Constantinople to Nicomedia: just west of the latter, in 1330, the Ottoman Turks under Candarli Kara Halil Pasha, a military judge from Bilecek, finally enter imperial Nicaea (Tk: Iznik) on 1-2 March 1331 (Nicol 1993: 170). Those Greeks who wished could leave unmolested, taking their holy relics; the claim that most chose to stay seems unlikely (see next: Ibn Battuta).
Candarli Kara Halil Pasha is supposed, but this is doubtful, to have founded the Janissary corps of professional infantrymen thereafter.
Measured along a line Constantinople-Nicomedia-Nicaea, the last is 120 km (75 miles) from the first as the crow flies, about the same distance as from Sydney to Newcastle or London to Dover or Southhampton.
The Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta arrived in Nicaea in October 1331, seven months after its surrender. He found the city ". . . in a mouldering [decaying] condition and uninhabited except for a few men in the sultan's service." Inside the city walls there were orchards, farms and cultivated fields. By contrast, the Ottoman seat of Bursa, taken from Byzantium half a decade earlier, was a thriving city (Lippard 1984: 5). Cf 1334.
Ibn Battuta: “The sultan of Bursa is Orkhan Bek [sic: bey], son of Othman Chuk. He is the greatest of the Türkmen kings and the richest in wealth, lands, and military forces, and possesses nearly 100 fortresses which he is continually visiting for inspection and putting to rights. He fights with the
infidels and besieges them. It was his father who captured Bursa from the Greeks, and it is said that he besieged Yaznik [Nicaea] for about 20 years, but died before it was taken. His son Orkhan besieged it 12 years before capturing it, and it was there that I saw him.”
The Roman (Rum, Byzantine) emperor had consistently figured in earlier Muslim lists of the world’s greatest rulers. Now he is finally omitted. For Battuta, the seven mightiest kings are: 1. the Marinid sultan of Morocco, Battuta’s own
sovereign; 2. the Mamluk sultan of Egypt; 3. the Mongol Ilkhan in Iraq; 4.
Uzbek, the Khan of the Golden Horde or Kipchak Empire in present-day Ukraine and west Central Asia; 5. the Jagatai Khan of Turkestan-east Central Asia; 6. India; and 7. China (cited in El Cheikh 2004: 213). The Latin kingdoms such as Castile and Germany are not noticed, or at least not rated.
Quote: “The illustrious Sultan Muhammad Uzbeg Khan [of the Golden Horde] is the ruler of a vast kingdom and a most powerful sovereign, victor over the
enemies of God, the people of Constantinople the Great, and diligent in warring against them. He is one of the seven mighty kings of the world, to wit: [first], our master the Commander of the Faithful, may God strengthen his might and magnify his victory! [i.e. the sultan of Morocco]; [second] the [Mamluk] sultan of Egypt and Syria; [third], the sultan of the Two Iraqs [Ilkhanate]; [fourth], this Sultan Uzbeg; [fifth], the sultan of Turkistan and the lands beyond the Oxus [the ‘Chagatai’ or Jagatai khanate]; [sixth], the sultan of India [Muhammad bin Tughluq of Delhi]; and [seventh], the sultan of China [i.e. the Yuan or Mongol emperor].”
3. Acc. Stephen (Stefan) Dushan, Serbian king: he will bring Serbia to the height of its power. See 1336.
4. Byzantine Macedonia: Serbian raids in the neighbourhood of Berrhoea [Verria: west of Thessalonica] disrupted monastic life, so Gregory Palamas returns to
Mount Athos.
The Ghazi Emirates in 1330-33
Ibn Battuta travelled east from Nicaea to Sinope on the Black Sea coast in 1330- 32; later (1333) he proceeded south from Bursa as far as Ephesus.
— He describes Orhan of the Ottomans, perhaps too generously, as already the “greatest of the kings of the Turkmens and the richest in wealth, lands and military, possessing nearly 100 fortresses” (cf Nicolle, Ottomans 2008: 35). As noted below, Doria (Balaban) and al-Umari more credibly place Germiyan in the first place.
