born 0441; 1360
died March 1403?, Ak 015F; ehir, Anatolia
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (13891402).
After succeeding his father, Murad II (d. 1389), Bayezid expanded Ottoman control of the shrinking Byzantine Empire by conquering vast tracts of territory in the Balkans, thus securing his rule south of the Danube. From 1391 to 1398 he blockaded Constantinople (modern Istanbul ), and he crushed the Hungarian Crusaders at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. He then sought to widen Ottoman control over Anatolia. Defeated by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Bayezid died in captivity. He was succeeded by his son, Mehmed I, after an interregnum of some 10 years.