Agrafa ( Greek : Άγραφα , Greek pronunciation: [ˈaɣrafa] ) is a mountainous region in Evrytania and Karditsa regional units in mainland Greece , consisting mainly of small villages. It is the southernmost part of the Pindus range. There is also a municipality with the same name, the Municipality of Agrafa , but it covers only a small percentage of the area.
195-458: "Agrafa" in Greek means "unwritten", a reference to the region's remoteness and difficult terrain. As a result, the Ottomans were never able to successfully control the region. Agrafa maintained a form of self-governance and semi-independence, which included having its own militias and dispute arbitration systems. These privileges were recognized by the Ottomans in a treaty in 1525. The fiercely independent spirit of its people, known as Agrafiotes,
390-557: A beylik bordering Byzantine lands, Osman had the opportunity to direct all his efforts towards war and Jihad following the footsteps of the Seljuks with intentions to conquer all Byzantine territories, and absorb them into the Islamic Caliphate . Encouraged by the weakness of the ancient Empire and its ongoing wars in Europe , Osman had the chance to expand towards western Anatolia crossing
585-456: A "black hole". According to later Ottoman tradition, Osman's ancestors were descendants of the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks . However, many scholars of the early Ottomans regard it as a later fabrication meant to reinforce dynastic legitimacy. The Ottoman principality was one of many Anatolian beyliks that emerged in the second half of the thirteenth century. Situated in the region of Bithynia in
780-672: A calamitous end in 1683 when Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha led a huge army to attempt a second Ottoman siege of Vienna in the Great Turkish War of 1683–1699. The final assault being fatally delayed, the Ottoman forces were swept away by allied Habsburg, German, and Polish forces spearheaded by the Polish king John III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna . The alliance of the Holy League pressed home
975-494: A coup, but he did see the need for military mobilization. In 1883, a German military mission under General Baron Colmar von der Goltz arrived to train the Ottoman Army, leading to the so-called "Goltz generation" of German-trained officers, who played a notable role in the politics of the empire's last years. From 1894 to 1896, between 100,000 and 300,000 Armenians living throughout the empire were killed in what became known as
1170-491: A fairly modern conscripted army , banking system reforms, the decriminalization of homosexuality, the replacement of religious law with secular law, and guilds with modern factories. The Ottoman Ministry of Post was established in Istanbul in 1840. American inventor Samuel Morse received an Ottoman patent for the telegraph in 1847, issued by Sultan Abdülmecid , who personally tested the invention. The reformist period peaked with
1365-545: A figure that vastly exceeded the number of Muslim children in school at the time, who were further hindered by the amount of time spent learning Arabic and Islamic theology. Author Norman Stone suggests that the Arabic alphabet, in which Turkish was written until 1928 , was ill-suited to reflect the sounds of Turkish (which is a Turkic as opposed to Semitic language), which imposed further difficulty on Turkish children. In turn, Christians' higher educational levels allowed them to play
1560-513: A form of compact: just as God promised to provide Osman and his descendants with sovereignty, it was also implicit that it was the duty of Osman to provide his subjects with prosperity. According to the Bektashi narration, whose accuracy cannot be confirmed since it was only mentioned in Bektashi sources, plus the fact that it did not enjoy much support from the majority of researchers, Ḥājī Baktāš Walī
1755-424: A large campaign to the fortress of Yāvandhisar and annexed it. Then, he attacked Yenişehir, took it with ease, and made it his temporary capital after fortifying and strengthening its defenses. Soon after that Osman started sending more campaigns against the remaining Byzantine cities conquering several fortresses including Lefke , Akhisar , Koçhisar , Yenicehisar, Marmaracık , and Köprühisar . In fact, conquering
1950-503: A larger role in the economy, with the rise in prominence of groups such as the Sursock family indicative of this. In 1911, of the 654 wholesale companies in Istanbul, 528 were owned by ethnic Greeks. In many cases, Christians and Jews gained protection from European consuls and citizenship, meaning they were protected from Ottoman law and not subject to the same economic regulations as their Muslim counterparts. The Crimean War (1853–1856)
2145-466: A magnet to many Turkomen farmers, warriors, and Dervishes fleeing the Mongols, and aspiring to conquer new lands for economic and religious reasons. Osman I had a close relationship with a local religious leader of dervishes named Sheikh Edebali, whose daughter he married. A story emerged among later Ottoman writers to explain the relationship between the two men, in which Osman had a dream while staying in
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#17328484247472340-664: A major center for its trade, contributing to its continued prosperity throughout the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth century. Under Ivan IV (1533–1584), the Tsardom of Russia expanded into the Volga and Caspian regions at the expense of the Tatar khanates. In 1571, the Crimean khan Devlet I Giray , commanded by the Ottomans, burned Moscow . The next year, the invasion was repeated but repelled at
2535-639: A mass exodus of the Christian population from the area into the European parts of the empire, further altering the region's demographic balance. Coupled with the defeat at Magnesia, the Ottomans were able to reach the coasts of the Aegean Sea , threatening Byzantium with a final loss for their territory in Asia Minor. According to Halil İnalcık, the battle allowed the Ottomans to achieve the characteristics and qualities of
2730-515: A plan to escape the trap and take over the fortress. He sent forty of his soldiers carrying some of the clan's belongings to be kept in Bilecik, while most of its inhabitants were outside attending the wedding. Once his men entered the fort, they quickly overpowered its small garrison, and it fell to the Ottomans. Then, Osman went to the feast followed by some Byzantine knights who were easily ambushed by his men later. A short battle took place in which Osman
2925-503: A result of this marriage, all the Ahyan sheikhs became under Ottoman control. This has a major impact on the establishment and development of the Osmanic beylik after Osman's death during the reign of his son Orhan . Some argue that Osman's marriage to sheikh Edebali's daughter was his first brilliant political undertake. On the other hand, Turkish historian Professor Cemal Kafadar considers that
3120-624: A result, the Byzantine Tekfur (governor) of Bursa was provoked, and he sent envoys to the Seljuk Sultan Alâeddin Kayqubad III , complaining about these constant assaults. Thus, the Sultan ordered Gündüz Alp to bring forth his young nephew to stand before him, and so Osman was arrested and sent to Konya. According to this narration, Sultan Kayqubad admired Osman's courage and deeds, and didn't wish to punish him, instead, Osman
3315-499: A secret conspiracy that was being prepared by the tekfurs of Bilecik and Yarhisar. The two were aiming at killing Osman after inviting him to attend their children's wedding. Osman was disappointed by being betrayed by Bilecik's tekfur. That is because he considered the relationship with Bilecik to have been built on trust and good faith, as demonstrated by the aforementioned custom of his clan leaving their belongings in this fortress whenever they moved between grazing areas. Osman devised
3510-514: A sense of Turkish nationalism. In this period, the Ottoman Empire spent only small amounts of public funds on education; for example, in 1860–1861 only 0.2% of the total budget was invested in education. As the Ottoman state attempted to modernize its infrastructure and army in response to outside threats, it opened itself up to a different kind of threat: that of creditors. As the historian Eugene Rogan has written, "the single greatest threat to
3705-423: A single trade. The brotherhood took the responsibility to preserve justice, prevent injustice, stop oppression, follow sharia law, dictate good morals, and carry out military duties if the need arises, to defend their rights and the rights of Muslims. The Emir also allied with newly arrived Turkomen clans to Anatolia. In general, the nomads have always had a strong militarized spirit compared to people installed in
3900-422: A single written source survives from Osman's reign, and the Ottomans did not record the history of Osman's life until the fifteenth century, more than a hundred years after his death. Because of this, historians find it very challenging to differentiate between fact and myth in the many stories told about him. One historian has even gone so far as to declare it impossible, describing the period of Osman's life as
4095-570: A staging ground against the Byzantines in Constantinople , and as a newly adorned capital for Osman's son, Orhan . Ottoman tradition holds that Osman died just after the capture of Bursa, but some scholars have argued that his death should be placed in 1324, the year of Orhan's accession. After establishing his beylik, Osman had to fight on two fronts: one against the Byzantine, and the other against
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#17328484247474290-498: A tassel, a gilded sword, a loose saddle, and one hundred thousand dirhams . The decree also included the recognition of Osman's right to be mentioned in the Friday khuṭbah in all areas subject to him, and was permitted to mint coins in his name. Thus, Osman became a Sultan, but lacking only the title. It is narrated that when drums were beaten announcing Sultan's Kayqubad's arrival, Osman stood up in glorification, and remained so till
4485-508: A threat that might put the whole clan in danger. However, Osman had to pull out his sword to kill his uncle for disobeying. In the Vilayetname , a book containing the narrations about Haji Bektash Veli , Osman's younger uncle, was the one who became Bey after Ertuğrul's death. During that time, Osman and several other warriors started organizing raids on Byzantine lands adjacent to Söğüt, such as Yarhisar , Bilecik , İnegöl , and İznik . As
