Murat I (or Murad I) is one of the sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. He was also known as sultan Murad Hudavendigar Han. He was born in 1326, ascended to throne in 1360, and died in 1389. His father was Orhan Gazi and his mother Nilufer Hatun.
When Murad I ascended the throne in 1360, his sons, Ibrahim and Halil, rebelled against him while he was on an expedition. He returned home and stopped this uprising immediately, killing his sons. After this incident, he passed a law forbidding crown princes to be appointed as viziers or grand viziers. In 1373, this time his 14 years old son, Savci Bey, rebelled against the sultan but he also shared the same faith with his brothers.
Murad I captured Edirne (ancient Adrianople) in 1362 and made it the second capital city of the Empire after Bursa province. In 1363 he captured Thrace and then until 1369 he conquered Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Serbia. He reorganized the janissaries into a standing paid army in the service of the sultan and he evolved the Ottoman governmental and military organization. His grand vizier, Cendereli Kara Halil, reorganized the tax system and founded the Office of State Revenue (Ganaim-i Miri), and in this way the collection of tax and tribute followed legal procedures. As a result, for the first time in Ottoman history, the income of the Treasury was greater than its expenses. Murad I also collected taxes from various empires or states, including from the Serbians and Byzantines.
In the 1380s Murad resumed his offensive in the west. Sofia was taken in 1385 and Niš in 1386. Meanwhile, in Anatolia, Murad had extended his power as far as Tokat and consolidated his authority in Ankara. Through marriage, purchase, and conquest he also acquired territories from the principalities of Germiyan, Tekke, and Hamid. A coalition of Turkmen principalities led by the Karaman was formed to stem Ottoman expansion, but it was defeated at Konya (1386).
In 1387 or 1388 a coalition of northern Serbian princes and Bosnians stopped the Ottomans at Pločnik, but in 1389 Murad and his son Bayezid (later Bayezid I) defeated them at the first Battle of Kosovo, although Murad was killed by a Serbian noble who pretended to defect to the Ottoman camp.
During his 27-years of rule, Murad I made 37 important battles and won all of them. He was killed during the battle of Kosovo in 1389 when a Serbian knight, Milos Obilic, stabbed him while he was checking the battle fields after the war, thus making him the only Ottoman sultan who was killed in a battle field. Murad's body was brought to Bursa and buried in his mausoleum at Cekirge district. After the death of Murad I, his son, Yildirim Bayezid, became the next sultan.