Editing Osman I

{{Short description|First sultan of the Ottoman Empire}}
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{{Redirect|Osman Gazi|other uses|Osman Gazi (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox royalty
| title        = [[Ghazi (warrior)|Ghazi]]
| image        = file:I Osman.jpg
| caption      = An [[w:Ottoman miniature|Ottoman miniature]] depicting Osman I, {{circa|1580}}
| succession   = [[List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|Sultan of the Ottoman Empire]]
| reign        = {{circa|1299}} – 1323/4
| successor    = [[Orhan]]
| succession2  = [[Uch Bey]] of the [[Sultanate of Rum]]
| reign2       = {{circa|1280}} – {{circa|1299}}
| predecessor2 = [[Ertuğrul]]
| spouse       = [[Rabia Bala Hatun]]<br/>[[Malhun Hatun]]
| issue        = [[Orhan|Orhan Ghazi]]<br />[[Alaeddin Pasha|Alaeddin Ali Pasha]]
| issue-link   = #Sons
| issue-pipe   = Among others
| full name    = {{lang|ota|عثمان بن ارطغرل}}<br/>Osman bin Ertuğrul
| house        = [[Ottoman dynasty]]
| house-type   = Dynasty
| religion     = [[Sunni Islam]]
| father       = [[Ertuğrul]]
| mother       = <!-- DO NOT CHANGE TO "Halime Hatun" WITHOUT FIRST DISCUSSING ON THE TALK PAGE THE SOURCE YOU'RE PLANNING TO CITE--> Unknown<ref name="Lowry">{{cite book|first= Heath W.|last= Lowry|title= The Nature of the Early Ottoman State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=31j8T6XoigYC&pg=PA153|date= 2003|publisher=SUNY Press|place=Albany|isbn= 978-0-7914-8726-6|page=153}}</ref>
| birth_date   = Unknown,<ref name=birth/><br />possibly {{circa}} 1254/5<ref name=kemalpasazade/>
| birth_place  = 
| death_date   = 1323/4<ref name=death/> (age 68–70)
| death_place  = [[Bursa]], [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Beylik]]
| burial_date  = 
| burial_place = Tomb of Osman Gazi, [[Osmangazi]], [[Bursa Province]], Turkey
| signature_type = [[Tughra]]
| signature    = 
}}
{{Contains special characters|Ottoman Turkish}}
'''Osman I''' or '''Osman Ghazi''' ({{langx|ota|عثمان غازى|translit= ʿO<u>s</u>mān Ġāzī}}; {{langx|tr|I. Osman}} or ''Osman Gazi''; died 1323/4)<ref name=birth>{{Cite book|first=Eugenia|last=Kermeli|editor-last=Ágoston|editor-first=Gábor|editor-first2=Bruce|editor-last2=Masters|title=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire|chapter=Osman I|date=2009|page=444|quote=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.}}</ref><ref name=death>{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date=1995|page=16|quote=By the time of Osman's death (1323 or 1324)...}}</ref>{{efn|Sometimes transliterated archaically as '''Othman''' and historically spelt '''Ottoman''',<ref>{{cite book|year=1550|title=The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KR5PAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP1100|quote=In the beginning of this yere Sulton Solyman Pac called yͤ great Turke which was but the. viii. of the ligne of Ottoman, the firſt that toke vpō hym to be a great capitain or ruler […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1560|title=A Famous Cronicle of Oure Time, Called Sleidanes Commentaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ef89AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP388|quote=Ottoman the firſte Emperour of this Turkiſhe nation, […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1625|last=Bacon|first=Francis|authorlink=Francis Bacon|title=The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zsx5zvjvyDIC|page=313–314|quote=In the Firſt Place are ''Conditores Imperiorum''; ''Founders of States'', and ''Common-Wealths'': Such as were ''Romulus'', ''Cyrus'', ''Cæſar'', ''Ottoman'', ''Iſmael''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1689|last=Cressener|first=Drue|authorlink=Drue Cressener|title=The Judgments of God Upon the Roman-Catholick Church|page=128|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA128|quote=It is unqueſtionable, that about the year 1300 upon ''Aladin''{{'}}s Death, ''Ottoman'' was an abſolute Soveraign […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1737|last=Martin|first=Benj.|authorlink=Benjamin Martin (lexicographer)|title=Bibliotheca Technologica: or, a Philological Library of Literary Arts and Sciences|page=396|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pp1eAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA396|quote=''OTTOMAN'' the Son of ''Ethrogul'' the Son of ''Solyman'' (who was drove out of ''Perſia'' by the ''Tartars'') was about ''A''.''D''. 1290 ſaluted with the Title of ''Governor'' of the ''Oguzian Turks'' in ''Aſia'' […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1751|title=A General History of the Several Nations of the World|page=123|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjYLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA123|quote=''Ottoman'', notwithſtanding this Succeſs, thought fit to agree to a Truce with the Chriſtians […]}}</ref> '''Otoman'''<ref>{{cite book|title=The Principal Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoueries|year=1599|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tGDhn_ZWqRUC&pg=PA490|page=490|quote=[…] Ortogules, ſonne to Oguzalpes, and father to Otoman the firſt of name of the Turkiſh nation […]}}</ref> or '''Othoman'''<ref>{{cite book|title=The Great Historical, Geographical, Genealogical and Poetical Dictionary|year=1701|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbV2Om5YPtEC&pg=PP178|page=178|quote=OTHOMAN, or OSMAN, the firſt King of the ''Turks'' […]}}</ref> in English.}} was the eponymous founder of the [[Ottoman Empire]] (first known as a [[bey|beylik]] or [[emirate]]). While initially a small [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turkoman]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Osman I|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Osman-I|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=2023 }} Osman I, also called Osman Gazi, (born c. 1258{{snd}}died 1324 or 1326), ruler of a Turkmen principality in northwestern Anatolia who is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman Turkish state.</ref> principality during Osman's lifetime, his beylik transformed into a vast empire in the centuries after his death.<ref>''The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1999'', Donald Quataert, p. 4, 2005 {{ISBN?}}</ref> It existed until 1922 shortly after the end of [[World War I]], when the sultanate was abolished.

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,<ref>{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date= 1995|page= xii|quote=There is still not one authentic written document known from the time of ʿO<u>s</u>mān, and there are not many from the fourteenth century altogether.}}</ref> and the Ottomans did not record the history of his life until the fifteenth century, more than a hundred years after his death.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date= 1995|page=93}}</ref> Because of this, historians find it very challenging to differentiate between fact and [[myth]] in the many stories told about him.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Caroline|last=Finkel|title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923|page=6|publisher=Basic Books|date= 2005|quote=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[.] |isbn= 978-0-465-02396-7}}</ref> One historian has even gone so far as to declare it impossible, describing the period of Osman's life as a "black hole".<ref>{{Cite book|first=Colin|last=Imber|editor-first=Elizabeth|editor-last=Zachariadou|title=The Ottoman Emirate (1300–1389)|page=75|date=1991|publisher=[[Crete University Press]]|place=Rethymnon|quote=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.}}</ref>

According to later Ottoman tradition, Osman's ancestors were descendants of the [[Kayı (tribe)|Kayı tribe]] of [[Oghuz Turks]].<ref name=kayi/> However, many scholars of the early Ottomans regard it as a later fabrication meant to reinforce dynastic legitimacy.<ref name="kayi"/>

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.

==Name==
[[File:Paolo Veronese (Nachfolger) - Sultan Osman I. - 2242 - Bavarian State Painting Collections.jpg|thumb|right|16th-century depiction of ''Otomano P[rim]o'' (Osman I) by [[Paolo Veronese]]]]
Some scholars have argued that Osman's original name was Turkish, probably Atman or [[Ataman]], and was only later changed to ''ʿO<u>s</u>mān'', of Arabic origin. The earliest Byzantine sources, including Osman's contemporary and Greek historian [[George Pachymeres]], spell his name as Ἀτουμάν (Atouman) or Ἀτμάν (Atman), whereas Greek sources regularly render both the Arabic form ''ʿU<u>th</u>mān'' and the Turkish version ''ʿO<u>s</u>mān'' with θ, τθ, or τσ. An early Arabic source mentioning him also used "ط" (''[[Teth|ṭ]]'') rather than "ث" (''<u>[[Ṯāʾ|th]]</u>'') in one instance. Osman thus could have adopted the more prestigious Muslim name later in his life.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kafadar |first=Cemal |title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State |date=1995 |page=124 }}</ref> Turkish historian [[Halil İnalcık]] argued that the hypotheses that Osman was in fact named Ataman (per George Pachymeres), and that he came from the ''[[Cumania|Dasht-i Qipchaq]]'' north of the [[Black Sea]], are both remote possibilities.<ref>{{TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi|author=Halil İnalcık|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/osman-i|title=Osman I عثمان (ö. 724/1324) Osmanlı Devleti’nin ve hânedanının kurucusu (1302–1324).}}</ref>

Arab scholars like [[Shihab al-Umari]] and [[Ibn Khaldun]] used the name Othman, while [[Ibn Battuta]], who visited the region during [[Orhan]]'s reign, called him Osmancık (also spelled Othmānjiq or Osmanjiq).<ref>Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, (2000), Osmanli Devleti'nin kuruluşu: efsaneler ve gerçekler, p. 45 (in Turkish)</ref> The suffix -cık (or -cuk), indicates the diminutive in Turkish, thus he was known by the name of Osmancik, which means "Osman the Little", to differentiate between him and the third [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun Caliph]] "[[Uthman]] the Great".<ref>Kenje Kara, Daniel Prior, (2004), ''Archivum Ottomanicum, Volume 22'', p. 140</ref>

From the 16th century until well into the 18th century, his name was written as "[[wikt:Ottoman|Ottoman]]",<ref>{{cite book|year=1550|title=The Vnion of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KR5PAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP1100|quote=In the beginning of this yere Sulton Solyman Pac called yͤ great Turke which was but the. viii. of the ligne of Ottoman, the firſt that toke vpō hym to be a great capitain or ruler […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1560|title=A Famous Cronicle of Oure Time, Called Sleidanes Commentaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ef89AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP388|quote=Ottoman the firſte Emperour of this Turkiſhe nation, […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1625|last=Bacon|first=Francis|authorlink=Francis Bacon|title=The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zsx5zvjvyDIC|page=313–314|quote=In the Firſt Place are ''Conditores Imperiorum''; ''Founders of States'', and ''Common-Wealths'': Such as were ''Romulus'', ''Cyrus'', ''Cæſar'', ''Ottoman'', ''Iſmael''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1689|last=Cressener|first=Drue|authorlink=Drue Cressener|title=The Judgments of God Upon the Roman-Catholick Church|page=128|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dM0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA128|quote=It is unqueſtionable, that about the year 1300 upon ''Aladin''{{'}}s Death, ''Ottoman'' was an abſolute Soveraign […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1737|last=Martin|first=Benj.|authorlink=Benjamin Martin (lexicographer)|title=Bibliotheca Technologica: or, a Philological Library of Literary Arts and Sciences|page=396|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pp1eAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA396|quote=''OTTOMAN'' the Son of ''Ethrogul'' the Son of ''Solyman'' (who was drove out of ''Perſia'' by the ''Tartars'') was about ''A''.''D''. 1290 ſaluted with the Title of ''Governor'' of the ''Oguzian Turks'' in ''Aſia'' […]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|year=1751|title=A General History of the Several Nations of the World|page=123|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjYLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA123|quote=''Ottoman'', notwithſtanding this Succeſs, thought fit to agree to a Truce with the Chriſtians […]}}</ref> "Otoman"<ref>{{cite book|title=The Principal Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoueries|year=1599|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tGDhn_ZWqRUC&pg=PA490|page=490|quote=[…] Ortogules, ſonne to Oguzalpes, and father to Otoman the firſt of name of the Turkiſh nation […]}}</ref> or "Othoman"<ref>{{cite book|title=The Great Historical, Geographical, Genealogical and Poetical Dictionary|year=1701|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbV2Om5YPtEC&pg=PP178|page=178|quote=OTHOMAN, or OSMAN, the firſt King of the ''Turks'' […]}}</ref> in English ([[Early Modern English]]). The adjective "Ottoman" comes from this name.<ref>{{cite book|last=Feodorov|first=Ioana|title=Arabic Printing for the Christians in Ottoman Lands
|year=2023|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhzTEAAAQBAJ&pg=PR14|page=xiv|quote=The word ‘Ottoman’ comes from this Sultan’s Turkish name: عثمان بن أرطغرل Otmān (with variants recorded in the European chronicles: Otman, Otoman) bin Ertuğrul.}}</ref>

