TURKOMANS BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: THE ... - Bilkent University

One may safely argue that the process outlined above is, for the most part, applicable to
the Ottoman history as well. The people that founded the Ottoman Principality in north
western Anatolia at the beginning of the fourteenth century were, without doubt,
nomadic or semi-nomadic and organized on tribal basis. 168 Osman Beg and his father
Ertuğrul Gazi were nothing but tribal chiefs. 169 Contemporary sources strongly suggest
that Osman was illiterate. 170 The effective religious leaders of the masses were popular
sufi shaykhs, rather than ulemā, as in the later periods. 171 So, the beylik (principality)
was founded on the basis of tribal organization by overwhelmingly illiterate semi-
nomadic people. One should not disregard, however, that even during the very early
years of the beylik, there were ‘small-scale’ educated men, who were called ‘fakı’ in
contemporary sources, helping Osman and Orhan Beg in establishing and developing the
168 The portraits of early periods in the early Ottoman chronicles clearly support this argument. Consider
Neşri, Kitab-ı Cihannûma, eds. Faik Reşit Unat and Mehmed A. Köymen, Ankara, 1995; Aşıkpaşazāde,
Tevârih-i Al-i Osman, yay. Nihal Atsız, in his Osmanlı Tarihleri, Đstanbul: Türkiye Yayınevi, 1947 (From
now on APZ); Oruç Beğ, Tevârih-i Al-i Osman, F. Babinger, Hannover, 1925; Tevârih-i Al-i Osman ( Die
altosmanische anonymen chroniken), nşr. F. Giese, Breslau, 1922; Anonim Tevârih-i Al-i Osman, Giese
Neşri, haz. Nihat Azamat, Istanbul, 1992,; Anonim Osmanlı Kroniği (1299-1512), haz. Necdet Öztürk,
Đstanbul: Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları, 2000. Among contemporary studies on the foundation of the
Ottoman state see Fuat Köprülü, The Origins of the Ottoman Empire, trl. Gary Leiser, New York, 1992;
Halil Đnalcık, " The Question of The Emergence of The Ottoman State", International Journal of Turkish
Studies, 2, 1980, 71- 79; ”The Emergence of Ottomans”, The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol.I, eds., P.
M. Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, and B. Lewis, Cambridge, 1970, 263- 291; Cemal Kafadar, Between Two
Worlds, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1995. For the latest account see Heath W. Lowry, The Nature of
the Early Ottoman State, New York: State University of New York, 2003.
169 Fuat Köprülü states that the early Ottoman sultans were simple Turkoman chieftains too ignorant to
understand the subtler issues of the religion. See Köprülü, “Anadolu’da Đslâmiyet”, Dârülfünûn Edebiyat
Fakültesi Mecmûası, 5, 1338 (1922), pp. 403-404.
170 In the famous passage of Aşıkpaşazāde, after hearing Edebali’s fortunate interpretation of his famous
dream, Osman bequeaths some land to a dervish called Kumral Dede. Upon the dervish’s demand for a
piece of paper to document his rights, Osman replies; “Do I know writing so that you want paper? I have
a sword left to me from my ancestors; let me give it you. And let me give you also my dipper. Let they be
the sign of your rights to this land.” See APZ, p. 95. For a recent authoritative study on Osman Beg, see
Halil Đnalcık, “Osman I”, DIA, vol. 33, 443-53.
171 We know from contemporary sources that after the cruel repression of Babāī revolt by Anatolian
Sejukid forces, Babāī dervishes, who were preaching a ‘heterodox’ folk Islam intermingled with intense
mysticism, fled into the western frontiers, especially into Ottoman territories. (For the Babāī revolt see
Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Babāīler Đsyanı, Đstanbul, 1996) Early chronicles mention number of them such as
Edebali, Abdal Musa, Kumral Abdal, Abdal Murad, Geyikli Baba.
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