Chapter 1: The Thunderbolt and the Lame
Under the Crescent: An Ottoman Timeline
Chapter 1: The Thunderbolt and the Lame
***
Excerpt: Heirs of Osman – Caroline Finkel, Epic History Press, 2008 AD
In 1400, the strongest powers in the Islamic World were none other than the rising Ottoman Empire led by the descendants of Osman Gazi, and the Timurid Empire, led by Timur the Lame. The moment their borders touched with one another, conflict between the two empires became inevitable, as the dominant and proud personalities of Bayezid I and Timur clashed with one another.
Thirty years previously, Timur had risen to power from a mere chieftain, and had embarked on a massive series of campaigns which took from China to Iran, building an empire that was worth of being called the successor of the Great Khan – Genghis Khan. Timur likewise saw himself as the successor the Great Khan and therefore, of the Seljuk and Ilkhanid realms in Anatolia, which would put Timur and the Timurid Empire in a very powerful position to exploit the divisions rife among the local dynasties which all squabbled with one another and were in practice, independent, even if most of them gave nominal allegiance to either the Ottomans, Mamluks, Georgians or Trapuzentines.
Timur's personal domination was absolute, inspiring loyalty among every group in his vast army. He was muscular in build, had broad shoulders, a formidable high forehead, a vivid complexion, and deep white hair. Taciturn in his manners, and extremely religious, he was the master of calculation who spent hours of his time, often alone and in the dead of night, sitting at a great chessboard. He fought against himself, trying to find the best strategies on the board planning intricate campaigns within his set of chess figurines, using his great imagination to lay the foundation of future campaigns against future enemies. Timur was a conqueror – of that there was no doubt. From the Great Wall of China, the Steppes of the Great Rus, the Great Indus, the Persian Gulf, Iran, Armenia, the Tigris, and Euphrates, all fell under his dominion, to do as he ordered on his beck and call. Beyond them, the only other comparable Islamic power was that of the Ottomans, whose conquests under Murad I and Bayezid I coincided with the rise of Timur. [1]
Timur did not originally have any sort of designs on the Ottoman Empire. As a soldier, he had immense respect for the military prowess of the Turks. When news arrived to him in 1390 of the death of Murad I during the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Timur was said to have been despondent, reportedly remarking that 'I have lost an equal. [2]. As an Emperor, however, he still had other more important territories to conquer. Syria, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia were far closer and promised greater yields to him than Anatolia. In a similar vein, Bayezid I needed to conquer Constantinople, the natural center of the Ottoman Balkan-Anatolian Empire, and as such, the Ottoman Sultan also shared no real ambitions on Timurid lands. But despite that fact, Bayezid acted in a manner that was almost made to provoke the ire of Timur. It is almost certainly guaranteed that over a decade of continuous victories, without even a single military defeat at the hands of his opponents had made Bayezid prideful and to an extent, arrogant, which explains why he seemed to be eager to show his dominance over Timur in the diplomatic arena.
When Bayezid I conquered the Anatolian Beyliks, bringing them under Ottoman control, a string of Turkic Beys and Princes left their previous domains fleeing into the Timurid Court, eager to escape inevitable persecution at the hands of the Ottomans. Other than giving them refuge, Timur did not involve himself in their plight, ignoring their pleas to aid them in a theoretical reconquest of Anatolia from the Ottoman Empire, and involving himself in the invasions of Georgia, Syria and the governance of his vast empire instead. If Bayezid I had been observant he would have known of this fact, but arrogance blinded the victorious Sultan, who worried with increasing paranoia that the Timurid Court was planning on aiding the exiles to regain control over Anatolia. In this increasing sense of pride and arrogance, Bayezid I took control of the waters of the northern upper Euphrates, taking the territory of a Turcoman prince named Kara Yussuf, who was under the official protection of Timur. This would be the first rise in tensions between Timur and Bayezid I.
