Battle of Ankara - Background

Background

Timur was the most powerful Central Asian ruler since Genghis Khan. By long and relentless fighting, he sought to rebuild the Mongol Empire of his predecessors.

Timur had conquered Georgia and Azerbaijan in 1390, expanding his empire to the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The two powers soon came into direct conflict. Bayezid demanded tribute from one of the Anatolian Beyliks who had pledged loyalty to Timur and threatened to invade. Timur interpreted this action as an insult to himself and in 1400 sacked the Ottoman city of Sebaste (modern Sivas). In 1402 Turks campaigned in Europe, trying to conquer Hungary. Timur, a wise and educated military leader, found it as a proper moment to attack and destroy the Turkish empire. Beyazid was stung into furious action and when Timur invaded Anatolia from the east, hurried back from Europe in order to confront fast moving Timur somewhere in the west of Turkey. Timur, whose whole army was mounted, took u-turn moving fast through Anatolia, slaughtering Turkish conscripts, taking away Turkish horses, destroying on his path Turkish cities and towns. The conflict, overall, was the culmination of years of insulting letters exchanged between Timur and Bayezid.

Read more about this topic:  Battle Of Ankara

Famous quotes containing the word background:

    In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)