Yakub Çelebi

Yakub Çelebi (c. 1359 – 15 June 1389) was an Ottoman prince as the son of Murad I.

Yakub Çelebi
Şehzade
Born	c. 1359 Ottoman Empire
Died	15 June 1389 (aged 29–30) Kosovo Field, Branković District (in present-day Kosovo)[lower-alpha 1]
Burial	Bursa
Dynasty	Ottoman
Father	Murad I
Mother	Gülçiçek Hatun
Religion	Islam

Biography

He was educated from a young age and was accustomed to administrative and military education. He made a name for himself with his courage, heroism and benevolence who had been with his father Murad I in all wars.[1]

Both he and his brother Bayezid I showed great benefits in the Battle of Kosovo, the last expedition of their father Murad I. In the war, Yakub Çelebi left the left flank and was subjected to the intense attack by Serbian prince Lazar. With the Serbian army in a bad position, Yakub pursued them. While this was happening, Murad I, walking around the battlefield, was killed by a dagger by Serbian knight Miloš Obilić. The throne was given to Bayezid with the agreement of the pashas.

Death and legacy

In the Ottoman Empire, there was no established heritage system for the crown and to prevent a possible civil war between himself and Yakub, Bayezid decided to murder his brother. Yakub, on the order of his brother Bayezid, is strangled and killed.[2] The rebellion and murder of his son, Savcı Bey, who had taken a look at the throne of Murad I, was likely to have made this decision.

Bayezid brought his brother's body to Bursa and buried it in a ceremony. There is no inscription about the tomb located in the northwest of the Yakub Çelebi Mosque in Iznik. The tomb of Yakub was buried in the Hüdavendigar Tomb in Bursa. Yakub Çelebi has a mosque in Iznik, a tomb and a bath in Keles. This tomb is numbered XIV and it was built towards the end of the century. It has a square plan and there are knitted feet at the corners of the tomb and they are connected to each other with pointed arches. Legs and arches are built with a single row of cut stones and three rows of bricks. A pendant dome based on these covers the tomb.

Yakub Çelebi's Story (Història de Jacob Xalabín), which has an important place in Medieval Catalan literature, is about the adventures of Yakub Çelebi and his murder by Bayezid in the Battle of Kosovo.[3]

In the 1989 Yugoslav historical drama Battle of Kosovo, Çelebi is portrayed by Marko Baćović.[4]

Notes

1. Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008. Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 99 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 113 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 14 later withdrew their recognition.

References

1. Yakup Çelebi Kimdir?
2. Âşık Paşazâde. Osmanoğullarının Tarihi: Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân. yay. haz. Prof. Dr. Kemal Yavuz, Prof Dr. M. A. Yekta Saraç. İstanbul: Gökkubbe, 2010.
3. Anonim. Yakub Çelebi'nin Öyküsü. çev. Mehmet Sait Şener. önsöz ve notlar. Juan Carlos Bayo. İstanbul: İletişim, 2015.
4. Full Cast & Crew of the Battle of Kosovo

External links

• Yıldırım Bayezid I