5/24/2023 0 Comments Ottoman rulersThanks to the relative peace across Asia under Mongol rule, supplies of Chinese silk to the West were substantial in the late thirteenth century. Throughout the ups and downs of its political history however, Bursa continued to be extremely important in the Ottoman silk trade, acting as a focal point for the importation of silk from China via Persia, and also, more unusually, as a centre for its production. Tamerlane crushed the Ottoman army at Ankara in 1402, and the capital was moved to Edirne (formerly Adrianople) in 1413. However, in 1402, Bayezid went to war with Tamerlane (the founder of the Timurid Empire), apparently in an effort to gain control of the lucrative silk route all the way to Tabriz in northern Iran. Many of its buildings occupy a significant place in the history of the evolution of Ottoman architecture, such as the Ulu Camii, the main mosque of the city, built under the patronage of the Sultan Bayezid I Yildirim (1389-1402), the elegant Green mosque (constructed 1414-1424) and a number of major imperial tomb complexes. All of the 14 th century Ottoman rulers are buried at Bursa, starting with Osman, the founder of the empire. The famous Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta visited the city in 1331, just after the Ottoman takeover, and wrote of it as a great city with fine bazaars and wide streets, surrounded on all sides by gardens and running springs.įor the better part of a century (until 1402), the Ottoman capital remained in Bursa its position as the family seat explains why so many of the Ottoman royal tombs are located there. Of major significance for the city's future was the inauguration of the silk industry in Byzantium under Emperor Justinian, as a result of which Bursa would eventually become a centre of silk production and trade.īursa's greatest era of political importance was connected with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the early 14 th century AD, although in fact Turkish settlement in the region began in the 11 th century, when for a time it was conquered by the Seljuqs. Nestled against the slopes of Mount Uludag (the ancient Mount Olympus) in Western Anatolia, Bursa emerged as an important town in Classical Antiquity.
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