Batalla de Ancara

Battle of Ankara
Ficheiro:Battle of Angora1402.jpg
Data: 20 July 1402 Lugar: Çubuk field, near Ankara Resultado: Decisive Timurid victory
Combatentes
Modelo:Flagicon image Timurid Empire	Modelo:Country data Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire Moravian Serbia
Comandantes
Timur Shah Rukh (Left Wing) Khalil Sultan (Left Wing) Miran Shah (Right Wing) Abu Bakr (Vanguard) Sultan Huseyn (Advance Guard) Mohammed Sultan (Main Body)	Beyazid IModelo:POW Stefan Lazarević (Right Wing) Süleyman Çelebi (Left Wing)
Forzas en combate
Disputed	Disputed 5,000 to 10,000 Serbs
Efectos
Mortes: 15,000-25,000 killed and wounded[Cómpre referencia]	Mortes: 15,000-40,000 killed and wounded[Cómpre referencia]

A Batalla de Ancara ou Batalla de Angora aconteceu o 20 de xullo de 1402, nos arredores de Çubuk (preto de Ancara) enfrontando as forzas do sultán Otomán Bayezid I e a Tamerlán, gobernante do Imperio Timúrida. A batalla foi unha importante vitoria para Tamerlán, e levou ao Imperio Otomán a un período de cxrise, coñecido como Interregno Otomán. Así e todo tras a morte de Tamerlán tres anos despois o Imperio Timúrida entrou no ocaso mentres o Imperio Otomán recuperouse totalmente e continuou incrementando o seu poder.

O contexto

Tamerlán era o máis poderoso gobernante de Asia Central desde a época de Genghis Khan, e pasara as dúas décadas anteriores reconstruíndo o Imperio Mongol dos seus antepasados .. Tamerlán conquistara Xeorxia e Acerbaixán estendendo o seu imperio ata as fronteiras do Imperio Otomán. Bayezid I pola súa parte pasara a maior parte do seu reinado en guerras conquistando territorios cara ao leste e oeste abranguendo case todo o territorio que unha vez pertencera ao Imperio Romano de Oriente . Os dous poderes axiña entraron en conflito directo polo control do territorio e das rutas comerciais. Bayezid esixiulle tributo a un bey de Anatolia que xurara lealdade a Tamerlán e tratou de invadir o seu territorio. Tamerlán interpretouno como un insulto persoal e en 1400 saqueou a cidade otomá de Sebaste, ao que seguíu a invasión de polo leste Anatolia para lle facer fronte, Bayezid convocou as súas forzas e enfrontouse a Tamerlán preto de Ancara. O conflito foi a culminación de anos de intercambio de misivas ofensivas entre Tamerlán e Bayezid.

As forzas

The exact size of the conflicting armies is not known. When Timur invaded Asia Minor, his army of horsemen with no infantry allowed him to move fast through the Turkish Empire, destroying the Empire's defense piece by piece. Later, before the main battle and during the battle, a number of Bayezid's allies and vassals joined Timur. In Turkey Old and New: historical, geographical and statistical (1880), Sutherland Menzies states that both armies amounted to nearly one million men. Peter Fredet claims that Timur and Bayezid's armies consisted of 800,000 and 400,000 men, respectively. Robert Henlopen Labberton argues that Timur's army had 600,000 men, while Bayezid's army was only 120,000 strong.

In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, historian Edward Gibbon explained in detail the discrepancies over the strength of both forces:

This number of 800,000 was extracted by Arabshah, or rather by Ebn Schounah, ex rationario Timuri, on the faith of a Carizmian officer (tom. i. c. 68, p. 617); and it is remarkable enough that a Greek historian (Phranza, l. i. c. 29) adds no more than 20,000 men. Poggius reckons 1,000,000; another Latin contemporary (Chron. Tarvisianum, apud Muratori, tom. xix. p. 800) 1,100,000; and the enormous sum of 1,600,000 is attested by a German soldier who was present at the battle of Angora (Leunclav. ad Chalcondyl. l. iii. p. 82). Timour, in his Institutions, has not deigned to calculate his troops, his subjects, or his revenues. ... Timour himself fixes at 400,000 men the Ottoman army (Institutions, p. 153), which is reduced to 150,000 by Phranza (l. i. c. 29), and swelled by the German soldier to 1,400,000. It is evident that the Moguls were the more numerous. [The forces of Bayezid are put at 90,000 by Sad ad-Din (tr. Bratutti, 214). Of course the number given by Timur cannot be accepted.]

