THE RISE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 93religious leaders of the Seljuq state further undercut Seljuq stability and
strength. Added to this was the practice of dividing up possessions among
all members of the family, which led to large provinces being carved into
small ones. These soon evolved into new states with their own armies and
treasuries. A feudal process was established to support Maliksah’s senior
Mamluk army officers, further breaking up the unity of the empire.
In 1092 Maliksah and his minister died and the empire began to dis-
solve, being replaced by small Turkoman states ruled by tribal chiefs with
nomadic armies. It was into this weak stew that the crusader armies were
injected. The decay continued until the Baghdad caliph al-Nasir (1180–
1225) rose to power. He suppressed the independent Turkomans in Iraq
and reestablished a direct caliphal rule. He even brought a degree of con-
trol over the Assassins, stopping their killings in exchange for recognition
of their autonomy. In 1242, after al-Nasir’s death, the Mongols invaded
and defeated the Seljuqs of Rum and then swept into Iraq, destroying the
last of the Abbasid caliphs. Continuing into Syria, the Mongols were de-
feated by the Mamluks.
In 1284 Yavlak Arslan ruled the small principality of Ilhanid in Ana-
tolia. He was astute enough to cooperate with the combined Mongol and
Seljuq armies by defeating some of their enemies and thus maintained his
independence. Yavlak’s son, Ali, succeeded his father and began to pen-
etrate into Byzantine territories as far as the Sakarya River. Ali was suc-
ceeded by Osman Bey (1280–1324), the founder of the Ottoman dynasty.
After a series of smaller victories and conquests, his real achievement
began around 1300 as the Seljuq collapse allowed him to occupy several
key forts that commanded the passes between the central Anatolian plateau
and the plains of Bithynia. His first significant victory was the capture of
Yenisehr, which became his capital. Osman and his warriors swept across
the plains eastward to the Sakarya river, taking two more forts and sev-
ering communications between Constantinople and the cities of Bithynia
and Nicaea. The Byzantine city Bursa was slowly enveloped and cut off
from the rest of the Byzantine Empire. The Ottomans put it under loose
siege in 1317, and it fell in 1326.
The Byzantines finally launched a major expedition against the Otto-
mans, now ruled by Orhan. This expedition was personally commanded
by the Emperor Andronicus III (1328–41). In 1328 the Byzantines met
the Ottomans at Maltepe (Pelecanon) and were routed. The emperor fled
to Constantinople and the empire abandoned all further efforts to regain
Anatolia. Nicaea itself, only a few days’ march from Constantinople, fell
in 1331. The combination of political quarrels within the Byzantine Em-
pire and steady pressure allowed the Ottomans to slowly push farther and