4680-581: A transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II , which marked the Ottomans' emergence as a major regional power. Under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566), the empire reached the peak of its power, prosperity, and political development. By the start of the 17th century, the Ottomans presided over 32 provinces and numerous vassal states , which over time were either absorbed into
4875-475: A true state. 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
5070-454: A victory over the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), off southwestern Greece; Catholic forces killed over 30,000 Turks and destroyed 200 of their ships. It was a startling, if mostly symbolic, blow to the image of Ottoman invincibility, an image which the victory of the Knights of Malta over the Ottoman invaders in the 1565 siege of Malta had recently set about eroding. The battle
5265-570: Is called Gündüz Alp , saying that it is more likely that Süleyman Şah is a name stuck in Anatolian popular memory, and it actually refers to Süleyman bin Qutulmish who founded the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. Öztuna adds that it is possible that Ottoman historians tried forming a connection between the Ottomans and the Seljuks, especially since the Ottomans appeared on the stage of history claiming to be
5460-411: Is matched by a harsh and forbidding landscape. The central Agrafiotis River valley is surrounded on three sides by a steep 2,000-metre wall of mountains, and on its south side the river drains via a series of narrow and often impassable gorges into the man-made Lake Kremasta . The other great river of Agrafa, Tavropos (aka Megdovas), feeds two man-made lakes: Plastiras (N) and Kremasta (S). Most of
5655-618: The Anatolian Beyliks . One of these, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman I ( d. 1323/4), a figure of obscure origins from whom the name Ottoman is derived. Osman's early followers consisted of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, with many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along
5850-512: The Arab Revolt . During this period, the Ottoman government engaged in genocide against Armenians , Assyrians , and Greeks . In the aftermath of World War I , the victorious Allied Powers occupied and partitioned the Ottoman Empire, which lost its southern territories to the United Kingdom and France . The successful Turkish War of Independence , led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk against
6045-601: The Balkans . The Empire was unable to face Osman's threats, thus, he felt free to expand at the Byzantines expense exploiting the current situation. At the same time, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm was seeing its final days. The Sultanate grip was slowly weakened over its Turkoman Beyliks. Sultan Alâeddin Kayqubad III became deeply unpopular after he purged the Seljuk administration of his predecessor's men with extreme violence. This prompted
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6240-458: The Battle of Molodi . The Ottoman Empire continued to invade Eastern Europe in a series of slave raids , and remained a significant power in Eastern Europe until the end of the 17th century. The Ottomans decided to conquer Venetian Cyprus and on 22 July 1570, Nicosia was besieged; 50,000 Christians died, and 180,000 were enslaved. On 15 September 1570, the Ottoman cavalry appeared before
6435-526: The Black Sea , are both remote possibilities. Arab scholars like Shihab al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun used the name Othman, while Ibn Battuta , who visited the region during Orhan 's reign, called him Osmancık (also spelled Othmānjiq or Osmanjiq). The suffix -cık (or -cuk), indicates the diminutive in Turkish, thus he was known by the name of Osmancik, which means "Osman the Little", to differentiate between him and
6630-649: The Bosporus Strait made it difficult to conquer. In 1402, the Byzantines were temporarily relieved when the Turco-Mongol leader Timur , founder of the Timurid Empire , invaded Ottoman Anatolia from the east. In the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Timur defeated Ottoman forces and took Sultan Bayezid I as prisoner, throwing the empire into disorder. The ensuing civil war lasted from 1402 to 1413 as Bayezid's sons fought over succession. It ended when Mehmed I emerged as
6825-642: The Bulgarian Tsardom of Vidin in 1396, regarded as the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages , failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottomans. As the Turks expanded into the Balkans, the conquest of Constantinople became a crucial objective. The Ottomans had already wrested control of nearly all former Byzantine lands surrounding the city, but the strong defense of Constantinople's strategic position on
7020-583: The Cape of Good Hope in 1488 initiated a series of Ottoman-Portuguese naval wars in the Indian Ocean throughout the 16th century. Despite the growing European presence in the Indian Ocean, Ottoman trade with the east continued to flourish. Cairo, in particular, benefitted from the rise of Yemeni coffee as a popular consumer commodity. As coffeehouses appeared in cities and towns across the empire, Cairo developed into
7215-546: The Civil War . It was his vision to create a hydroelectric dam in the region so that nearly all of mainland Greece, excluding the Peloponnese , would be supplied with electricity, particularly the many fractured villages and rural communities. A spin-off from this project was the mass irrigation system developed to supply the farmers in the plains of Thessaly with water and increase the yields of cash crops such as cotton, and also
7410-534: The Constitution of the Ottoman Empire and brought in multi-party politics with a two-stage electoral system ( electoral law ) under the Ottoman parliament . The constitution offered hope by freeing the empire's citizens to modernise the state's institutions, rejuvenate its strength, and enable it to hold its own against outside powers. Its guarantee of liberties promised to dissolve inter-communal tensions and transform
7605-501: The Dardanelles to southeastern Europe . Commenting on these actions, some historians argue that Osman's strategy of increasing his territories at the expense of the Byzantines was due to his intention to avoid conflicts with his more powerful Turkic neighbours. Politically, Osman showed great skills forming and applying new administrative systems in his beylik. During his reign, the Ottomans made great strides towards transitioning from
7800-808: The Great Northern War of 1700–1721). Charles XII persuaded the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III to declare war on Russia, which resulted in an Ottoman victory in the Pruth River Campaign of 1710–1711, in Moldavia. After the Austro-Turkish War , the Treaty of Passarowitz confirmed the loss of the Banat, Serbia, and "Little Walachia" (Oltenia) to Austria. The Treaty also revealed that the Ottoman Empire
7995-534: The Greek revolt (1821–1829) that ultimately ended with the formal independence of Greece in 1830. It was a costly enterprise for Muhammad Ali, who had lost his fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. Thus began the first Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833) , during which the French-trained army of Muhammad Ali, under the command of his son Ibrahim Pasha , defeated the Ottoman Army as it marched into Anatolia , reaching
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8190-667: The Greeks declared war on the Sultan. A rebellion that originated in Moldavia as a diversion was followed by the main revolution in the Peloponnese , which, along with the northern part of the Gulf of Corinth , became the first parts of the Ottoman Empire to achieve independence (in 1829). In 1830, the French invaded the Deylik of Algiers . The campaign that took 21 days, resulted in over 5,000 Algerian military casualties, and about 2,600 French ones. Before
8385-497: The Hamidian massacres . In 1897 the population was 19 million, of whom 14 million (74%) were Muslim. An additional 20 million lived in provinces that remained under the sultan's nominal suzerainty but were entirely outside his actual power. One by one the Porte lost nominal authority. They included Egypt, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Lebanon. As
8580-594: The Iberian Union . The Ottomans were holders of the Caliph title, meaning they were the leaders of Muslims worldwide. The Iberians were leaders of the Christian crusaders, and so the two fought in a worldwide conflict. There were zones of operations in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean , where Iberians circumnavigated Africa to reach India and, on their way, wage war upon the Ottomans and their local Muslim allies. Likewise,
8775-560: The Karamanid historian Shikari, Osman was a lowborn Yörük and shepherd. Almost nothing is known for certain about Osman's early activities, except that he controlled the region around the town of Söğüt and from there launched raids against the neighboring Byzantine Empire. The first datable event in Osman's life is the Battle of Bapheus in 1301 or 1302, in which he defeated a Byzantine force sent to counter him. Osman appears to have followed
8970-561: The Karasids and Germiyanids winning a fast victory. Afterward, they resolved to attack the maritime provinces of the Ottomans and moved to the town of Philadelphia which was besieged by Yakup I of Germiyan , who suffered a defeat at the hands of the Catalans and was forced to lift his siege and retreat. This victory proved that had Byzantium been able to gather sufficient military forces and material capabilities, it would have been able to eliminate
9165-690: The Köprülü era (1656–1703), effective control of the Empire was exercised by a sequence of grand viziers from the Köprülü family. The Köprülü Vizierate saw renewed military success with authority restored in Transylvania, the conquest of Crete completed in 1669, and expansion into Polish southern Ukraine , with the strongholds of Khotyn , and Kamianets-Podilskyi and the territory of Podolia ceding to Ottoman control in 1676. This period of renewed assertiveness came to
9360-510: The Mongol invasions and the influence of the powerful Turkoman beyliks in southern and southwestern Anatolia. Add to that, its proximity to the Silk Road linking Byzantine lands in the west to areas controlled by the Mongols in the east, gave it prominent strategic and economic characteristics. Also, the Osmanic beylik was the only Islamic base facing the yet unconquered Byzantine regions, which made it
