Orhan

Timeline

1. 1326–1330Bursa · BursaOrhan succeeded his father Osman I as bey in 1326, capturing Bursa that same year and moving the capital there, elevating the Ottoman polity from a frontier stronghold to the center of a regional principality and beginning systematic administration of territory in northwestern Anatolia.
2. 1331–1340Nicaea · BithyniaAround 1331 Orhan captured Nicaea and Nicomedia and, taking advantage of the Karasi bey's death, gradually annexed his territories. Around the 1340s he allied with the Byzantine regent John VI Kantakouzenos, trading military aid for lands in Thrace and a marriage alliance, further weakening Byzantine control over Anatolia.
3. 1345–1362Gallipoli · Gallipoli PeninsulaIn his later years Orhan supported his eldest son Süleyman Pasha in crossing the straits to occupy the area around Gallipoli, giving the Ottomans their first foothold in Thrace. He died at Bursa in March 1362 and was succeeded by his second son Murad I, as Ottoman expansion gradually shifted toward the Balkans.