Mehmed I

Born around 1386 to Sultan Bayezid I and a concubine named Devlet Hatun, Mehmed entered a nightmare when his father's defeat in 1402 triggered the Ottoman Interregnum—a decade-long civil war among brothers. Starting from the province of Rûm, he clawed back Anatolia first, then the European territories of Rumelia, reuniting the empire by 1413. He reestablished central authority across Anatolia and pushed Ottoman presence deeper into Europe by conquering Dobruja in 1419. Venice shattered his fleet off Gallipoli in 1416, a naval defeat that checked his ambitions at sea. He ruled until his death o…