Jem Sultan hailed at Bursa for eighteen days

جم سلطان يُبايَع في بورصة ثمانية عشر يوماً

1481 CE · 886 AH

Bursa

In the civil war after Mehmed II's death in 886/1481 the people of Bursa sided with Prince Jem, who held the town as sultan for eighteen days, struck coins in his name and planned to rule at least Anatolia with Bursa as capital 1. Al-Salabi has him resident at Bursa when his father died: he took the townspeople's allegiance, proposed dividing the empire, and when Bayezid refused and marched on Bursa, Jem fled to the Mamluk sultan Qaytbay in Egypt 2.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Gunpowder Empires
Region
Anatolia
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In time

1470148014901500
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Gunpowder Empires · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era

In space

Bursa

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Overview

In the civil war after Mehmed II's death in 886/1481 the people of Bursa sided with Prince Jem, who held the town as sultan for eighteen days and struck coins in his name. 1

Eighteen days

Al-Salabi writes that Jem was resident at Bursa when news of his father's death reached him, and took the townspeople's allegiance; he proposed dividing the empire — Europe for Bayezid, Asia for himself — but Bayezid refused the very principle, marched an army on Bursa and attacked, and Jem fled to the Mamluk sultan Qaytbay in Egypt. 2 Jem had planned to rule at least Anatolia with Bursa as his capital. 1

Connections

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Occurred at
Bursa
Had participant
Prince Cem (Jem Sultan)· بايزيد الثاني

People and things also explored

السلطان محمد الفاتح· السلطان الأشرف قايتباي· بايزيد الثاني· Prince Cem (Jem Sultan)· Yesil Mosque, Bursa· The capital moves from Bursa to Edirne· The great Bursa earthquake of 1855· Bursa in the Turkish war of independence

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 1 p. 1398
  2. al-Dawla al-Uthmaniyya — Ali Muhammad al-Salabi (2001) , p. 163
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Jem Sultan hailed at Bursa for eighteen days”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/jem-sultan-bursa-886/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-01.

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السلطان محمد الفاتح

Mehmed the Conqueror, seventh of the Ottoman kings — sultan for thirty-one years from 856, 'the greatest of their sultans in jihad', who laid the Ottoman state's foundations and its statutes. His fame rests on the conquest of Constantinople: he drove ships over land, besieged it fifty days and took it on Wednesday 20 Jumada II 857, prayed Friday in Hagia Sophia, built the Eight Madrasas with endowed stipend-ranks for students, and drew the age's great scholars — Ali al-Qushji, al-Tusi, al-Kurani — till Istanbul became mother of the world.