Editing Orhan (section)

==Politics==
{{refimprove|section|date=February 2024}}

===Initial expansion===
[[File:Orhan I area map.png|thumb|300px|Ottoman Beylik around 1355, during Orhan's reign.]]
Orhan invaded [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] territories in northwest Anatolia. First, in 1321, Orhan captured [[Mudanya]], the port linking the city of [[Bursa]] to the [[Sea of Marmara]] coast. He then sent a column under [[Konur Alp]] towards the west Black Sea coast; another column under [[Akça Koca]] to capture [[Sanjak of Kocaeli|Kocaeli]], and finally a column under [[Abdurrahman Gazi|Abdurrahman Ghazi]] to capture the southeast coast of the Sea of Marmara. Then, he [[Siege of Bursa|captured Bursa]] by persuading its Byzantine commander to defect. As [[Evrenos Bey]], he became a commander of light cavalry, and he and his sons and grandsons led Ottoman troops in the Balkans. Once Bursa was captured, Orhan sent cavalry towards the Bosphorus, capturing Byzantine towns on the Marmara coast. There were even sightings of Ottoman light cavalry along the Bosphorus coast, and Ottoman forces [[Siege of Nicaea (1331)|laid siege to Nicaea]] (second only to [[Constantinople]] in the Byzantine Empire).

In 1329, Byzantine Emperor [[Andronikos III Palaiologos|Andronikos III]] led a mercenary army to relieve Nicaea and regain Kocaeli. In the ensuing [[battle of Pelekanon]] (near Nicomedia, Bithynia.
Present day: Maltepe, Turkey), on 10 or 15 June, Orhan's disciplined troops routed the Byzantines. Thereafter Andronikos abandoned the idea of getting Kocaeli back and never again conducted a field battle against Ottoman forces.

[[İznik|Nicaea]] surrendered to Orhan after a [[Siege of Nicaea (1331)|three-year siege]] that concluded in 1331. Orhan [[Siege of Nicomedia|captured Nicomedia in 1337]]. Orhan gave the command of Nicomedia to his eldest son, Suleyman Pasha, who had directed the operations of the siege.

In 1338, Orhan captured Scutari; most of northwest Anatolia was in Ottoman hands. The Byzantines still controlled the coastal strip from [[Şile]] on the Black Sea to Scutari and the city of Amastris (now [[Amasra]]) in Paphlagonia, but these were so scattered and isolated as to be no threat to the Ottomans.

In 1345, there was a change of strategy. Instead of aiming to gain land from non-Muslims, Orhan took over a Turkish principality, Karesi (present [[Balıkesir]] and surroundings). According to Islamic philosophy of war, the areas under Islamic rule were to be ''abodes of peace'' and the other areas ''abodes of war''. Conducting a war in ''abodes of war'' was considered a good deed. Karesi principality was a state governed by a Turkish [[emir]] and its main inhabitants were Turkish so it was an ''abode of peace''. The Ottomans had to have special justification for conquering fellow Muslim Turkish principalities.

In the case of Karesi, the ruler had died and had left two sons whose claims to the post of emir were equally valid. So there was a fight between the armed supporters of the two claimant princes. Orhan's pretext for invasion was that he was acting as a bringer of peace. In the end of the invasion by Ottoman troops the two brothers were pushed to the castle of their capital city of Pergamum (now [[Bergama]]). One was killed and the other was captured. The territories around Pergamum and Palaeocastro ([[Balıkesir]]) were annexed to Orhan's domains. This conquest was particularly important since it brought Orhan's territories to [[Çanakkale]], the Anatolian side of the [[Dardanelles|Dardanelles Straits]].

With the conquest of Karesi, nearly the whole of northwestern Anatolia was included in the Ottoman Beylik, and the four cities of Bursa, Nicomedia, Nicaea, and Pergamum had become strongholds of its power. At this stage of his conquests, Orhan's Ottoman Principality had four provinces:<ref>Shaw, Stanford J. (1976) ''History of the Empire and Modern Turkey. Vol. 1: Empire of Ghazis''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–16</ref>
#Original land grant area of Söğüt and Eskişehir;
#''Hüdavendigar'' (Domain of the Sultan) area of Bursa and İznik;
#''Koca Eli'' peninsular area around İzmit;
#former principality of Karesi around Balıkesir and Bergama.