Timur was furious that a prince under his protection had been captured. He sent a letter to Timur, stating 'What is the foundation of thy insolence and of thy folly? Though hast fought some battles in the woods of Anatolia; Contemptible trophies at best.' Nevertheless, Timur did try to be diplomatic and praised Bayezid I as a champion of Islam much like himself. 'Thou hast obtained victories over the infidels of Europe; thy sword was blessed by the Apostle of God thy obedience to the precept of the Koran is the consideration that prevents us from destroying thy country, the frontier and bulwark of the Moslem World against the Europeans.' After this small attempt at diplomacy and praise, Timur decided to urged Bayezid, stating, 'Be wise in time. Reflect, repent, and avert the thunder of our vengeance, which is as of yet suspended over thy head. Thou art no more than an ant, why wilt thou seek to provoke the elephants? Alas! They will trample thee under their feet should you not repent.'
In an astounding folly, Bayezid I decided to flout all diplomatic norms, and insulted the Timurid Leader by sending his letter with Bayezid's own name written in big golden letters and Timur's name written in small black letters. Furthermore, the letter that Bayezid I sent to Timur was the height of provocation. 'Thy armies are innumerable; be they so. But what are the arrows of the flying Tatar worth against the scimitars and the battle axes of the firm Janissaries under my command? I will guard the princes who have implored my protection and if you so wish, seek them in my tent. If I fly from thy arms, may my wives be thrice divorced from my bed; but if thou hast not the courage to meet me in battle, mayest thou again receive thy wives after they have thrice endured the embraces of a stranger.' [3]
Such an insult could be allowed to stand in the eyes of Timur. He took to the field immediately against Sivas. Prince Suleiman, without reinforcements from his father who was in Thessaly, withdrew his forces from the city. Nevertheless, despite the withdrawal, the garrison of the city fought bravely, forcing Timur to dedicate 18 days to destroy the fortifications of the city. The Armenian defenders of the city were in particular targeted by Timur. After the capture of the city, the Armenian garrison was rounded up and subsequently killed by Timur in another of his infamous skull towers. But instead of advancing further into Anatolia, Timur instead advanced into Mamluk Syria, sacking Aleppo and Damascus in his campaign there. It was only in 1401 that Timur returned from his 'adventure' in Syria, debating whether or not he should continue the confrontation between his empire and the Ottomans.
The Loss of Sivas was the first real military humiliation for Bayezid I in his entire career. Now, faced with the real prospect of fighting a virtually invincible foe, and faced with the prospect of defeat as well, Bayezid I was stunned into indecision and paralysis. Bayezid I did not show his characteristic decisive and swift action – which had earned him the name the Thunderbolt - and instead Bayezid I spent the entire months trying to create a very cautious strategy, which was quite unlike him. Bayezid I neither acted against Timur and neither did he try to placate him during the time Timur was in Syria, further hamstringing Ottoman strategy against the Timurid Empire.
Sought by the Genoese, Trapuzentines, and various other Christian powers as an ally against the growing Ottoman threat, Timur finally decided to spring into action against the Ottomans, deciding that he would meet Bayezid I in battle. As Timur marched towards Sivas, Bayezid finally sprang into action as he abandoned the Blockade of Constantinople and marched his army into Anatolia. In Bursa, he linked up with the regional armies, and the armies of his vassals, and through Bursa, he marched to Angora – Ankara – into the very heart of Asia Minor. Though Bayezid I undoubtedly had a force that was equal in courage and military prowess as the army commanded by Timur, Bayezid I's force was not a united force. A quarter of the troops were Tartars, thus their entire loyalty was suspect. The troops were tired from the force march across Anatolia and exhausted. Though Stephan Lazarevic and his Serbians proved loyal during the future battle, before the Battle of Ankara, Bayezid I remained unsure of Serbian loyalties as well.
Leaving Ankara with only a small garrison of loyal troops, Bayezid moved north, where he assumed the Timurid forces were. However instead, he only faced a small rearguard in the north, which he pushed back with ease. His scouts reported back to him that the wily Timur had instead used the rearguard as a diversion and marched his troops through Kayseri, through fresh countryside and was now marching towards Ankara. The Ottoman Sultan was forced to double back, exhausting his troops as they sometimes broke ranks to hunt for game, eat and then return to the army. Some did not return to said army as desertions also increased.