9555-468: The Nomadic tribe system to settling down in permanent settlements. This helped them consolidate their position and rapidly develop into a major power. Moreover, the beylik's location in northwestern Anatolia, next to Christendom , imposed a military policy on the Ottomans, which gave them better chances to grow and expand compared to the beyliaks of the interior. Osman's beylik was also relatively far from both
9750-620: The Oriental Crisis of 1840 . Muhammad Ali had close relations with France , and the prospect of him becoming the Sultan of Egypt was widely viewed as putting the entire Levant into the French sphere of influence. As the Sublime Porte had proved itself incapable of defeating Muhammad Ali, the British Empire and Austrian Empire provided military assistance, and the second Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841) ended with Ottoman victory and
9945-472: The Sakarya River . A Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Bapheus in 1302 contributed to Osman's rise. It is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbors, due to the lack of sources surviving. The Ghaza thesis popular during the 20th century credited their success to rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam , but it is no longer generally accepted. No other hypothesis has attracted broad acceptance. In
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#173284842474710140-477: The Spanish garrison of Castelnuovo on the Adriatic coast ; the successful siege cost the Ottomans 8,000 casualties, but Venice agreed to terms in 1540, surrendering most of its empire in the Aegean and the Morea . France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule, became allies. The French conquests of Nice (1543) and Corsica (1553) occurred as a joint venture between French king Francis I and Suleiman, and were commanded by
10335-454: The Treaty of Nasuh Pasha , which ceded the entire Caucasus, except westernmost Georgia, back into the possession of Safavid Iran . The treaty ending the Cretan War cost Venice much of Dalmatia , its Aegean island possessions, and Crete . (Losses from the war totalled 30,985 Venetian soldiers and 118,754 Turkish soldiers.) During his brief majority reign, Murad IV (1623–1640) reasserted central authority and recaptured Iraq (1639) from
10530-402: The Turuq of the Khorasani Walis , and Osman's request gave them this chance. As for the ruling hierarchy, Osman was firstly subordinate to the Chobanid Emir in Kastamonu , followed by the Seljuk Sultan through the Germiyanid Bey in Kütahya , who was in turn subordinate to the Mongol Ilkhan in Tabriz . During this period, the Seljuk Sultans had lost their power over their local Emirs, and
10725-446: The 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Europe , between the early 16th and early 18th centuries. The empire emerged from a beylik , or principality , founded in northwestern Anatolia in c. 1299 by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I . His successors conquered much of Anatolia and expanded into the Balkans by the mid-14th century, transforming their petty kingdom into
10920-424: The 400 years of Ottoman rule. Unlike the majority of Greeks, many Agrafiotes can trace their family histories back for generations. In the 19 century the area played a prominent role in the Greek War of Independence . In the 20th century, a lot of Agrafiotes left their villages and settled in the major metropolitan cities in Greece as well as in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany, seeking an escape from
11115-422: The Arabic form ʿU th mān and the Turkish version ʿO s mān with θ, τθ, or τσ. An early Arabic source mentioning him also writes ط rather than ث in one instance. Osman may thus have adopted the more prestigious Muslim name later in his life. Turkish historian Halil İnalcık argued that the hypotheses that Osman was in fact named Ataman (per George Pachymeres), and that he came from the Desth-i Qipchaq north of
11310-406: The Arabic name ʿUthmān ( عثمان ). In Ottoman Turkish , the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿO s mānīye ( دولت عليه عثمانیه ), lit. ' Sublime Ottoman State ' , or simply Devlet-i ʿO s mānīye ( دولت عثمانيه ), lit. ' Ottoman State ' . The Turkish word for "Ottoman" ( Osmanlı ) originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in
11505-486: The Balkan Peninsula during the Congress of Berlin , and in return, Britain assumed the administration of Cyprus in 1878. Britain later sent troops to Egypt in 1882 to put down the Urabi Revolt (Sultan Abdul Hamid II was too paranoid to mobilize his own army, fearing this would result in a coup d'état), effectively gaining control in both territories. Abdul Hamid II was so fearful of a coup that he did not allow his army to conduct war games, lest this serve as cover for
11700-445: The Balkans . Osman's son, Orhan , captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326, making it the new capital and supplanting Byzantine control in the region. The important port of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387 and sacked. The Ottoman victory in Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. The Battle of Nicopolis for
11895-414: The Byzantine fortress of Bilecik, and upon their return, they give its governor a token of appreciation, in the form of cheese and butter made from sheep milk and preserved in animal skins, or a good carpet made from wool. This agreement reflects the coexistence between herders, farmers and urban dwellers, during Osman's reign. Osman's friendship with Köse Mihal , governor of Chirmenkia (modern Harmanköy ),
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#173284842474712090-539: The Byzantines fast, whose Alan contingent did not participate in the battle. As a result of the attack, the Byzantine line was broken, forcing Giorgios Mouzalon to withdraw into Nicomedia under the cover of the Alan force. Bapheus was the first major victory for the nascent Osmanic Beylik, and of major significance for its future expansion: the Byzantines effectively lost control of the countryside of Bithynia , withdrawing to their forts, which became isolated and fell one by one eventually. The Byzantine defeat also sparked
12285-440: The Byzantines, led by the Tekfur of Bursa, ambushed him and his men. It is in doubt that Osman knew about this ambush from one of his spies. Nevertheless, he chose to clash with the Byzantines and he was defeated and forced to withdraw with casualties, including his nephew Koca Saruhan bey, son of Savcı Bey . Based on this, around 1286, Osman went forward to Kulacahisar at the head of a military force of three hundred fighters, it
12480-453: The CUP became increasingly radicalized and nationalistic, leading a coup d'état in 1913 that established a one-party regime. The CUP allied with the German Empire hoping to escape from the diplomatic isolation that had contributed to its recent territorial losses; it thus joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers . While the empire was able to largely hold its own during the conflict, it struggled with internal dissent, especially
12675-446: The Conqueror , reorganized both state and military, and on 29 May 1453 conquered Constantinople , ending the Byzantine Empire. Mehmed allowed the Eastern Orthodox Church to maintain its autonomy and land in exchange for accepting Ottoman authority. Due to tension between the states of western Europe and the later Byzantine Empire, most of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule, as preferable to Venetian rule. Albanian resistance
12870-444: The Constitution, called the Kanûn-u Esâsî . The empire's First Constitutional era was short-lived. The parliament survived for only two years before the sultan suspended it. The empire's Christian population, owing to their higher educational levels, started to pull ahead of the Muslim majority, leading to much resentment. In 1861, there were 571 primary and 94 secondary schools for Ottoman Christians, with 140,000 pupils in total,
13065-499: 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
13260-400: The Empire or granted various degrees of autonomy. With its capital at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) and control over a significant portion of the Mediterranean Basin , the Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interactions between the Middle East and Europe for six centuries. While the Ottoman Empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline after the death of Suleiman
13455-482: The French invasion the total population of Algeria was most likely between 3,000,000 and 5,000,000. By 1873, the population of Algeria (excluding several hundred thousand newly arrived French settlers) had decreased to 2,172,000. In 1831, Muhammad Ali of Egypt revolted against Sultan Mahmud II due to the latter's refusal to grant him the governorships of Greater Syria and Crete , which the Sultan had promised him in exchange for sending military assistance to put down
13650-405: The Iberians passed through newly-Christianized Latin America and had sent expeditions that traversed the Pacific to Christianize the formerly Muslim Philippines and use it as a base to attack the Muslims in the Far East . In this case, the Ottomans sent armies to aid its easternmost vassal and territory, the Sultanate of Aceh in Southeast Asia. During the 1600s, the world conflict between
13845-664: The Islamic clergy successfully objected under the grounds of theodicy . In 1754 the artillery school was reopened on a semi-secret basis. In 1726, Ibrahim Muteferrika convinced the Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha , the Grand Mufti , and the clergy on the efficiency of the printing press, and Muteferrika was later granted by Sultan Ahmed III permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from some calligraphers and religious leaders). Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729 and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes, each having between 500 and 1,000 copies. In North Africa, Spain conquered Oran from
14040-523: The Janissary revolted . Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamic Mahmud II , who eliminated the Janissary corps in 1826. The Serbian revolution (1804–1815) marked the beginning of an era of national awakening in the Balkans during the Eastern Question . In 1811, the fundamentalist Wahhabis of Arabia, led by