== Historical background ==
[[File:Ertuğrul Gazi Türbesi.JPG|right|thumb|Ertuğrul's ''[[türbe]]'' (tomb) in [[Söğüt]]]]
Most sources agree that the Ottoman Turks belonged to the Kayı [[Oghuz Turks|Oghuz Turkic clan]], who, according to Ottoman traditions, fled their native homeland in [[Central Asia]] during the early 13th century due to the Mongol invasions. The clan settled in Anatolia, in a region belonging to the Seljuk [[Sultanate of Rûm]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hōca Efendi|first1=Saʿd al-Dīn b. Ḥasan|title=Tâcü't-Tevârih|publisher=Matbaa-i Âmire|year=1863|place=Istanbul|pages=13–15|language=ota|trans-title=The Crown of Histories}}</ref> Other sources claim that the Kayı clan moved to Anatolia two centuries earlier than the previously mentioned date, alongside the Seljuks, when they left [[Transoxiana]] to [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]] around 1040 to reside near the city of [[Merv]]. Then, the Kayı clan moved towards [[Eastern Anatolia Region|eastern Anatolia]] after 1071 CE,<ref name="Yilmaz2">{{Cite book|last1=Öztuna|first1=Yılmaz|url=https://archive.org/details/waq76579|title=Mawsūʻat tārīkh al-Imbarāṭūrīyah al-ʻUthmānīyah al-siyāsī wa-al-ʻaskarī wa-al-ḥaḍārī|publisher=Faisal Finance Institution|year=1988|edition=1st|volume=I|place=Istanbul|pages=83–84|language=ar|translator-last1=Salman|translator-first1=Adnan Mahmud|trans-title=Encyclopedia of the political, military and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire}}</ref> where it displaced other Turkic clans. Later, it became involved in the army of Sultan [[Kayqubad I]] and fought against the [[Khwarazmian dynasty|Khwarazmians]], Mongols and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]], who were raiding Seljuk lands. According to several sources, the Kayı warriors were known for filling first lines in battles, and their fighting skills and bravery were among the major factors the Seljuks were victorious in many battles. This fact prompted Sultan Kayqubad to appoint Ertuğrul, the clan's Emir, as a ''Moqaddam'' (Lieutenant), and to reward the Kayıs some fertile lands near [[Ankara]], where they settled and remained in the service of the Sultan for several years.<ref name="Farid">{{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=115–116|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=al-Qaramani|first1=Ahmed bin Yusuf bin Ahmed|title=Tārīkh salāṭīn Āl ʻUthmān|publisher=Dār al-baṣāʼir|year=1985|edition=1st|place=Damascus|pages=9–10|language=ar|trans-title=History of the Ottoman Sultans}}</ref>

Later, Ertuğrul was granted dominion over the town of [[Söğüt]] in northwestern Anatolia on the Byzantine frontier.<ref name="shaw2">{{cite book|last1=Shaw|first1=Stanford|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9-YfgVZDBkC&pg=PA13|title=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1976|isbn=9780521291637|edition=illustrated, reprinted|place=Cambridge|pages=13–14}}</ref> He also obtained the title of ''Uç beyliği'' or ''[[Uç bey]]'' (literally: marcher-lord). Granting this title was in line with the traditions of the Seljuk Sultanate, which is rewarding any clan chieftain who rises to power and is joined by a number of smaller clans, the title of marcher-lord. However, Ertuğrul had far-reaching political ambitions. He sought to expand beyond the lands rewarded to him. Thus, he started raiding the Byzantine possessions in the name of the Sultan successfully conquering several towns and villages, and slowly expanding his dominion during the half of the century he spent as a Seljuk governor. In 1281, Ertuğrul died at nearly 90 years of age.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ṭaqqūsh|first1=Muḥammad Suhayl|url=https://archive.org/details/ottn_hist7|title=Tārīkh al-ʻuthmānīyīn min qiyām al-Dawlah ilá al-inqilāb ʻalá al-khilāfah|publisher=Dar al-Nafa'is|year=2013|isbn=9789953184432|edition=3rd|place=Beirut|page=92|language=ar|trans-title=History of the Ottomans: from the rise of the Empire to the coup against the caliphate|access-date=28 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428194857/https://archive.org/details/ottn_hist7|archive-date=28 April 2019}}</ref>

== Birth, lineage, and early years ==

=== Sources about Osman's early life ===
[[File:Behcetü't Tevârîh ilk sayfa.png|thumb|right|Index of ''[[w:tr:Behcetü't-Tevârîh|Behcetü't-Tevârîh]]'', one of the Ottoman sources that talks about Osman's origins]]
The exact date of Osman's birth is unknown, and very little is known about his early life and origins due to the scarcity of sources and the many myths and legends which came to be told about him by the Ottomans in later centuries.<ref name=birth/><ref>{{Cite book|first=Caroline|last=Finkel|title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923|page=12|publisher=Basic Books|date=2005|quote=Beyond the likelihood that the first Ottoman sultan was a historical figure, a Turcoman Muslim marcher-lord of the Byzantine frontier in north-west Anatolia whose father may have been called Ertuğrul, there is little other biographical information about Osman.}}</ref> The reason for the lack of information available about this stage of Osman's life is due to the fact that the oldest-known source about this time period was written about a hundred years after Osman's death. Among these sources are: ''Destan-ı Tevarih-i Al-i Osman'' (The Oral history of the Ottomans), written in the 14th century by the Ottoman poet and court physician {{ill|Tâceddîn İbrâhîm bin Hızîr|tr|Ahmedî}} better known as Ahmedî (1334–1413), ''{{ill|Behcetü't-Tevârîh|tr}}'' (The Joy of histories) by [[Şükrullah]] (d. 1464), and ''{{ill|Tevarih-i Âl-i Osman|tr|Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osman (Âşıkpaşazâde)}}'' (History of the Ottomans) by Derviş Ahmed Âşıkî, known as [[Âşıkpaşazâde]] (1400–1484). Additionally, these remaining sources are not the originals, but rather copies, or copies of the copies that were rewritten over the years, leading to a probable loss or altering in the information.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zachariadou|first1=Elizabeth A.|title=Osmanlı Beyliği, 1300–1389|date=1997|publisher=Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı|isbn=9789753330671|place=İstanbul|page=150|language=tr|trans-title=Ottoman Beylik, 1300–1389}}</ref> In fact, it is accepted that Ottoman, European, and Byzantine sources are not very reliable when considering the origins of Osman and his clan. On one hand, the oldest known records originally written by the Ottomans all date back to the period that followed the [[Fall of Constantinople|conquest of Constantinople]] (1453 CE). On the other hand, none of the Byzantine historians did refer in their writings to the origin of the Ottomans. As for European historians, these Turkic Muslim peoples were outside of their interest. However, that changed after a century of this period, when the Ottomans began to pose a threat to Europe.<ref name="Hallak">{{cite book|last1=Ḥallāq|first1=Ḥassān|url=https://archive.org/details/elhilalymohamad_gmail_20170919_0414/page/n25|title=Tārīkh al-shuʻūb al-Islāmīyah al-ḥadīth wa-al-muʻạṣir|publisher=Dar al-nahḍah al-ʻArabīyah|year=2000|edition=1st|place=Beirut|pages=16–17|language=ar|trans-title=Modern and Contemporary History of the Muslim peoples|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200319231046/https://archive.org/details/elhilalymohamad_gmail_20170919_0414/page/n25|archive-date=19 March 2020}}</ref>

=== Birth ===
Some sources indicate that Osman was born on 13 February 1258, the exact same day the Mongol hordes invaded Baghdad, killing its inhabitants and ravaging its landmarks.<ref name="Armağan">{{cite book|last1=Armağan|first1=Mustafa|title=al-tārīkh al-sirrī lil-Imbarāṭūrīyah al-ʻUthmānīyah; Jawānib ghayr Maʻrūfa min ḥayāt Salāṭīn Banī ʻUthmān|publisher=al-Dār al-ʻArabīyah lil-ʻUlūm Nāshirūn|year=2014|isbn=9786140111226|edition=1st|place=Beirut|page=11|language=ar|translator-last1=Hamza|translator-first1=Mustafa|trans-title=The Secret History of the Ottoman Empire: Unrecognized Aspects of the Life of the Ottoman Sultans}}</ref> He was most likely born around the middle of the thirteenth century, possibly in 1254/5, the date given by the sixteenth-century Ottoman historian [[Ibn Kemal|Kemalpaşazade]].<ref name=kemalpasazade>{{cite book|first=Rhoads|last=Murphey|title=Exploring Ottoman Sovereignty: Tradition, Image, and Practice in the Ottoman Imperial Household, 1400–1800|publisher=Continuum|place=London|year=2008|isbn=978-1-84725-220-3 |page=24|quote=A reasonable, plausible and, among its peers, probably most reliable account of the early career of Osman by the paragon of Ottoman historians, Kemal Paşa-zade (1468–1534), identifies the ''hijri'' year 652 (21 February 1254 to 9 February 1255) as the date of Osman's birth.}}</ref> The few available sources agree that he was born in the town of [[Söğüt]], which his father [[Ertuğrul]] took as the capital of his [[Sultanate of Rum|emirate]].<ref name="Sakaoğlu2">{{cite book|last1=Sakaoğlu|first1=Necdet|title=Yaşamları ve Yapıtlarıyla Osmanlılar Ansiklopedisi, C.2|date=1999|publisher=Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık|isbn=9789750800719|pages=392–395|language=tr|trans-title=Encyclopedia of the Lives and Works of the Ottomans}}</ref>

=== Lineage ===
[[File:Osman I's Geneaology.png|thumb|right|Osman's genealogy according to different Ottoman historians]]
According to Ottoman tradition, Osman's father [[Ertuğrul]] led the Turkic [[Kayı tribe]] west from Central Asia into [[Anatolia]], fleeing the [[Mongols|Mongol]] onslaught. He then pledged allegiance to the [[Sultan]] of the [[Sultanate of Rum|Anatolian Seljuks]], who granted him dominion over the town of [[Söğüt]] on the [[Byzantine]] frontier.<ref name="Shaw-132">Stanford Shaw, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=E9-YfgVZDBkC&pg=PA13 History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey]'' (Cambridge: University Press, 1976), vol. 1 {{isbn|9780521291637}}, p. 13</ref> This connection between Ertuğrul and the Seljuks, however, was largely invented by court chroniclers a century later, and the true origins of the Ottomans thus remain obscure.<ref>{{New Cambridge History of Islam|first=Kate|last=Fleet|volume=2|chapter=The rise of the Ottomans|page=313|quote=The origins of the Ottomans are obscure. According to legend, largely invented later as part of the process of legitimising Ottoman rule and providing the Ottomans with a suitably august past, it was the Saljuq ruler ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn who bestowed rule on the Ottomans.}}</ref> According to the [[Karamanid]] historian Shikari, Osman was a lowborn [[Yörük]] and shepherd.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yıldırım |first1=Rıza |title=Aleviliğin Doğuşu: Kızılbaş Sufiliğinin Toplumsal ve Siyasal Temelleri 1300–1501 |date=2018 |page=121 |publisher=İletişim Yayınları |isbn=9789750525018 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJeaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT121 |access-date=20 March 2023 |quote=Şikarî daha da ileriye giderek Osman'ı Selçuklunun bir çobanı olarak ifade eder. (...) Şikarî genellikle Osmanlıları soylu kanından olmamak, sadık olmamak, sözlerini tutmamak gibi şeylerle suçlar. (...) "[Karamanoğlu] Osman'ı bir gedā iken şah eyledi. [Osman] Aslı cinsi yok bir yürükoğlu iken bey oldı.}}</ref>

