Murad I

Murad I was the third sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the son of Orhan Gazi and Nilüfer Hatun. He ascended the throne in 1362 after the death of his elder brother Süleyman Pasha. He conquered Adrianople, renamed it to Edirne, and made it the new capital of the Ottoman Sultanate in 1363. He then expanded the Ottoman realm in Southern Europe by bringing most of the Balkans under Ottoman rule, and forced the princes of Serbia and Bulgaria as well as the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos to pay him tribute. He also fought against the powerful beylik of Karaman in Anatolia and consolidated his authority over the Anatolian provinces. He administratively divided his sultanate into the two provinces of Anatolia and Rumelia. He was known by the titles of Bey, Emir-i a’zam, Ghazi, Hüdavendigâr, Khan, Padishah, Sultan of sultans, and Malik of maliks. He was also referred to as Tsar by the Bulgarians and Serbs, and as Master lord of Turks by the Genoese. He was a devout Muslim and a patron of arts and literature. He was assassinated in 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo by a Serbian knight named Miloš Obilić. His internal organs were buried in Kosovo field and his body was taken to Bursa and buried there in his second tomb at the Hüdavendigâr complex. He was succeeded by his son Bayezid I, who continued his father's expansionist policy and became known as the Thunderbolt.