Editing Orhan (section)

===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
}}