[[File:Sultan Gazi ʻUthmān Han I - السُلطان الغازي عُثمان خان الأوَّل.png|thumb|left|19th-century depiction of Osman, by [[Konstantin Kapıdağlı]]]]
In terms of proportions, the most popular and classic narration is that Osman is the grandson of [[Suleyman Shah|Süleyman Şah]], who died drowning while crossing the [[Euphrates River]] on horseback. The Turkish historian [[Yılmaz Öztuna]] considers that Osman's grandfather, and Ertuğrul's father, is called [[Gündüz Alp]], saying that it is more likely that Süleyman Şah is a name stuck in Anatolian popular memory, and it actually refers to [[Suleiman ibn Qutulmish|Süleyman bin Qutulmish]] who founded the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. Öztuna adds that it is possible that Ottoman historians tried forming a connection between the Ottomans and the Seljuks, especially since the Ottomans appeared on the stage of history claiming to be the legitimate successors of the Seljuks. Based on this, Osman's assumed lineage is as follows: ''Osman bin Ertuğrul bin Gündüz Alp bin Kaya Alp bin Gökalp bin Sarquk Alp bin Kayı Alp''.<ref name="Yilmaz2"/> Other researchers agree that the connection between Ertuğrul, Osman, and the Seljuks may have been largely invented by court chroniclers a century later, and the true origins of the Ottomans thus remain obscure.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fleet|first=Kate|title=The New Cambridge History of Islam|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521839570|volume=2: ''The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries''|place=Cambridge|pages=313|chapter=The rise of the Ottomans|quote=The origins of the Ottomans are obscure. According to legend, largely invented later as part of the process of legitimising Ottoman rule and providing the Ottomans with a suitably august past, it was the Saljuq ruler ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn who bestowed rule on the Ottomans.}}</ref> On the other hand, some Ottoman sources indicate further lineage to Osman and the Oghuz Turks, which is closer to myth than reality, saying that these people are descendants of [[Japheth]], son of [[Noah in Islam|Noah]], and that Osman's genealogical tree contains 52 ancestors or more and ends with the Prophet Noah himself. This lineage includes Gökalp and [[Oghuz Khagan|Oghuz Han]] (who is said to be the father of Gökalp), and all the Oghuz Turkic peoples, including the Seljuks.<ref name="Hallak"/>

===Early years===
The Ottoman historian Kemalpaşazâde mentioned that Osman was Ertuğrul's youngest son and that he was raised in the traditional nomadic Turkic ways: he learned [[w:Greco-Roman wrestling|wrestling]], [[w:Swordsmanship|swordsmanship]], [[Equestrianism|horse riding]], arrow shooting, and [[falconry]], from an early age. He quickly mastered the previously mentioned skills, outperforming all his brothers. He was also taught the principles of [[Islam]], and was influenced by the teachings of [[Sufi]] [[sheikh]]s, mostly his mentor Sheikh [[Sheikh Edebali|Edebali]], and this was reflected in his personality and lifestyle.<ref name="Sakaoğlu2"/>

==Origin of the Ottoman Empire==
{{Further|Rise of the Ottoman Empire|Ghaza thesis}}

Almost nothing is known for certain about Osman's early activities, except that he controlled the region around the town of [[Söğüt]] and from there launched raids against the neighboring Byzantine Empire. The first datable event in Osman's life is the [[Battle of Bapheus]] in 1301 or 1302, in which he defeated a Byzantine force sent to counter him.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Colin|last=Imber|title=The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power|date=2009|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|edition=2nd|place=New York|page=8}}
* {{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date=1995|page=129|quote=Of [military undertakings] we know nothing with certainty until the Battle of Bapheus, Osman's triumphant confrontation with a Byzantine force in 1301 (or 1302), which is the first datable incident in his life.}}</ref>

Osman appears to have followed the strategy of increasing his territories at the expense of the Byzantines while avoiding conflict with his more powerful Turkish neighbors.<ref name="Shaw-132"/> His first advances were through the passes which lead from the barren areas of northern Phrygia near modern [[Eskişehir]] into the more fertile plains of Bithynia; according to [[Stanford Shaw]], these conquests were achieved against the local Byzantine nobles, "some of whom were defeated in battle, others being absorbed peacefully by purchase contracts, marriage contracts, and the like."<ref name="Shaw-142">Shaw, ''Ottoman Empire'', p. 14</ref>

=== Ascendance to leadership ===
Osman became [[Emir]], or ''[[Bey]]'', upon his father's death around 1281.<ref name="shaw2"/> According to some historians, Osman's accession to power wasn't peaceful as he had to fight his relatives before he got hold of his clan's leadership. One of Osman's major rivals was his uncle [[Dündar Bey]], who might have plotted to kill his nephew or rebelled against him when the latter decided to attack a small Greek island. Dündar Bey saw that Osman's ambition as a threat that might put the whole clan in danger. However, Osman had to pull out his sword to kill his uncle for disobeying.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sakaoğlu|first=Necdet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WUMAQAAMAAJ&q=domani%C3%A7|title=Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler|publisher=Oğlak Yayıncılık|year=2008|isbn=978-9-753-29623-6|location=Istanbul|pages=26|language=tr|trans-title=The Queen Women of the Sultanate: Vâlide sultans, wives, hasekis, women's children, sultan's children}}</ref>

In the ''[[w:tr:Velayetname|Vilayetname]]'', a book containing the narrations about [[Haji Bektash Veli]], Osman's younger uncle, was the one who became Bey after Ertuğrul's death. During that time, Osman and several other warriors started organizing raids on Byzantine lands adjacent to Söğüt, such as [[w:tr:Yarhisar, Yenişehir|Yarhisar]], [[Bilecik]], [[İnegöl]], and [[İznik]]. As a result, the Byzantine ''[[Tekfur]]'' (governor) of [[Bursa]] was provoked, and he sent envoys to the Seljuk Sultan [[Kayqubad III|Alâeddin Kayqubad III]], complaining about these constant assaults. Thus, the Sultan ordered Gündüz Alp to bring forth his young nephew to stand before him, and so Osman was arrested and sent to Konya. According to this narration, Sultan Kayqubad admired Osman's courage and deeds, and didn't wish to punish him, instead, Osman was sent to Ḥājī Baktāš Walī to consider his matter. Osman was warmly received by the Sufi mystic, who then ordered his release saying: "I have been waiting for someone like him for years". After that, Ḥājī Baktāš Walī wrapped Osman's head with the same [[Turban]] associated with Sufi sheikhs, and sent him back to Konya with a message to the sultan, asking that Osman to become the Kayı Emir. Thus, Osman became the clan's leader.<ref name="misbar">{{cite book|last1=Ibrāhīm|first1=Aḥmad Maḥmūd|url=http://almesbar.net/100/Ahmet-oct25.pdf|title=al-Islām al-muwāzī fī Turkiyā: al-Biktāshīyah wa-jadal al-taʼsīs|publisher=Al-Mesbar Studies and Research Center|year=2016|edition=1st|place=Dubai|page=4|language=ar|trans-title=Parallel Islam in Turkey: Bektashi Order and Janissary Supervision|chapter=ẓuhūr al-Biktāshīyah wa-al-ishrāf ʻalá al-Inkishariyya|access-date=20 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920195452/http://almesbar.net/100/Ahmet-oct25.pdf|archive-date=20 September 2018}}</ref>

=== Importance of the Osmanic Beylik location ===
[[File:Osman I area map.PNG|thumb|left|Area of the Ottoman Beylik during the reign of Osman I]]

From a military point of view, the location of Osman's Beylik had a significant impact on his success as a conquering warrior. His capital Söğüt was located on a hill in a well-defended position, mediating the main road from [[Constantinople]] to Konya. The importance of this site emerged due to the political fragmentation of Anatolia that gave small states greater importance than they originally had.<ref name="taqqoush2">{{cite book|last1=Ṭaqqūsh|first1=Muḥammad Suhayl|url=https://archive.org/details/ottn_hist7|title=Tārīkh al-ʻuthmānīyīn min qiyām al-Dawlah ilá al-inqilāb ʻalá al-khilāfah|publisher=Dar al-Nafa'is|year=2013|isbn=9789953184432|edition=3rd|place=Beirut|pages=25–28|language=ar|trans-title=History of the Ottomans: from the rise of the Empire to the coup against the caliphate|access-date=28 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428194857/https://archive.org/details/ottn_hist7|archive-date=28 April 2019}}</ref> Being an Emir to a [[Anatolian beyliks|beylik]] bordering Byzantine lands, Osman had the opportunity to direct all his efforts towards war and [[Jihad]] following the footsteps of the Seljuks with intentions to conquer all Byzantine territories, and absorb them into the [[Caliphate|Islamic Caliphate]]. Encouraged by the weakness of the ancient Empire and its ongoing wars in [[Europe]], Osman had the chance to expand towards western Anatolia crossing the [[Dardanelles]] to [[Southeast Europe|southeastern Europe]].<ref name="taqqoush2"/> Commenting on these actions, some historians argue that Osman's strategy of increasing his territories at the expense of the Byzantines was due to his intention to avoid conflicts with his more powerful Turkic neighbours.<ref name="shaw2"/>

Politically, Osman showed great skills forming and applying new administrative systems in his beylik. During his reign, the Ottomans made great strides towards transitioning from the [[Nomadic tribe system]] to settling down in permanent settlements. This helped them consolidate their position and rapidly develop into a major power. Moreover, the beylik's location in northwestern Anatolia, next to [[Christendom]], imposed a military policy on the Ottomans, which gave them better chances to grow and expand compared to the beyliaks of the interior.<ref name="taqqoush2"/> Osman's beylik was also relatively far from both the [[Mongol invasions and conquests|Mongol invasions]] and the influence of the powerful Turkoman beyliks in southern and southwestern Anatolia. Add to that, its proximity to the [[Silk Road]] linking Byzantine lands in the west to areas controlled by the Mongols in the east, gave it prominent strategic and economic characteristics. Also, the Osmanic beylik was the only Islamic base facing the yet unconquered Byzantine regions, which made it a magnet to many Turkomen farmers, warriors, and Dervishes fleeing the Mongols, and aspiring to conquer new lands for economic and religious reasons.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Collins|first1=Paul|url=https://archive.org/details/Book_195/page/n25/mode/2up|title=al-Uthmānīyūn fī Ūrūbbā|publisher=General Egyptian Book Organization|year=1993|place=Cairo|pages=26|language=ar|translator-last1=al-Shaykh|translator1-first=ʻAbd al-Raḥmān|trans-title=The Ottomans in Europe|access-date=30 March 2020}}</ref>

===Osman's Dream===
{{main|Osman's Dream}}
Osman I had a close relationship with a local religious leader of [[dervish]]es named Sheikh Edebali, whose daughter he married. A story emerged among later Ottoman writers to explain the relationship between the two men, in which Osman had a dream while staying in the Sheikh's house.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kermeli |first=Eugenia |editor-last=Ágoston |editor-first=Gábor |editor-first2=Bruce |editor-last2=Masters |title=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire |chapter=Osman I |date=2009 |page=445 |quote=Apart from these chronicles, there are later sources that begin to establish Osman as a mythic figure. From the 16th century onward a number of dynastic myths are used by Ottoman and Western authors, endowing the founder of the dynasty with more exalted origins. Among these is recounted the famous "dream of Osman" which is supposed to have taken place while he was a guest in the house of a sheikh, Edebali. [...] This highly symbolic narrative should be understood, however, as an example of eschatological mythology required by the subsequent success of the Ottoman emirate to surround the founder of the dynasty with supernatural vision, providential success, and an illustrious genealogy.}}
* {{Cite journal|first=Colin|last=Imber|title=The Ottoman Dynastic Myth|date=1987|journal=Turcica|pages=7–27|volume=19 |doi=10.2143/TURC.19.0.2014268|quote=The attraction of Aşıkpasazade's story was not only that it furnished an episode proving that God had bestowed rulership on the Ottomans, but also that it provided, side by side with the physical descent from Oguz Khan, a spiritual descent. [...] Hence the physical union of Osman with a saint's daughter gave the dynasty a spiritual legitimacy and became, after the 1480s, an integral feature of dynastic mythology.}}
</ref> The story appears in the late-fifteenth-century chronicle of [[Aşıkpaşazade]] as follows:

{{blockquote|He saw that a moon arose from the holy man's breast and came to sink in his own breast. A tree then sprouted from his navel and its shade compassed the world. Beneath this shade there were mountains, and streams flowed forth from the foot of each mountain. Some people drank from these running waters, others watered gardens, while yet others caused fountains to flow. When Osman awoke he told the story to the holy man, who said 'Osman, my son, congratulations, for God has given the imperial office to you and your descendants and my daughter Malhun shall be your wife.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Caroline|last=Finkel|title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923|publisher=Basic Books |year=2005|page=2}}, citing {{Cite book|first=Rudi P.|last=Lindner|title=Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia |publisher=Indiana University Press |place=Bloomington|date=1983|isbn=0-933070-12-8|page=37}}</ref>}}

The dream became an important foundational myth for the empire, imbuing the House of Osman with God-given authority over the earth and providing its fifteenth-century audience with an explanation for Ottoman success.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Caroline|last=Finkel|title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923|date=2006|page=2|quote=First communicated in this form in the later fifteenth century, a century and a half after Osman's death in about 1323, this dream became one of the most resilient founding myths of the empire|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=978-0-465-02396-7}}</ref> The dream story may also have served as a form of compact: just as God promised to provide Osman and his descendants with sovereignty, it was also implicit that it was the duty of Osman to provide his subjects with prosperity.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State |date=1995|pages=132–133}}</ref>

=== Political relations at the beginning of Osman's reign ===
[[File:Beylicats d%u2019Anatolie vers 1330-en.svg|thumb|A map of independent Turkic beyliks in Anatolia during the 14th century, showing the neighbouring Ottoman and Germiyanid beyliks]]

According to the [[Bektashi Order|Bektashi]] narration, whose accuracy cannot be confirmed since it was only mentioned in Bektashi sources, plus the fact that it did not enjoy much support from the majority of researchers, Ḥājī Baktāš Walī was one of the ''Wafā'īyyah tariqah'' dervishes, a [[Murid]] of [[w:tr:Baba İlyas|Bābā Eliyās al-Khorāsānī]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gül|first1=Mehmet Zahir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o80oDQAAQBAJ&q=%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84+%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%89&pg=PT378|title=al-Taḥawwulāt al-fikrīyah fī al-ʻālam al-Islāmī: aʻlām, wa-kutub wa-ḥarakāt wa-afkār, min al-qarn al-ʻāshir ilá al-thānī ʻashar al-Hijrī|publisher=International Institute of Islamic Thought|year=2014|isbn=9781565646216|edition=1st|place=Herndon, Virginia|page=378|language=ar|trans-title=Intellectual transformations in the Islamic world: people, books, movements and ideas, from the tenth to the twelfth century AH|access-date=20 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108144326/https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=o80oDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT378&lpg=PT378&dq=%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84+%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%89&source=bl&ots=bOjw-vh4N2&sig=RJTdWi-p8AmkaI5EugXa-wGhL7M&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLl_O21sndAhXRN8AKHdJTDf0Q6AEwAXoECAkQAQ|archive-date=8 January 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> Once Bābā Eliyās died, both Ḥājī Baktāš Walī and Sheikh Edebali became among his 60 successors, and grandmasters of the Ahyan Rûm brotherhood of warriors and farmers, who enjoyed great influence among the people. When Osman married Sheikh Edebali's daughter, he secured his control over the brotherhood, and soon became their new grandmaster. As a result of this marriage, all the Ahyan sheikhs became under Ottoman control. This has a major impact on the establishment and development of the Osmanic beylik after Osman's death during the reign of his son [[Orhan]].<ref name="misbar"/> Some argue that Osman's marriage to sheikh Edebali's daughter was his first brilliant political undertake.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mantran, Robert|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00robe/page/298|title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 1250–1520|publisher=Cambridge University Press|others=trans. Hanbury-Tenison, Sarah|year=1986|isbn=978-0-521-26646-8|editor=Fossier, Robert|volume=3|location=Cambridge, UK; New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00robe/page/298 298]|chapter=A Turkish or Mongolian Islam}}</ref> On the other hand, Turkish historian Professor [[Cemal Kafadar]] considers that the intermarriage between the Osmanic and Edebali's houses, explains the hostilities that later rose between the Ottomans and the [[Germiyanids]], since the Germiyanid Turkoman house was rewarded lands and titles by the Seljuks because of their services in subjugating the [[Babai revolt|Bābā'ī revolt]] in 1240, and because Sheikh Edebali was considered by his followers a leader and successor to [[Baba Ishak|Bābā Ishāq]], they all became the focus of attention of the Germiyanids.<ref name="Cemal">{{Cite journal|last1=Kafadar|first1=Cemal|date=1999|title=Takawwun al-dawla al-Uthmānīya|trans-title=Formation of the Ottoman Empire|url=http://pulpit.alwatanvoice.com/articles/2011/03/10/222420.html|journal=Al-Ijtihād|language=Arabic|publisher=Dār al-Ijtihād lil-Abḥāth wa-al-Tarjamah wa-al-Nashr|volume=16|issue=41–42|pages=65–66|doi=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228082910/https://pulpit.alwatanvoice.com/articles/2011/03/10/222420.html|archive-date=2017-02-28|access-date=15 September 2015|translator-first1=ʻAbd al-Laṭīf|place=Beirut|translator-last1=al-Ḥarith}}</ref>

Kafadar adds that early in Osman's reign, the young Emir showed political ingenuity forming relations with his neighbours. Osman's alliances transcended tribal, ethnic, and religious lines, and he may have followed his instinct and the requirements of his political aspirations, not mistaking the future results of the family connections he created and secured for his son after him. Osman reconstituted the political culture of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in line with the needs of his beylik. He was more creative than his Turkomen neighbours in combining Turkic, Islamic, and Byzantine traditions.

Additionally, the Emir also cooperated with the Byzantine ''Tekfurs'' of the neighbouring cities and villages. He forged an agreement, so his clan, whenever they move between grazing areas in the summer, leave their belongings in the Byzantine fortress of Bilecik, and upon their return, they give its governor a token of appreciation, in the form of cheese and butter made from sheep milk and preserved in animal skins, or a good carpet made from wool. This agreement reflects the coexistence between herders, farmers and urban dwellers, during Osman's reign.<ref name="Cemal"/> Osman's friendship with [[Köse Mihal]], governor of Chirmenkia (modern [[Harmanköy, İnhisar|Harmanköy]]), was the culmination of this coexistence between Muslims and Byzantines. As for his relations with other peoples, such as the Mongols, most of whom moved to the borders of western Anatolia, and the Germiyanid Turkomen, it was hostile. That is because the Turks, in general, despised the Mongols, and the Germiyanids were probably of non-Oghuz origin.<ref name="Cemal"/> Osman allied with the Ahyan Rûm brotherhood, they formed organized groups, members in each of which worked in a single trade. The brotherhood took the responsibility to preserve justice, prevent injustice, stop oppression, follow sharia law, dictate good morals, and carry out military duties if the need arises, to defend their rights and the rights of Muslims.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=al-Dūrī|first1=ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz |date=12 May 1952|title=al-aṣnāf wa-al-ḥiraf al-Islāmīyah|url= http://www.noormags.ir/view/ar/articlepage/531531/|journal=Al-Risālah
|volume=984 |publisher=Maʻhad al-Mursil|issue=984 |pages=520–523 |access-date=15 September 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200224005730/http://www.noormags.ir/view/ar/articlepage/531531/|archive-date=2020-02-24|place=Beirut|language=Arabic}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=ibn Baṭūṭah|first1=Shams al-Dīn ʾAbū ʿAbd al-Lāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Lāh l-Lawātī ṭ-Ṭanǧī|title= Tuhfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharāʼib al-amṣār wa-ʻajāʼib al-asfār|edition= 1st|page= 134|year=1987|publisher=Dār Iḥyāʼ al-ʻulūm|place=Beirut|url= http://shamela.ws/browse.php/book-12009#page-240|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190118123345/http://shamela.ws/browse.php/book-12009 | archive-date=18 January 2019|trans-title=A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling|language=ar}}</ref>

The Emir also allied with newly arrived Turkomen clans to Anatolia. In general, the nomads have always had a strong militarized spirit compared to people installed in the cities. Thus, the clans were more active and effective than their city-dwelling kin. Soon enough, they become the beating heart of the Seljuk border provinces in total, and the Osmanic beylik in particular. Osman also enticed many Turkomen from the region of [[Paphlagonia]] to join his forces.<ref name="taqqoush2"/> These Turkomen were fine warriors, eager for jihad and conquest, each of them followed a ''[[Tariqah]]'' (an order of Sufism) and was supervised by a sheikh who taught them the meaning of jihad alongside many Islamic principles. However, another section of these Turkomen did not have close ties to Islam for various reasons, thus Osman entrusted them to several sheikhs and dervishes to be given proper Islamic education and be satiated with the values that glorify conquests aiming to [[Islamization|spread the word of Islam]]. In fact, these sheikhs and dervishes were very enthusiastic about promoting the ''Turuq'' of the Khorasani [[Walis]], and Osman's request gave them this chance.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Öztuna|first1=Yılmaz|url=https://archive.org/details/waq76579|title=Mawsūʻat tārīkh al-Imbarāṭūrīyah al-ʻUthmānīyah al-siyāsī wa-al-ʻaskarī wa-al-ḥaḍārī|publisher=Faisal Finance Institution|year=1988|edition=1st|volume=I|place=Istanbul|pages=88|language=ar|translator-last1=Salman|translator-first1=Adnan Mahmud|trans-title=Encyclopedia of the political, military and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire}}</ref>

As for the ruling hierarchy, Osman was firstly subordinate to the [[Chobanids (beylik)|Chobanid]] Emir in [[Kastamonu]], followed by the Seljuk Sultan through the Germiyanid Bey in [[Kütahya]], who was in turn subordinate to the Mongol Ilkhan in [[Tabriz]]. During this period, the Seljuk Sultans had lost their power over their local Emirs, and the Mongol Ilkhan practised his authority in Anatolia through his appointed Generals, where he requested that every local governor, including Osman, sends him soldiers whenever he requests so.<ref name="yilmaz23">{{Cite book|last1=Öztuna|first1=Yılmaz|url=https://archive.org/details/waq76579|title=Mawsūʻat tārīkh al-Imbarāṭūrīyah al-ʻUthmānīyah al-siyāsī wa-al-ʻaskarī wa-al-ḥaḍārī|publisher=Faisal Finance Institution|year=1988|edition=1st|volume=I|place=Istanbul|pages=91|language=ar|translator-last1=Salman|translator-first1=Adnan Mahmud|trans-title=Encyclopedia of the political, military and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire}}</ref> As for the hierarchy of name delivering in ''khuṭbah'', Imams used to pray for the guidance of the: [[List of Abbasid caliphs#Caliphs of Cairo (13 June 1261 – 22 January 1517)|Abbasid caliph in Egypt first]], the [[Ilkhanate#Ilkhans|Mongol Ilkhan]] in Tabriz, [[List of Seljuk sultans of Rûm|Seljuk Sultan in Konya]], and finally the local Bey or Emir.<ref name="yilmaz23"/>

== Expansion of the beylik ==
Until the end of thirteenth century, Osman I's conquests include the areas of [[Bilecik]] (Belokomis), [[Yenişehir, Bursa|Yenişehir]] (Melangeia), [[İnegöl]] (Angelokomis) and {{ill|Yarhisar|tr|Yarhisar, Yenisehir}} (Köprühisar), and Byzantine castles in these areas.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dimitri|last=Korobeĭnikov|title=Byzantium and the Turks in the Thirteenth Century|date=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-01-98-70826-1|page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eU9jBAAAQBAJ&q=inegol+was+conquered+in+1299&pg=PA284|access-date=12 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Ahmed|last1=Akgündüz|first2=Said|last2=Öztürk|title=Ottoman History - Misperceptions and Truths|date=2011|publisher=IUR Press|isbn=978-90-90-26108-9|page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKfIAgAAQBAJ&q=turgut+alp+history&pg=PA43|access-date=12 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rudi Paul Lindner|title=Explorations in Ottoman Prehistory |date=2007|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=9780472095070|page=87|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JMUAfa3GFVQC&q=osman+early+conquests&pg=PA87|access-date=12 August 2020}}</ref>