14235-531: The Kayı warriors were known for filling first lines in battles, and their fighting skills and bravery were among the major factors the Seljuks were victorious in many battles. This fact prompted Sultan Kayqubad to appoint Ertuğrul, the clan's Emir, as a Moqaddam (Lieutenant), and to reward the Kayıs some fertile lands near Ankara , where they settled and remained in the service of the Sultan for several years. Later, Ertuğrul
14430-515: The Magnificent (1520–1566) captured Belgrade in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary as part of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars , and, after his historic victory in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, he established Ottoman rule in the territory of present-day Hungary and other Central European territories. He then laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failed to take
14625-454: The Magnificent, modern academic consensus posits that the empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society and military into much of the 18th century. However, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind those of its chief European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian empires. The Ottomans consequently suffered severe military defeats in
14820-455: 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
15015-570: 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. After Ghazan's death, the Byzantine Emperor was forced to seek other solutions to
15210-617: The Mongol Ilkhan Mahmud Ghazan to call upon Kayqubad to appear before him, and once the latter did in 1302, he was executed and replaced with his predecessor Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Mas'ūd bin Kaykāwūs to keep the peace in Anatolia. According to another account, Mongol and Tatar hordes raided Asia Minor in 1300, and killed Sultan Kayqubad in his capital Konya. It was also said that Kaykāwūs himself killed his rival, coveting his own return on
15405-681: The Mongol Ilkhan practised his authority in Anatolia through his appointed Generals, where he requested that every local governor, including Osman, sends him soldiers whenever he requests so. As for the hierarchy of name delivering in khuṭbah , Imams used to pray for the guidance of the: Abbasid caliph in Egypt first , the Mongol Ilkhan in Tabriz, Seljuk Sultan in Konya , and finally the local Bey or Emir. Until
15600-473: The Muslims aiming at retaking all Byzantine lands that were lost recently. Thus, the Ottomans and the Byzantines met again in battle, somewhere between Bilecik and İnegöl, where fierce fighting took place in which Osman's brother Savcı Bey and the Byzantine commander Pilatos were killed. The Battle ended with an Ottoman victory. Then, the Ottomans entered Karacahisar where they, reportedly for the first time, converted
15795-567: The Oghuz Turkic peoples, including the Seljuks. The exact date of Osman's birth is unknown, and very little is known about his early life and origins due to the scarcity of sources and the many myths and legends which came to be told about him by the Ottomans in later centuries. He was most likely born around the middle of the thirteenth century, possibly in 1254/5, the date given by the sixteenth-century Ottoman historian Kemalpaşazade . According to Ottoman tradition, Osman's father Ertuğrul led
15990-527: The Ottoman Caliphate and Iberian Union was a stalemate since both were at similar population , technology and economic levels. Nevertheless, the success of the Ottoman political and military establishment was compared to the Roman Empire , despite the difference in size, by the likes of contemporary Italian scholar Francesco Sansovino and French political philosopher Jean Bodin . In the second half of
16185-631: The Ottoman Empire gradually shrank, 7–9 million Muslims from its former territories in the Caucasus, Crimea , Balkans, and the Mediterranean islands migrated to Anatolia and Eastern Thrace . After the Empire lost the First Balkan War (1912–1913), it lost all its Balkan territories except East Thrace (European Turkey). This resulted in around 400,000 Muslims fleeing with the retreating Ottoman armies (with many dying from cholera brought by
16380-557: The Ottoman admirals Hayreddin Barbarossa and Dragut . France supported the Ottomans with an artillery unit during the 1543 Ottoman conquest of Esztergom in northern Hungary. After further advances by the Turks, the Habsburg ruler Ferdinand officially recognized Ottoman ascendancy in Hungary in 1547. Suleiman died of natural causes during the siege of Szigetvár in 1566. Following his death,
16575-532: The Ottoman economy, and used its position to ensure that European capital continued to penetrate the empire, often to the detriment of local Ottoman interests. The Ottoman bashi-bazouks suppressed the Bulgarian uprising of 1876, massacring up to 100,000 people in the process. The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) ended with a decisive victory for Russia. As a result, Ottoman holdings in Europe declined sharply: Bulgaria
16770-407: The Ottomans began to pose a threat to Europe. The Ottoman historian Kemalpaşazâde mentioned that Osman was Ertuğrul's youngest son and that he was raised in the traditional nomadic Turkic ways: he learned wrestling , swordsmanship , horse riding , arrow shooting, and falconry , from an early age. He quickly mastered the previously mentioned skills, outperforming all his brothers. He was also taught
16965-547: The Ottomans were said to be declining, although this has been rejected by many scholars. By the end of Suleiman's reign, the Empire spanned approximately 877,888 sq mi (2,273,720 km ), extending over three continents. The Empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the Mediterranean Sea . The Empire was now a major part of European politics. The Ottomans became involved in multi-continental religious wars when Spain and Portugal were united under
17160-481: The Ottomans) by Derviş Ahmed Âşıkî, known as Âşıkpaşazâde (1400–1484). Additionally, these remaining sources are not the originals, but rather copies, or copies of the copies that were rewritten over the years, leading to a probable loss or altering in the information. In fact, it is accepted that Ottoman, European, and Byzantine sources are not very reliable when considering the origins of Osman and his clan. On one hand,
17355-585: The Ottomans. For example, the Gazi Rûm's (Raiders of the Romans), they were stationed on the borders of the Byzantine Empire and repelled its attacks on Muslim lands since the Abbasid era , gaining great experiences and knowledge in Byzantine strategies and tactics. Another example is the Ḥajjian Rûm's (pilgrims of [the land of] the Romans), a brotherhood of Muslim clergy concerned with teaching local villagers and recent converts
17550-693: The Russian Empire (2 November 1914) and its allies France (5 November 1914) and the British Empire (5 November 1914) declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Also on 5 November 1914, the British government changed the status of the Khedivate of Egypt and Cyprus , which were de jure Ottoman territories prior to the war, to British protectorates . Osman I Osman I or Osman Ghazi ( Ottoman Turkish : عثمان غازى , romanized : ʿO s mān Ġāzī ; Turkish : I. Osman or Osman Gazi ; died 1323/4)
17745-588: The Russian intervention, Sultan Mahmud II could have faced the risk of being overthrown and Muhammad Ali could have even become the new Sultan. These events marked the beginning of a recurring pattern where the Sublime Porte needed the help of foreign powers to protect itself. In 1839, the Sublime Porte attempted to take back what it lost to the de facto autonomous, but de jure still Ottoman Eyalet of Egypt , but its forces were initially defeated, which led to
17940-546: The Russians. After this treaty the Ottoman Empire was able to enjoy a generation of peace in Europe, as Austria and Russia were forced to deal with the rise of Prussia . Educational and technological reforms came about, including the establishment of higher education institutions such as the Istanbul Technical University . In 1734 an artillery school was established to impart Western-style artillery methods, but
18135-617: The Safavids. The resulting Treaty of Zuhab of that same year decisively divided the Caucasus and adjacent regions between the two neighbouring empires as it had already been defined in the 1555 Peace of Amasya. The Sultanate of Women (1533–1656) was a period in which the mothers of young sultans exercised power on behalf of their sons. The most prominent women of this period were Kösem Sultan and her daughter-in-law Turhan Hatice , whose political rivalry culminated in Kösem's murder in 1651. During
18330-411: The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm gave Osman autonomy over his dominion, he soon dubbed himself Padişah Āl-ıʿOsmān (sovereign of the house of Osman ). After that, Osman set his sights towards conquering the last of the Byzantine cities, towns, and fortresses in Anatolia. According to one account, after Sultan Alâeddin Kayqubad III was killed by the Mongols, viziers and notable leaders met and decided that since
18525-553: The Sheikh's house. The story appears in the late-fifteenth-century chronicle of Aşıkpaşazade as follows: He saw that a moon arose from the holy man's breast and came to sink in his own breast. A tree then sprouted from his navel and its shade compassed the world. Beneath this shade there were mountains, and streams flowed forth from the foot of each mountain. Some people drank from these running waters, others watered gardens, while yet others caused fountains to flow. When Osman awoke he told
18720-647: The Turkic Kayı tribe west from Central Asia into Anatolia , fleeing the Mongol onslaught. He then pledged allegiance to the Sultan of the Anatolian Seljuks , who granted him dominion over the town of Söğüt on the Byzantine frontier. This connection between Ertuğrul and the Seljuks, however, was largely invented by court chroniclers a century later, and the true origins of the Ottomans thus remain obscure. According to
18915-471: The Turkic leader's companion, and would play a considerable part in the upcoming expansions of the Osmanic beylik. His descendants became known in Ottoman history as Mihaloğulları (children of Michael, plural of Mihaloğlu ). Other governors acknowledged Osman's sovereignty, while the rest kept their loyalty to the Byzantine Emperor. Thus, Osman started harassing their fortresses such as Bursa and Nicaea which
19110-505: The Turkomen beyliks that opposed his rule, especially the Germiyanids. Osman focused on expanding at the expense of the Byzantines, and since that time, the primary Ottoman goal became the conquest of the remaining Byzantine lands. Some accounts indicate that the first battle Osman launched against the Byzantines was aimed to revenge a defeat that he suffered in the spring of 1284 or 1285, where