Timur, arriving on the outskirts of Ankara, had the city and its fortress walls put under siege. Knowing that Bayezid I would be coming to fight him, and to starve the city of Ankara itself, he dammed the Cubuk River, diverting it from its normal course through Ankara to create a defensible position for Timurid forces northwest of the city. Timur had however, underestimated Bayezid, believing that his famed split decision making skills were all rumors, having seen none of it during the Sivas Campaign. As such, Bayezid I's army arrived onto the Cubuk Plains one and half days earlier than Timur had calculated, throwing a great wrench into his plan.
Perhaps sprang into action and his old vigor by the humiliation and the taunting he had suffered due to his inaction after the fall of Sivas, Bayezid I decided that he would not make camp overnight, and he immediately drew up the army to fight on the 19th of July, 1402. He rode through the lines of the army, with the right wing commanded by his sons Mehmed and Suleiman, through the left wing commanded by his brother-in-law Stephan Lazarevic, and finally to the center commanded directly by him. He motivated the troops with the basic necessity of water. He pointed out that the only way of getting water to drink for the parched troops was to defeat the Timurids and drink at the Timurid Camp, which lay beside the diverted Cubuk River. He motivated the Islamic troops in his army by denouncing the Timurids as Steppe heretics, and he motivated the Christians within his army by conducting a small imaret, giving them the last remnants of the foodstuffs that the army had with them. The army - ~85,000 strong – was ready to fight. [4]
Timur, was evidently not. His forces were strung out throughout the Cubuk Plains. On the order of Bayezid, Lazarevic and his Serbian Knights thundered down the southern edge of the Cubuk plains, and caught the cavalry and elephants of Timur's army scattered in the region totally unprepared for a proper battle. Though the elephants, which had only been scantly fought before by the Ottomans and their Christian vassals, terrified the Serbians, they were too isolated to have a united effort, and the Serbian knights, later assisted by Rumeli Cavalry tore through the elephants one by one as the rest cut the Timurid Chagatai cavalrymen to pieces.
It was at this time that Timur, near his camp at Ankara found out about the situation at hand, and ordered a general battle formation. But his right was being flanked by the Serbian Knights. At this key moment in battle, he decided to use his trump card to turn the tides. He decided to call in the favors from the Tatar troops that were in the Ottoman camp, and using pre-battle communication channels he had convinced them that he was the leader of the Tatars, and not the Ottoman Turks. The Tatar cavalry who were in the front of the Janissary infantry commanded by Bayezid I himself instead of charging towards the Timurids as the Sultan ordered, turned back and instead gave battle to the Janissaries. Fortunately, Prince Suleiman immediately ordered his Rumeli Cavalry and Sipahis to attack the Tatar traitors from the rear, and managed to disperse some of them, lightening the pressure on the Ottoman center. Seeing his chance, Timur ordered his center to advance on the Ottomans, and the two centers collided with one another with increasing ferocity as Prince Suleiman was forced to contend with the Timurid left. In a back and forth battle, it was the intervention of the Serbians and the Ankara Garrison that probably saved the Ottomans from a catastrophic loss.
Timur had organized a rapid defense of his right flank with reserves and had made sure that the battle remained static on his right flank. But the commander of the Ankara Garrison, Murat Pasha, saw that the small Timurid detachment besieging Ankara was weakened by the diversion of troops towards the right flank, and Murat Pasha led 4,000 of his garrison troops in a sally that broke through the small besieging force, and then attacked the rear of the Timurid right flank, encircling it behind the Serbians, who under the orders of Stephan Lazarevic managed to tear through the now encircled Timurid Right. As the Ankara Garrison turned to deal with the remnants of the besieging force, the Serbians turned back, and instead encircled the Timurid center from the behind, and after that, the battle was essentially over.