According to Shaw, Osman's first real conquests followed the collapse of [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk authority]] when he was able to [[Siege of Kulaca Hisar|occupy the fortresses of Kulucahisar]] and Eskişehir. Then he captured the first significant city in his territories, [[Yenişehir, Bursa|Yenişehir]], which became the Ottoman capital.<ref name="Shaw-142"/>

In 1302, after soundly [[Battle of Bapheus|defeating a Byzantine force]] near [[Nicaea]], Osman began settling his forces closer to Byzantine controlled areas.<ref name="Steven Runciman pg 32">[[Steven Runciman]], ''The Fall of Constantinople 1453'' (Cambridge: University Press, 1969) p.&nbsp;32</ref>

Alarmed by Osman's growing influence, the Byzantines gradually fled the Anatolian countryside. Byzantine leadership attempted to contain Ottoman expansion, but their efforts were poorly organized and ineffectual. Meanwhile, Osman spent the remainder of his reign expanding his control in two directions, north along the course of the [[Sakarya River]] and southwest towards the [[Sea of Marmara]], achieving his objectives by 1308.<ref name="Shaw-142"/>

Osman's last campaign was against the city of [[Bursa]].<ref>Runciman, ''The Fall of Constantinople'', p.&nbsp;33</ref> Although Osman did not physically participate in the battle, [[Siege of Brusa|the victory at Bursa]] proved to be extremely vital for the Ottomans as the city served as a staging ground against the Byzantines in [[Constantinople]], and as a newly adorned capital for Osman's son, [[Orhan I|Orhan]]. Ottoman tradition holds that Osman died just after the capture of Bursa, but some scholars have argued that his death should be placed in 1324, the year of Orhan's accession.<ref name="death_of_Osman">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Osman I|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Osman-I |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=18 May 2023 }}</ref>

=== Conquest of Karacahisar ===
[[File:Osman Gazi Coin.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Undated akçe of Osman]]

After establishing his beylik, Osman had to fight on two fronts: one against the Byzantine, and the other against the Turkomen beyliks that opposed his rule, especially the Germiyanids. Osman focused on expanding at the expense of the Byzantines, and since that time, the primary Ottoman goal became the conquest of the remaining Byzantine lands.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|last1=Ṭaqqūsh|first1=Muḥammad Suhayl|title=Tārīkh al-ʻuthmānīyīn min qiyām al-Dawlah ilá al-inqilāb ʻalá al-khilāfah|edition= 3rd|pages= 29–30|year=2013|publisher= Dar al-Nafa'is|isbn= 9789953184432|access-date= 28 April 2019|place= Beirut|url=https://archive.org/details/ottn_hist7| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190428194857/https://archive.org/details/ottn_hist7 | archive-date= 28 April 2019|language=ar|trans-title=History of the Ottomans: from the rise of the Empire to the coup against the caliphate}}</ref> Some accounts indicate that the first battle Osman launched against the Byzantines was aimed to revenge a defeat that he suffered in the spring of 1284 or 1285, where the Byzantines, led by the ''Tekfur'' of Bursa, ambushed him and his men. It is in doubt that Osman knew about this ambush from one of his spies. Nevertheless, he chose to clash with the Byzantines and he was defeated and forced to withdraw with casualties, including his nephew Koca Saruhan bey, son of [[Saru Batu Savcı Bey|Savcı Bey]].<ref name="Sakaoğlu2"/><ref name="savci">{{TDV Encyclopedia of Islam|last=Başar|first=Fahameddin|volume=11|title=Ertuğrul Gazi|page=314|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ertugrul-gazi}}</ref> Based on this, around 1286, Osman went forward to Kulacahisar at the head of a military force of three hundred fighters, it was a fortress located two leagues away from İnegöl, within the scope of mount [[Uludağ]]. The Emir attacked the fort at night and managed to [[Siege of Kulaca Hisar|conquer it]], extending his beylik northwards toward Lake İznik's proximity. The Ottoman victory at Kulacahisar triggered the fort's governor, who refused to be a subordinate subject to a Muslim ruler, especially a border Emir, so he allied himself with [[Karacahisar Castle|Karacahisar]]'s governor, and both men agreed to fight the Muslims aiming at retaking all Byzantine lands that were lost recently. Thus, the Ottomans and the Byzantines met again in battle, somewhere between Bilecik and İnegöl, where fierce fighting took place in which Osman's brother Savcı Bey and the Byzantine commander Pilatos were killed. The Battle ended with an Ottoman victory. Then, the Ottomans entered Karacahisar where they, reportedly for the first time, converted the town's church into a mosque. Osman appointed a ''[[w:Qadi|Qadi]]'' (magistrate) and a ''[[w:Soubashi|Subaşı]]'' (chief of police) for the newly conquered city. Historians differed in determining the date of this conquest, yet none made it prior to 1286, or exceeding 1291. Osman made his new city a staging base of his military campaigns against the Byzantines, and ordered that his name be delivered at the Friday ''[[w:Khutbah|khuṭbah]]'', which was the first manifestation of his sovereignty and authority.<ref name="shaw2"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/>

[[File:Chicago Turkish Festival Davul 1.jpg|thumb|A ''mehter'' war drum, similar to the one sent to Osman from the Seljuk Sultan]]

Osman's latest victory was his greatest up to that date. Seljuk Sultan Alâeddin Kayqubad III expressed his deep appreciation for Osman's accomplishments in the name of the Seljuks and Islam, giving him the title of Ḥaḍrat ʻUthmān ghāzī marzubān 'Âli Jâh ʻUthmān Shāh (the honourable conqueror and border guardian Osman Shāh).<ref>{{cite book|last1=al-Shinnāwī|first1=ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz Muḥammad|url=https://download-date-history-pdf-ebooks.com/28124-free-book|title=al-Dawlah al-ʻUthmānīyah: Dawlah Islāmīyah Muftara ʻalayhā|publisher=The Anglo Egyptian Bookshop|year=1980|volume=I.|place=Cairo|page=39|language=ar|trans-title=The Ottoman Empire: A slandered Islamic state|access-date=6 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406221504/https://download-date-history-pdf-ebooks.com/28124-free-book|archive-date=6 April 2020}}</ref> The Sultan also bestowed upon Osman the governance of all the land he did conquered as well as the towns of [[Eskişehir]] and [[İnönü, Eskişehir|İnönü]]. Moreover, The Seljuk Sultan issued a decree exempting Osman from all types of taxes. Osman also received several gifts from the Sultan reflecting the new high stature to the Seljuk court. These gifts included: a golden war banner, a [[Ottoman military band#Instruments|''mehter'']] (war drum), a ''[[Tug (banner)|tuğ]]'' (a pole with circularly arranged horse tail hairs), a tassel, a gilded sword, a loose saddle, and one hundred thousand [[dirham]]s.<ref name="yilmaz23"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Akgündüz|first1=Ahmet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsPMAgAAQBAJ&q=%D8%B9%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86&pg=PT28|title=al-Dawlah al-ʻUthmānīyah al-majhūlah: 303 sūʼal wa-jawāb tuwaḍiḥ ḥaqāʼiq ghāʼibah ʻan al-dawlah al-ʻUthmānīyah|last2=Öztürk|first2=Said|publisher=Ottoman Researches Foundation|year=2008|isbn=9789757268390|place=Istanbul|page=46|language=ar|trans-title=The unknown Ottoman Empire: 303 questions and answers clarifying missing facts about the Ottoman Empire|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305060531/https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=PsPMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT28&lpg=PT28&dq=%D9%85%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%A2%D8%AA+%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86&source=bl&ots=DhMhn2xCxy&sig=BZQcWADvCT-quV-ssQFqFeWZcPQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEQQ6AEwCWoVChMI9JOR6Z6IyAIVYYHbCh1XpwWh|archive-date=5 March 2016|access-date=15 February 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> The decree also included the recognition of Osman's right to be mentioned in the Friday ''khuṭbah'' in all areas subject to him, and was permitted to mint coins in his name.<ref name="Dehaish2">{{cite book|last1=Dehaish|first1=ʻAbd al-Laṭīf bin ʻAbd Allāh|url=https://archive.org/details/hichamnedromi_gmail_20171106/page/n27/mode/2up|title=Qiyām al-Dawlah al-ʻUthmānīyah|publisher=Maktabat wa-Maṭbaʻat al-nahḍah al-ḥadīthah|year=1995|edition=2nd|place=Mecca|pages=26–27|language=ar|trans-title=Rise of the Ottoman Empire|access-date=6 April 2020}}</ref> Thus, Osman became a Sultan, but lacking only the title.<ref name="Farid2">{{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=118|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>

It is narrated that when drums were beaten announcing Sultan's Kayqubad's arrival, Osman stood up in glorification, and remained so till the music halted. Since that day, Ottoman soldiers enacted standing in glorification for their Sultan whenever drums were beaten.<ref>{{cite book|last1=al-Qusṭanṭīnī|first1=Muṣṭafa bin 'Abd Allāh (Kâtip Çelebi)|url=https://www.academia.edu/32932365|title=Fadhlakat aqwāl al-akhyār fī ʻilm al-tārīkh wa-al-akhbār|publisher=South Valley University|year=2003|place=Sohag|pages=133–134|language=ar|trans-title=A historiographical compendium of what was told by the good folk|access-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525220832/https://www.academia.edu/32932365/%D8%B9%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A2%D9%84_%D9%85%D9%84%D9%88%D9%83_%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE|archive-date=25 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=al-Nahrawālī|first1=Qutb al-Dīn Muhammad bin Ahmad|url=https://books.rafed.net/view.php?type=c_fbook&b_id=2400|title=kitāb al-aʻlām bi aʻlām bayt Allāh al-Ḥ̣arām|publisher=al-Maktabah al-tijārīyah|year=1996|place=Mecca|page=265|language=ar|trans-title=A book of Biographies from the land of the Sacred House of God|access-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109070726/https://books.rafed.net/view.php?type=c_fbook&b_id=2400|archive-date=9 November 2018}}</ref>

=== Conquest of Bilecik, Yarhisar, and İnegöl ===
Soon after the conquest of Karacahisar, Osman marched with his soldiers north towards [[Sakarya River]]. Upon his arrival there, he raided and looted the forts of [[Göynük]] and [[Taraklı|Yenice Taraklı]]. Many argue that during this time, Osman received a message from his Byzantine friend Köse Mihal, warning him of a secret conspiracy that was being prepared by the ''tekfurs'' of Bilecik and Yarhisar. The two were aiming at killing Osman after inviting him to attend their children's wedding. Osman was disappointed by being betrayed by Bilecik's tekfur. That is because he considered the relationship with Bilecik to have been built on trust and good faith, as demonstrated by the aforementioned custom of his clan leaving their belongings in this fortress whenever they moved between grazing areas. Osman devised a plan to escape the trap and take over the fortress. He sent forty of his soldiers carrying some of the clan's belongings to be kept in Bilecik, while most of its inhabitants were outside attending the wedding. Once his men entered the fort, they quickly overpowered its small garrison, and it fell to the Ottomans. Then, Osman went to the feast followed by some Byzantine knights who were easily ambushed by his men later. A short battle took place in which Osman was victorious, and most of the Byzantines were killed. After that, Osman rode towards Yarhisar and took it by surprise; A large part of the fort's garrison was killed, while the rest were taken prisoners. The ''tekfur's'' daughter Holophira, was also captured in this action, she soon became Osman's daughter in law, having married his son Orhan sometime later,<ref name="Munejjim">{{cite book|last1=Müneccimbaşı|first1=Ahmed Lütfullah|title=Kitāb Jāmiʻ al-duwal|publisher=Dār al-Shafaq|year=2009|place=Beirut|pages=229–231|language=ar|trans-title=The Compendium of Nations}}</ref> and her name was changed in Bayalun<ref>{{cite book|last1=Peirce|first1=Leslie P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L6-VRgVzRcUC&pg=PR19|title=The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1993|isbn=0-19-508677-5|place=New York|page=34|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200409223340/https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=L6-VRgVzRcUC&pg=PR19&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2|archive-date=9 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sakaoğlu |first=Necdet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6WUMAQAAMAAJ |title=Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler |date=2008 |publisher=Oğlak Yayıncılık |isbn=978-975-329-623-6 |pages=39–40 |language=tr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title="Nilüfer Hatun" |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi |language=tr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Alderson |first=A. D. |title=The structure of the Ottoman dynasty |date=1982 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-22522-2 |location=Westport, Conn |chapter=Orhan}}</ref> Afterwards, Osman and several of his men took over all towns and villages surrounding İnegöl, before laying siege on the fort itself and taking it with ease. Osman ordered the execution of İnegöl's ''tekfur'' since he was known for persecuting his Muslim neighbours, then placed a new garrison for the town, and distributed the loot among his men.<ref name="Munejjim"/>