— He calls Balikesir (Gk Akhyaous), the principal town of the Karesi emirate, “populous”, yet it had no working mosque (only a roofless one); one can only guess that most of the town was Greek. Most of its major products, laudanum and silk, were exported to Greek Constantinople.
— Bergama, also part of the Karesi beylik, was in ruins except for a large and mighty fortress on a hill.
— Phocaea was held by the Genoese Zaccaria family. Turkoman Forts and Cavalry Forces
According to Doria [Balaban], al-Umari and ibn Battuta; cited in Lippard 1984: 5 ff; listed from largest to smallest -
We assume the troop numbers are just counts of able-bodied men. These cavalry would be mostly “amateurs” , i.e. herders with useful archery skills.
Largest cavalry force (Doria): Germiyan, Aydin, Menteshe. Ditto, al-Umari: Germiyan, Antalya, Karaman.
Most forts (Doria): Germiyan, Aydin, Menteshe.
The ranking below is based on the average of Doria and al-Umari for cavalry. Column b. = Doria (cavalry), c. = Doria (forts), d. = Al-Umari, citing Shaikh Haidar (ca. 1331) a. Beylik b. Most Horsemen (Doria) c. Most Forts (Doria) d. Haidar - horse (1) Germiyan: capital at Kutahya; 100,000
according to Doria, the most powerful of the Turkmen chieftains. Ibn Battuta said Orhan of the Ottomans was ‘greatest of the kings of the Turkmens’: with almost 100 fortresses. Ibn Battuta’s 1st in terns of cavalry numbers: Germiyan, with 70 K. (2) Aydin-oglu, capital at Birgi: Ibn Battuta 2nd, with 55 K: Aydin.
70,000 –/+ “300”
fortresses. Haidar’s equal 1 st: 40,000 – Antalya 300 forts – Aydin. (3) Menteshe: Ibn Battuta’s 3rd, with 36 K: Ottoman. ?50,000+ 200 forts – Menteshe. 40,000 – Karaman (4) Emirate of Karasi/ Baliksehir; plus others at Bergama. Ibn Battuta’s 4th, with 30 K: Karasi. “Larger army” than the Ottomans, ie 40,000+ “over 50” forts. 30,000+ - Kastamonu; 150 forts in the Karaman byelik (5) Ottoman (Bursa segment only): Ibn Battuta’s 5th, with 27 K: Kastamonu. 40,000 and “50+” forts. + 8,000 cavalry at the sub- emirate of Nicaea with “30” forts. 50+ forts - Ottomans of Bursa, ie Doria’s figure is half that of Ibn Battuta. 25,000 cavalry (6) Kastamonu: 25,000 and 40+ 50+ forts: Balikesir
(Ibn Battuta’s 6th: 24 K: Antalya.) fortresses. (Karesi) (7) Karaman: (Ibn Battuta’s 7th strongest: 18 K : Saruhan.) 25,000 40+ 10,000 – Birgi (Aydin-oglu) (8) Emirate of Bergama: Karasi family: Bergama itself was in ruins except for a large fortress on a hill. 20,000 and “15” fortresses. 3,000 – Goynuk: the garrison of a single town east of Geyve; subject to the Ottomans. (9) Saruhan: 18,000 ie 10,000 at Manisa plus 8,000 at Kas Berdik; and “20” fortresses. 30 - Nicaea (Ottoman beylik of) 3,000 – Kerdele/Gerede: small beylik in NE Anatolia; west of Kastamonu. (10) Nicaea (Ottoman sub- emirate): 8,000 25 forst in the beylik of Antalya 3,000 – Mentehse (11) Antalya: 8,000 20 forts: Saruhan 200 [sic] – Malikkesri (Balikesir/Karasi) – presumably just the size of the garrison. (12)– Geyve: 50 km
east of Nicaea; presumbaky an Ottoman vassal
7,000 and
“10” forts. 15 forts: Bergama Geyve has 10 fortresses, concurring with Doria. (13) Denizli: 5,000 10 Geyve (14) Tavas, south of Denizli: 4,000. 4 forts- Tavas
1331-32:
1. Aegean region: Narrative sources mention high numbers that imply a large population before the Black Death. Sanudo, for example, tells of 25,000 Greeks (Byzantines) taken slaves during the Ottoman raids of 1331 and 1332 (Fleet 1999, chapter 4, “Slaves”) . Cf 1332 below.
