Orhan I - Marriages and Children

Marriages and Children

• Suleyman Pasha (c. 1316 - 1357). Eldest known son and the intended heir who was the architect of the Ottoman expansion into Thrace. He died, shortly after his brother Khalil's capture by the Genoese pirates, as the result of a fall from his horse. His steed was buried next to him in Bolayir, north of Gallipoli, where their graves can still be seen.
  • Sultan Bey (1324–1362).
  • Khadijah Khanum. Married Damad Süleyman Bey. Her husband was a son of Savji Bey and through him grandson of Osman I.

• In 1299 Orhan married Valide Sultan (1359) Nilüfer Hatun, daughter of the Prince of Yarhisar or Byzantine Princess Helen (Nilüfer), who was of ethnic Greek descent. They had at least two children:
  • Murad I (1319/1326 - 15 June 1389). Assassinated by Miloš Obilić during the Battle of Kosovo.
  • Kasim (d. 1346).

• Orhan married in 1316 Asporsha, the daughter of Emperor Andronikos III of Byzantium. The resting place of Asporsha is in the tomb of Orhan in Bursa, Turkey. They had at least two children:
  • Ibrahim, Governor of Eskişehir (1316–1362). Executed by order of his half-brother Murad I.
  • Fatima.

• Orhan married in 1345 Theodora, Princess of Serbia, daughter of Stefan IV Uroš, King of Serbia.

• Orhan married in 1346 Theodora Maria Cantakouzene, Princess of Byzantium, born in 1332. She was a daughter of John VI Kantakouzenos, Emperor of Byzantium, and Irene Asanina. They had at least two sons:
  • Ibrahim (? - d. 1362).
  • Khalil or Halil (1347 - d. 1362). When still only a child he was captured by Genoese pirates for ransom. The Byzantine emperor and his future father-in-law John V Palaeologus was instrumental in his eventual release. Halil married Irene, who was a daughter of John V Palaeologus and Helena Cantakouzene.