History of Islam Vol 3 of 3 by Akbar Shah Najeebabadi

Ottoman Empire 393
of
Khalid bin Waleed and Salahuddin Ayyubi center around their acts
of valor. The event of Rustam's assassination as mentioned in
Shahnama fills us with grief. When a valiant fighter meets with failure,
we feel offended and Sultan Bayazid Yardarm's capture on the
battlefield of Ankara is a soul-shattering tragedy of human history.
Had Timur been defeated in the battlefield of Ankara it would have
been the loss solely of Timur and his dynasty not of Islam as a whole.
In such a case the territories under the occupation of Timur would
have been given to another Muslim king and not to forces antagonistic
to Islam but Bayazid's defeat was a total loss for Islam, for the
Muslim's advance towards Europe came to halt all of a sudden,
reviving a Europe that was breathing its last.
Had the result of the battle gone in favor of Bayazid it could be linked
to the battle fought in the battlefield of Asia Minor in 463 A.H. when
Sultan Alp Arsalan Seljuk gave a severe beating to two to three
hundred
thousand Christian troops with his twelve thousand fighters
or the third battle of Panipat where eighty thousand Muslim soldiers
routed five or six hundred thousand Hindu troops. History bears
witness to the glaring fact that whenever a small army clashed with a
huge one the Muslim force was always much less in number but in the
battle between Bayazid and Timur, both sides had Muslim fighters to
combat one another.
Prior to this unfortunate clash one Muslim emperor named Bayazid
Yaldararm had gone up to France and was knocking at the door of
England while Timur, another mighty Muslim ruler had stormed e
eastern world up to China and Japan and the marching steps of the
Mongols had not been exhausted. There was none to stop Bayazid in
Europe and Timur was more than a match for everyone m the east.
Thus, almost the entire world would have watched the flags of Islam
Hying over it. But history had something very shocking m store
world of Islam. The battleground of Ankara drew both forces of Islam
•° clash and it was the ground where the hopes of European conquest
w *re laid to rest forever.
Raid's son, Musa was also captured with his father whUei Princes
Muhammad and Isa fled the battlefield for life. Timur put Bayazid in