Osman I, Ottoman Founder: What the Sources Say
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Osman I, Ottoman Founder: What the Sources Say

Who Osman I was in the sources that name him, what a Byzantine historian and two deeds record, and when the famous stories were first written down.

24 min read Updated: October 23, 2026
Osman I in an Ottoman miniature: a bearded man in a tall white turban with a red patch, a red collar over a dark patterned coat, against a pale blue tiled background
Osman I in an Ottoman miniature of 1579/80, made about 255 years after his death. No portrait from his lifetime is known. Miniature: Topkapı Palace Museum (H 1563, fol. 37a), 1579/80; public domain, file page.

Osman I gave his name to the Ottoman dynasty. What can be said about him depends on when each source was written. A Byzantine historian and two deeds come from his own time, two writers of the 1330s add a little, and the best-known stories were written down 80 to 175 years after he died.

The short version

Named in 1302, 1323 and 1324,
and told again from the 1400s.

  • Who: a frontier leader (an alp, a gazi) in the Söğüt and Bilecik country of north-west Anatolia, named as Ertuğrul’s son in the deed of 1323.
  • In his own time: the Byzantine historian Pachymeres names him at the battle of Bapheus on 27 July 1302. Two deeds show him alive in September 1323 and gone by March 1324.
  • Told later: Ertuğrul’s story, the Kayı descent, the dream and the silver dome first appear in chronicles written from the early 1400s to about 1500.
  • The date 1299: the traditional date for the state’s beginning. The first date from a source of his own time is Bapheus, 27 July 1302.
  • Titles: İbn Battûta, in the 1330s, writes “Sultan Osmancık”. An inscription of 1337 calls his son Orhan “sultan of the ghazis”.

The map

Where Osman’s men were, stage by stage

SöğütDomaniçKaracahisarBilecikYenişehirİnegölİznikNicaeaİzmitNicomediaBursaProusaLefkeMekeceAkhisarGeyveYalakovaBapheusDimbosPelekanonSea of Marmaraİznik LakeSakaryaByzantine forceOsman’s men
  • Held by Osman or Orhan
  • Byzantine town
  • Under siege
  • Area, position approximate
  • Where his men ranged
  1. 1284

    Söğüt, the frontier town

    Told later in the chronicles

    Söğüt is the last town on the Seljuk side, and the Byzantine border starts at Bilecik. The local lords between the two accept the Seljuk sultan and live at peace with the Turkmen. Families winter in the villages and take their flocks up to the Domaniç pastures in summer.

    • Osman’s raiding begins with the taking of Kulaca, in 1284.

    TDV Osman I

  2. 1288

    Karacahisar

    Told later in the chronicles

    Osman takes the fort of Karacahisar from the lord who paid tribute to the Seljuk sultan. Turkmen risings against the Seljuks and the Mongols gave him the chance.

    • Karacahisar is his base from 1288 to about 1299.

    TDV Osman I

  3. About 1299

    Bilecik and Yenişehir

    Told later in the chronicles

    Osman now holds a wide country, from Eskişehir to Bilecik and Yenişehir. He settles at Yenişehir, leaves his family at Bilecik and turns towards İznik.

    • İnönü goes to his son Orhan, Yarhisar to Hasan Alp, İnegöl to Turgut Alp.

    TDV Osman I

  4. 27 July 1302

    Bapheus

    A Byzantine historian of the time

    Osman’s men are besieging İznik. A Byzantine force comes to relieve it, and the two sides meet at Yalakova, where the Yalakdere valley reaches the plain. The Turks are the larger side and win.

    • The counts are Pachymeres’. The Byzantine commander is Léon Mouzalôn.
    • The Byzantines flee towards İzmit. Raiding reaches Bursa and İznik, and warriors from as far as Paphlagonia join him.

    TDV Osman I · Pachymeres

  5. 1303

    Dimbos and Kite

    Told later in the chronicles

    After Bapheus the lords of the Bursa plain unite against him. Osman beats them on the Yenişehir plain and again in the narrow Dimbos pass. The lord of Kestel dies there, and so does Osman’s nephew Aydoğdu.

    • The lord of Kite is chased to the Ulubat bridge and handed over; when he is put to death, Kite fort gives in.
    • Uludağ and the plain open to Turkmen settlers. Two towers, Aktimur and Balabancık, cut Bursa off for 23 years.

    TDV Osman I

  6. 1304

    The Sakarya crossings

    Told later in the chroniclesA Byzantine historian of the time

    To cut İznik off from help, Osman marches on the Sakarya crossings. Leblebüci fort, Lefke and Çadırlı submit and become his companions (nöker). Mekece submits too, and the lord of Akhisar is beaten. Osman takes Geyve and Tekfurpınarı and stays a month.

    • Karaçepüş holds out; Orhan is sent against it the next year.
    • Panic in Constantinople: raiders are seen as far as the Bosphorus.

