Ertuğrul Çelebi

Ertuğrul Çelebi (May 1376 - 1400) was an Ottoman prince, firstborn of Sultan Bayezid I. Ertuğrul was a commander who made significant military contributions to the end of the Beyliks period in Anatolia.

Life

Before his death, he served the Ottoman State as the Sanjak Bey of Aydin first and Saruhan later by 1390, giving rise to the tradition according to which the government of the region, based in Manisa, was entrusted by the sultan to his heir presumptive. During his time in the Aydın sanjak, he primarily undertook tasks in ensuring Turkish unity in Western Anatolia and in dispersing and expelling the successors of the tribes and beys who rebelled against the Salt Law in the region. He fighted versus Kadı Burhaneddin in a battle at Kırkdilim ( a pass located between Çorum and Osmancık ) in July 1392 and was wounded by him. This battle is known in history as the Battle of Kırkdilim. Ertuğrul died in 1400 for unknown causes. His body was brought to Bursa and buried in the garden of the Ertuğrul Mosque, which was built in his name.

Death Some local and Western sources state that Prince Ertuğrul was present at Timur's siege of Sivas, commanded a cavalry unit of approximately four thousand men, and was captured and brutally killed after the fall of the fortress. The story told among the people that when the Sultan heard a shepherd playing the flute while he was meeting the needs of a soup kitchen he had built in Bursa, he said to him:

In Mehmed Süreyya's Sicill-i Osmanî, the date of death is given as 1400.