Editing Osman I (section)

=== Battle of Bapheus ===
[[File:Nicaea's Byzantine fortifications, Iznik, Turkey (38459580376).jpg|thumb|left|A section of the remaining Byzantine fortifications in Nicaea]]

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 ''[[jizya]]h'', or war. Some of these ''tekfurs'' ended up accepting Islam, including Osman's old friend Köse Mihal, who became 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 ''[[Mihaloğlu|Mihaloğulları]]'' (children of Michael, plural of ''Mihaloğlu'').<ref>{{cite book|last1=Farīd|first1=Muḥammad|url=https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwSf_0bx00XdUEl6UHJ3VTJ1N2s/edit|title=Tārīkh al-Dawlah al-ʻAlīyah al-ʻUthmānīyah|publisher=Dar al-Nafa'is|year=2006|edition=10th|place=Beirut|pages=116, 119|language=ar|trans-title=History of the Exalted Ottoman State|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509154112/https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwSf_0bx00XdUEl6UHJ3VTJ1N2s/edit|archive-date=9 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Babinger|first1=Franz|url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5193|title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam|publisher=E. J. Brill|year=1993|isbn=90-04-09419-9|edition=New|volume=VII|place=Leiden|pages=34–35|chapter=Mīk̲h̲āl-Og̲h̲lu|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_5193}}</ref> 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 was besieged in 1301.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kazhdan|first1=Alexander|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1991|isbn=0-19-504652-8|place=Oxford and New York|pages=1539–1540}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Abū Ghunaymah|first1=Ziyād|url=https://www.pdf-books.org/book/%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%AC%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A8-%D9%85%D8%B6%D9%8A%D8%A6%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%83-%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%88-%D8%BA%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9.html/read|title=Jawānib Muḍīʼah fī tārīkh al-ʻUthmānīyīn al-Atrāk|publisher=Dar al-Furqān li al-nashr wa al-tawzīʻ|year=1983|edition=1st|place=Amman|page=197|language=ar|trans-title=Luminous aspects of the history of the Ottoman Turks}}</ref>

In the spring of 1302, Emperor [[Michael IX Palaiologos|Michael IX]] launched a campaign that reached south to [[Magnesia ad Sipylum|Magnesia]]. The Ottomans, awed by his large army, avoided an open battle. The Emperor sought to confront The Ottomans, but he 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 [[Alans|Alan]] mercenaries left as well, aiming to rejoin with their families in [[Thrace]]. The Byzantine emperor was forced to withdraw by the sea, followed by a wave of refugees.<ref name="Nicol">{{cite book|last1=Donald M.|first1=Nicol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2d6OHLqwEsC|title=The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1993|isbn=978-0-521-43991-6|place=Cambridge|pages=125–126}}</ref><ref name="Bartusis">{{citation|last=Bartusis|first=Mark C.|title=The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204–1453|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUs-hHd89xAC|pages=76–77|year=1997|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-1620-2}}</ref><ref name="Laiou">{{citation|last=Laiou|first=Angeliki E.|author-link=Angeliki Laiou |title=Constantinople and the Latins: The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II, 1282–1328|pages=90–91, 122|year=1972|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-16535-9}}</ref> To counter the threat to Nicomedia, Michael's father, [[Andronikos II Palaiologos|Andronikos II]], sent a Byzantine force of some 2,000 men (half of whom were recently hired Alan mercenaries), under the ''[[Hetaireia|megas hetaireiarches]]'', Giorgios Mouzalon, to cross the [[Bosporus]] and relieve the city.<ref name="Nicol"/><ref name="Bartusis"/>

The Byzantine response was a warning for the Islamic border villages and towns. However, when 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.<ref name="Dehaish2"/> 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 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 Caliphate|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 the basics and different aspects of Islam, and had a side objective of assisting the ''Mujahideen'' in combat.<ref>{{cite book|last1=al-Ṣallābī|first1=Alī Muḥammad Muḥammad|url=https://ar.islamway.net/book/18887/%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD|title=Fātiḥ al-Qusṭanṭīnīyah: al-Ṣulṭān Muḥammad al-Fātiḥ|publisher=Dār al-tawzīʻ wa al-nashr al-Islāmīyah|year=2006|isbn=9772656698|edition=1st|place=Cairo|pages=17–18|language=ar|trans-title=Conqueror of Constantinople: Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror|access-date=12 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200112210701/https://ar.islamway.net/book/18887/%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%AA%D8%AD|archive-date=2020-01-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Maḥmūd|first1=ʻAlī ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZefAAAAMAAJ|title=al-Tarājuʻ al-ḥaḍārī fī al-ʻālam al-Islāmī wa-ṭarīq al-taghallub ʻalayhi|publisher=Dar al-Wafā’ li al-ṭibāʻah wa al-nashr|year=1994|edition=1st|place=Cairo|pages=331–332|isbn=9789771500858|language=ar|trans-title=Civilization retreat in the Islamic world and the way to overcome it}}</ref>

The Byzantine and Ottoman armies [[Battle of Bapheus|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 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.<ref name="Nicol"/><ref name="Bartusis"/><ref name="Laiou"/><ref name="Kazhdan">{{cite book|last1=Kazhdan|first1=Alexander|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1991|isbn=0-19-504652-8|place=Oxford and New York|page=251}}</ref>

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 a mass exodus of the Christian population from the area into the European parts of the empire, further altering the region's demographic balance.<ref name="Kazhdan"/> 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.<ref name="Laiou"/> According to Halil İnalcık, the battle allowed the Ottomans to achieve the characteristics and qualities of a true state.<ref>{{citation|last=İnalcık|first=Halil|title=The Ottoman Emirate (1300–1389). Halcyon Days in Crete I: A Symposium Held in Rethymnon, 11–13 January 1991|url=http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/pdfs/inalcik.pdf|df=dmy|year=1994|editor-last=Zachariadou|editor-first=Elizabeth|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100622025647/http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/pdfs/inalcik.pdf|contribution=Osman Ghazi's Siege of Nicaea and the Battle of Bapheus|publisher=Crete University Press|isbn=960-7309-58-8|archive-date=22 June 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>