===Consolidation period===
[[File:Orhan Coin.jpg|thumb|alt=Silver coin from Orhan's period-Iznik/Bursa Turkish-Islamic Art Museum|Silver coins of Orhan]]
A twenty-year period of peace followed the acquisition of Karesi. During this time, the Ottoman sovereign was actively occupied in perfecting the civil and military institutions which his brother had introduced, in securing internal order, in founding and endowing mosques and schools, and in the construction of vast public edifices, many of which still stand. Orhan did not continue with any other conquests in Anatolia except taking over [[Ankara]] from the commercial-religious fraternity guild of Ahis.

The general diffusion of Turkish populations over Anatolia, before Osman's time, was in main part a push from the Mongol conquest of Central Asia, Iran and then East Anatolia. Turkish peoples had founded a number of principalities after the demise of the Anatolian [[Sultanate of Rum]], after its defeat by the [[Ilkhanate]] Mongols. Although they were all of Turkish stock, they were all rivals for dominant status in Anatolia.

After the Byzantine defeat of the [[Battle of Pelekanon]], Orhan developed friendly relations with [[Andronicus III Palaeologus]], and maintained them with some of his successors. Therefore, the Ottoman power experienced a twenty-year period of general repose.

However, as the [[Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347]] dissipated the last resources of the Byzantine Empire, the auxiliary armies of the Emirs of Turkish principalities were frequently called over and employed in Europe. In 1346, Emperor [[John VI Cantacuzene]] recognised Orhan as the most powerful sovereign of the Turks. He aspired to attach the Ottoman forces permanently to his interests, and hoped to achieve this by giving his second daughter, [[Theodora Kantakouzene, wife of Orhan|Theodora]], in marriage to their ruler, despite differences of creed and the disparity of age. However, in Byzantine and in Western European history, dynastic marriages were quite usual and there are many examples which were much more strange.<ref>J.J.Norwich (1996) ''Byzantium: the Decline and Fall'', Penguin, London Chp.18</ref>

The splendour of the wedding between Orhan and Theodora at Selymbria ([[Silivri]]) is elaborately described by Byzantine writers. In the following year, Orhan and Theodora visited his imperial father-in-law at [[Üsküdar]], (then Chrysopolis) the suburb of Constantinople on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus where there was a display of festive splendor. However, this close relationship soured when Byzantines suffered from marauding migrant [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turcoman]] bands that had crossed the Marmara Sea and Dardanelles and pillaged several towns in Thrace. After a series of such raids, the Byzantines had to use superior forces to deal with them.

[[Ibn Battuta]] gave the following account of Orhan during his reign: {{Cquote
| quote = The greatest of the kings of the Turcomans and the richest in wealth, lands and military forces. Of fortresses he possesses nearly a hundred, and for most of his time he is continually engaged in making a round of them, staying in each fortress for some days to put it in good order and examine its condition. It is said that he has never stayed for a whole month in any one town. He also fights with the infidels continually and keeps them under siege.<ref>
{{ cite book 
| title = [[A Social History of Ottoman Istanbul]]
| author1 = Ebru Boyar
| author2 =Kate Fleet
| date = 15 April 2010
| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]
| page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=hHd2OizxNCcC&pg=PA21 21]
| isbn = 9781139484442
}}</ref>

| author = Ibn Battuta
}}

===Decline of Byzantine Empire===

During Orhan's reign as the Ottoman emir, the Byzantine Empire declined&nbsp;– partly due to the ambitions of Italian maritime states and to the aggression of the Turcomans and other [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turcoman]] states, but also due to civil wars within the empire.