In Fleet’s book, the following places are noted as having slave markets on the period 1300-1350:
Aydin: Sultanhisar (Nyssa), Ania.
Angevin Naxos – much used as a sales stop by Turks. Foca (Phocaea) – slaves exported to Sicliy.
Geneose: Black Sea, Pera, Chios. Karesi: unspecified.
Menteshe: Theologus, Magnesia. Rhodes of the Hospitallers. Saruhan: unspecifed. Venetian: Crete.
According to Lane, 1973: 133, as noted earlier, most of the slaves bought or sold by the Venetians around 1300 were Greeks, but during the 1300s the view developed that fellow Christians should not be trafficked, and the Black Sea, i.e. the Kipchak Empire (Khanate of the Golden Horde) became the main source of supply.
2. The writer Nikephoros Gregoras, 1293/94–1360/61, began his career as an astronomer and ended it as a theological controversialist. Some of his letters and a few passages of his Roman History touch upon philosophical subjects:
especially noteworthy is the vehement criticism of Aristotle in the dialogue Phlorentius, ostensibly an account of the author's debate with fellow theologian Barlaam of Calabria (c. 1290–1348) in 1331–32. —Stanford Encyc. of
Philosophy, at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/byzantine-philosophy/; accessed 2009.
1331-72:
Serbian control of Bulgaria will be ended by Ivan IV (Ivan Alexander 1331-72), but Bulgaria will be left divided into rival states; the two largest, one was based at Veliko Turnovo and the other at Vidin, will be ruled by Ivan's two sons. See next. 1332:
1. Thrace: Last-ever major clash between Byzantines and Bulgarians.
The Byzantines overran Bulgarian-controlled northeastern Thrace. In response, Ivan Alexander, who was dealing with rebels in the north, rushed southward with a strong army and swiftly caught up with Andronikos III at Rusokastro, a
fortress-village south of Aytos, west of Karnobat, in the Burgas region. After giving the impression that he wished to negotiate, Ivan Alexander, reinforced by Mongol or Kipchak cavalry (“8,000” Bulgarians and “3,000”
Mongols), overwhelmed the smaller but better organised Byzantine army (“3,000” men) in the three-hour Battle of Rusokastro. The contested ‘cities’ surrendered to Ivan, while Andronikos III sought refuge within the walls of Rusokastro. The war ended with Ivan Alexander meeting Andronikos and agreeing to a peace based on the status quo (Wikipedia, 2010, under ‘Ivan Alexander’).
2. The Aegean: The Emirs of Aydin (Smyrna) and Menteshe (Miletus) began to exact tribute from the island of Negroponte [Euboea], the Duchy of the
Archipelago (Naxos) and a number of other islands under Venetian lords. The Rhomaniyans too were forced to pay annual tribute. Cf next. Also 1333: Ottoman treaty.
A Turkish armada of 70 (small) vessels that sailed against the Christian islands in 1332 included more than 300 renegade Christians. Sanudo* calls them perfidi Christiani (Zacharidou p.216; also Pryor 1988: 171). At an average of just four men per boat, we may guess that the Christians were the pilots or navigators while the Muslims rowed and fought.
(*) Chronicle of Marino Sanudo (Istoria del Regno di Romania): the story of the Frankish states of Greece, written in the period 1326-1333 by the Venetian Marino Sanudo Torsello.
3. First Balkan expedition by Umur, bey of Izmir [Smyrna]: a failed attack on Gallipoli and Thrace. Cf 1334.
First European alliance against the Turks: a five-year agreement of
cooperation was signed by Venice, Byzantium and the Hospitallers of Rhodes (see A. Laiou, 1970: Marino Sanudo Torsello, Byzantium and the Turks: The
Background to the Anti-Turkish League of 1332-1334). The relative weakness of the Turks as mariners is illustrated the size of the proposed fleet: the plan was to create a Christian fleet of just 20 galleys, of which 10 would be contributed by Constantinople. This was considered enough to defeat the many small boats of the weaker Turkish fleets. - Cf 1333 and 1334.
