Osman I

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	Osman I Ottoman Period
Preceded by Ertuğrul	Ottoman ruler 1281–1326	Succeeded by Orhan I

Osman I (1258–1326) (Ottoman: عثمان بن أرطغرل) was born in 1258 and inherited the title bey (chief) from his father, Ertuğrul, as the ruler of the village of Söğüt in 1281. The birth of the empire originated with the conquest of the Turkish tribe of Eskenderum and the city of Eskişehir (Turkish for 'Old City') in 1301–1303, although Osman had already in 1299 declared the independence from the Seljuk Empire of his own small kingdom, the Ottoman Principality.

Osman is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Empire, and it is from him that its inhabitants, the Turks, called themselves Osmanli until the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the only national appellation they recognized. Ertuğrul, Osman's predecessor, had previously maintained himself as the vassal and lieutenant of the Seljuk Sultan of Rüm at Konya (Iconium), but Osman, after the death of Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh III in 1307, waged wars and accumulated dominions as an independent ruler. He had become the Bey, or chief, of his tribe twelve years earlier, after Ertuğrul’s death in 1288.

Osman was twenty-four years of age at his accession, and he had already both proven his skill as a leader, and his prowess as a combatant. His early fortunes and exploits are favorite subjects with Oriental writers, especially in love stories of his wooing and winning the fair Mal Hatun. These legends have probably been romanticized by the poetical pens which recorded them in later years. The Ottoman writers attached great importance to a legendary dream of the founder of their empire.

Ottoman historians often dwell on the prophetic significance of his name, which means "bone-breaker", signifying the powerful energy with which he and his appeared to show in the following centuries of conquest. “Osman” means the “Bone-breaker.” It is also the name given to a large species of vulture, commonly called the royal vulture, which is considered the emblem of sovereignty and warlike power in the East, comparable to the eagle in the nations of the West.

Osman is celebrated by Oriental writers for his personal beauty, and for “his wondrous length and strength of arm.” Like Artaxerxes Longimanus of the old dynasty of Persian kings, Liu Bei in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Gautama the Buddha, and the Highland chieftain of whom Wordsworth sang, Osman is said to have been able to touch his knees with his hands when standing upright. He was claimed to be unsurpassed in his skill and graceful carriage as a horseman; and the jet black colour of his hair, his beard, and eyebrows, gained him in youth the title of “Kara,” meaning “Black”, Osman. The epithet “Kara,” which is often found in Turkish history is considered to imply the highest degree of manly beauty when applied to a person. He dressed simply, in the tradition of the first warriors of Islam, and like them he wore a turban of ample white linen, wreathed round a red centre. His loose flowing kaftan was of one colour, and had long open sleeves.

The last prince of the family of Aleaddin, to which that of Osman's had been indebted for its foundation in Asia Minor, was now dead. There was no other among the various Emirs of that country who could compete with Osman for the headship of the whole Turkish population and dominion over the whole peninsula, save the Emir of Karamanogullari. A long and fierce struggle between the Osman and Karamanogullari princes for the ascendency, commenced in Osman’s lifetime and was protracted during the reigns of many of his successors. Osman himself had gained some advantages over his Karamanli rival; but the weak and wealthy possessions of the Byzantine Emperor in the north-east of Asia Minor were more tempting marks for his ambition than the Karamanoglu plains, and it was over Greek cities and armies that the triumphs of the last twenty-six years of Osman’s life were achieved.

Not all of Osman’s counselors agreed with Osman's path of conquest. Osman silenced all remonstrance and quelled all risk of dissension and mutiny by an act of prompt ferocity, which shows that the great ancestor of the Ottoman Sultans had a full share of the ruthless cruelty that has been the dark characteristic of the Turkish Royal House. Osman’s uncle, the aged Dundar who had marched with Ertoghrul from the Euphrates seventy years before, was still alive when Osman in 1299 summoned a council of his principal followers and announced to them his intention to attack the lord of the important Greek fortress of Keaprihissar. The old uncle urgently opposed this enterprise, stressing the danger of provoking, with such ambitious aggrandizement, all the neighboring princes, Turkish as well as Greek, to unite in a league against their tribe, leading to its destruction. Enraged at the chilling caution of the grey-headed man and probably having observed others beginning to share it, he spoke not a word in reply but killed his old uncle on the spot — a bloodly lesson to all who should harbour thoughts of contradicting the fixed will of so stern a lord.

[edit] Reference

• Incorporates text from History of Ottoman Turks(1878)