In the seventh decade of the fifth century AH / eleventh century AD, while the great Seljuks were knocking over the South Caucasus after absolute control of Central and Western Asia from Mesopotamia and East Turkestan to the Mediterranean coasts in the Levant, the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) state, which has been lurking in Islam and Muslims since the era of the Prophethood, had begun to realize the danger of these Seljuk Turks to their presence in Anatolia and Eastern Europe, as it had previously realized the danger of Islam and its previous states.
The Byzantine Emperor at the time, Romanos IV, had decided very strictly the need to fight the decisive confrontation with the Seljuks, who controlled the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan and eastern Anatolia, and in this region the famous battle of Manzikert took place in 463 AH / 1071 AD, which resulted in the absolute control of the Seljuks over all of Anatolia until the Sea of Marmara after a crushing defeat of the Byzantines and the capture of their emperor and the killing of tens of thousands of them, and then the establishment of a new Seljuk branch whose followers were known in the history of the region as "Seljuks of Rum" or "Seljuks of Anatolia", They were the ones who fought a long struggle with their Byzantine neighbors in the far west, then the Crusaders and the Mongols, before engaging in internal conflicts that were exploited by the Turkmen groups that settled Anatolia in all its regions.
Anatolia, according to Seljuk sources, was left over a long period of time that extended for more than two centuries, in which Persian and Arab culture prevailed in official documents and literature before the Karamanian dynasty ruling Central Anatolia in Konya announced a Turkish revolution in culture, thought and codification since the seventh century AH, followed by the Ottomans later.
If the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan and his sons and grandchildren, had gone out attacking Islamic countries from Central Asia and then Iran to the Caucasus, Iraq and Anatolia, and their barbaric attacks had a role in crushing the Abbasid civilization and the fall of their state, the flight of millions in front of them was a historical opportunity to cause the largest wave of human migrations in the history of the Middle Ages, including the migrations of the Turkmen from Central Asia to Iran, Azerbaijan and Anatolia, and from these appeared the family of "Qayi" that brought out Ertugrul Ghazi and his son Osman and their state. So how did the Ottoman state emerge on the stage of history? And how did its leaders make in the midst of conflicts, the teeth of spears and the crosses of swords?
From immigration to settlement
In the mid-seventh century AH/thirteenth century CE, the Seljuks, after two centuries of settling in Anatolia, were subjected to a series of civil wars, exacerbated by the Mongol occupation that divided their state. For decades, the Anatolian Seljuk sultans fought for their independence, and fate threw them a Turkmen family that came to Anatolia for fear of the Mongols' oppression, belonging to a branch of the "Qayi" clan, one of the most famous branches of the Turkic "Oghuz" tribes (known by the Arabs as the Ghaz tribes), led by a man named Ertugrul Ghazi.
Historical accounts about Ertugrul vary, one says that his father is "Suleiman Shah", while other accounts say that his father is named "Kunduz Alp", and some contemporary Ottoman historians suggest that "Kunduz Alp" is the father of Ertugrul Ghazi due to the discovery of a coinage that reads "Osman bin Ertugrul bin Qunduz Alp". In any case, luck sided with Ertugrul Ghazi when he headed 400 knights of his tribe with the help of the Seljuk Sultan "Alaeddin Kikbad", who ruled Anatolia between 1220-1237 AD, in one of the battles in which he faced the influence of the Mongols in his country, and thanks to this support, the Seljuk Sultan was able to triumph over the invading Mongol force, so he decided to grant the region of "Sogut" in western Anatolia and Mount Armenians in southern Anatolia a fiefdom for Ertugrul and his soldiers, and since that date the influence of the "Qayin" has emerged. Led by Ertugrul in the far west of Anatolia, in the area near Eskişehir (1).
The Turkish historian "Yilmaz Oztuna" tells us in his book "The Brief History of the Ottomans" that the Seljuk state of Rum has been in a fixed strategy to grant fiefdoms on the western borders of the Byzantine state to some Turkmen families that were affiliated with it, and represented the front line of defense for the Seljuks and the Turkish presence in Anatolia, and among these was famous the family of "Çoban oğulları", on the northwestern border and their capital Kastamoni, while the "Germiyan oğulları" family was stationed in the southwest and their capital is Kutahya, Both played a pivotal role in defending the Anatolian Seljuks against the Byzantines. When Ertugrul and his clan landed in Sogut, he became politically vassal of Goban Ogulari in Kastamon, and his son Osman Gazi became his successor before becoming independent in his principality following his strong victories over the Byzantines (2).
Many Ottoman historians believe that the lack of contemporary sources for the early years of Ottoman history is the main reason for the ambiguity about the era of Ertugrul and even his son Osman, as information about Ottoman history in its early years in the second half of the thirteenth century AD is mostly related to popular narratives written in the fifteenth century, but what we know for sure is that the area settled by Ertugrul and his group was in direct contact with the Byzantines who returned to western Anatolia and occupied it from New after the Crusades on Anatolia and the Levant.
However, in the period between 1260-1320 AD, the Oghuz leaders of the fighting Turkmen were able to establish independent principalities in western Anatolia in the lands they carved out of Byzantium, and the contemporary Byzantine historian at the time, "Bakhimirs", recorded that the Byzantine dynasty ruling at the time, which is "Salasa Paleolog" that recovered Constantinople in 1261 AD, was so preoccupied with events in the Balkans that it neglected its Asian borders, and the Turkmen princes took advantage of this and established special areas of influence on the outskirts of the Byzantine state (3).
