The capture of Edessa by the Turks (1389)
Abstract
The prevailing view in the Greek historiography, based on indirect information from the posterior to the capture Turk chronographer Evliyia Tselebis, is that Edessa was seized by the Ottoman sultan Murat I, in the last part of his reign which is until 1389. Evaluating, however, information by two other (prior to Tselebis) Turk chronographers NeSti and Saddedin, we come to the conclusion that the capture of Edessa (as well as that of Kitros of Pieria) was effected immediately after the ascendance to the Ottoman throne of Vayiazit Yildirim (27 August 1389), who aspired to seize those two towns, in order to open the passage towards Upper Macedonia and Thessaly respectively. Edessa was captured not by the new sultan himself, but by his general Evren bey, and according to recent evidence from the Codices of the Ayios Pavlos Monastery of Mt Athos, the town surrendered without a fight and was delivered to the Turks by its masters at that time the Serbs, which explains why it was not destroyed. Edessa was destroyed some time later, by a terrible earthquake in 1395.
Article Details
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Μινίτσης Γ. (1994). The capture of Edessa by the Turks (1389). Makedonika, 29(1), 257–261. https://doi.org/10.12681/makedonika.197
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