Îsâ Çelebi (Ottoman Turkish: عیسی چلبی, romanized: ʿĪsā Çelebī; fl. c. 1391 – September 1403) was an Ottoman prince and a co-ruler of the empire during the Ottoman Interregnum.
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Background
İsa was one of the sons of Bayezid I, the Ottoman sultan. His mother was Devletşah Hatun, the daughter of Süleyman Şah of Germiyanids and Mutahhara Abide Hatun. Isa was appointed as the sanjak governor of Hamid after its conquest. Some sources mention his participation in the Battle of Nicopolis, however this cannot be verified. In 1402, he participated in the Battle of Ankara alongside his father. After the defeat, he escaped and hid around Balıkesir. By November 1402, he had established dominance on the Asian side of the Bosphorus and the south of the Sea of Marmara. Immediately after Timur took Smyrna in 16 December 1402, he expressed his loyalty to Timur through his ambassador Kutbüddin İznikî. He sent Timur valuable horses and gifts together with the ambassador. Timur also sent him a belt, a cap and a robe and gave him the administration of the Karesi (Balıkesir) region.
Ottoman Interregnum
In 1403, after learning about his father's death in captivity, he began to struggle for the vacant throne against his brothers Mehmed Çelebi, Musa Çelebi, and Süleyman Çelebi. He fought against Musa to gain control of Bursa, the Anatolian capital of the empire. He defeated Musa and won control of a part of Anatolian territory of the empire. But the European territory, Rumeli, was under the control of Süleyman and the east part of Anatolian territory was under the control of Mehmed. Feeling his lands to be fragile situated between his brothers' on both sides, he signed a treaty of friendship with the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and refused Mehmed's suggestion to partition the Anatolian part of the empire with him, on the grounds that he was the elder brother and was entitled the entirety of the territory. But following this refusal, he was defeated by Mehmed in the Battle of Ulubad in March or May 1403. In this battle, he also lost his vizier Timurtaş, who was an experienced statesman. He escaped to Rumeli over Byzantine territories.