1. The Byzantine Empire’s Executioners Burst on the Scene
The fledgling state of Osman I experienced an explosive growth during the fourteenth century. Osman’s son Orhan captured the northwestern Anatolian town of Bursa in 1326, and made it the capital of the Ottoman state. In 1354, an earthquake devastated the Gallipoli Peninsula across the Dardanelles Strait from Anatolia, and wrecked its Byzantine forts. The Ottoman Turks quickly seized and occupied the peninsula, establishing a foothold in Europe.
In 1387, Ottoman forces seized the city of Thessaloniki in Greece. In 1389, an Ottoman army crushed the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo, and made the Ottoman Empire the dominant power in the Balkans. In 1396, at the Battle of Nicopolis, Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I routed the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages, which had set out to halt Ottoman expansion. The Ottoman state suffered a humiliating but short-lived setback in the early fifteenth century, when it was defeated by Tamerlane. The dynasty bounced back quickly, however, and in 1453, made its greatest conquest by capturing Constantinople, the Byzantine capital and final stronghold, bringing that long-lived state to an end.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Akram, A. I. – The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al Waleed, His Life and Campaigns
Ancient History Encyclopedia – Donation of Constantine
Ancient History Encyclopedia – Justinian’s Plague (541-542 CE)
Ancient Origins – Vikings in Byzantium: The Varangians and Their Fearless Conquests
Blondal, Sigfus – Varangians of Byzantium: An Aspect of Byzantine Military History (1978)
Browning, Robert – The Byzantine Empire (1992)
Catholic Encyclopedia – Donation of Constantine
Davies, Norman – Europe: A History (1996)
Encyclopedia Britannica – Irene, Byzantine Empress
Encyclopedia Britannica – Nika Riots
Freely, John – Istanbul: The Imperial City (1998)
Gibbon, Edward – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Gloria Romanorum – Constantine’s Execution of Crispus and Fausta
Glubb, John Bagot – The Great Arab Conquests
Gonick, Larry – The Cartoon History of the Universe III (2002)
Kinross, Lord – The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (1977)
Listverse – 10 Dark Secrets of the Byzantine Empire
Listverse – 10 Scary Facts About the Justinian Plague
McNeil, William H. – Plagues and People (1976)
Medievalists Net – Yersinia Pestis and the Plague of Justinian 541-543 AD: A Genomic Analysis
Order of Medieval Women – Sikelgaita, Heiress of Salerno
ThoughtCo – Irene of Athens: Controversial Byzantine Empress