"Brotherhood" Password
Sheikh Edde Bali 1206-1326 Sheikh of Islam, teacher of Sultan Osman I and spiritual founder of the Ottoman Empire.
He has a famous commandment that was made by the invading Sultan Osman I, may God have mercy on them pic.twitter.com/2uUfdRKEQL
— Afnan Al Khatib . ﮼Afnan, Al-Khatib (@AfnanKhatib) December 18, 2018
The conditions paved the way for the emergence of the Turkmens militarily then, but their ingenuity did not stop there, as the culture of mysticism, which took root in Anatolia since the Seljuk era, had a great role and influence in political and military activity, as it was associated with all regions, and embraced by all Turkmen families that inherited the Seljuk state in Anatolia after its collapse at the beginning of the eighth century AH / fourteenth century AD. These families were keen to sponsor Sufism, and blessed the establishment of the corners and ties of the "brotherhood", a large Sufi movement associated with the middle classes of craftsmen, as well as sponsored by the upper classes in all parts of Anatolia, so that Ibn Battuta, the famous traveler, when he arrived in the region in the early fourth decade of the eighth century AH, was his descent in every city at these mystical fraternities and ligaments.
Ibn Battuta described it saying: "One brother is my brother, on the word brother if the speaker adds it to himself, and they are in all the Roman Turkmen countries, in every country, city and village, and there is no one in this world like them in celebrating strangers from the people and hurrying to feed food and meet the needs, and taking at the hands of darkness, and killing the condition and those who followed them from the people of evil. They are called boys, and one of them is called as we mentioned my brother, and I have not seen in this world the most beautiful deeds of them." (4)
For this reason, Ertugrul was probably associated with the brotherhood, and he singled it out with exaggerated appreciation and respect, and it seems that his son Osman was associated from an early age with the brotherhood of his region, whose sheikh was a man who combines the Arabic, Turkish and Persian tongue, which is Sheikh "Edde Bali", who was born in the Kerman region south of Konya and received his education in the Levant in the first half of the seventh century AH, then came and settled in the region of "Bileh Cek" in western Anatolia, and he followed the loyalty method founded by Sheikh "Abu al-Wafa al-Baghdadi" At the same time, he headed the fraternal organization in that region, and Uthman even had a kinship relationship with this sheikh when he married his daughter, and was his spiritual inspiration, moral teacher and political mentor as well (5).
The mysticism of the brotherhood was the spiritual, social, moral and religious inspiration for all social classes in Anatolia, and its great men were in contact with the spiritual and cultural movement in the Levant, Egypt and Iraq, and the spirit of confrontation against the Byzantines, especially on the areas of contact with them, was prevalent, and for this reason the main goal of the emerging Ottoman Emirate was to follow the policy of conquests that were based on the concepts of conquest and jihad, which was consistent with the social and anthropological nature of the Turks who love to fight, war, move and travel since they were in Central Asia.
Osman establishes his state
Osman I
The word "Osmanli", as Turkish historians tell us, began to gain its meaning little by little, until this meaning expanded to be a flag not only for the inhabitants of the frontier area, but also for the local people in the lands of conquest (6). The attribution of the emerging state to Osman and not to his father, the famous invader Ertugrul, reveals the great prestige Osman achieved among the Turks, and the reputation he gained among the Byzantine enemies. According to the writings of the Byzantine historian "Bakhimirs", the invader Osman bin Ertugrul began his conquests around the year 1301 AD / 701 AH with the siege of Iznik (Nicaea), the ancient capital of Byzantium, so the emperor sent an army of mercenaries consisting of two thousand soldiers to confront him, but Osman ambushed him and defeated him in the summer of that year, and this victory made Osman a famous figure, so that the sources Contemporary Ottoman and Byzantine state that invaders gathered from all regions of Anatolia under his banner (7).
The conquests and spoils gave Osman Ghazi a leadership advantage over all the Turkmen princes in the emirates far from the front lines against the Byzantines. For a long time, these princes followed an irrational policy against their subjects, and restricted them in taxes and others, unlike the Ottomans, who built their reputation through the financial generosity provided by the spoils of jihad, as well as their keenness to spread justice, and their respect for scholars and Sufis, all of which paved the way for hundreds of warriors coming from neighboring regions to join the ranks of Osman Ghazi or Osman Bey, and thus strengthened his influence and strength in the face of the Byzantines on the one hand, and in the face of the neighboring Turkmen emirates that were controlled by the sons of and the descendants of Uthman over time on the other hand (8).
While Ertugrul Gazi was able to leave his son a nascent principality of 4800,16000 km, Osman was able, after four decades of confrontation and war on the squares of Iznik, Bursa, Bileh Cek and others in western Anatolia, he left his son Orkhan Gazi an emirate with an area of 9,<> km, four times what his father left, as it included the most famous, oldest and largest cities of western Anatolia such as Bileh Cik, Eskişehir, Sakarya, Kütahya and important areas of Bursa (<>).
Orkhan Gazi and his sons and grandchildren continued to follow the same path set by the founders Ertugrul and Osman, as their state rose from the emirate phase to the state to the sultanate to the caliphate, in a story that extended over the next six centuries, a story whose first chapters, paradoxically, emerged from the womb of migration and fear of the swords of the Mongols, before writing its glory on the battlefields and under the tongues of spears.
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