During these years the Byzantine Empire became so weak that commercial supremacy in the surrounding seas around it became a bone of contention for the Italian maritime commercial city states. The [[Republic of Genoa]] possessed [[Galata]], a separate Genoese city across the [[Golden Horn]] from Constantinople itself. The Genoese had [[Byzantine–Genoese War (1348–1349)|fought the Byzantines earlier in 1348]] when the Byzantines had decreased their customs tariffs in order to attract trade to the Byzantine side of the Golden Horn. In 1352 the rivalry for trade led to a war between Genoa and [[Republic of Venice|Venice]]. The Genoese, in resisting a Venetian fleet attacking their ships in the Golden Horn, bombarded the sea walls of Constantinople and pushed the Byzantines to ally with the Venetians. The Venetians assembled a large naval force, including hired fleets from [[Peter IV of Aragon]] and from the Byzantine Empire of [[John VI Cantacuzene]]. The sea battle between the Venetian fleet under the command of [[Niccolo Pisani]] and the Genoese fleet under [[Paganino Doria]] led to defeat of Venetians and their Byzantine allies.<ref>Norwich, J. J. (1996) ''Byzantium: the Decline and Fall''. Penguin, London. Chp.19</ref> Orhan opposed the Venetians, whose fleets and piratical raids were disrupting his seaward provinces, and who had met his diplomatic overtures with contempt. The Venetians were allies of John VI, so Orhan sent an auxiliary force across the straits to Galata, which there co-operated with the Genoese.

In the midst of the distress and confusion that the Byzantine Empire now suffered, Orhan's eldest son, Suleyman Pasha, captured the Castle of [[Tzympe]] (Cinbi) in a bold move which gave the Turks a permanent foothold on the European side of the Dardanelles Straits. He also started to settle migrant Turcomans and town-dwelling Turks in the strategic city and castle of [[Gelibolu]] ([[Gallipoli]]), which had been devastated by a severe earthquake and was therefore evacuated by its inhabitants. Suleyman refused various financial inducements offered by John VI to empty the castle and the city. The emperor pleaded with his son-in-law Orhan to meet personally and discuss the matter, but the request was either rejected or could not be carried out due to Orhan's age and ill-health.<ref>Norwich, p.320</ref>

This military situation remained unresolved, in part because of the eruption of hostilities between John VI and his co-emperor and son-in-law John V Palaeologus. John V was dismissed from his imperial post and exiled to [[Ancient Tenedos|Tenedos]]; Cantacuzene's son [[Matthew Cantacuzene|Matthew]] was crowned as the co-emperor. But very soon John V returned from exile with Venetian help and conducted a coup, taking over the government of Constantinople. Although the two men came to an agreement to share power, John VI resigned from his imperial post and became a monk. Each of these two contestants for power was continually soliciting Orhan's aid against the other, and Orhan supported whichever side would benefit the Ottomans.<ref>Norwich, pp. 321–322</ref>

===Last years===
[[File:Türbe of Orhan Gazi, Bursa.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[türbe]] of Orhan Gazi in Bursa]]
[[File:Sultan thomb Bursa Turkey 2013 1.jpg|thumb|300px|The exterior view of his [[türbe]] in [[Bursa]].]]
Orhan was the longest living and one of the longest reigning of the future Ottoman Sultans. In his last years he had left most of the powers of state in the hands of his second son [[Murad I|Murad]] and lived a secluded life in [[Bursa]].

In 1356 Orhan and [[Theodora Kantakouzene (wife of Orhan)|Theodora]]'s son, [[Halil Bey (son of Orhan)|Halil]], was abducted somewhere on the Bay of [[Izmit]]. A Genoese commercial boat captain, which was conducting acts of piracy alongside commercial activity, was able to capture the young prince and take him over to [[Phocaea]] on the Aegean Sea, which was under Genoese rule. Orhan was very much upset by this kidnapping and conducted talks with his brother-in-law and now sole Byzantine Emperor John V Palaeologos. As to the agreement, John V with a Byzantine naval fleet went to Phocaea, paid the ransom demanded of 100,000 ''[[hyperpyron|hyperpyra]]'', and brought Halil back to Ottoman territory.

In 1357 Orhan's eldest and most experienced son and likely heir, Suleyman Pasha, died after injuries sustained from a fall from a horse near Bolayir on the coast of the sea of Marmara. The horse that Suleyman fell from was buried alongside him and their tombs can still be seen today. Orhan was said to have been greatly affected by the death of his son.

Orhan died soon after, likely from natural causes. Orhan died in 1362, in [[Bursa]], at the age of eighty, after a reign of thirty-six years. He is buried in the [[türbe]] (tomb) with his wife and children, called ''Gümüşlü Kumbet'' in Bursa.