Orhan

Orhan Ghazi was born around 1288 in Söğüt, son of Osman I, and became the second Ottoman sultan in 1323 or 1324. He spent his early reign conquering Byzantine territories across northwestern Anatolia, winning his first major engagement at Pelekanon against Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, and absorbing the lands of the Karasids and Ahis. When nine-year-old John V Palaiologos ascended the Byzantine throne, triggering decades of civil war, Orhan married the regent's daughter Theodora and lent Ottoman troops to his father-in-law John VI Kantakouzenos — warriors who looted Thrace in the 1341–13…