=== Fall of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, and the Osmanic Beylik's independence ===
[[File:Anatolian Beyliks in 1300.png|thumb|left|The declining Sultanate of Rûm, vassal of the [[w:Ilkhanate|Mongols]], and the emerging beyliks, c.&nbsp;1300]]

Osman aspired, after his multiple victories, to expand on two axes, aiming to isolate the Byzantine cities he was looking to conquer. First, he blocked the road leading to [[w:İznik|İznik]] from the eastern side. Then, he advanced from the west towards [[w:Uluabat|Lopadion]] and Evrenos. After that Osman turned around [[w:Uludağ|Mount Uludağ]] from both north and south, avoiding the fortified city of Bursa, connecting with his Muslim neighbours in the southeast. During that time, the Byzantine Empire was preoccupied with ongoing clashes with its powerful enemies in Anatolia, such as the Germiyanids and the coastal beyliks, not to mention suppressing unrest and discord in Constantinople and the [[w:Balkans|Balkans]]. The Empire was unable to face Osman's threats, thus, he felt free to expand at the Byzantines expense exploiting the current situation.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Köprülü|first1=Mehmet Fuad|translator-last1=Sulaymān|translator-first1=Aḥmad al-Saʻīd|title=Qiyām al-Dawlah al-ʻUthmānīyah|edition= 2nd|page= 180|publisher= Dar al-Kātib al-ʻArabī|place=Cairo|url=https://archive.org/details/Book_192/page/n209/mode/2up|language=ar|trans-title=Rise of the Ottoman Empire}}</ref> At the same time, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm was seeing its final days. The Sultanate grip was slowly weakened over its Turkoman Beyliks. Sultan Alâeddin Kayqubad III became deeply unpopular after he purged the Seljuk administration of his predecessor's men with extreme violence. This prompted the Mongol Ilkhan [[Mahmud Ghazan]] to call upon Kayqubad to appear before him, and once the latter did in 1302, he was executed and replaced with his predecessor [[w:Mesud II|Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Mas'ūd bin Kaykāwūs]] to keep the peace in Anatolia.<ref name="Cahen">{{Cite book|url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/w95050571|title=Pre-Ottoman Turkey: a general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history|last=Cahen|first=Claude|publisher=Taplinger|year=1968|location=New York|pages=300–301|translator-last1= Jones-Williams|translator-first1=J.}}</ref> According to another account, Mongol and [[w:Tatars|Tatar]] hordes raided Asia Minor in 1300, and killed Sultan Kayqubad in his capital Konya. It was also said that Kaykāwūs himself killed his rival, coveting his own return on the throne. Another story suggests that Kayqubad escaped and sought refuge in the Byzantine court where he remained until his death.<ref name="Farid2"/> In all cases, Kaykāwūs's rule was short-lived, lasting between 4 and 6 years at most, and when he died in 1308 CE, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm was no more to be mentioned in the historical records,<ref name="Cahen"/> giving the way for the Turkoman beyliks to emerge as independent states.

[[File:Sultan Osman.jpg|thumb|Osman, an independent Emir, on his ''[[w:tr:Taht|Takht]]'', 19th century depiction]]

The demise of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm gave Osman autonomy over his dominion, he soon dubbed himself ''Padişah Āl-ıʿOsmān'' (sovereign of the [[Ottoman dynasty|house of Osman]]). After that, Osman set his sights towards conquering the last of the Byzantine cities, towns, and fortresses in Anatolia. According to one account, after Sultan Alâeddin Kayqubad III was killed by the Mongols, viziers and notable leaders met and decided that since the late Sultan had no offspring, one of the local Emirs should take his place, and they found Osman perfect fitting the candidacy. Thus, the leaders offered the Emir the position, and Osman accepted becoming a Sultan. It is likely that Kayqubad's and Kaykāwūs's deaths led to the Sultanate of Rûm falling into chaos, and prompted many of its regular soldiers to join the armies of local Emirs, including Osman. This gave the latter a great momentum and important military experience enriching his army for the upcoming conquests.<ref>{{cite book|last1=al-Qusṭanṭīnī|first1=Muṣṭafa bin 'Abd Allāh (Kâtip Çelebi)|url=https://www.academia.edu/32932365|title=Fadhlakat aqwāl al-akhyār fī ʻilm al-tārīkh wa-al-akhbār|publisher=South Valley University|year=2003|place=Sohag|pages=136|language=ar|trans-title=A historiographical compendium of what was told by the good folk|access-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525220832/https://www.academia.edu/32932365/%D8%B9%D8%AB%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A2%D9%84_%D9%85%D9%84%D9%88%D9%83_%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE|archive-date=25 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 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>

=== Conquest of Yenişehir and Its Surroundings ===
After securing his northern borders by reaching the Black and Marmara seas, Osman turned his attention towards the southern borders of his beylik. Thus, he attacked the Byzantine towns, villages, and fortresses surrounding the city of [[Yenişehir, Bursa|Yenişehir]] preparing to conquer it. Osman sent a large campaign to the fortress of Yāvandhisar and annexed it. Then, he attacked Yenişehir, took it with ease, and made it his temporary capital after fortifying and strengthening its defenses.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=al-Dūrī|first1=Rāʼid Sami Ḥamīd|date=2013|title=Dawāfiʻ al-Tawajjuhāt al-ʻUthmānīyah naḥw Ūrūbbā al-sharqīyah 1299–1358|trans-title=Motives of Ottoman Campaigns Toward Eastern Europe 1299–1358 CE.|url=https://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=73125|journal=Surra Man Raa|language=Arabic|volume=9|issue=32|pages=342|issn=1813-1735|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926175745/http://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=73125|archive-date=26 September 2015}}</ref> Soon after that Osman started sending more campaigns against the remaining Byzantine cities conquering several fortresses including [[Osmaneli|Lefke]], [[Akhisar]], [[Koçhisar, Sandıklı|Koçhisar]], Yenicehisar, [[w:tr:Marmaracık, Yenişehir|Marmaracık]], and [[w:tr:Köprühisar, Yenişehir|Köprühisar]]. In fact, conquering the aforementioned forts aimed at imposing a security belt around Yenişehir, thus Osman surrounded it with a series of front forts to ward off any invasions.<ref name="Mantran2">{{cite book|last1=Mantran|first1=Robert|url=https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5OVd-oKGKp8N05TcVBzcEtRazg/edit|title=Tārīkh al-dawlah al-ʻUthmānīyah|publisher=Dar al-fikr|year=1992|isbn=9775091136|edition=1st|volume=1st Vol.|place=Cairo|page=23|language=ar|translator-last1=Sibāʻī|translator1-first=Bashīr|trans-title=History of the Ottoman Empire|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617171935/https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5OVd-oKGKp8N05TcVBzcEtRazg/edit|archive-date=17 June 2016}}</ref>

=== Conquest of Bursa ===
[[File:Bursa Kalesi 1.jpg|thumb|Gate of Bursa's Byzantine castle, which witnessed the long Ottoman siege]]

With Yenişehir in his hands, Osman focused his efforts on isolated large cities starting with Bursa, unaware that this would be his last campaign.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Runciman|first=Steven|title=The Fall of Constantinople 1453|date=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521398320|edition=Reprint|place=Cambridge|page=33}}</ref> He gave the orders to start building two forts overseeing and surrounding the city, then, when the construction was completed, Osman provided the forts with large garrisons. This allowed his men to tighten the blockade and prevent any provisions reaching Bursa.<ref name="Qaramani">{{cite book|last1=Qaramānī|first1=Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikisource/ar/f/fa/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84.pdf|title=Kitāb akhbār al-duwal wa-āthār al-uwal fī al-tārīkh|publisher=Mirza Abbas Tabrizi print house|year=1985|place=Baghdad|pages=397|language=ar|trans-title=News of States and traces of Predecessors in History|access-date=24 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224011431/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikisource/ar/f/fa/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84.pdf|archive-date=24 December 2019}}</ref> The Ottoman siege lasted between six and nine years, this was due to the fact that the Ottomans had no [[Siege engines]] and they had never captured a large fortified city before.<ref name="Nolan">{{cite book|last=Nolan|first=Cathal J.|title=The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000–1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2006|isbn=9780313337338|volume=1|pages=100–101}}</ref>

During the long siege, Osman and some of his military commanders conquered the smaller Byzantine fortresses on the vicinity of the beylik, in which Several ''tekfurs'' acknowledged Osman's sovereignty, and became among his subjects, some of them accepting Islam in the process. Soon after that, Osman started suffering from [[Gout]], and couldn't accompany his men in any more campaigns or witness the [[Siege of Bursa]], so he entrusted his son Orhan to complete this major task, while he retired in his capital. Orhan's continued the siege without any fighting, but he continued isolating Bursa from its surrounding forts, conquering [[Mudanya]] to cut off the city's connection to the sea. He also captured the city of [[Karamürsel|Praenetos]] on the southern coast of [[İzmit]], changing its name to Karamürsel, after the Muslim leader who took it "Karamürsel Bey". The last fort to fall was Beyce, which was considered Bursa's key as it overlooked it, and it was renamed [[Orhaneli]].<ref name="Qaramani"/><ref name="Farid2"/>

Orhan tightened the blockade around Bursa till its garrison fell into despair. Soon, the Byzantine emperor realized that the fall of the city into Muslim hands was inevitable, thus, he made a difficult decision ordering his governor to evacuate the city. Orhan entered Bursa on 6 April 1326, its people were not subjected to any harm after they recognized Ottoman sovereignty and pledged to pay ''jizyah''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hōca Efendi|first1=Saʿd al-Dīn b. Ḥasan|title=Tâcü't-Tevârih|publisher=Matbaa-i Âmire|year=1863|place=Istanbul|pages=28–29|language=ota|trans-title=The Crown of Histories}}</ref> Saroz, the garrison's leader, surrendered to Orhan and pledged allegiance to his father Osman. He also converted to Islam and was given the title of "Bey" out of respect to his courage and patience during the long siege.<ref name="orhan2">{{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=120–122|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> According to some sources, Osman died just before the fall of the city,<ref name="Nolan"/> while others suggest that he lived long enough to hear about the victory on his death-bed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Clifford|title=The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=9780195334036|volume=1|page=261}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hore|first=A. H.|title=Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|year=2003|isbn=9781593330514|page=455}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Pitcher|first=Donald Edgar|title=An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire: From Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century|publisher=Brill Archive|year=1972|page=37}}</ref>

