Osman I and the Founding of the Ottoman State (c. 1299)

Osman I (died c. 1323–1324) was the leader of a small Turkish band on the Byzantine frontier in north-western Anatolia whose principality grew into the Ottoman Empire. Tradition dates the founding of the Ottoman state to 1299, but the first firmly recorded event of his career is a victory over the Byzantines at Bapheus in 1302. How a minor chieftain founded one of history’s longest-lasting empires is still debated, because almost all written accounts of his life were composed more than a century later.

Background: Anatolia around 1300

For two centuries after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, much of Anatolia was ruled by the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, with its capital at Konya. In 1243 the Mongols defeated the Seljuks at Köse Dağ, and the sultanate became a Mongol vassal. Over the following decades its authority faded.

By around 1300 Anatolia was divided among more than a dozen Turkish principalities, known as beyliks, such as Karaman, Germiyan, Aydın and Karesi. Many of their warriors were Turkmen nomads who had moved west under Mongol pressure. Mongol governors of the Ilkhanate still claimed overlordship, but their grip on the west was weak.

The Byzantine frontier in Bithynia

On the other side of the frontier lay the Byzantine Empire. In 1261 the Byzantines had recaptured Constantinople from the Latins (see Byzantine recapture of Constantinople), and the emperors concentrated their attention on the Balkans. The defences of Bithynia, the fertile region south-east of Constantinople around Nicaea (İznik), Nicomedia (İzmit) and Prusa (Bursa), were neglected.

The local frontier soldiers had lost pay and privileges, and the countryside was exposed to raids. In this zone of mixed Greek Christian villages, Turkish nomads and fortified Byzantine towns, Osman built his power.

Who was Osman?

Very little about Osman’s early life is certain. Later Ottoman tradition says his father was Ertuğrul, who led a band of Turkmen and was granted pastures around Söğüt, a small town in the valley of the Sakarya river, by a Seljuk sultan. Ertuğrul’s existence is supported by a coin minted in Osman’s name that refers to him, but almost everything else about him comes from legend.

Osman probably succeeded his father some time in the 1280s. His year of birth is unknown; dates around 1258 are often given but cannot be confirmed. Byzantine writers called him Atman or Ataman. He was a bey, a chieftain, rather than a king, and his followers were a mix of Turkish nomads, warriors seeking booty and, increasingly, local Christians.

The problem of the sources

The earliest Ottoman chronicles, such as those of Aşıkpaşazade and Neşri, were written in the second half of the 15th century, around 150 years after Osman’s time. They combine oral tradition, legend and the political needs of later sultans. The only contemporary written evidence comes from Byzantine historians, above all George Pachymeres, and from a handful of coins and documents. Historians must therefore work with fragments.

What happened: from chieftain to ruler

The Ottoman chronicles describe a long series of small conflicts and alliances with local Byzantine lords. Osman is said to have taken the fortresses of Karacahisar, Bilecik, İnegöl and Yarhisar, and to have made Yenişehir his base. Tradition places the capture of Bilecik and Yarhisar and the beginning of independent rule in 1299, but this date was chosen later and is not supported by contemporary evidence.

Osman’s success depended as much on cooperation as on war. One of his closest companions was Köse Mihal, a Byzantine Greek local lord who joined him and later converted to Islam; his descendants, the Mihaloğulları, became a leading Ottoman frontier family. Another key figure was Sheikh Edebali, a respected religious leader whose daughter Osman is said to have married.

The Battle of Bapheus, 1302

The first datable event in Osman’s career came in 1302, usually dated to 27 July. A Byzantine force under the commander George Mouzalon, sent to protect Nicomedia, met Osman’s warriors at a place called Bapheus. The Byzantine army, which included Alan mercenaries, was defeated and retreated to Nicomedia.

The battle was not large by later standards, but Pachymeres describes how the defeat triggered panic in Bithynia. Many rural inhabitants fled to the walled towns or across the sea to Constantinople, and warriors from other parts of Anatolia came to join Osman. From then on the countryside around Nicaea, Nicomedia and Prusa was increasingly under his control.

Sieges and the road to Bursa

Osman’s forces lacked siege engines and could not storm major walled cities. Instead they used blockades, building small forts around Byzantine towns to cut off food supplies. Prusa (Bursa) was blockaded in this way for several years from the late 1310s. It finally surrendered in 1326, to Osman’s son Orhan, at about the time of Osman’s death or shortly after it.