1333:
Bithynia: Andronicus in person took a relief ship to Nicomedia to bring food to its starving inhabitants. While there he arranged to meet Orhan, and a settlement was agreed, the first formal treaty between a Byzantine emperor and an
Ottoman emir. Andronicus promised to pay 12,000 gold coins in return for peace and the continued rule of the little of Bithynia that still remained in Christian hands (Nicol, Cantacuzene p.33).
Small Turkish Boats vs Large Christian War-Galleys
Alone among the emirs of the Asian coast, Umur Pasha Aydinoglu constructed a few modestly-sized war galleys. Including small boats, Umur dispatched at different times naval expeditions of 75, 170 and 250 vessels.
sometimes over 200. On one occasion the emirs are said to have combined their forces into a large fleet of “800” boats (Zachariadou pp.215 ff, and Ozturkler, “Umur” at http://www.ozturkler.com/data_english/0003/0003_01_17.htm; accessed 2007).
While the light vessels of the Turks allowed them to transport significant
numbers of warriors to the Aegean islands, they were unable to confront the large galleys with their high central fire-platforms (or “castles”). Also, until about 1400 the Turks remained most uncertain at sea due to their lack of experience (or better: lack of a maritime tradition) and were generally easy to defeat. The naval forces of the Genoese, Venetians and Byzantines are widely reported in our sources as superior to the Turkish fleets (Zachariadou pp.215 ff). See references to Christian victories under 1319, 1320 and 1334.
Ibn Battuta describes Byzantium and the Byzantines
The Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta, aged 28, visited Constantinople in 1332. He recorded, as would be expected, that Greeks (Byzantines) were still to be found in large numbers in Turkish western Anatolia.
In one passage he recounts a visit home to Constantinople by the Byzantine wife of Uzbek, Khan of the Tatars or Kipchak Turks (‘Golden Horde’), in whose party he was travelling. Note: Uzbek was the khan’s name; ethnically he was a Mongol. Reign: 1313-41. Most of his subjects were Turkic-speaking groups. Uzbek
islamicised the formerly shamanist Horde, or at least its western regions. The capital was at Sarai, on a tributary of the Volga River.
“The amir [i.e. Kipchak army commander] Baydara with 5,000 troops travelled with her [one of the khan’s wives, the khatun ‘Bayalan’, a Byzantine noblewoman: an illegitimised (adopted) natural daughter of Andronicus III], and her own troops numbered about 500 horsemen, 200 of whom were her attendant slaves and Greeks [Byzantines], and the remainder Turks. She had with her also about 200 maidens, most of whom were Greeks, and about 400 carts and about 2,000 draught and riding horses, as well as 300 oxen and 200 camels. She had also 10 Greek youths and the same number of Indians, whose leader-in-chief was called Sunbul the Indian; the leader of the Greeks was a man of conspicuous bravery called Michael …
The Greeks had heard that this khatun was returning to her country, and there came to this fortress [in Thrace, at the Byzantine border] to meet her the Greek Kifali [i.e. Greek kephale, meaning ‘head, chief, governor’] Nicholas, with a large army and a large hospitality-gift, accompanied by the princesses and nurses from the palace of her father, the king* of Constantinople . …. [At the Danube or
perhaps further south:] The commander Baydara returned [to Khan Uzbeg] with his troops, and none travelled on with the khatun but her own people.”
The Rhomaniyan princess quickly reverted to Christian habits: “She left her mosque behind at the fort and the practice of calling to prayer was abolished. As part of her hospitality-gifts she was given intoxicating liquors [i.e., wine], which she drank, and swine, and I was told by one of her suite that she ate them. . . .
Sentiments formerly hidden were revealed because of our entry into the land of the infidels, but the khatun charged the amir Kifali to treat us honourably, and on one occasion he beat one of his guards because he had laughed at our prayer.” (*) Emperor Andronicus III was aged 35 in 1332; his wife Anna of Savoy was aged about 26. But this daughter was either the daughter of Andronicus’s first wife, Irene (d. 1324) or else an adopted daughter … .
Bayalan is met by her Brother
A significant point in the following text from Ibn Battuta is that some cavalrymen carried both bows and lances and rode horses with some sort of barding (horse armour). It may be implied that one in 20 rode armoured horses.
