Murad I

Murad I (Ottoman Turkish: مراد اول‎) (Turkish: I. Murat Hüdavendigâr) (nicknamed Hüdavendigâr, from Persian خداوندگار Khodāvandgār, "the devotee of God" – but meaning "sovereign" in this context) (29 June 1326, Amasya – 15 June 1389, Kosovo Field) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1362 to 1389. He was a son of Orhan and the Valide Nilüfer Hatun.

Murad I conquered Adrianople, renamed it to Edirne, and in 1363 made it the new capital of Ottoman Empire. Then he further expanded the Ottoman realm in Southeast Europe by bringing most of the Balkans under Ottoman rule, and forced the princes of northern Serbia and Bulgaria as well as the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos to pay him tribute. Murad I administratively divided his empire into the two provinces of Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Rumelia (the Balkans).

Wars

Murad fought against the powerful beylik of Karaman in Anatolia and against the Serbs, Albanians, Bulgarians and Hungarians in Europe. In particular, a Serb expedition to expel the Turks from Adrianople led by the Serbian brothers King Vukašin and Despot Uglješa, was defeated on September 26, 1371, by Murad's capable second lieutenant Lala Şâhin Paşa, the first governor (beylerbey) of Rumeli. In 1385, Sofia fell to the Ottomans. In 1386 Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović defeated an Ottoman force at the Battle of Pločnik. The Ottoman army suffered heavy casualties, and was unable to capture Niš on the way back.