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Byzantine-Mongol convergence attempt

After the victory in Bapheus, Osman divided the conquered lands among his kin and army leaders establishing Islamic hegemony and ending the Byzantine era in his new areas. He gave Eskişehir to his brother Gündüz bey, Karacahisar to his son Orhan, Yarhisar to Hasan Alp, and İnegöl to Turgut Alp. By that time, Emperor Andronikos II felt the pressure of the Ottoman expansion. The Emperor watched in fear how the demographic changes were rapidly taking place in Anatolia, and he decided to stop it. Yet, being recently defeated, Andronikos II couldn't face the Ottomans in an open battle. To add insult to injury for the Byzantine, conflicts were taking place in the Balkans. Thus, Andronikos II had no choice but to try making an alliance with the Mongols in Persia, who were controlling central and eastern Anatolia. To achieve that, the Emperor sent a letter to Ilkhan Mahmud Ghazan offering him a family rapprochement through marriage and establishing an alliance between both Empires.

At that time, The Mongols were passing through a period of high tension with the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria, this did overwhelm the relations with the Byzantines, especially that Ghazan was preparing for another campaign to Damascus and Palestine after his first invasion in 1299 CE, in which many civilians were massacred and where the Mamluk army suffered a massive defeat at the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar near Ḥimṣ. The Mamluks themselves were preparing for the upcoming war with the Mongols aiming to wash away the shame of their previous defeat. As a result, On 20 April 1303, the Mongols and Mamluks engaged in a fierce battle on the outskirts of Damascus, known as the Battle of Shaqhab or Battle of Marj al-Saffar, in which the Mamluks won a decisive victory. This devastating defeat had a heavy toll on Ghazan and seems to have contributed to deteriorating his health further more, until he died in Qazvin on Sunday 17 May 1304. This eliminated any hope of a Byzantine-Mongol alliance, and allowed the Ottomans to continue on with their conquests.