In Armies of the Ottoman Turks, 1300–1774, David Nicolle remarked that "[t]he sizes of the two armies are reliably estimated at 140,000 on Timur's side and no more than 85,000 under Sultan Bayezid I". Medieval historian J. B. Bury stated that both armies were of equal size, with Bayezid's army mainly composed of infantry and 5,000 to 10,000 Serbian heavy knights led by Despot Stefan Lazarević. Gjon Kastrioti (Skanderbeg's father) together with other Ottoman vassals from Albania (Koja Zaharia, Dhimiter Jonima and probably Tanush Dukagjini) personally led their retainers participating in this battle on Ottoman side.

The battle

Painting by Stanisław Chlebowski, Sultan Bayezid imprisoned by Timur, 1878, depicting the capture of Bayezid by Timur.

The battle began with a large-scale attack from the Ottomans, countered by swarms of arrows from the Timurid horse archers. Several thousands were killed and many surrendered to Timur. During the battle the main water supply of both armies, Çubuk Creek, was diverted to an off-stream reservoir near the town of Çubuk by Timur, which left the Ottoman army with no water. The final battle took place at Catal hill, dominating the Çubuk valley. The Ottoman army, both thirsty and tired, was defeated, though Bayezid managed to escape to the nearby mountains with a few hundred horsemen. However, Timur had the mountains surrounded and, heavily outnumbering Bayezid, soon captured him. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Ottoman army was further weakened by the desertion of the Tatars and the Sipahis from the Anatolian beyliks, who left Bayezid alone and joined Timur's forces.

Aftermath

European nations had, at first, encouraged the Timurid invasion and the Genoese were said to be flying the Mongol standard from the walls of Galata in support of Timur. However, after a few months following his destruction of the Ottoman power in Anatolia, fear of being the next target had gripped the European people.^{[Cómpre referencia]} Preferring the devil they knew to one they did not, Italian ships ferried the beaten Ottoman soldiers into Thrace to safety. Timur was furious at the Italian sailors who rescued the Ottoman soldiers, but with no ships, he was in no position to do anything to stop it. At least one Muslim writer complained that, despite being Muslims, Timur's soldiers ravaged in Asia Minor like barbarians.

The Battle of Ankara had a temporary effect on the political ground of the Balkans, where at the time the Ottomans had the initiative. Because of the Timurid invasion, the siege of Constantinople was lifted with Ottoman troops being withdrawn from the Balkans to counter the new threat.

This event had split the Ottomans into factions since Bayezid's sons were still alive and free after he himself was captured. Most of the Ottoman Turks had fled into Europe. The result was a civil war among Bayezid's four sons. This temporary weakening of the Ottomans resulted in delaying the end of the Byzantine Empire and the eventual Ottoman conquest of the Balkans.

The battle is significant in Ottoman history as being the only time a Sultan has been captured in person.

References

• Anzulović, Branimir, Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide, New York: New York University Press, 1999.
• Bury, J. B., The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 4. Tanner, J. R., Previté-Orton, C. W., Brooke, Z. N. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1923.
• Fine, John Van Antwerp, The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983.
• Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, New York: Basic Books, 2006.
• Grousset, René, The Empire of the Steppes, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
• Hildinger, Erik, Warriors of the Steppes, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2001.
• Kinross, John Patrick Douglas Balfour, The Ottoman Centuries, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1977.
• Marozzi, Justin, Tamerlane: sword of Islam, conqueror of the world, London: HarperCollins, 2004
• Marozzi, Justin, "Tamerlane", in: The Art of War: great commanders of the ancient and medieval world, Andrew Roberts (editor), London: Quercus Military History, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84724-259-4
• Nicolle, David Armies of the Ottoman Turks, 1300–1774; colour plates by Angus McBride. London: Osprey Publishing, 1983 ISBN 0-85045-511-1 .
• Prawdin, Michael, The Mongol Empire; with a new introduction by Gérard Chaliand. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2006. (translation first published by G. Allen and Unwin, London, 1940)
• Runciman, Steven, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Spencer, Lauren, Iran: a primary source cultural guide, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004.
• Vauchez, André; Dobson, Richard Barrie & Lapidge, Michael (eds.) Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, Volume 1, Cambridge: James Clarke and Co., 2000. ISBN 0-227-67931-8

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica: Ankara, Battle of
• DBA Battle Scenario: The Battle of Angora
• Military- Engineering Strategy used by Timur at the Battle of Ankara (1402)
• History of Battle of Ankara from Turkish sources
• Map of Mongol dominions after the Battle of Ankara, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
• Battle of Ankara animated battle map by Jonathan Webb

Modelo:Coord missing Modelo:Ottoman battles