Person

Osman I

Also called: Osman Gazi, Othman I

Turkish chieftain who founded the Ottoman state (r. c. 1299–c. 1324), growing in strength by fighting the Byzantines in northwestern Anatolia

Son of Ertuğrul, a Turkmen chieftain based at Söğüt in northwestern Anatolia, he grew powerful by attacking Byzantine border towns and fortresses and attracting warriors of the faith (ghazis). Much of what is told of his life comes from later Ottoman chronicles full of legend, so it is hard to know precisely. Late in his life his son Orhan besieged Bursa, where he was buried. The dynasty named after him ruled for more than six hundred years.

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1 related event

1
1299Founding of the Ottoman Empireleader
In northwestern Anatolia, where the Sultanate of Rum had broken up under Mongol pressure, the Turkish chieftain Osman I built a state by fighting Byzantium — the beginning of an empire that lasted over six hundred years.

People who appear alongside

Bayezid I1360 – 1403
Ottoman sultan (r. 1389–1402), called “the Thunderbolt”, who crushed a crusade at Nicopolis but was captured by Timur at the Battle of Ankara

Themes this person appears in

Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533
From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own