Capture of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I (1402)

Timeline

1. 1402Çubuk Plain · AnatoliaAfter the rout at Ankara, Bayezid led several hundred cavalrymen in an attempt to break through toward the mountains, but was surrounded and captured by Timur's cavalry. According to contemporaneous accounts such as those of Ibn Arabshah, the sultan was shackled and led away, becoming the first Ottoman ruler taken prisoner on the battlefield since the empire's founding.
2. 1402–1403Akşehir · AnatoliaBayezid was taken by Timur into the interior of Asia Minor and imprisoned, while his sons and senior officials immediately seized various regions to contest the succession. He died in captivity some months later, and the Ottomans fell into a prolonged civil war until Mehmed I reunified the empire around 1413.