Germiyan

The principality (or beylik , emirate) of Germiyan was one of the principal dynasties turcomanes, which had been established in Anatolia at the end of the sultanate Seldjoukides of Roum. The historical sources often gave the year 1283 like goes back to foundation of this principality.

In XIVe century, the principality of Germiyan had as a capital Kütahya and became the second regional power with the principality of Karaman. According to the British historian Steven Runciman, the emirates of Karaman and Germiyan " claimed one and the other with the heritage of Seldjoukides and wanted both to found a regular State able to subject the Ghazis " (barons and Moslem, frontier knights of the Byzantine steps).

Princes de Germiyan refused themselves to be entitled ghazis , but they tried to put a little order among their many vassal ghazis , the majority being at the origin of the military chiefs of the emirate of Germiyan.

Since 1360, princes de Germiyan transfer their old vassal to found in their turn of the emirates, often coastal, depriving the emirate of Germiyan of access to the Aegean Sea. Its own power starts, consequently, to decline.

Since 1389, the princes Turkish of Anatolia, in particular those of the two large emirates of Germiyan and Karaman, started to rebel against the ambitious Othoman dynasty. In 1390, the Othoman sultan Bayezid Ier succeeds, by the dowry of his marriage with the princess Devlet de Germiyan, to annex the vast territory of princes de Germiyan. Of its union with Devlet de Germiyan, Bayezid Ier will have a son, Mehmed, which will succeed to him on the Othoman throne under the title of Mehmed Ier.

The dynasty of Germiyan is still recognized in Turkey like a dynasty of truths princes Turkish in their manners and their traditions, a contrario of the Othoman sovereigns who would have forsaken their origins with the profit of the European, Persian and Arab contributions cultural. But by their marriage with the Othoman sultans, princes de Germiyan paradoxically made to their descendants the heirs to their prestigious Othoman rivals.

The testimony of Ibn Battûta

At the time of one of its many voyages, Ibn Battûta evokes its way in Asia Mineure, then occupied by the emirates turcomans. He says to fear the " brigands djermiyan " , famous for their aggressiveness.

In its introduction to the voyages of Ibn Battûta, the specialist Stephan Yérasimos nuance strongly the point of view in the large Arab traveller: " Germiyanoglu " wire of Germiyan" , - '' oglu '' being a Moslem suffix running to the Turks was not more brigands that the others, since they formed, them as, an emirate, the only one as Ibn Battûta does not say to have visité."

Stephan Yérasimos points out nevertheless emirate of Germiyan that " its power and its aggressiveness, also attested by other sources, are probably at the origin of its reputation reported by Battûta . " It confirms finally that the surrounding and the absence of maritime outlets irremediably condemned the emirate of Germiyan to the inactivity and thus to the decline. But Stephan Yérasimos indicates that Ibn Battûta, on its arrival with Lâdik (the antique Laodicée of Lycos), current Denizli, met " a sovereign of the family of Germiyanoglu which it does not find anything to reproach . "

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