Bayezid II (redirected from Bajazet II)

Bayezid II

(born December 1447/January 1448?, Demotika, Thrace, Ottoman Empire—died May 26, 1512, Demotika) Sultan who consolidated control of the Ottoman Empire begun by his father, Mehmed II. After taking the throne in 1481, he reversed his father's policies of expropriating Muslim religious properties and rejected his pro-European orientation but continued the policy of territorial conquest. Under him, Herzegovina came under direct Ottoman control, and the Ottoman hold over the Crimea and Anatolia was strengthened. He fought the Safavid dynasty in the east, the Mamluk dynasty in the south, and the Venetians in the west. At home he built mosques, colleges, hospitals, and bridges and supported jurists, scholars, and poets. He abdicated in favour of his son, Selim I, a month before his death.