Mehmed I, son of Sultan Bayezid I and his concubine Devlet Hatun, entered history as the “second founder” of the Ottoman state.
Mehmed’s youth was marked by struggle. In 1399 he was sent as governor to central Anatolia, where he gained his first administrative experience. After his father Bayezid I was defeated by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Mehmed managed to avoid capture. His loyal tutor, Lala Bayezid Pasha, led him off the field and brought him to Amasya.
After their father’s death, the three brothers—Süleyman, İsa, and Mehmed—divided the realm, each proclaiming himself sultan. Mehmed ruled in eastern Anatolia. During the Ottoman Interregnum (1402–1413) he waged a relentless campaign to reunify the state. He defeated his brother İsa in 1405–1406, then sent his brother Musa to Rumelia to fight Süleyman. After Süleyman’s defeat, Musa proclaimed himself sultan, but in 1413 Mehmed—backed by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II—defeated him as well. From that moment Mehmed became the sole ruler of all Ottoman territories.
Once enthroned, Mehmed I was crowned at Adrianople (Edirne). He focused all efforts on restoring and strengthening a state that Timur had shattered into small parts. He regained control over all the Anatolian beyliks that had become independent after Ankara—except Karaman. He maintained peaceful relations with Byzantium and European neighbors, understanding the country needed a period of recovery.
Peace did not last long. He faced a series of uprisings. His brother Mustafa Çelebi—held in Samarkand after Ankara—returned and demanded a share of the realm. Mehmed easily routed his forces and Mustafa fled.
In 1416 a powerful religious movement erupted under the mystic Şeyh Bedreddin of Simav, a charismatic theologian who preached communal property and equality among religions. The movement spread rapidly in Europe and Anatolia and twice defeated the sultan’s troops, but was eventually suppressed; Bedreddin was captured and executed in 1420.
In his final years Mehmed I also crushed a rebellion by an impostor who claimed to be his brother Mustafa.
Mehmed I’s rule as sole sultan lasted only eight years, but in effect he governed most of the empire through nearly the entire eleven-year interregnum. He was buried in Bursa in a mausoleum beside the Green Mosque, which he had commissioned. Mehmed I completed the mosque begun by his grandfather Murad I but left unfinished by his father, Bayezid. His reign enabled the state to recover and prepare for renewed expansion—earning him the honorary epithet “second founder” of the Ottoman sultanate.