The Timurid center broke in the face of determined Janissary and Serbian assaults, and Timur himself was forced to take shelter within his still intact left flank. But even the Timurid left flank was soon encircled. Here Shah Rukh and Miran Shah, Timur's sons, advised him to retreat from the battle, but Timur, as the warrior that he was, was determined to see the battle through, for better or worse. Seeing that their obstinate father would not agree to retreat, Shah Rukh and Miran Shah withdrew from the battle with only small retinues, escaping through some of the gaps in the Ottoman lines before the Ottoman pincer tightened, and finally after some minutes of heavy fighting, the Tatars finally started to disperse into the wilderness. Timur himself was brought to Sultan Bayezid I, who was finally captured after the old conqueror cut down several janissaries himself, before finally being overwhelmed by numbers.
The Battle of Ankara had ended, in Ottoman victory. Timur's massive army of around ~120,000 soldiers was decimated, with one account stating that over 40,000 soldiers had been killed, and many more captured. In comparison the Ottomans had lost 10,000 casualties in the battle. Whatever the case, and whether or not if the numbers were exaggerated, it is certain that Ankara was a bloody battle. The fields of Cubuk, on which the battle took place, was filled with blood so much so that the locals began to call the plains 'the Red Plains'. The parched Ottoman troops entered Ankara in a hurry, and forgetting their pain of the battle, drank through the Cubuk river in a hurry. Bayezid I, feeling generous, emptied the stores of various granaries of Ankara, and went on an imaret spree that evening in Ankara, giving meals and clothing to the poor of the city – whether Islamic, Christian or Jewish – in person in the same manner as that of Osman I and Orhan I.
Timur was a defeated leader after the battle, a prisoner by all rights, but that didn't make him any less terrifying. He laughed in glee stating that he had finally found an equal and promised a second match against Bayezid. How was a mystery to the entire Ottoman court, but the second match predicted by Timur would never come as he would die of disease in Bursa the next year, as the Timurid Empire exploded into civil war among the four sons of Timur.
***
Footnotes:-
[1] – Source for this paragraph is from Ottoman Centuries by Lord Kinross
[2] – True fact.
[3] – The italicized letter parts are actual OTL quotes from Ottoman and Timurid sources.
[4] – The General PoD I guess. Bayezid I caught Timur's forces with their pants down iotl on the 19th, but not attacking them and sleeping allowed Timur to regroup and fight on the 20th.
Chapter 1: The Thunderbolt and the Lame
***
Excerpt: Heirs of Osman – Caroline Finkel, Epic History Press, 2008 AD
In 1400, the strongest powers in the Islamic World were none other than the rising Ottoman Empire led by the descendants of Osman Gazi, and the Timurid Empire, led by Timur the Lame. The moment their borders touched with one another, conflict between the two empires became inevitable, as the dominant and proud personalities of Bayezid I and Timur clashed with one another.
Thirty years previously, Timur had risen to power from a mere chieftain, and had embarked on a massive series of campaigns which took from China to Iran, building an empire that was worth of being called the successor of the Great Khan – Genghis Khan. Timur likewise saw himself as the successor the Great Khan and therefore, of the Seljuk and Ilkhanid realms in Anatolia, which would put Timur and the Timurid Empire in a very powerful position to exploit the divisions rife among the local dynasties which all squabbled with one another and were in practice, independent, even if most of them gave nominal allegiance to either the Ottomans, Mamluks, Georgians or Trapuzentines.
Timur's personal domination was absolute, inspiring loyalty among every group in his vast army. He was muscular in build, had broad shoulders, a formidable high forehead, a vivid complexion, and deep white hair. Taciturn in his manners, and extremely religious, he was the master of calculation who spent hours of his time, often alone and in the dead of night, sitting at a great chessboard. He fought against himself, trying to find the best strategies on the board planning intricate campaigns within his set of chess figurines, using his great imagination to lay the foundation of future campaigns against future enemies. Timur was a conqueror – of that there was no doubt. From the Great Wall of China, the Steppes of the Great Rus, the Great Indus, the Persian Gulf, Iran, Armenia, the Tigris, and Euphrates, all fell under his dominion, to do as he ordered on his beck and call. Beyond them, the only other comparable Islamic power was that of the Ottomans, whose conquests under Murad I and Bayezid I coincided with the rise of Timur. [1]
Timur did not originally have any sort of designs on the Ottoman Empire. As a soldier, he had immense respect for the military prowess of the Turks. When news arrived to him in 1390 of the death of Murad I during the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Timur was said to have been despondent, reportedly remarking that 'I have lost an equal. [2]. As an Emperor, however, he still had other more important territories to conquer. Syria, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia were far closer and promised greater yields to him than Anatolia. In a similar vein, Bayezid I needed to conquer Constantinople, the natural center of the Ottoman Balkan-Anatolian Empire, and as such, the Ottoman Sultan also shared no real ambitions on Timurid lands. But despite that fact, Bayezid acted in a manner that was almost made to provoke the ire of Timur. It is almost certainly guaranteed that over a decade of continuous victories, without even a single military defeat at the hands of his opponents had made Bayezid prideful and to an extent, arrogant, which explains why he seemed to be eager to show his dominance over Timur in the diplomatic arena.