==Family==
[[File:Osman I miniature by Nakkaş Osman.jpg|thumb|16th-century miniature of Osman I by [[Nakkaş Osman]]]]
Due to the scarcity of sources about his life, very little is known about Osman's family relations. According to certain fifteenth-century Ottoman writers, Osman was descended from the [[Kayı (tribe)|Kayı]] branch of the [[Oghuz Turks]], a claim which later became part of the official Ottoman genealogy and was eventually enshrined in the [[Turkish nationalism|Turkish Nationalist]] historical tradition with the writings of [[Mehmet Fuat Köprülü|M. F. Köprülü]].<ref>
{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date=1995|pages=10, 37 }}</ref> However, the claim to Kayı lineage does not appear in the earliest extant Ottoman genealogies. Thus many scholars of the early Ottomans regard it as a later fabrication meant to shore up dynastic legitimacy with regard to the empire's Turkish rivals in Anatolia.<ref name=kayi>
{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date=1995|page=122 |quote=That they hailed from the Kayı branch of the Oğuz confederacy seems to be a creative "rediscovery" in the genealogical concoction of the fifteenth century. It is missing not only in Ahmedi but also, and more importantly, in the Yahşi Fakih-Aşıkpaşazade narrative, which gives its own version of an elaborate genealogical family tree going back to Noah. If there was a particularly significant claim to Kayı lineage, it is hard to imagine that Yahşi Fakih would not have heard of it.}}
* {{Cite book|first=Heath|last=Lowry|title=The Nature of the Early Ottoman State|publisher=SUNY Press|date=2003|page=78 |isbn=0-7914-5636-6|quote=Based on these charters, all of which were drawn up between 1324 and 1360 (almost one hundred fifty years prior to the emergence of the Ottoman dynastic myth identifying them as members of the Kayı branch of the Oguz federation of Turkish tribes), we may posit that...}}
* {{Cite book|author=Rudi Paul Lindner|title=Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia|publisher=Indiana University Press|date=1983|page=10|quote=In fact, no matter how one were to try, the sources simply do not allow the recovery of a family tree linking the antecedents of Osman to the Kayı of the Oğuz tribe.}}</ref> Yazıcıoğlu Ali, in the early 15th century, constructed a genealogy for Osman, tracing it back to [[Oghuz Khagan]], the mythical ancestor of the [[Oghuz Turks|Western Turks]], through the eldest grandson of his eldest son, thereby lending legitimacy to the Ottoman sultans' claim of primacy among [[Anatolian Beyliks|Turkish monarchs]].<ref>Colin Imber, (2002), ''The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650'', p. 95</ref>

It is very difficult for historians to determine what is factual and what is legendary about the many stories the Ottomans told about Osman and his exploits, and the Ottoman sources do not always agree with each other.<ref name=Kafadar105>{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State |date=1995|page=105}}
* {{Cite book|first=Caroline|last=Finkel|title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923|year= 2006|page=6 |publisher=Basic Books|quote=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|isbn=978-0-465-02396-7}}</ref> According to one story, Osman had an uncle named Dündar with whom he had a quarrel early in his career. Osman wished to attack the local Christian lord of [[Bilecik]], while Dündar opposed it, arguing that they already had enough enemies. Interpreting this as a challenge to his leadership position, Osman shot and killed his uncle with an arrow.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date=1995|page=105}}</ref> This story first appears in [[Neşri]]'s work but is missing in earlier Ottoman historical works. If it was true, it means that it was likely covered up to avoid tarnishing the reputation of the Ottoman dynasty's founder with the murder of a family member. It may also indicate an important change in the relationship of the Ottomans with their neighbors, shifting from relatively peaceful accommodation to a more aggressive policy of conquest.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Cemal|last=Kafadar|title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State|date=1995|pages=107–108}}</ref>

===Consorts===
Osman I had two known consorts, who were both his legal wives, and some unknown concubines:<ref name="Pierce">{{cite book |last=Pierce |first=Leslie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L6-VRgVzRcUC&q=mal |title=The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire |date=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195086775 |place=London |pages=32–33}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCNIDwAAQBAJ&q=Rabia+Bala+Hatun%2C+daughter+of+Sheikh+Edebali&pg=PT16|title=The Sultans: The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Rulers and Their World: A 600-Year History|last=Duducu|first=Jem|date=2018|publisher=Amberley Publishing|isbn=9781445668611|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Rabia Bala Hatun]]. She was the daughter of [[Sheikh Edebali]] and the mother of Alaeddin Ali Pasha. She spent the last years of her life with her father and died in Bilecik in 1324. She was buried next to her father's tomb. 
* [[Malhun Hatun|Kameriye Malhun Hatun]]. Daughter of Ömer Abdülaziz Bey. Called also Mal or Mala Hatun, she was the mother of Orhan I.
* ''Fülane'' Hatun. Girl from humble social background with whom Osman became infatuated when he was very young. When she rejected his marriage proposal, believing it to be a joke, Osman kidnapped her and made her his concubine.<ref name="Pierce" />

===Sons===
Osman I had at least eight sons:<ref>[[Halil Inalcik]], (1973), ''The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300–1600 (The Ottoman Empire)'', pp. 204–205</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowry |first=Heath |title=The Nature of the Early Ottoman State |date=2003 |publisher=SUNY Press |pages=153}}</ref><ref name="Lowry73">{{Cite book |last=Lowry |first=Heath |title=The Nature of the Early Ottoman State |date=2003 |publisher=SUNY Press |pages=73}}</ref>
* ''Fülan'' Bey (born before 1281) – with ''Fülane'' Hatun. He was sent to the court of [[Kaykhusraw III|Gıyasüddin III Kaykhusraw]], [[Seljuk dynasty|Seljuk sultan]], to be raised in his house when [[Ertuğrul]] signed peace with him. He had at least three sons, Ahmed, Bayad and Halil; and his descendants were still alive at the time of the reign of [[Bayezid I]].
* [[Orhan I]] (1281–1362) – with Malhun Hatun. Second Ottoman ruler.<ref name="İÂ">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=[[İslâm Ansiklopedisi|TDV Encyclopedia of Islam]] (3rd ed.)|title=Mal Hatun|first=Feridun |last=Emecen|url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mal-hatun|date=2019|volume=Annex 2|pages=182–183|lang=tr}}</ref>
* [[Alaeddin Pasha|Alaeddin Erden Ali Pasha]] ({{circa|1281}}  – 1331) – with Rabia Bala Hatun. Governor of [[Bilecik]] and founder of several mosques in [[Bursa]]. His descendants were still alive in the 16th century.
* Çoban Bey (1283–1337). He built a mosque in Bursa. Buried in Söğüt, in the Türbe of Ertuğrul.
* Pazarlı Bey (1285 – ?). General of Orhan I. He had at least two sons, İlyas Bey and Murad Bey, and at least two daughters. Buried in Söğüt, in the Türbe of Ertuğrul.
* Hamid Bey (1288–1329). Buried in Söğüt, in the Türbe of Ertuğrul.
* Murad Arslan Melik Bey (1290–1336). He had at least one daughter, Melek Hatun, Buried in Söğüt, in the Türbe of Ertuğrul.
* Savcı Bey. He had at least one son, Süleyman Bey. Buried in Söğüt, in the [[Türbe]] of Ertuğrul.

===Daughters===
Osman I had at least one daughter:
* Fatma Hatun (1284, Söğüt – 1347, Bursa)<ref name="Pierce" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowry |first=Heath W. |title=The nature of the early Ottoman state |date=2003 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-5635-4 |series=SUNY series in the social and economic history of the Middle East |location=Albany  |pages=73, 77}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Öcal |first1=Sefa |title=Devlet kuran kahramanlar |date=1987 |publisher=Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları Vakfı |page=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=He6HCgAAQBAJ&dq=fatma+hatun+osman&pg=PA74 |access-date=1 July 2023}}</ref>

==Personality==
Ottoman historiography depicts Osman as a semi-holy person.<ref>Ihsanoglu, E. ''History of the Ottoman state, society and civilization: in 2 volumes''; translated from Turkish by Feonova, ed. by M.S. Meyer; Eastern Literature, 2006. V.1. p. 6; {{ISBN|5020185116}}.</ref>

It is known that among the [[Turkoman (ethnonym)|Turkoman]] tribes, the tribe or part of it was named after its leader. The fact that the [[Kayi tribe]] became known by the name of Osman, suggests that the tribe became powerful because of his excellent leadership.<ref>Ihsanoglu, E. ''History of the Ottoman state, society and civilization: in 2 volumes''; Translation from Turkish by V.B. Feonova, ed. by M.S. Meyer; Eastern Literature, 2006. V. 1; p. 6; {{ISBN|5020185116}}.</ref> Orientalist R. Rakhmanaliev writes that the historical role of Osman was that of a tribal leader, who enjoyed enormous success in uniting his people around him.<ref>R.Rakhmanaliev. ''Empire of the Turks. Great civilization. Turkic peoples in World History since the 10th century B.C. to the 20th century''. Ripol Classic, 2008. {{ISBN|9785386008475}}.</ref>

The activities and personality of Osman as the founder of the state and [[Ottoman dynasty|dynasty]] are highly appreciated by historians of both the past and the present. The state and the dynasty of rulers are named after him. The population of the state was called [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] (Osmanlilar) until the beginning of the 20th century, that is until the [[collapse of the Ottoman Empire]]. Historian [[Fyodor Uspensky|F. Uspensky]] notes that Osman relied not only on force, but also cunningness.<ref>Uspensky, F. ''History of the Byzantine Empire: XI–XV centuries. Eastern question''. Moscow, Mysl', 1996. {{ISBN|9785244008821}}.</ref> Historian and writer [[Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross|Lord Kinross]] writes that Osman was a wise, patient ruler, whom people sincerely respected and were ready to serve him faithfully. He had a natural sense of superiority, but he never sought to assert himself with the help of power, and therefore he was respected not only by those who were equal in position, but also those who exceeded his abilities on the battlefield or on wisdom. Osman did not arouse feelings of rivalry in his people—only loyalty.<ref>Kinross, Lord. ''The Ottoman Centuries. The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire''. Harper Collins, 1979.</ref> [[Herbert Adams Gibbons|Herbert Gibbons]] believed that Osman was "great enough to exploit masterful people".<ref>Gibbons, Herbert Adams. ''The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire: A History of the Osmanlis Up To the Death of Bayezid I 1300–1403''. – Routledge, 2013. p. 27. {{ISBN|9781135029821}}.</ref>

According to [[Cemal Kafadar]], Osman for the Ottomans was the same as [[Romulus]] for the [[Roman people|Romans]].<ref>Kafadar, Cemal. ''Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State''. University of California Press, 1995. p. 1. {{ISBN|9780520206007}}</ref>

== Death ==
[[File:Osman I area map.PNG|thumb|right|The territorial extent of the Ottoman Beylik upon the death of Osman I]]
[[File:Türbe of Osman I, Bursa.jpg|thumb|right|''Türbe'' of Osman I, Bursa]]
According to the sources that say Osman lived to hear of the fall of Bursa, Orhan rushed back to Söğüt to inform his father of his great victory. Once he reached it, he was immediately summoned to Osman, who was on his death-bed. Soon after Osman heard the news, he died from natural causes. However, Osman managed to name Orhan to be his successor, although the latter was not Osman's first-born. Yet the dead Emir believed that Orhan was better fit to rule than his elder half-brother [[Alaeddin Pasha|Alâeddin]], who was more passive and pious than Orhan.<ref name="orhan2"/> As for the exact cause of Osman's death, it is well known that he suffered from [[gout]] for several years, which seemingly caused his eventual death. This is confirmed by what Aşıkpaşazade mentioned in ''Tevarih-i Âl-i Osman'' when he talked about the late period of Osman's life, saying: "Osman had a bad foot from which he experienced severe pain". It is noted that Aşıkpaşazade used a similar expression when he talked about the death of Sultan [[Mehmed the Conqueror]]: "The cause of his death was the issue in his feet". It is now known that gout is a [[Genetic disorder|genetic disease]] in the Ottoman dynasty, and many sultans suffered from it.<ref name="Armağan2">{{cite book|last1=Armağan|first1=Mustafa|title=al-tārīkh al-sirrī lil-Imbarāṭūrīyah al-ʻUthmānīyah; Jawānib ghayr Maʻrūfa min ḥayāt Salāṭīn Banī ʻUthmān|publisher=al-Dār al-ʻArabīyah lil-ʻUlūm Nāshirūn|year=2014|isbn=9786140111226|edition=1st|place=Beirut|pages=11–17|language=ar|translator-last1=Hamza|translator-first1=Mustafa|trans-title=The Secret History of the Ottoman Empire: Unrecognized Aspects of the Life of the Ottoman Sultans}}</ref>

