96 ISLAM AT WAR
vassals and his center was formed by the Janissaries. The Anatolia Otto-
mans held the left.
The initial rush of the two armies severely pressed the Muslim line.
Murat’s son Prince Bajazet charged into the ranks of Serbian knights,
inspiring the Ottomans and saving the day. The Ottomans began pushing
the Christians back when a Serbian knight rode forward, calling out he
was a friend. The knight, Milosch Kabilovich, King Lazar’s son-in-law,
rode to within a few feet of the sultan, dismounted and knelt in homage.
When the sultan approached, he sprang forward with a dagger, stabbing
Murat through the belly. He leapt toward his horse to escape but was
overtaken and torn to pieces by the Janissaries. The wound was fatal.
As he lay dying, Murat I ordered that his reserves be committed to
the battle. Their well-timed attack brought the Muslims victory. When the
Ottomans surged forward, King Lazar’s nephew, Yuk Banovich, fled the
battlefield in panic and reputedly provoked a general rout of King Lazar’s
army. King Lazar was captured and dragged before the dying sultan, who
ordered him executed.
King Lazar was the first of many Serbs to be executed that day. But
defeated Christians were not the only ones to suffer. As soon as the sultan
breathed his last, his eldest son, Bayezit, still standing before Murat’s
lifeless body, ordered his brother Yakup seized and strangled with a bow-
string. Bayezit feared Yakup’s popularity would threaten his ascension to
the throne. He thus instituted what would become a regular Ottoman prac-
tice—fratricide, until only one heir remained, thus eliminating any poten-
tial rivals.
The Battle of Kosovo was an utter disaster for the Serbs. The slaughter
made it known as the Field of Blackbirds, for the ravens that feasted on
the dead. More significantly, it subjugated Serbia to five centuries of Turk-
ish occupation. What remained was a vassal state under Stephen Lazar-
evich, Lazar’s son. His position was not an enviable one, and he sought
only survival, permitted at the Porte’s whim. He even married off his
sister, Dispoina, to Bayezit, his father’s murderer.
Serbia would extract revenge of sorts. Dispoina became Bayezit’s fa-
vorite wife and taught him the pleasures of wine. Though the Koran
strictly forbade wine, Bayezit ignored the commandment and Dispoina
eventually turned him into a drunken sot.
Despite his looming alcoholism, Bayezit completed his conquest of the
Macedonian highlands by taking Skopje and settling thousands of Tur-
komans in the Vardar valley. He also conquered farther lands in the Bal-
kans, but his major accomplishment was ringing Constantinople with a
series of forts that ended all Byzantine rule outside the city’s walls.