Murad I

Murad I (1326-1389), Ottoman Turkish sultan (1362-1389), who first established the Ottoman Empire as a major power in the Balkans and Anatolia. Succeeding his father, Orhan, Murad took advantage of disunity among the Christian Balkan states to extend his rule from Asia into Europe. In 1361 he captured the Byzantine city of Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey). In 1371 he won control of parts of Bulgaria and Serbia, making the Byzantine emperor his vassal. He made further conquests in the Balkans in the 1380s and greatly expanded Ottoman power in Anatolia, where he used Christian troops against rival Turkish princes. Murad is also credited with founding the Janissary corps, an elite Ottoman military unit. He was killed at the Battle of Kosovo, in which his army won another victory.