When Bayezid I conquered the Anatolian Beyliks, bringing them under Ottoman control, a string of Turkic Beys and Princes left their previous domains fleeing into the Timurid Court, eager to escape inevitable persecution at the hands of the Ottomans. Other than giving them refuge, Timur did not involve himself in their plight, ignoring their pleas to aid them in a theoretical reconquest of Anatolia from the Ottoman Empire, and involving himself in the invasions of Georgia, Syria and the governance of his vast empire instead. If Bayezid I had been observant he would have known of this fact, but arrogance blinded the victorious Sultan, who worried with increasing paranoia that the Timurid Court was planning on aiding the exiles to regain control over Anatolia. In this increasing sense of pride and arrogance, Bayezid I took control of the waters of the northern upper Euphrates, taking the territory of a Turcoman prince named Kara Yussuf, who was under the official protection of Timur. This would be the first rise in tensions between Timur and Bayezid I.
Timur was furious that a prince under his protection had been captured. He sent a letter to Timur, stating 'What is the foundation of thy insolence and of thy folly? Though hast fought some battles in the woods of Anatolia; Contemptible trophies at best.' Nevertheless, Timur did try to be diplomatic and praised Bayezid I as a champion of Islam much like himself. 'Thou hast obtained victories over the infidels of Europe; thy sword was blessed by the Apostle of God thy obedience to the precept of the Koran is the consideration that prevents us from destroying thy country, the frontier and bulwark of the Moslem World against the Europeans.' After this small attempt at diplomacy and praise, Timur decided to urged Bayezid, stating, 'Be wise in time. Reflect, repent, and avert the thunder of our vengeance, which is as of yet suspended over thy head. Thou art no more than an ant, why wilt thou seek to provoke the elephants? Alas! They will trample thee under their feet should you not repent.'
In an astounding folly, Bayezid I decided to flout all diplomatic norms, and insulted the Timurid Leader by sending his letter with Bayezid's own name written in big golden letters and Timur's name written in small black letters. Furthermore, the letter that Bayezid I sent to Timur was the height of provocation. 'Thy armies are innumerable; be they so. But what are the arrows of the flying Tatar worth against the scimitars and the battle axes of the firm Janissaries under my command? I will guard the princes who have implored my protection and if you so wish, seek them in my tent. If I fly from thy arms, may my wives be thrice divorced from my bed; but if thou hast not the courage to meet me in battle, mayest thou again receive thy wives after they have thrice endured the embraces of a stranger.' [3]
Such an insult could be allowed to stand in the eyes of Timur. He took to the field immediately against Sivas. Prince Suleiman, without reinforcements from his father who was in Thessaly, withdrew his forces from the city. Nevertheless, despite the withdrawal, the garrison of the city fought bravely, forcing Timur to dedicate 18 days to destroy the fortifications of the city. The Armenian defenders of the city were in particular targeted by Timur. After the capture of the city, the Armenian garrison was rounded up and subsequently killed by Timur in another of his infamous skull towers. But instead of advancing further into Anatolia, Timur instead advanced into Mamluk Syria, sacking Aleppo and Damascus in his campaign there. It was only in 1401 that Timur returned from his 'adventure' in Syria, debating whether or not he should continue the confrontation between his empire and the Ottomans.
