Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

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Strategizing for Alliances and Conflicts: The Early Beglik
The Ottoman historical tradition maintains, with some exceptions, that the tribe
that later represented the core of Osman's earliest base of power came to Asia
Minor in his grandfather's generation in the wake of the Chingisid conquests in
central Asia. This makes chronological and historical sense, but otherwise the
details of their story, including the identity of the grandfather, are too
mythological to be taken for granted.[3] Most importantly, it is also unclear
when and how they ended up in Bithynia, at the very edge of Turco-Muslim
Anatolia. This is important because it could tell us what, if any, ties they had
to any political structures in the established centers and what their status was
in that march environment, surrounded by Christians, by other Turkish and
"Tatar" tribes, and, toward the northeast, east, and south, by some begliks
recognized by Seljuk and/or Ilkhanid authority.
That they hailed from the Kayi branch of the Oguz confederacy seems to be a
creative "rediscovery" in the genealogical concoction of the fifteenth century.
It is missing not only in Ahmedi but also, and more importantly, in the YF-Apz
narrative, which gives its own version of an elaborate genealogical family tree
going back to Noah. If there was a particularly significant claim to Kayi
lineage, it is hard to imagine that Yahsi Fakih would not have heard of it. This
in fact does not contradict Yazicizade , who gives the earliest written
reference to the Kayi in the 1430s but also adds that the traditions of the Oguz
, presumably including the "true lineage" of Ertogril's tribe, had been all but
forgotten in his day.[4] So they had to be re-remembered. Sukrullah , writing
somewhat later, tells us that it took a trip to the Karakoyunlu court in 1449,
where he was sent as the Ottoman ambassador, to learn about the Ottoman family's
descent from Oguz and Kayi.[5] And despite Köprülü's disclaimer to the effect
that Kayi lineage was not particularly prestigious and hence not worth forgery,
the political stakes are obvious in both cases. At least Yazicizade thought that
"so long as there are descendants of Kayi, rulership belongs to nobody else";
and Sukrullah was presented with this evidence as proof of kinship between the
Ottomans and the Karakoyunlu at a time when the two states were considering
alliance against the Akkoyunlu.
On the other hand, despite the skepticism surrounding the historicity of some of
the names that appear in later chronicles as key characters
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in the late thirteenth century, especially Osman's father, Ertogril , and
father-in-law, Ede Bali, there is sufficient evidence to take these traditions
seriously. Ede Bali's case will be considered below; as for Ertogril , we have
already noted the coin on which Osman struck his father's name. There seem to be
good reasons to consider the historicity of even Ertogril's brother Dündar, as
we discussed in the last chapter. The more important question is, what kinds of
activities did Ertogril , Dündar, and their tribe engage in other than nomadic
pastoralism?
With respect to this issue, the Ottoman sources dearly diverge. While some of
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