How Osman’s principality worked

Osman’s realm was not yet a state in the later sense. It had no fixed capital, no written law code and only a small household of followers. Power rested on personal loyalty: warriors followed Osman because he led successful raids, shared out booty fairly and rewarded his companions with lands and villages. Many of the families who served him, such as the descendants of Köse Mihal, became hereditary frontier lords under later sultans.

Conquered Christian villages were generally left in place and taxed rather than destroyed, since their farmers were the source of the principality’s income. Some local Greeks converted to Islam over time, while others remained Christian and served the new rulers. Dervishes and wandering religious men, such as Edebali’s circle, provided religious authority and helped bind together a mixed population.

A silver coin bearing Osman’s name, discovered in the late 20th century, suggests that he claimed some of the symbols of independent rule before his death, although its date and meaning are debated. Under Orhan the principality began to mint coins regularly, build mosques and schools and employ scholars trained in Islamic law, the first steps towards the administration of an empire.

Osman’s death and successors

Osman probably died around 1323–1324, although Ottoman tradition often gives 1326. He was buried in Bursa, which became the first important Ottoman capital. His son Orhan (ruled c. 1324–1362) captured Nicaea in 1331 and Nicomedia in 1337 and crossed into Europe at Gallipoli in 1354.

Within a century the Ottomans ruled much of the Balkans and Anatolia. Orhan’s successors developed institutions such as the Janissaries, and in 1453 Mehmed II took Constantinople itself (see Fall of Constantinople). The dynasty Osman founded ruled without interruption until 1922.

Key people

• Osman I (died c. 1323–1324): founder of the Ottoman principality, later honoured with the title Gazi, “warrior for the faith”.
• Ertuğrul: Osman’s father, leader of a Turkmen band settled at Söğüt; known almost entirely from later tradition.
• Orhan: Osman’s son and successor, who captured Bursa and turned the principality into a state.
• Sheikh Edebali: dervish leader and religious adviser, said in the chronicles to be Osman’s father-in-law.
• Köse Mihal: Byzantine local lord who became Osman’s ally and founded a powerful Ottoman frontier family.

Debates: why did the Ottomans succeed?

Historians have long asked why Osman’s principality, one of the smaller beyliks, outgrew all the others.

In lectures published in 1938 the historian Paul Wittek proposed the “gazi thesis”: the early Ottomans were driven by the ideal of holy war (gaza) against Christian Byzantium, which attracted warriors and gave them a sense of purpose. Later scholars criticised this as too simple, pointing out that Osman and Orhan readily allied with Christians, married Christian women and recruited Byzantine soldiers.

Rudi Lindner emphasised tribal and nomadic structures, and Heath Lowry argued that the early Ottomans were a “plundering confederacy” open to Muslims and Christians alike. Cemal Kafadar’s influential study Between Two Worlds (1995) suggested that the frontier culture combined holy-war ideals with pragmatism and flexibility. Most historians now agree that geography played a major role: Osman’s lands bordered the rich but poorly defended Byzantine heartland, offering opportunities that inland beyliks did not have.

Myths and facts

“The Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299.” The date is traditional. It may have been chosen because it falls close to the Islamic year 700 (1300–1301), the turn of an Islamic century, and no contemporary source records any founding event that year.

“Osman’s dream foretold the empire.” In the story, Osman dreams that a moon rises from Sheikh Edebali’s breast and sinks into his own, and a tree grows from his navel whose shade covers the world. The tale appears in 15th-century chronicles and served to give the dynasty a divinely sanctioned origin; it is a legend, not a historical record.

“Osman was a sultan.” Osman never used the title sultan. He was a bey, and the Ottoman rulers adopted the title of sultan only gradually during the 14th century.

Timeline

• 1243: The Mongols defeat the Seljuks of Rum at Köse Dağ.
• 1261: The Byzantines recapture Constantinople; Bithynia is increasingly neglected.
• c. 1280s: Osman succeeds his father Ertuğrul at Söğüt (date uncertain).
• 1299: Traditional date of the founding of the Ottoman state.
• 1302, c. 27 July: Osman defeats a Byzantine army at Bapheus near Nicomedia.
• c. 1317–1326: Ottoman blockade of Bursa.
• c. 1323–1324: Osman dies; Orhan succeeds him.
• 1326: Bursa surrenders to Orhan and becomes the Ottoman capital.

Why it matters

Osman’s small frontier principality became the core of an empire that, at its height, stretched from Hungary to Arabia and from Algeria to the Persian Gulf, and lasted more than six centuries. His name survives in the very word “Ottoman”, and the uncertain story of his rise remains one of the great puzzles of medieval history.