The Loss of Sivas was the first real military humiliation for Bayezid I in his entire career. Now, faced with the real prospect of fighting a virtually invincible foe, and faced with the prospect of defeat as well, Bayezid I was stunned into indecision and paralysis. Bayezid I did not show his characteristic decisive and swift action – which had earned him the name the Thunderbolt - and instead Bayezid I spent the entire months trying to create a very cautious strategy, which was quite unlike him. Bayezid I neither acted against Timur and neither did he try to placate him during the time Timur was in Syria, further hamstringing Ottoman strategy against the Timurid Empire.
Sought by the Genoese, Trapuzentines, and various other Christian powers as an ally against the growing Ottoman threat, Timur finally decided to spring into action against the Ottomans, deciding that he would meet Bayezid I in battle. As Timur marched towards Sivas, Bayezid finally sprang into action as he abandoned the Blockade of Constantinople and marched his army into Anatolia. In Bursa, he linked up with the regional armies, and the armies of his vassals, and through Bursa, he marched to Angora – Ankara – into the very heart of Asia Minor. Though Bayezid I undoubtedly had a force that was equal in courage and military prowess as the army commanded by Timur, Bayezid I's force was not a united force. A quarter of the troops were Tartars, thus their entire loyalty was suspect. The troops were tired from the force march across Anatolia and exhausted. Though Stephan Lazarevic and his Serbians proved loyal during the future battle, before the Battle of Ankara, Bayezid I remained unsure of Serbian loyalties as well.
Leaving Ankara with only a small garrison of loyal troops, Bayezid moved north, where he assumed the Timurid forces were. However instead, he only faced a small rearguard in the north, which he pushed back with ease. His scouts reported back to him that the wily Timur had instead used the rearguard as a diversion and marched his troops through Kayseri, through fresh countryside and was now marching towards Ankara. The Ottoman Sultan was forced to double back, exhausting his troops as they sometimes broke ranks to hunt for game, eat and then return to the army. Some did not return to said army as desertions also increased.
Timur, arriving on the outskirts of Ankara, had the city and its fortress walls put under siege. Knowing that Bayezid I would be coming to fight him, and to starve the city of Ankara itself, he dammed the Cubuk River, diverting it from its normal course through Ankara to create a defensible position for Timurid forces northwest of the city. Timur had however, underestimated Bayezid, believing that his famed split decision making skills were all rumors, having seen none of it during the Sivas Campaign. As such, Bayezid I's army arrived onto the Cubuk Plains one and half days earlier than Timur had calculated, throwing a great wrench into his plan.
Perhaps sprang into action and his old vigor by the humiliation and the taunting he had suffered due to his inaction after the fall of Sivas, Bayezid I decided that he would not make camp overnight, and he immediately drew up the army to fight on the 19th of July, 1402. He rode through the lines of the army, with the right wing commanded by his sons Mehmed and Suleiman, through the left wing commanded by his brother-in-law Stephan Lazarevic, and finally to the center commanded directly by him. He motivated the troops with the basic necessity of water. He pointed out that the only way of getting water to drink for the parched troops was to defeat the Timurids and drink at the Timurid Camp, which lay beside the diverted Cubuk River. He motivated the Islamic troops in his army by denouncing the Timurids as Steppe heretics, and he motivated the Christians within his army by conducting a small imaret, giving them the last remnants of the foodstuffs that the army had with them. The army - ~85,000 strong – was ready to fight. [4]
Timur, was evidently not. His forces were strung out throughout the Cubuk Plains. On the order of Bayezid, Lazarevic and his Serbian Knights thundered down the southern edge of the Cubuk plains, and caught the cavalry and elephants of Timur's army scattered in the region totally unprepared for a proper battle. Though the elephants, which had only been scantly fought before by the Ottomans and their Christian vassals, terrified the Serbians, they were too isolated to have a united effort, and the Serbian knights, later assisted by Rumeli Cavalry tore through the elephants one by one as the rest cut the Timurid Chagatai cavalrymen to pieces.