19305-508: The Turks, but was again defeated at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448. According to modern historiography, there is a direct connection between the rapid Ottoman military advance and the consequences of the Black Death from the mid-fourteenth century onwards. Byzantine territories, where the initial Ottoman conquests were carried out, were exhausted demographically and militarily due to
19500-567: The abject poverty and lack of opportunities in the area. The migration from the region first began in the 1920s and nearly ceased after the military junta which had ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974 was toppled. The largest Agrafiot community outside of Greece is in Charlotte, North Carolina . Before modernization, most people's occupations in the Agrafa involved harvesting nuts and fruits from orchards, farming, shepherding, and textile manufacturing. Most of
19695-524: The advantage of the defeat at Vienna, culminating in the Treaty of Karlowitz (26 January 1699), which ended the Great Turkish War. The Ottomans surrendered control of significant territories, many permanently. Mustafa II (1695–1703) led the counterattack of 1695–1696 against the Habsburgs in Hungary, but was undone at the disastrous defeat at Zenta (in modern Serbia), 11 September 1697. Aside from
19890-399: The aforementioned forts aimed at imposing a security belt around Yenişehir, thus Osman surrounded it with a series of front forts to ward off any invasions. With Yenişehir in hands, Osman focused his efforts on isolated large cities starting with Bursa, unaware that this would be his last campaign. He gave the orders to start building two forts overseeing and surrounding the city, then, when
20085-564: The al-Saud family, revolted against the Ottomans. Unable to defeat the Wahhabi rebels, the Sublime Porte had Muhammad Ali Pasha of Kavala , the vali (governor) of the Eyalet of Egypt , tasked with retaking Arabia, which ended with the destruction of the Emirate of Diriyah in 1818. The suzerainty of Serbia as a hereditary monarchy under its own dynasty was acknowledged de jure in 1830. In 1821,
20280-485: The autonomous Deylik of Algiers . The Bey of Oran received an army from Algiers, but it failed to recapture Oran ; the siege caused the deaths of 1,500 Spaniards, and even more Algerians. The Spanish also massacred many Muslim soldiers. In 1792, Spain abandoned Oran, selling it to the Deylik of Algiers. In 1768 Russian-backed Ukrainian Haidamakas , pursuing Polish confederates, entered Balta , an Ottoman-controlled town on
20475-471: The basics and different aspects of Islam, and had a side objective of assisting the Mujahideen in combat. The Byzantine and Ottoman armies eventually met on 27 July 1302 at the plain of Bapheus located between Nicomedia and Nicaea. The Ottoman army consisted of light cavalry under Osman himself, and they numbered around 5,000, while the Byzantines numbered around 2,000 men. The Muslim cavalry charged toward
20670-579: The border of Bessarabia in Ukraine, massacred its citizens, and burned the town to the ground. This action provoked the Ottoman Empire into the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 . The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774 ended the war and provided freedom of worship for the Christian citizens of the Ottoman-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. By the late 18th century, after a number of defeats in
20865-690: The capital of his emirate . The reason for the lack of information available about this stage of Osman's life is due to the fact that the oldest-known source about this time period was written about a hundred years after Osman's death. Among these sources are: Destan-ı Tevarih-i Al-i Osman (The Oral history of the Ottomans), written in the 14th century by the Ottoman poet and court physician Tâceddîn İbrâhîm bin Hızîr [ tr ] better known as Ahmedî (1334–1413), Behcetü't Tevârîh [ tr ] (The Joy of histories) by Şükrullah (d. 1464), and Tevarih-i Âl-i Osman [ tr ] (History of
21060-586: The century after Osman I, Ottoman rule had begun to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans . The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars , waged in Anatolia in the late 13th century before entering Europe in the mid-14th century, followed by the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars and the Serbian–Ottoman wars in the mid-14th century. Much of this period was characterised by Ottoman expansion into
21255-423: The cities. Thus, the clans were more active and effective than their city-dwelling kin. Soon enough, they become the beating heart of the Seljuk border provinces in total, and the Osmanic beylik in particular. Osman also enticed many Turkomen from the region of Paphlagonia to join his forces. These Turkomen were fine warriors, eager for jihad and conquest, each of them followed a Tariqah (an order of Sufism) and
21450-448: The city of Kütahya within 320 km (200 mi) of the capital, Constantinople. In desperation, Sultan Mahmud II appealed to the empire's traditional arch-rival Russia for help, asking Emperor Nicholas I to send an expeditionary force to assist him. In return for signing the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi , the Russians sent the expeditionary force which deterred Ibrahim Pasha from marching any further towards Constantinople. Under
21645-611: The city. In 1532, he made another attack on Vienna, but was repulsed in the siege of Güns . Transylvania , Wallachia and, intermittently, Moldavia , became tributary principalities of the Empire. In the east, the Ottoman Turks took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of Mesopotamia and naval access to the Persian Gulf . In 1555, the Caucasus became partitioned for
21840-660: The civil strife, Austria-Hungary officially annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The last of the Ottoman censuses was performed in 1914 . Despite military reforms which reconstituted the Ottoman Modern Army , the Empire lost its North African territories and the Dodecanese in the Italo-Turkish War (1911) and almost all of its European territories in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). The Empire faced continuous unrest in
22035-442: The clan's leader. From a military point of view, the location of Osman's Beylik had a significant impact on his success as a conquering warrior. His capital Söğüt was located on a hill in a well-defended position, mediating the main road from Constantinople to Konya. The importance of this site emerged due to the political fragmentation of Anatolia that gave small states greater importance than they originally had. Being an Emir to
22230-423: The construction was completed, Osman provided the forts with large garrisons. This allowed his men to tighten the blockade and prevent any provisions reaching Bursa. The Ottoman siege lasted between six and nine years, this was due to the fact that the Ottomans had no Siege engines and they had never captured a large fortified city before. During the long siege, Osman and some of his military commanders conquered
22425-560: The creation of Lake Plastira which has met increasing tourist development in the last decades. Construction began during the 1950s. The Plastiras Dam contributed to the economic development of Greece. The majority of the workers on this project were Agrafiotes themselves. Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire ( / ˈ ɒ t ə m ə n / ), also called the Turkish Empire , was an imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe , West Asia , and North Africa from
22620-476: 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,
22815-516: The district of Blachernae . The Emperor arranged the wedding of Roger de Flor to his niece, the 15-year-old princess Maria Asanina, daughter of the Tsar of Bulgaria Ivan Asen III and Irene Palaiologina . De Flor was named Megas doux (Great Dux, i.e., Commander of the Imperial forces), and was promised a four months payment for him and his men. The Catalans soon crossed to Asia Minor and fought against
23010-582: The eastern and southern frontiers by defeating Shah Ismail of Safavid Iran , in the Battle of Chaldiran . Selim I established Ottoman rule in Egypt by defeating and annexing the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and created a naval presence on the Red Sea . After this Ottoman expansion, competition began between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottomans to become the dominant power in the region. Suleiman
23205-537: The eastern side. Then, he advanced from the west towards Lopadion and Evrenos. After that Osman turned around Mount Uludağ from both north and south, avoiding the fortified city of Bursa, connecting with his Muslim neighbours in the southeast. During that time, the Byzantine Empire was preoccupied with ongoing clashes with its powerful enemies in Anatolia, such as the Germiyanids and the coastal beyliks, not to mention suppressing unrest and discord in Constantinople and
23400-464: The emerging Turkic power, but it had neither. It was not long before the Catalans abandoned fighting the Muslims and turned their attention towards the Byzantines themselves. The reason for that was that the local population of Magnesia beheaded the Catalan garrison and stole its treasure, which infuriated Roger de Flor and made him march towards that city intending on revenge. The Byzantines were horrified by
23595-514: The empire into a more harmonious place. Instead, this period became the story of the twilight struggle of the Empire. Members of Young Turks movement who had once gone underground now established their parties. Among them " Committee of Union and Progress ", and " Freedom and Accord Party " were major parties. On the other end of the spectrum were ethnic parties, which included Poale Zion , Al-Fatat , and Armenian national movement organised under Armenian Revolutionary Federation . Profiting from
23790-531: The end of the Caucasian Wars , 90% of the Circassians were ethnically cleansed and exiled from their homelands in the Caucasus, fleeing to the Ottoman Empire, resulting in the settlement of 500,000 to 700,000 Circassians in the Ottoman Empire. Crimean Tatar refugees in the late 19th century played an especially notable role in seeking to modernise Ottoman education and in first promoting both Pan-Turkism and
