Osman I
- Lived
- c. 1258 - 1326 CE
- Read next
- Meaning of the name Osman
Who was Osman I? The Seljuk frontier bey whose dream of a tree growing out of his chest became the founding vision of the Ottoman Empire, an empire that would last six centuries.
The Seljuk frontier bey whose dream of a tree growing out of his chest became the founding vision of the Ottoman Empire, an empire that would last six centuries.
Life
Osman ibn Ertugrul was born around 1258 CE as the son of the Kayi Turkic frontier chieftain Ertugrul, who had been granted lands around Sogut in western Anatolia by the Seljuk Sultan Kaykhusraw II.
After his father's death around 1281 CE, Osman inherited the small frontier bey territory. Over the next forty-five years he expanded it steadily westward against the collapsing Byzantine Empire, taking Karacahisar in 1288, Yenisehir in 1299, and threatening the great city of Bursa.
The dream at the tekke of Shaykh Edebali is the founding myth of the Ottoman house: Osman saw a tree grow from his own chest whose branches covered the world. The shaykh interpreted the dream as a prophecy that Osman's descendants would rule a world empire and gave him his daughter Malhun in marriage.
He captured Bursa on his deathbed in 1326 CE. His son Orhan completed the transfer of the capital there. The empire that would be called Osmanli after him would eventually stretch from Vienna to Baghdad, from Algiers to Yemen.
He is buried in the Silver Dome (Gumuslu Kumbet) in Bursa, alongside his son Orhan and other early Ottoman sultans.
Stories
Each story is drawn from the classical Islamic sources.