It was at this time that Timur, near his camp at Ankara found out about the situation at hand, and ordered a general battle formation. But his right was being flanked by the Serbian Knights. At this key moment in battle, he decided to use his trump card to turn the tides. He decided to call in the favors from the Tatar troops that were in the Ottoman camp, and using pre-battle communication channels he had convinced them that he was the leader of the Tatars, and not the Ottoman Turks. The Tatar cavalry who were in the front of the Janissary infantry commanded by Bayezid I himself instead of charging towards the Timurids as the Sultan ordered, turned back and instead gave battle to the Janissaries. Fortunately, Prince Suleiman immediately ordered his Rumeli Cavalry and Sipahis to attack the Tatar traitors from the rear, and managed to disperse some of them, lightening the pressure on the Ottoman center. Seeing his chance, Timur ordered his center to advance on the Ottomans, and the two centers collided with one another with increasing ferocity as Prince Suleiman was forced to contend with the Timurid left. In a back and forth battle, it was the intervention of the Serbians and the Ankara Garrison that probably saved the Ottomans from a catastrophic loss.
Timur had organized a rapid defense of his right flank with reserves and had made sure that the battle remained static on his right flank. But the commander of the Ankara Garrison, Murat Pasha, saw that the small Timurid detachment besieging Ankara was weakened by the diversion of troops towards the right flank, and Murat Pasha led 4,000 of his garrison troops in a sally that broke through the small besieging force, and then attacked the rear of the Timurid right flank, encircling it behind the Serbians, who under the orders of Stephan Lazarevic managed to tear through the now encircled Timurid Right. As the Ankara Garrison turned to deal with the remnants of the besieging force, the Serbians turned back, and instead encircled the Timurid center from the behind, and after that, the battle was essentially over.
The Timurid center broke in the face of determined Janissary and Serbian assaults, and Timur himself was forced to take shelter within his still intact left flank. But even the Timurid left flank was soon encircled. Here Shah Rukh and Miran Shah, Timur's sons, advised him to retreat from the battle, but Timur, as the warrior that he was, was determined to see the battle through, for better or worse. Seeing that their obstinate father would not agree to retreat, Shah Rukh and Miran Shah withdrew from the battle with only small retinues, escaping through some of the gaps in the Ottoman lines before the Ottoman pincer tightened, and finally after some minutes of heavy fighting, the Tatars finally started to disperse into the wilderness. Timur himself was brought to Sultan Bayezid I, who was finally captured after the old conqueror cut down several janissaries himself, before finally being overwhelmed by numbers.
The Battle of Ankara had ended, in Ottoman victory. Timur's massive army of around ~120,000 soldiers was decimated, with one account stating that over 40,000 soldiers had been killed, and many more captured. In comparison the Ottomans had lost 10,000 casualties in the battle. Whatever the case, and whether or not if the numbers were exaggerated, it is certain that Ankara was a bloody battle. The fields of Cubuk, on which the battle took place, was filled with blood so much so that the locals began to call the plains 'the Red Plains'. The parched Ottoman troops entered Ankara in a hurry, and forgetting their pain of the battle, drank through the Cubuk river in a hurry. Bayezid I, feeling generous, emptied the stores of various granaries of Ankara, and went on an imaret spree that evening in Ankara, giving meals and clothing to the poor of the city – whether Islamic, Christian or Jewish – in person in the same manner as that of Osman I and Orhan I.
Timur was a defeated leader after the battle, a prisoner by all rights, but that didn't make him any less terrifying. He laughed in glee stating that he had finally found an equal and promised a second match against Bayezid. How was a mystery to the entire Ottoman court, but the second match predicted by Timur would never come as he would die of disease in Bursa the next year, as the Timurid Empire exploded into civil war among the four sons of Timur.
***
Footnotes:-
[1] – Source for this paragraph is from Ottoman Centuries by Lord Kinross
[2] – True fact.
[3] – The italicized letter parts are actual OTL quotes from Ottoman and Timurid sources.
[4] – The General PoD I guess. Bayezid I caught Timur's forces with their pants down iotl on the 19th, but not attacking them and sleeping allowed Timur to regroup and fight on the 20th.