The exact date of Osman's death is debatable. It is said that he died on 21 August 1326 at 70 years old. The 15th-century Ottoman historian Rouhi Çelebi, who wrote down the history of the Ottoman Empire until 1481, indicates that Osman died in 1320. However, Uruç adiloğlu, another Ottoman historian who lived during the time of Sultans Mehmed the Conqueror and [[Bayezid II]] up until 1502, says that Osman died in 1327. Contemporary Turkish historian {{ill|Necdet Sakaoğlu|tr}} states that, despite the absence of documents mentioning Osman's name after the year 1320, there are documents confirming Orhan's ascension to the throne in 1324. Based on this, Osman's death might have occurred in the same or previous year.<ref name="Sakaoğlu2"/><ref name="Armağan2"/> It is also certain that Osman's death was after the death of his father-in-law, [[Sheikh Edebali]], and after the death of his wife, [[Rabia Bala Hatun]], because it is known that Osman buried the two in Bilecik.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.internethaber.com/osman-gazi-ikinci-esi-bala-hatun-kimdir-turbesi-nerede-2187914h.htm|title=Osman Gazi ikinci eşi Bala Hatun kimdir türbesi nerede?|trans-title=Who is Osman Gazi's second wife Bala Hatun; where is her tomb?|website=InternetHaber|date=2 June 2021 |access-date=13 August 2021|language=tr}}</ref>

Once Osman died, Orhan ordered the transfer of his body to Bursa, his new capital. Thus, Osman's body was laid there to rest.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sarhank|first1=Ismaʻīl|title=Tārīkh al-Dawlah al-ʻUthmānīyah|publisher=Dar al-Fikr al-Ḥadīth|year=1988|place=Beirut|page=14|language=ar|trans-title=History of the Ottoman Empire}}</ref> His grave is located today in the neighbourhood of Tophane. The reason behind the transferring Osman's body was due to a will Osman did tell his son about during the early years of besieging Bursa: "My Son, when I die, bury me under that silver dome in Bursa". However, Osman's current tomb dates back to the time of Sultan [[Abdulaziz]] (1861–1876), because the first tomb was completely destroyed in a severe earthquake that struck the region in 1855, it was rebuilt by the aforementioned Sultan. Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II|Abdulhamid II]] (1876–1909) also constructed a shrine in Söğüt where Osman was buried for a while before he was moved to Bursa.<ref name="Armağan2"/>

According to some sources, Osman left a written will to his son Orhan instructing him to move on with conquests and jihad against the Byzantines, that he abides by the teachings of Islam, accompany the ''[[Ulama|ʿUlamāʾ]]'', amend his parish, and dedicates himself to spread the word of Islam.<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|pages=21–22|language=ar|trans-title=Luminous aspects of the history of the Ottoman Turks}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ḥarb|first1=Muḥammad|url=https://archive.org/details/OttomansHarb/page/n11/mode/2up|title=al-Uthmānīyūn fi al-Tārīkh wa al-Ḥaḍārah|publisher=Egyptian Center for Ottoman Studies and Turkish World Researches|year=1994|place=Cairo|page=12|language=ar|trans-title=The Ottomans in history and civilization|access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
Osman is considered the founder of the Ottoman dynasty who started an imperial line that would expand to include [[List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|35 sultans]] – rulers of one of the largest and most powerful empires in world history. The Ottoman Empire lasted until 1918, when it disintegrated after defeat alongside other [[Central Powers]] in [[World War I]]. Osman is often referred to as the first in the line of Ottoman Sultans, although he himself never carried this title in his life, and was instead called "Bey" or "Emir". One endowment written in [[Persian language|Persian]] and dating back to 1324, indicates that Osman was given the titles ''[[Mohy al-Din|Muḥiuddin]]'' (Reviver of the faith) and ''[[Fakhr al-Din|Fakhruddin]]'' (Pride of the faith).<ref name="yilmaz23"/>

Osman's descendants are distributed today in several American, European and Arab countries after the royal Ottoman family was expelled from [[Turkey]] in 1924 shortly after the declaration of the Republic, by [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]].<ref name="exile">{{cite book|author=Brookes, Douglas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HuZTefumFSQC&q=revocation&pg=PT295|title=The concubine, the princess, and the teacher: voices from the Ottoman harem|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2008|isbn=9780292783355|pages=278, 285|access-date=2011-04-14}}</ref> Eventually, several family members returned to Turkey, after the Turkish government allowed the females to return in 1951.<ref name="exile"/> However, male descendants had to wait until 1973 CE to be able to enter Turkey again.<ref>{{cite book|author=Opfell, Olga|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UFveIUgktIC&q=%22Osman+Fuad%22&pg=PA239|title=Royalty who wait: the 21 heads of formerly regnant houses of Europe|publisher=McFarland|year=2001|isbn=9780786450572|pages=146, 151|access-date=2011-04-14}}</ref> Other members remained in the countries where their ancestors had sought refuge, such as [[England]], [[France]], the [[United States]], [[Egypt]], [[Saudi Arabia]], among others. Osman's descendants are known today as the [[Osmanoğlu family|Osmanoğlu (son of Osman) family]].

A [[TCG Osmangazi|Turkish navy landing ship]] is named after Osman.

===The Sword of Osman===
{{main|Sword of Osman}}
The Sword of Osman ({{Langx|tr|Taklid-i Seyf}}) was an important [[sword of state]] used during the coronation ceremony of the [[List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Sultans]]<ref>Frederick William Hasluck, [First published 1929], "XLVI. The Girding of the Sultan", in Margaret Hasluck, ''Christianity and Islam Under the Sultans II'', pp. 604–622. {{ISBN|9781406758870}}</ref> starting with Sultan [[Murad II]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Topbaş|first1=Osman Nuri|url=http://islamicpublishing.org/KAYNAKLAR/Dokumanlar/KITAPLAR/arabic/arapca-abide-sahsiyet-ve-muesseseleriyle-osmanli.pdf|title=al-ʻUthmānīyūn: rijāluhum al-ʻiẓām wa muʼassasātihim al-shāmikhah|publisher=Dar al-arqam|year=2016|isbn=9789944835251|edition=1st|place=Istanbul|page=95|language=ar|translator-last1=Muḥammad|translator-first1=Ḥarb|trans-title=The Ottomans: their great men and their majestic institutions|access-date=13 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417131523/http://islamicpublishing.org/KAYNAKLAR/Dokumanlar/KITAPLAR/arabic/arapca-abide-sahsiyet-ve-muesseseleriyle-osmanli.pdf|archive-date=17 April 2018}}</ref> The practice started when Osman was girt with the sword of Islam by his father-in-law [[Sheik Edebali]].<ref>Frank R. C. Bagley, ''The Last Great Muslim Empires'' (Leid Brill, 1969), p. 2 {{ISBN|9789004021044}}</ref> The girding of the sword of Osman was a vital ceremony which took place within two weeks of a sultan's accession to the throne. It was held at the tomb complex at [[Eyüp]], on the [[Golden Horn]] waterway in the capital [[Constantinople]]. The fact that the emblem by which a sultan was enthroned consisted of a sword was highly symbolic: it showed that the office with which he was invested was first and foremost that of a warrior. The Sword of Osman was girded on to the new sultan by the [[Sharif]] of [[Konya]], a [[Mevlevi]] dervish, who was summoned to Constantinople for that purpose.<ref>{{cite news|date=18 September 1876|title=Girding on the Sword of Osman|page=2|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1876/09/18/94655470.pdf|access-date=19 April 2009|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=October 2016}}

===In popular culture===
{{Main|Osman Bey (fictional character)}}
Osman and people close to him have been portrayed in the Turkish television series
''{{ill|Kuruluş "Osmancık"|tr}}'' (1988), adapted from a novel by the same name,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kutay  |first1=Uğur  |title=Osmancık'tan ve Osman'a |url=https://www.birgun.net/haber/osmancik-tan-ve-osman-a-287329 |access-date=12 June 2020 |work=[[BirGün]] |date=10 February 2020 |language=tr}}</ref> ''[[Diriliş: Ertuğrul]]'' (2014–2019)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Diriliş Ertuğrul'un Osman'ı Emre Üçtepe kimdir? Kaç yaşında ve nereli?|url=https://www.sozcu.com.tr/hayatim/magazin-haberleri/dirilis-ertugrulun-osmani-emre-uctepe-kimdir-kac-yasinda-ve-nereli/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=www.sozcu.com.tr|date=26 December 2018 }}</ref> and ''[[Kuruluş: Osman]]'' (2019–present).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kuruluş Osman oyuncuları isimleri: Kuruluş Osman dizisinde kim kimdir?|url=https://www.sozcu.com.tr/hayatim/magazin-haberleri/kurulus-osman-oyunculari-isimleri-kurulus-osman-dizisinde-kim-kimdir/|access-date=29 November 2020|website=www.sozcu.com.tr|date=11 December 2019 |language=tr}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of Ottoman conquests, sieges and landings]]
* [[Köse Mihal]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Academic peer reviewed|Q99519061|doi-access=free}}
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|2}}
* {{Cite book|last=Lindner |first=Rudi P. |title=Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia |publisher=Indiana University Press |place=Bloomington |date=1983 |isbn=0-933070-12-8 }}
* {{Cite journal|last=Imber |first=Colin |title=The Ottoman Dynastic Myth |date=1987 |journal=Turcica |pages=7–27 |volume=19|doi=10.2143/TURC.19.0.2014268 }}
* {{Cite book |editor-first=Elizabeth |editor-last=Zachariadou |title=The Ottoman Emirate (1300–1389) |date=1991 |publisher=Crete University Press |place=Rethymnon }}
* {{Cite book|last=Kafadar |first=Cemal |title=Between Two Worlds: The Construction of the Ottoman State |publisher=University of California Press |place=Berkeley |date=1995 |isbn=978-0-520-20600-7}}
* {{Cite book|last=Lowry |first=Heath |title=The Nature of the Early Ottoman State |publisher=SUNY Press |place=Albany |date=2003 |isbn=0-7914-5636-6}}
* {{Cite book|last=Finkel |first=Caroline |title=Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 |place=New York |publisher=Basic Books |date=2005 |isbn=978-0-465-02396-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=İnalcik |first1=Halîl |authorlink=Halil Inalcik|title=Osman I – An article published in 33rd volume of Turkish Encyclopedia of Islam |date=2007 |publisher=[[İslâm Ansiklopedisi|TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi]] |location=Istanbul |pages=443–453 |volume=33 |isbn=978-975-38-94-55-5 |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/osman-i |language=tr}}
* {{cite book |last=Murphey |first=Rhoads |title=Exploring Ottoman Sovereignty: Tradition, Image, and Practice in the Ottoman Imperial Household, 1400–1800 |publisher=Continuum |place=London |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84725-220-3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Imber |first=Colin |title=The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power |edition=2nd |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |place=New York |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-230-57451-9 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Kermeli |first=Eugenia |editor-last=Ágoston |editor-first=Gábor |editor-first2=Bruce |editor-last2=Masters |title=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire |chapter=Osman I |date=2009 |pages=444–446 |publisher=Facts on File |place=New York |isbn=978-0-8160-6259-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Fleet |first=Kate |title=The New Cambridge History of Islam |volume=2 |editor-first=Maribel |editor-last=Fierro |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge |date=2010 |chapter=The rise of the Ottomans |pages=313–331 |isbn=978-0-521-83957-0}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Osman I}}

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{{s-hou|[[Ottoman Dynasty|House of Osman]]||1250s||1323/4}}
{{s-reg}}
{{s-new|reason=[[Ottoman Empire|Dynasty founded]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Sultan]] ([[Bey]])|years=c. 1299&nbsp;– 1323/4}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Orhan I]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Sultans of the Ottoman Empire}}

{{Kayı tribe}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osman 01}}
[[Category:1250s births]]
[[Category:1320s deaths]]
[[Category:13th-century sultans of the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:14th-century sultans of the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Ottoman people of the Byzantine–Ottoman wars]]
[[Category:People from Söğüt]]
[[Category:Founding monarchs]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Year of death uncertain]]
[[Category:Age controversies]]