Hissar, opposite that built by his grandfather Bayezid. Tradition avers that but forty days were needed for the completion of the work, six thousand men being employed night and day; guns and troops were hurriedly put in, and all navigation of the Bosporus was stopped. After completing his preparations, which included the casting of a monster cannon and the manufacture of enormous engines of assault, Mahommed
