Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

to settle in, since they were pushed in that direction by Seljuk forces during
the slaughter that followed the Baba'i Revolt of 1239-41. Finally, the Ottoman
ties to the Baba'i , especially if strengthened by a wedding alliance with the
family of a leading sheikh of that order, would seem to be part of the
explanation for their hostile relations with the House of Germiyan. The latter
had, after all, been rewarded by the Seljuks for their services in the
repression of the Baba'i uprising.
Apz, who relates the liaison between the families of Osman and Ede Bali on the
authority of one of the sheikh's descendants, also reports that Ede Bali had
kinship ties through marriage to two other notable families: that of Çndarli
Halil and that of Taceddin-i Kurdi , well-known scholars who are among the early
arrivals from areas with more-established educational institutions to enter
Ottoman service. Even if a fifteenth-century chronicler, for some odd reason,
were to make up such an intricate web of marital associations connecting three
prominent families with many living descendants, it is hard to imagine how it
could be accepted when such claims implied entitlements to so many resources.
Later archival sources once again lend some credence to the assertions of Ede
Bali's family: not only do land surveys identify various plots in Sogut as
Osman's endowments to the sheikh, but also a document refers to him specifically
as Osman's father-in-law.[26]
It can only be conjectured that marrying his son Orhan to the daughter of the
tekvur of Yarhisar was likewise tied, at least partly, to political strategy.
The legendary account of the way Osman crashed the wedding ceremony between the
same bride and the tekvur of Bilecik, a friend up to that point, and carried her
off suggests that part of the plan may have been to prevent an alliance between
the two tekvurs.
Marriage strategies were built into the political gamesmanship in which Osman
exerted himself with increasing success, which no doubt was partly due to some
military undertakings. Of these we know nothing with certainty until the Battle
of Bapheus, Osman's triumphant confrontation with a Byzantine force in 1301 (or
1302), which is the first datable incident in his life. Pachymeres, the
chronicler who relates this event, adds that Osman enticed "many Turks" from the
Meander region and from Paphlagonia to join his forces.[27] There is no reason
to assume that all those warriors became permanent additions to Ottoman forces.
Some of the begs were from neighboring polities that had their own
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identities, claims, and possibly rivalries with the Ottomans, at least for a
while. Among the troops that defeated the Byzantine army in Bapheus, Pachymeres
mentions a certain `Ali Amourios, who has been identified as a member of the
Cobanoglu family, which held the most prominent position in the Paphlagonian uc
in the thirteenth century. Three years later that coalition between Osman and
`Ali had broken up since the latter "appeared willing to pass into Byzantine
service, asking for the area near the Sangarios from Andronikos II."[28]
Of the nameless volunteers in Bapheus, some well-rewarded ones might have stayed
on and become "Osmanli," but others, either at periods of Ottoman inactivity or
because their expectations were not met, might have joined another chief if he
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