Between Two Worlds Kafadar.pdf

`Arif Çelebi, the Mevlevi , released his extraordinary powers to blow away the
tents in the camp of the Germiyanid beg, who busied himself with slaves while
the Koran was being recited.[52] Ibn Battuta , the Moroccan traveler, was
scandalized by the higher respect shown to a Jewish physician than to Muslim
scholars in Aydinoglu's court in Birgi.[53] Still, the learned men evidently did
not consider that the begs ought to be stripped of their rifles for such suspect
behavior. After all, the rifle of gazi had appeared in far stranger places than
next to the name of Aydinoglu Mehmed Beg or the 1337 inscription in allegedly
preideological Ottoman Bursa. Melik Mugiseddin (Succorer of the Faith )
Togrilsah (d. 1225), "son of the Seljuk Kilij Arslan II, who largely built the
awesome walls of Bayburt in 1213 and... who had the misfortune of being prisoner
and sort of vassal of first a Cilician Armenian king and then a Trapezuntine
emperor, and whose son was baptised to marry a Georgian queen, evidently allowed
(or even sponsored) the building of a surviving Orthodox church within his new
citadel on whose walls he is still proclaimed a gazi."[54]
None of these sources is directly related to the Ottomans. Neither the
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gazi lore nor the hagiographies mention Osman in any way that might be construed
as direct historical evidence. The studies of the emirates begin to shed light
on specific events of Ottoman history only during Orhan's reign. Could we, then,
neglect these sources and focus our attention exclusively on hard evidence about
Osman and about Bithynia during his lifetime?
To answer this question affirmatively, we would have to assume that some of the
nomadic groups in Anatolia, at least the one led by Osman, had none or only
negligible cultural attachments and similarities to the rest of
Anatolian-Turkish frontier society. There is no justification for such an
assumption. The proto-Ottoman nomads may have been uncouth members of a crude
milieu; to argue for the relevance of their Turco-Muslim identity does not
necessarily entail their commitment to "lofty ideals" or their grounding in
"untarnished Islam:' Still, it can reasonably be assumed that they had heard of
the legendary exploits of Seyyid Battal Gazi or of Melik Danismend or that
similar elements of the uc culture had touched them. Leaving aside "culture;'
did no news reach them about the exploits of the Mentese warriors, for instance,
about the Aegean adventures of the House of Aydin, or about the fabulous booty
amassed by Gazi Çelebi of Sinop? Did they not hear that Aydinoglu Umur Begs ship
was named "Gazi "?
Or were none of these groups gazis either, because they, too, collaborated with
the Byzantines or other Christian powers when such action looked desirable?
Whatever our definition of gaza, it is obvious from the way these neighbors of
Osman projected themselves in their titulature and inscriptions that they
considered themselves, or at least thought they had a believable claim to being,
gazis. Given that the Ottoman beglik engaged in competition with its
Turco-Muslim as well as Byzantine neighbors from the outset, it is not
surprising that the earliest document from that beglik should reflect its
chief's claim to being the "champion of the faith." Even in the absence of
written evidence, it can hardly be imagined that Osman and his warriors, as soon
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