(In inner Thrace, some 10 miles from Constantinople:) “ . . . her brother, whose name was Kifali Qaras, arrived with 5,000 [sic!]* horsemen, fully accoutred in armour. When they prepared to meet the princess, her brother, dressed in white, rode a grey horse, having over his head a parasol ornamented with jewels. On his right hand he had five princes and the same number on his left hand, all dressed in white also, and with parasols embroidered in gold over their heads. In front of him were 100 foot soldiers and 100 horsemen, who wore long coats of mail over themselves and their horses, each one of them leading a saddled and armoured horse carrying the arms of a horseman, consisting of a jewelled
helmet, a breastplate, a bow, and a sword, and each man had in his hand a lance with a pennant at its head. Most of these lances were covered with plaques of gold and silver. These led horses [that] are the riding horses of the sultan's [emperor’s] son.
His horsemen were divided into squadrons, 200 horsemen in each squadron. Over them was a commander, who had in front of him 10 of the horsemen, fully accoutred in armour, each leading a horse, and behind him 10 coloured
standards, carried by 10 of the horsemen, and 10 kettledrums slung over the shoulders of 10 of the horsemen, with whom were six others sounding trumpets and bugles and fifes.”
(*) This must surely have represented all the cavalry enrolled in or hired for the Byzantine army, which at this time was tiny. —See the discussion of the army under 1310, 1313-28, 1318, 1321 and 1328 earlier. In 1322 an expeditionary force of 3,000 men was called a “large” army.
Ibn Battuta enters the City
“When we reached the first gate of the king's [emperor’s] palace we found there about 100 men, with an officer on a platform, and I heard them saying "Sarakinu, Sarakinu" ["Saracen, Saracen"], which means Muslims. They would not let us enter, and when those who were with the khatun [the Greek wife of the Khagan] said that we belonged to their party, they answered, "They cannot enter except by permission". So we stayed at the gate. One of the khatun's party sent a messenger
to tell her of this while she was still with her father [the emperor]. She told him about us and he gave orders that we should enter, and assigned us a house near the khatun's house. He wrote also on our behalf an order that we should not be abused wheresoever we went in the city, and this order was proclaimed in the bazaars.”
The Greek monarch receives Ibn Battuta
“I reached a great pavilion, where the king (Emperor) was seated on his throne, with his wife [?or mistress], the mother of the khatun, before him. At the foot of the throne were the khatun and her brothers,* to the right of it six men and to the left of it four, and behind it four, every one of them armed.
The Emperor signed to me, before I had saluted and reached him, to sit down for a moment, in order that my apprehension might be calmed. After doing so, I approached him and saluted him, and he signed to me to sit down, but I did not do so. He questioned me about Jerusalem, the Sacred Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the cradle of Jesus, and Bethlehem, and about the city of Abraham [Hebron], then about Damascus, Cairo, Iraq, and Anatolia, and I answered all his questions about these, the Jew interpreting between us. He was pleased with my replies and said to his sons, "Treat this man with honour and ensure his safety". … I requested him to designate someone to ride in the city with me every day, that I might see its marvellous and rare sights and tell of them in my own country, and he appointed a man as I had asked. They have a custom that anyone who wears the king's robe of honour and rides his horse is paraded round with trumpets, fifes and drums, so that the people may see him.” (*) This is curious. Andronicus’s eldest son, the future John V, was aged just two years in 1334. Also it is said that Bayalun was Andronicus’s illegitimate or
legitimised (adopted) daughter, and not the daughter of his wife Anna of Savoy. 13 Villages within Constantinople
At Constantinople:
"At dawn (he writes) the drums, trumpets and fifes were sounded; the troops mounted, and the king [emperor] with his wife, . . . came out, accompanied by the high officials of state and the courtiers. Over the king's head there was a canopy, carried by a number of horsemen and men on foot, who had in their hands long staves, each surmounted by something resembling a ball of leather, with which they hoisted the canopy. In the centre of this canopy was a sort of pavilion which was supported by horsemen [carrying] staves".
"The city lies at the foot of a hill which projects about nine miles into the sea,