Osman Ghazi or more commonly known as Osman I was the leader of the Tukic tribes and the founder of the Ottoman Dynasty later established as the Ottoman Empire. The name Osman derived from the Arabic form Uthman.
Osman ghazi was the son the great Ertugrul ghazi who establish his kayi tribe in the north western Anatolia. Osman was born in 1258 in sogut and his predecessors were from the kayi tribe of oguz Turkmen. Due to the lack of historical sources dating from his lifetime, very little concrete information about Osman has survived.
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Not even a single written source has survived from Osman’s reign. The Ottomans did not preserve the history of Osman’s life upto the fifteenth century, more than a hundred years after his death.
Due to this reason, historians find it very difficult to differentiate between fact and myth in the many stories told about him. After the demise of his father Ertugrul, he continued his effort against the vulnerable Byzantine Empire in the north of Anatolia.
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He took over the excellent work done by his father and devoted his entire life for the purpose for which his ancestors devoted their life for. He was nicknamed as Black or particularly Kara in Turkish, which according to an ancient Turkman tradition glorifies brave and heroic person.
Osman ghazi was a tall man with a broad and high chest and long arms, dark tan, round face with a thin beard and long thick mustache, ram nose, hazel eyes, thick eyebrows, had deep and fine voice, expert on horse riding, sword using, and battle proven strategies. Osman ghazi became chief or bey , upon his father’s demise in 1280.
Nothing is clear or certain about Osman’s early life activities, except that he controlled and govern the region around the town of Sogut and from there he launched attacks against the neighboring Byzantine Empire.
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The first remarkable event in Osman ghazi’s life is the Battle of Bapheus some where in between 1301 or 1302, in which he comprehensively defeated a Byzantine army sent to counter him.
After his appointment to throne, he gathered many Turkic tribes around himself and fought against Byzantines, joining hands with Alaeddin Keykubad I of the Seljuks. When the Seljuk Empire remained with no ruler to rule due to the exile of Alaaddin, Osman Gazi gathered them under his rule in 1299 and set the foundation steps of the great Ottoman Empire. Osman Gazi continued his ambitious campaigns against the remainings of the Byzantine Empire in the region along with his close supporters and family members.
He focused on the strategy to cut the Byzantine’s trade routes and remain quite successful with it forcing local rulers to surrender.It is said that Osman ghazi had close relationship with a local religious leader named Sheikh Edebali. He later married to her daughter named Bala Hatun.
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Many speculations emerged among later Ottoman writers to explain the relationship between Osman ghazi and Sheikh, in which Osman had a dream while staying in the Sheikh’s house. The story spread in the late fifteenth century as follow:Osman saw in dream that a moon rise from the holy man’s chest and came to sink in Osman’s chest.
After that a tree sprouted from his navel and its shade surrounded the whole world. Under this shade there were mountains, and streams flowing from the base of each mountain. Many people drank from these running streams while others use this water in their gardens.
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When Osman wake up from the dream, he told the whole story to the sheikh, who said ‘Osman, my son, congratulations, Allah has given the imperial office to you and your descendants and my daughter shall be your wife. The dream later became the most important foundational myth for the empire, imbuing the House of Osman with God given authority over the earth and providing its people with an explanation for Ottoman success.
The fantasied story could likewise have filled in as a method of conservative, similarly as Allah vowed to furnish Osman and his relatives with power, it was additionally understood that it was the obligation of Osman to furnish his subjects with success.One of Osman’s biggest dream was to conquer the Constantinople (Istanbul) the centre of the Byzantine empire and once considered the most difficult to conquer.
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In pursuance of his dream he continued his struggle but the dream couldn’t come true during his life and later fullfilled by his successors. Many historians claimed that Osman ghazi died in 1324 and leaving behind a legacy which remained for centuries to come. After his demise his successors continued their ambition to conquer Constantinople and at last they did it and surprised even the biggest empires of that time.
The conquest of Constantinople with out any doubt is the biggest win and that pave the way for the ottomans to continue their imperial aggressive policy. They continue conquering the areas and expanding their borders for hundred of years. There was a time when the Ottoman empire was expanded to the three continents of the world and the important trade routes of the world were under the governance of the Ottomans.
Osman ghazi was a great warrior of it’s time. Along with it’s battleground skills, he was an excellent leader as well as an effective administrator. He govern the people to the best of his abilities.
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He unite the scattered turkic tribes and gave them hope and direction. He guided them to form the one of the greatest empires of the world. As his struggle started from the town of Sogut, so under his administration, the town become the hub of trade.
Due to his reputation many traders, poets and scholars went there and as a result sogut become a center of culture and traditions. He formulate many laws along with those already implemented by the Seljuk’s. These all traits make him one of the greatest ruler of the past and the legacy he set later took the form of the great Ottoman empire.
