Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

a pro-Ottoman counterattack on his reputation that created another version of
Ilbegi's biography in which he is a Cain-like figure who murders his own brother
because the latter gave the family lands to Orhan . The people of Bergama
― 117 ―
hate Ilbegi so much, however, that they capture him and cede the town to Orhan
anyway; Ilbegi dies after two painful years in prison.[151]
Like the Osman and Dündar stories mentioned above, a body of tales of Haci
Ilbegi was obviously in circulation, and it may be related to the construction
of the Kizil Deli cult.[152] From my point of view here, it does not matter at
all whether Ilbegi indeed did all that is attributed to him, whether he was
executed or not, or whether he is to be identified with Seyyid `Ali , which
seems highly probable. It is certain that there once were variant accounts of
his life and deeds that are not reconcilable with one another. The general
thrust of these stories and the incidents reported in the hagiography of Kizil
Deli, whether the two are related or not, indicate that the credit for some of
the major gaza feats in Thrace was contested by the Ottomans and other warriors.
It may be more important to note this variance than to discover who was right.
We shall turn to the history of these events again in the next chapter, but
whatever their relationship to historical reality, that very conflict over the
appropriation of the past, both immediate and remote, was dearly a part of early
Ottoman realities and must once have resonated with meaning to actual tensions.
It is not surprising that variant accounts of the capture of Thrace represent a
major line of tension in our sources about early Ottoman history. The
transplantation of the frontier energies and of gazi activity across the
channel, along with the ensuing conquests of Thracian towns leading into the
Balkans, constitutes one of the most significant successes of the Anatolian
gazis, and it can be argued that it ultimately sealed the fate of Byzantium or
at least confirmed Turco-Muslim presence in southeastern Europe. As we shall
discuss in the next chapter, the few decades after the crossing into Rumelia
were particularly tension-ridden. During this period, the emerging Ottoman
state, like so many others that had sprung up in similar conditions, faced the
abyss of fragmentation. The House of Osman proved much more successful, however,
than any of its forerunners or competitors in establishing its supremacy over
its former gazi allies and neighbors, who were gradually but systematically
rendered into commanders and fief-holders and their actions and duties regulated
by the dictates of a centralized sultanic state. It is not surprising that if
history remembers them, it is basically through their services to the
development of the Ottoman state.
― 118 ―
Chapter 3
The Ottomans The Construction of the Ottoman State
Ekme bag baglanirsin
Ekme ekin eglenirsin
104