23985-515: The end of the seventeenth century, and instead the word increasingly became associated with the Greek population of the empire, a meaning that it still bears in Turkey today. In Western Europe, the names Ottoman Empire, Turkish Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favoured both in formal and informal situations. This dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–1923, when
24180-419: The end of thirteenth century, Osman I's conquests include the areas of Bilecik (Belokomis), Yenişehir (Melangeia), İnegöl (Angelokomis) and Yarhisar [ tr ] (Köprühisar), and Byzantine castles in these areas. According to Shaw, Osman's first real conquests followed the collapse of Seljuk authority when he was able to occupy the fortresses of Kulucahisar and Eskişehir. Then he captured
24375-503: The exact same day the Mongol hordes invaded Baghdad, killing its inhabitants and ravaging its landmarks. Other sources, such as the 16th-century Ottoman historian Kemalpaşazâde , say that Osman was most likely born around the middle of the 13th century, possibly in 1254/5. Information related to the early life of Osman is limited. However, the few available sources agree that he was born in the town of Söğüt , which his father Ertuğrul took as
24570-473: The first significant city in his territories, Yenişehir , which became the Ottoman capital. In 1302, after soundly defeating a Byzantine force near Nicaea , Osman began settling his forces closer to Byzantine controlled areas. Alarmed by Osman's growing influence, the Byzantines gradually fled the Anatolian countryside. Byzantine leadership attempted to contain Ottoman expansion, but their efforts were poorly organized and ineffectual. Meanwhile, Osman spent
24765-480: The first time between the Safavids and the Ottomans, a status quo that remained until the end of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) . By this partitioning as signed in the Peace of Amasya , Western Armenia , western Kurdistan , and Western Georgia fell into Ottoman hands, while southern Dagestan , Eastern Armenia , Eastern Georgia , and Azerbaijan remained Persian. In 1539, a 60,000-strong Ottoman army besieged
24960-447: The focus of attention of the Germiyanids. Kafadar adds that early in Osman reign, the young Emir showed political ingenuity forming relations with his neighbours. Osman's alliances transcended tribal, ethnic, and religious lines, and he may have followed his instinct and the requirements of his political aspirations, not mistaking the future results of the family connections he created and secured for his son after him. Osman reconstituted
25155-416: The fort itself and taking it with ease. Osman ordered the execution of İnegöl's tekfur since he was known for persecuting his Muslim neighbours, then placed a new garrison for the town, and distributed the loot among his men. Osman aspired, after his multiple victories, to expand on two axes, aiming to isolate the Byzantine cities he was looking to conquer. First, he blocked the road leading to İznik from
25350-404: The fourteenth century. The word subsequently came to be used to refer to the empire's military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term "Turk" ( Türk ) was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population and was seen as a disparaging term when applied to urban, educated individuals. In the early modern period , an educated, urban-dwelling Turkish speaker who was not a member of
25545-414: The governance of all the land he did conquered as well as the towns of Eskişehir and İnönü . Moreover, The Seljuk Sultan issued a decree exempting Osman from all types of taxes. Osman also received several gifts from the Sultan reflecting the new high stature to the Seljuk court. These gifts included: a golden war banner, a mehter (war drum), a tuğ (a pole with circularly arranged horse tail hairs),
25740-622: The independence of the Middle East" in the 19th century "was not the armies of Europe but its banks". The Ottoman state, which had begun taking on debt with the Crimean War, was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1875. By 1881, the Ottoman Empire agreed to have its debt controlled by the Ottoman Public Debt Administration , a council of European men with presidency alternating between France and Britain. The body controlled swaths of
25935-570: The intermarriage between the Osmanic and Edebali's houses, explains the hostilities that later rose between the Ottomans and the Germiyanids , since the Germiyanid Turkoman house was rewarded lands and titles by the Seljuks because of their services in subjugating the Bābā'ī revolt in 1240, and because Sheikh Edebali was considered by his followers a leader and successor to Bābā Ishāq , they all became
26130-421: The lands rewarded to him. Thus, he started raiding the Byzantine possessions in the name of the Sultan successfully conquering several towns and villages, and slowly expanding his dominion during the half of the century he spent as a Seljuk governor. In 1281, Ertuğrul died at nearly 90 years of age. Although the exact date of Osman's birth is unspecified, some sources indicate that he was born on 13 February 1258,
26325-409: The last Venetian stronghold in Cyprus, Famagusta. The Venetian defenders held out for 11 months against a force that at its peak numbered 200,000 men with 145 cannons; 163,000 cannonballs struck the walls of Famagusta before it fell to the Ottomans in August 1571. The Siege of Famagusta claimed 50,000 Ottoman casualties. Meanwhile, the Holy League consisting of mostly Spanish and Venetian fleets won
26520-491: The late 16th and early 17th centuries. With the Empire's population reaching 30 million people by 1600, the shortage of land placed further pressure on the government. In spite of these problems, the Ottoman state remained strong, and its army did not collapse or suffer crushing defeats. The only exceptions were campaigns against the Safavid dynasty of Persia, where many of the Ottoman eastern provinces were lost, some permanently. This 1603–1618 war eventually resulted in
26715-435: The late 18th and early 19th centuries, culminating in the loss of both territory and global prestige . This prompted a comprehensive process of reform and modernization known as the Tanzimat ; over the course of the 19th century, the Ottoman state became vastly more powerful and organized internally, despite suffering further territorial losses, especially in the Balkans, where a number of new states emerged. Beginning in
26910-412: The late 19th century, various Ottoman intellectuals sought to further liberalize society and politics along European lines, culminating in the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 led by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which established the Second Constitutional Era and introduced competitive multi-party elections under a constitutional monarchy. However, following the disastrous Balkan Wars ,
27105-421: The late Sultan had no offspring, one of the local Emirs should take his place, and they found Osman perfect fitting the candidacy. Thus, the leaders offered the Emir the position, and Osman accepted becoming a Sultan. It is likely that Kayqubad's and Kaykāwūs's deaths led to the Sultanate of Rûm falling into chaos, and prompted many of its regular soldiers to join the armies of local Emirs, including Osman. This gave
27300-477: The latter a great momentum and important military experience enriching his army for the upcoming conquests. Soon after Osman secured his independence and established control over all fortresses he conquered, he sent messages to all remaining Byzantine tekfurs in Anatolia asking them to choose between accepting Islam, Ottoman sovereignty and paying jizyah , or war. Some of these tekfurs ended up accepting Islam, including Osman's old friend Köse Mihal, who became
27495-401: The legitimate successors of the Seljuks. Based on this, Osman's assumed lineage is as follows: Osman bin Ertuğrul bin Gündüz Alp bin Kaya Alp bin Gökalp bin Sarquk Alp bin Kayı Alp . Other researchers agree that the connection between Ertuğrul, Osman, and the Seljuks may have been largely invented by court chroniclers a century later, and the true origins of the Ottomans thus remain obscure. On
27690-453: The like." Osman became Emir , or Bey , upon his father's death around 1281. According to some historians, Osman's accession to power wasn't peaceful as he had to fight his relatives before he got hold of his clan's leadership. One of Osman's major rivals was his uncle Dündar Bey , who might have plotted to kill his nephew or rebelled against him when the latter decided to attack a small Greek island. Dündar Bey saw that Osman's ambition as
27885-435: The local Byzantines. Soon after this the Byzantines and the Catalans were at war with each other, giving way to Osman to move on with his conquests. After securing his northern borders by reaching the Black and Marmara seas, Osman turned his attention towards the southern borders of his beylik. Thus, he attacked the Byzantine towns, villages, and fortresses surrounding the city of Yenişehir preparing to conquer it. Osman sent
28080-479: The locals noticed Osman's leadership and military strength, as well as his devotion to Islam, they rallied to support and stand with him to consolidate a new Islamic state that would unite them and form an impenetrable wall against the Byzantines. Several Byzantine deserters joined Osman as well, some of which were liberated prisoners of war who chose to align with him, reportedly due to his good treatment during their custody. Many Islamic warrior brotherhoods also joined
28275-423: The loss of the Banat and the temporary loss of Belgrade (1717–1739), the Ottoman border on the Danube and Sava remained stable during the eighteenth century. Russian expansion , however, presented a large and growing threat. Accordingly, King Charles XII of Sweden was welcomed as an ally in the Ottoman Empire following his defeat by the Russians at the Battle of Poltava of 1709 in central Ukraine (part of
28470-431: The mercenaries' attacks, and became preoccupied in defending themselves. Roger de Flor was soon killed by order of the emperor's son Michael IX, who saw the indiscipline of the Catalan mercenaries as a growing danger, as did the people of Constantinople, who rose up against the Catalans and killed many of them. Once the news reached the main Catalan force in Gallipoli , they went on a killing spree of their own, killing all
28665-459: The military-administrative class typically referred to themselves neither as an Osmanlı nor as a Türk , but rather as a Rūmī ( رومى ), or "Roman", meaning an inhabitant of the territory of the former Byzantine Empire in the Balkans and Anatolia. The term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. As applied to Ottoman Turkish speakers, this term began to fall out of use at
