Osman I

Osman I, also called Osman Ghazi, died in 1323 or 1324. He gave his name to the Ottoman Empire, which began as a small Turkoman beylik, or emirate, during his lifetime. Centuries after his death, that principality grew into a vast empire that lasted until the sultanate was abolished in 1922, shortly after World War I.

Very little factual information about Osman survives. No written records from his own reign exist, and the Ottomans did not write down his life story until the 1400s, more than a hundred years after he died. Because of this, historians struggle to separate fact from myth in the many tales about him. One historian described the period of Osman’s life as a “black hole,” saying it is impossible to distinguish truth from legend.

Later Ottoman tradition claimed Osman’s ancestors came from the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks. Many scholars of the early Ottomans, however, consider this a later invention meant to strengthen the dynasty’s claim to power.

Osman’s principality was one of several Anatolian beyliks that appeared in the second half of the 1200s. It was located in Bithynia, in northern Asia Minor, a position that allowed it to attack the weakening Byzantine Empire. His descendants would eventually conquer that empire.

Some scholars think Osman’s original name was Turkish—possibly Atman or Ataman—and that he later adopted the Arabic name ʿOsmān. The earliest Byzantine sources, including the contemporary Greek historian George Pachymeres, spell his name as Ἀτουμάν (Atouman) or Ἀτμάν (Atman). Greek sources regularly render both the Arabic ʿUthmān and the Turkish ʿOsmān with θ, τθ, or τσ. One early Arabic source used the letter ṭ instead of th in one instance. Turkish historian Halil İnalcık considered it a remote possibility that Osman was originally named Ataman and came from the Dasht-i Qipchaq north of the Black Sea.

Arab scholars such as Shihab al-Umari and Ibn Khaldun used the name Othman. Ibn Battuta, who visited the region during the reign of Osman’s son Orhan, called him Osmancık (also spelled Othmānjiq or Osmanjiq). The Turkish suffix -cık (or -cuk) indicates a diminutive, so “Osmancık” means “Osman the Little,” distinguishing him from the third Rashidun Caliph, “Uthman the Great.”

From the 1500s into the 1700s, his name was written in English as “Ottoman,” “Otoman,” or “Othoman.” The adjective “Ottoman” comes from this name.

Most sources agree that the Ottoman Turks belonged to the Kayı Oghuz Turkic clan. According to Ottoman traditions, the clan fled Central Asia in the early 1200s because of the Mongol invasions and settled in Anatolia, in territory belonging to the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. Other sources claim the Kayı moved to Anatolia two centuries earlier, alongside the Seljuks, leaving Transoxiana for Khurasan around 1040 and settling near Merv. After 1071, they moved into eastern Anatolia, displacing other Turkic clans. Later, they fought in the army of Sultan Kayqubad I against the Khwarazmians, Mongols, and Byzantines. Several sources say the Kayı warriors were known for fighting in the front lines, and their skill and bravery helped the Seljuks win many battles. Because of this, Sultan Kayqubad appointed the clan’s emir, Ertuğrul, as a Moqaddam (lieutenant) and gave the Kayıs fertile lands near Ankara, where they settled and served the Sultan for years.

Later, Ertuğrul received dominion over the town of Söğüt in northwestern Anatolia, on the Byzantine frontier, along with the title Uç beyliği or Uç bey (marcher-lord). Granting this title followed Seljuk tradition: any clan chieftain who gained power and attracted smaller clans could be made a marcher-lord. Ertuğrul had larger political ambitions, however. He began raiding Byzantine possessions in the Sultan’s name, conquering several towns and villages and slowly expanding his territory over his roughly fifty-year tenure as a Seljuk governor. Ertuğrul died in 1281, at nearly 90 years old.

The exact date of Osman’s birth is unknown, and very little is known about his early life and origins. The oldest-known source about this period was written about a hundred years after his death. Among these sources are *Destan-ı Tevarih-i Al-i Osman* (The Oral History of the Ottomans), written in the 1300s by the poet and court physician Ahmedî (1334–1413); *Behcetü’t-Tevârîh* (The Joy of Histories) by Şükrullah (d. 1464); and other works.