Osman I

Osman I
An Ottoman miniature depicting Osman I, c. 1580
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Reignc. 1299 – 1323/4
PredecessorTitle established
SuccessorOrhan
Uch Bey of the Sultanate of Rum
Reignc. 1280c. 1299
PredecessorErtuğrul
SuccessorTitle abolished
BornUnknown,[1]
possibly c. 1254/5[2]
Died1323/4[3] (age 68–70)
Bursa, Ottoman Beylik
Burial
Tomb of Osman Gazi, Osmangazi, Bursa Province, Turkey
SpouseMalhun Hatun
Rabia Bala Hatun
Issue
Among others
Orhan Ghazi
Alaeddin Ali Pasha
Names
Osman bin Ertuğrul bin Gündüz Alp[4]
عثمان بن ارطغرل بن گندز الپ
OR
Osman bin Ertuğrul bin Suleyman Shah
عثمان بن ارطغرل بن سلیمان شاہ
DynastyOttoman dynasty
FatherErtuğrul
MotherUnknown[5]
ReligionSunni Islam

Osman I or Osman Ghazi (Ottoman Turkish: عثمان غازى, romanizedʿOsmān Ġāzī; Turkish: I. Osman or Osman Gazi; died 1323/4)[1][3][a] was the founder of the Ottoman Empire (first known as the Ottoman Beylik or Emirate). While initially a small Turkoman[6] principality during Osman's lifetime, his beylik transformed into a world empire in the centuries after his death.[7] It existed until shortly after the end of World War I.

Owing to the scarcity of historical sources dating from his lifetime, very little factual information about Osman has survived. Not a single written source survives from Osman's reign,[8] and the Ottomans did not record the history of Osman's life until the fifteenth century, more than a hundred years after his death.[9] Because of this, historians find it very challenging to differentiate between fact and myth in the many stories told about him.[10] One historian has even gone so far as to declare it impossible, describing the period of Osman's life as a "black hole".[11]

According to later Ottoman tradition, Osman's ancestors were descendants of the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks.[12] However, many scholars of the early Ottomans regard it as a later fabrication meant to reinforce dynastic legitimacy.[12]

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 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.

  1. ^ a b Kermeli, Eugenia (2009). "Osman I". In Ágoston, Gábor; Masters, Bruce (eds.). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. p. 444. Reliable information regarding Osman is scarce. His birth date is unknown and his symbolic significance as the father of the dynasty has encouraged the development of mythic tales regarding the ruler's life and origins; however, historians agree that before 1300, Osman was simply one among a number of Turkoman tribal leaders operating in the Sakarya region.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference kemalpasazade was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Kafadar, Cemal (1995). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. p. 16. By the time of Osman's death (1323 or 1324)...
  4. ^ Akgündüz, Ahmed; Öztürk, Said (2011). Ottoman History – Misperceptions and Truths. IUR Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-90-90-26108-9. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  5. ^ Lowry, Heath W. (2003). The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. Albany: SUNY Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7914-8726-6.
  6. ^ "Osman I". Encyclopedia Britannica. 18 May 2023. Osman I, also called Osman Gazi, (born c. 1258—died 1324 or 1326), ruler of a Turkmen principality in northwestern Anatolia who is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Turkish state.
  7. ^ The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1999, Donald Quataert, page 4, 2005
  8. ^ Kafadar, Cemal (1995). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. p. xii. There is still not one authentic written document known from the time of ʿOsmān, and there are not many from the fourteenth century altogether.
  9. ^ Kafadar, Cemal (1995). Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State. p. 93.
  10. ^ Finkel, Caroline (2005). Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923. Basic Books. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-465-02396-7. Modern historians attempt to sift historical fact from the myths contained in the later stories in which the Ottoman chroniclers accounted for the origins of the dynasty[.]
  11. ^ Imber, Colin (1991). Zachariadou, Elizabeth (ed.). The Ottoman Emirate (1300–1389). Rethymnon: Crete University Press. p. 75. Almost all the traditional tales about Osman Gazi are fictitious. The best thing a modern historian can do is to admit frankly that the earliest history of the Ottomans is a black hole. Any attempt to fill this hole will result simply in more fables.
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference kayi was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).