28860-437: The music halted. Since that day, Ottoman soldiers enacted standing in glorification for their Sultan whenever drums were beaten. Soon after the conquest of Karacahisar, Osman marched with his soldiers north towards Sakarya River . Upon his arrival there, he raided and looted the forts of Göynük and Yenice Taraklı . Many argue that during this time, Osman received a message from his Byzantine friend Köse Mihal, warning him of
29055-439: The need for greater numbers of Ottoman infantry equipped with firearms, resulting in a relaxation of recruitment policy. This contributed to problems of indiscipline and outright rebelliousness within the corps, which were never fully solved. Irregular sharpshooters ( Sekban ) were also recruited, and on demobilisation turned to brigandage in the Celali rebellions (1590–1610), which engendered widespread anarchy in Anatolia in
29250-421: The new conditions of the seventeenth century and remain powerful, both militarily and economically. Historians of the mid-twentieth century once characterised this period as one of stagnation and decline, but this view is now rejected by the majority of academics. The discovery of new maritime trade routes by Western European states allowed them to avoid the Ottoman trade monopoly. The Portuguese discovery of
29445-404: The newly established Ankara -based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. At present, most scholarly historians avoid the terms "Turkey", "Turks", and "Turkish" when referring to the Ottomans, due to the empire's multinational character. As the Rum Sultanate declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as
29640-554: The north of Asia Minor, Osman's principality found itself particularly well placed to launch attacks on the vulnerable Byzantine Empire , which his descendants would eventually go on to conquer. Some scholars have argued that Osman's original name was Turkish, probably Atman or Ataman , and was only later changed to ʿO s mān , of Arabic origin. The earliest Byzantine sources, including Osman's contemporary and Greek historian George Pachymeres , spell his name as Ἀτουμάν (Atouman) or Ἀτμάν (Atman), whereas Greek sources regularly render both
29835-408: The occupying Allies, led to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey in the Anatolian heartland and the abolition of the Ottoman monarchy in 1922, formally ending the Ottoman Empire. The word Ottoman is a historical anglicisation of the name of Osman I , the founder of the Empire and of the ruling House of Osman (also known as the Ottoman dynasty). Osman's name in turn was the Turkish form of
30030-403: The oldest known records originally written by the Ottomans all date back to the period that followed the conquest of Constantinople (1453 CE). On the other hand, none of the Byzantine historians did refer in their writings to the origin of the Ottomans. As for European historians, these Turkic Muslim peoples were outside of their interest. However, that changed after a century of this period, when
30225-399: The other hand, some Ottoman sources indicate further lineage to Osman and the Oghuz Turks, which is closer to myth than reality, saying that these people are descendants of Japheth , son of Noah , and that Osman's genealogical tree contains 52 ancestors or more and ends with the Prophet Noah himself. This lineage includes Gökalp and Oghuz Han (who is said to be the father of Gökalp), and all
30420-406: The plague, which facilitated Ottoman expansion. In addition, slave hunting was the main economic driving force behind Ottoman conquest. Some 21st-century authors re-periodize conquest of the Balkans into the akıncı phase , which spanned 8 to 13 decades, characterized by continuous slave hunting and destruction, followed by administrative integration into the Empire. The son of Murad II, Mehmed
30615-426: The political culture of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in line with the needs of his beylik. He was more creative than his Turkomen neighbours in combining Turkic, Islamic, and Byzantine traditions. Additionally, the Emir also cooperated with the Byzantine Tekfurs of the neighbouring cities and villages. He forged an agreement, so his clan, whenever they move between grazing areas in the summer, leave their belongings in
30810-438: The previously mentioned date, alongside the Seljuks, when they left Transoxiana to Khurasan around 1040 to reside near the city of Merv . Then, the Kayı clan moved towards eastern Anatolia after 1071 CE, where it displaced other Turkic clans. Later, it became involved in the army of Sultan Kayqubad I and fought against the Khwarazmians , Mongols and Byzantines , who were raiding Seljuk lands. According to several sources,
31005-458: The principles of Islam , and was influenced by the teachings of Sufi sheikhs , mostly his mentor Sheikh Edebali , and this was reflected in his personality and lifestyle. In terms of proportions, the most popular and classic narration is that Osman is the grandson of Süleyman Şah , who died drowning while crossing the Euphrates River on horseback. The Turkish historian Yılmaz Öztuna considers that Osman's grandfather, and Ertuğrul's father,
31200-416: The problem of Ottoman expansion. Thus, he hired a company of Catalan mercenaries led by Roger de Flor . The mercenaries had become unemployed after the signing of the Peace of Caltabellotta between the Crown of Aragon and the French dynasty of the Angevins in 1302. The company arrived at Constantinople in January 1303, where they were received by the Emperor himself, then, the mercenaries were housed in
31395-403: The produce from the Agrafa are traditional cold weather crops or crops which can survive in poor soil. The proceeds of the timber sales from the forests purchased from the monasteries continue to benefit the community as a whole. The most famous person from the Agrafa and the driving force behind modernization was the colonel Nikolaos Plastiras , who was elected prime minister of Greece after
31590-402: The remainder of his reign expanding his control in two directions, north along the course of the Sakarya River and southwest towards the Sea of Marmara , achieving his objectives by 1308. Osman's last campaign was against the city of Bursa . Although Osman did not physically participate in the battle, the victory at Bursa proved to be extremely vital for the Ottomans as the city served as
31785-411: The restoration of Ottoman suzerainty over Egypt Eyalet and the Levant . By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was called the " sick man of Europe ". Three suzerain states – the Principality of Serbia , Wallachia and Moldavia – moved towards de jure independence during the 1860s and 1870s. During the Tanzimat period (1839–1876), the government's series of constitutional reforms led to
31980-414: The siege without any fighting, but he continued isolating Bursa from its surrounding forts, conquering Mudanya to cut off the city's connection to the sea. He also captured the city of Praenetos on the southern coast of İzmit , changing its name to Karamürsel, after the Muslim leader who took it "Karamürsel Bey". The last fort to fall was Beyce, which was considered Bursa's key as it overlooked it, and it
32175-467: The sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire came under increasing strain from inflation and the rapidly rising costs of warfare that were impacting both Europe and the Middle East. These pressures led to a series of crises around the year 1600, placing great strain upon the Ottoman system of government. The empire underwent a series of transformations of its political and military institutions in response to these challenges, enabling it to successfully adapt to
32370-450: The smaller Byzantine fortresses on the vicinity of the beylik, in which Several tekfurs acknowledged Osman's sovereignty, and became among his subjects, some of them accepting Islam in the process. Soon after that, Osman started suffering from Gout , and couldn't accompany his men in any more campaigns or witness the Siege of Bursa , so he entrusted his son Orhan to complete this major task, while he retired in his capital. Orhan's continued
32565-427: The soldiers), and 400,000 non-Muslims fled territory still under Ottoman rule. Justin McCarthy estimates that from 1821 to 1922, 5.5 million Muslims died in southeastern Europe, with the expulsion of 5 million. The defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908—1922) began with the Second Constitutional Era , a moment of hope and promise established with the Young Turk Revolution . It restored
32760-437: The story to the holy man, who said 'Osman, my son, congratulations, for God has given the imperial office to you and your descendants and my daughter Malhun shall be your wife. The dream became an important foundational myth for the empire, imbuing the House of Osman with God-given authority over the earth and providing its fifteenth-century audience with an explanation for Ottoman success. The dream story may also have served as
32955-519: The strategy of increasing his territories at the expense of the Byzantines while avoiding conflict with his more powerful Turkish neighbors. His first advances were through the passes which lead from the barren areas of northern Phrygia near modern Eskişehir into the more fertile plains of Bithynia; according to Stanford Shaw , these conquests were achieved against the local Byzantine nobles, "some of whom were defeated in battle, others being absorbed peacefully by purchase contracts, marriage contracts, and
33150-562: The sultan and restored Ottoman power. The Balkan territories lost by the Ottomans after 1402, including Thessaloniki, Macedonia, and Kosovo, were later recovered by Murad II between the 1430s and 1450s. On 10 November 1444, Murad repelled the Crusade of Varna by defeating the Hungarian, Polish, and Wallachian armies under Władysław III of Poland and John Hunyadi at the Battle of Varna , although Albanians under Skanderbeg continued to resist. Four years later, John Hunyadi prepared another army of Hungarian and Wallachian forces to attack
33345-427: The surrounding forests in the region were controlled by Greek Orthodox monasteries for many hundreds of years and through Ottoman rule. The residents of the Agrafa purchased tracts of land from the monasteries hundreds of years ago and these forests remain in the communal hands of the current inhabitants. Agrafa served as a refuge for Greeks fleeing Ottoman rule and was a center of Greek literacy and culture during
