| |||
Capital (and largest city) |
Bursa | ||
Other cities | Ankara, Salonica | ||
Language | Turkish, Greek | ||
Religion main |
Islam | ||
others | Christianity | ||
Ethnic Groups main |
Turkish | ||
others | Greek | ||
Established | 1320s |
The Osmanli Sultanate was a powerful Turkish state that existed in Anatolia from the 1320s to the early 1400s. Established by in the aftermath of the collapse of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum by a Turkish warlord, Osman I, it grew by seizing Byzantine territory in western Anatolia. From the 1350s to the early 1400s, it fought with the Serbian Empire of Stefan Dusan, and with Venice, for control of Greece, following the collapse of Byzantium. In 1402, the Osmanli state was destroyed by the Mongol warlord Timur the Lame, who also shattered their rival Serbia. This precipitated the collapse of the dynasty. In Anatolia, the locus of power shifted east to the Timurid Empire and its successor states; the remnants of the Osmanli state recoalesced in western Anatolia and Greece as the Sultanate of Rumelia, which was forced to seek a naval route to the dominion over the Mediterranean that the Osmanli had pursued on land.