33540-403: The terms of the Convention of Kütahya , signed on 5 May 1833, Muhammad Ali agreed to abandon his campaign against the Sultan, in exchange for which he was made the vali (governor) of the vilayets (provinces) of Crete , Aleppo , Tripoli , Damascus and Sidon (the latter four comprising modern Syria and Lebanon ), and given the right to collect taxes in Adana . Had it not been for
33735-449: The third Rashidun Caliph " Uthman the Great". Most sources agree that the Ottoman Turks belonged to the Kayı Oghuz Turkic clan , who, according to Ottoman traditions, fled their native homeland in Central Asia during the early 13th century due to the Mongol invasions. The clan settled in Anatolia, in a region belonging to the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm . Other sources claim that the Kayı clan moved to Anatolia two centuries earlier than
33930-421: The throne. Another story suggests that Kayqubad escaped and sought refuge in the Byzantine court where he remained until his death. In all cases, Kaykāwūs's rule was short-lived, lasting between 4 and 6 years at most, and when he died in 1308 CE, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm was no more to be mentioned in the historical records, giving the way for the Turkoman beyliks to emerge as independent states. The demise of
34125-411: The town's church into a mosque. Osman appointed a Qadi (magistrate) and a Subaşı (chief of police) for the newly conquered city. Historians differed in determining the date of this conquest, yet none made it prior to 1286, or exceeding 1291. Osman made his new city a staging base of his military campaigns against the Byzantines, and ordered that his name be delivered at the Friday khuṭbah , which
34320-466: The wars with Russia, some people in the Ottoman Empire began to conclude that the reforms of Peter the Great had given the Russians an edge, and the Ottomans would have to keep up with Western technology in order to avoid further defeats. Selim III (1789–1807) made the first major attempts to modernise the army , but his reforms were hampered by the religious leadership and the Janissary corps. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change,
34515-410: The years leading up to World War I , including the 31 March Incident and two further coups in 1912 and 1913 . The Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated. The Ottoman participation in the war began with the combined German-Ottoman surprise attack on the Black Sea coast of the Russian Empire on 29 October 1914. Following the attack,
34710-448: Was a fortress located two leagues away from İnegöl, within the scope of mount Uludağ . The Emir attacked the fort at night and managed to conquer it , extending his beylik northwards toward Lake İznik's proximity. The Ottoman victory at Kulacahisar triggered the fort's governor, who refused to be a subordinate subject to a Muslim ruler, especially a border Emir, so he allied himself with Karacahisar 's governor, and both men agreed to fight
34905-400: Was a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion on the Italian peninsula. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion . The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans . It flourished economically due to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia. Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded
35100-509: Was besieged in 1301. The Ottoman raids also threatened the port city of Nicomedia with famine, as the Ottomans roamed the countryside prohibiting peasants from harvesting wheat. This provoked Bursa's tekfur among others to unite their efforts to eliminate this new emerging Islamic power. In the spring of 1302, Emperor Michael IX launched a campaign that reached south to Magnesia . The Ottomans, awed by his large army, avoided an open battle. The Emperor sought to confront The Ottomans, but he
35295-430: Was dissuaded by his generals. Encouraged by that, The Ottomans resumed their raids, virtually isolating the Emperor at Magnesia. Soon, the imperial army started dissolving without engaging in a single battle, that is because the local troops left to defend their homes which were continuously raided by the Ottomans, and the Alan mercenaries left as well, aiming to rejoin with their families in Thrace . The Byzantine emperor
35490-414: Was established as an independent principality inside the Ottoman Empire; Romania achieved full independence; and Serbia and Montenegro finally gained complete independence, but with smaller territories. In 1878, Austria-Hungary unilaterally occupied the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Novi Pazar . British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli advocated restoring the Ottoman territories on
35685-484: Was far more damaging to the Ottoman navy in sapping experienced manpower than the loss of ships, which were rapidly replaced. The Ottoman navy recovered quickly, persuading Venice to sign a peace treaty in 1573, allowing the Ottomans to expand and consolidate their position in North Africa. By contrast, the Habsburg frontier had settled somewhat, a stalemate caused by a stiffening of the Habsburg defenses. The Long Turkish War against Habsburg Austria (1593–1606) created
35880-433: Was forced to withdraw by the sea, followed by a wave of refugees. To counter the threat to Nicomedia, Michael's father, Andronikos II , sent a Byzantine force of some 2,000 men (half of whom were recently hired Alan mercenaries), under the megas hetaireiarches , Giorgios Mouzalon, to cross the Bosporus and relieve the city. The Byzantine response was a warning for the Islamic border villages and towns. However, when
36075-470: Was granted dominion over the town of Söğüt in northwestern Anatolia on the Byzantine frontier. He also obtained the title of Uç beyliği or Uç bey (literally: marcher-lord). Granting this title was in line with the traditions of the Seljuk Sultanate, which is rewarding any clan chieftain who rises to power and is joined by a number of smaller clans, the title of marcher-lord. However, Ertuğrul had far-reaching political ambitions. He sought to expand beyond
36270-409: Was on the defensive and unlikely to present any further aggression in Europe. The Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–1739), which was ended by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, resulted in the Ottoman recovery of northern Bosnia , Habsburg Serbia (including Belgrade), Oltenia and the southern parts of the Banat of Temeswar ; but the Empire lost the port of Azov , north of the Crimean Peninsula, to
36465-434: Was one of the Wafā'īyyah tariqah dervishes, a Murid of Bābā Eliyās al-Khorāsānī . Once Bābā Eliyās died, both Ḥājī Baktāš Walī and Sheikh Edebali became among his 60 successors, and grandmasters of the Ahyan Rûm brotherhood of warriors and farmers, who enjoyed great influence among the people. When Osman married Sheikh Edebali's daughter, he secured his control over the brotherhood, and soon became their new grandmaster. As
36660-423: Was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. The financial burden of the war led the Ottoman state to issue foreign loans amounting to 5 million pounds sterling on 4 August 1854. The war caused an exodus of the Crimean Tatars , about 200,000 of whom moved to the Ottoman Empire in continuing waves of emigration. Toward
36855-440: Was renamed Orhaneli . Orhan tightened the blockade around Bursa till its garrison fell into despair. Soon, the Byzantine emperor realized that the fall of the city into Muslim hands was inevitable, thus, he made a difficult decision ordering his governor to evacuate the city. Orhan entered Bursa on 6 April 1326, its people were not subjected to any harm after they recognized Ottoman sovereignty and pledged to pay jizyah . Saroz,
37050-411: Was sent to Ḥājī Baktāš Walī to consider his matter. Osman was warmly received by the Sufi mystic, who then ordered his release saying: "I have been waiting for someone like him for years". After that, Ḥājī Baktāš Walī wrapped Osman's head with the same Turban associated with Sufi sheikhs, and sent him back to Konya with a message to the sultan, asking that Osman to become the Kayı Emir. Thus, Osman became
37245-460: Was supervised by a sheikh who taught them the meaning of jihad alongside many Islamic principles. However, another section of these Turkomen did not have close ties to Islam for various reasons, thus Osman entrusted them to several sheikhs and dervishes to be given proper Islamic education and be satiated with the values that glorify conquests aiming to spread the word of Islam . In fact, these sheikhs and dervishes were very enthusiastic about promoting
37440-460: Was the culmination of this coexistence between Muslims and Byzantines. As for his relations with other peoples, such as the Mongols, most of whom moved to the borders of western Anatolia, and the Germiyanid Turkomen, it was hostile. That is because the Turks, in general, despised the Mongols, and the Germiyanids were probably of non-Oghuz origin. Osman allied with the Ahyan Rûm brotherhood, they formed organized groups, members in each of which worked in
37635-472: Was the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire (first known as a beylik or emirate ). While initially a small Turkoman principality during Osman's lifetime, his beylik transformed into a vast empire in the centuries after his death. It existed until 1922 shortly after the end of World War I , when the sultanate was abolished. Owing to the scarcity of historical sources dating from his lifetime, very little factual information about Osman has survived. Not
37830-428: Was the first manifestation of his sovereignty and authority. Osman's latest victory was his greatest up to that date. Seljuk Sultan Alâeddin Kayqubad III expressed his deep appreciation for Osman's accomplishments in the name of the Seljuks and Islam, giving him the title of Ḥaḍrat ʻUthmān ghāzī marzubān 'Âli Jâh ʻUthmān Shāh (the honourable conqueror and border guardian Osman Shāh). The Sultan also bestowed upon Osman
38025-518: Was victorious, and most of the Byzantines were killed. After that, Osman rode towards Yarhisar and took it by surprise; A large part of the fort's garrison was killed, while the rest were taken prisoners. The tekfur's daughter Holophira, was also captured in this action, she soon became Osman's daughter in law, having married his son Orhan sometime later, and her name was changed in Bayalun Afterwards, Osman and several of his men took over all towns and villages surrounding İnegöl, before laying siege on
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