    TDV Osman I · Pachymeres

  7. September 1323 to March 1324

    Two deeds, and Orhan

    A document of his own time

    In September 1323 Osman is alive. In March 1324 Orhan holds the lordship. Osman died between the two dates.

    • Orhan’s last campaign in his father’s time is against Adranos fort (Orhaneli).
    • Osman’s vizier in his last years is Alâeddin Paşa, named in the deed of 1323.

    TDV Orhan · Mal Hatun · Osman I

  8. 6 April 1326

    Bursa gives itself up

    Told later in the chronicles

    Osman has died. In spring 1326 his son Orhan comes before Bursa with all his force and asks the city to surrender.

    • No plunder and no captives.
    • Those who wish may leave with their goods.
    • The city pays Orhan 30,000 gold.

    TDV Orhan · Osman Gazi Türbesi

  9. 1329 to 1331

    Pelekanon and İznik

    A Byzantine historian of the time

    Emperor Andronikos III crosses the sea to relieve İznik. On 1 and 2 June 1329 his army meets Orhan’s at Pelekanon and breaks. The emperor, wounded in the leg by an arrow, is carried onto a ship on a carpet.

    • Orhan takes all of Kocaeli.
    • İznik gives in on 2 March 1331 (İbn Kemal gives 1333).

    TDV Orhan

What each stamp rests on

  • A document of his own timeWritten while Osman or his son Orhan was alive.
  • A Byzantine historian of the timeWritten by a Byzantine author of the same years.
  • Told later in the chroniclesTold in chronicles put down long after his death.

Coast: Natural Earth (public domain). The shaded reach joins the places named on the cards; it is not a border.

In his own lifetime, five records

Few records come from Osman’s own years. A Byzantine historian named him at the battle of Bapheus on 27 July 1302. Two deeds show him alive in September 1323 and gone by March 1324. Two writers of the 1330s add a line each.

Written then

Five records, in date order

  1. In his lifetime

    about 1307

    Georgios Pachymeres

    Names Osman (as Atmanes) at Bapheus on 27 July 1302: a frontier raid leader, the boldest of several, who began as a border fighter under the Çobanoğulları of Kastamonu.

  2. In his lifetime

    early September 1323

    Asporça Hatun deed

    Orhan’s wife endows two villages that Osman had given her, with Alâeddin Paşa as her agent. Osman is alive, and named as Ertuğrul’s son.

  3. In his lifetime

    8 to 18 March 1324

    Mekece deed

    Lists Osman’s sons, a daughter and three women as witnesses. Osman is gone and Orhan holds the lordship.

  4. Under 10 years later

    1330

    Âşık Paşa, Garibnâme

    Describes the frontier captains (subaşı, alp gazi) of Osman’s kind.

  5. Under 10 years later

    the 1330s

    İbn Battûta

    Writes the name Osmancık, calls Orhan his son and names his tomb at Bursa.

Pachymeres does not describe a sultan. He describes a border fighter in the service of the Çobanoğulları, the frontier lords of Kastamonu. When the raids of a rival leader stopped, his men came over to Osman, and the raiding went on under Osman’s lead.

Two deeds, and the people beside the page

The Asporça Hatun deed of early September 1323 is the most important document of Osman’s time. Orhan’s wife Asporça Hatun endows two villages that Osman had given her and names Alâeddin Paşa as her agent. The Mekece deed of 8 to 18 March 1324 is one of the earliest surviving documents of Ottoman history.

The Mekece deed

Who stood beside the page

In mid Rebîülevvel 724, which is 8 to 18 March 1324, witnesses stood for an endowment at Mekece. Tap a line to see what the deed says, and what the chronicles say around it.

Mekece deed · mid Rebîülevvel 7248–18 March 1324

Witnesses, in the order of the list

  1. Çoban, Melik, Hâmid, Pazarlısons of Osman
  2. Fatmadaughter of Osman
  3. Mal Hatun bint Ömer Beydaughter of Ömer Bey
  4. Melek bint Melik · Efendire bint Akbaşlıdaughters of Melik and of Akbaşlı
  1. Çoban, Melik, Hâmid and Pazarlı

    The deed Four sons of Osman are named, besides Orhan. They open the list of witnesses.

    Around it The chronicles add another son, Alâeddin Ali; the Bursa tomb holds a sarcophagus known to be his. The name Çoban may link to the Ilkhanid emir of that name.

    TDV Mal Hatun · Osman I · Osman Gazi Türbesi

  2. Fatma

    The deed Osman’s daughter Fatma is named, straight after his sons.

    Around it The sons and the daughter are listed first. Three women follow straight after them.

    TDV Mal Hatun

  3. Mal Hatun, daughter of Ömer Bey

    The deed She is named first of the three women, and the deed gives her father as Ömer Bey. She is alive in March 1324, after Osman’s death.

    Around it Âşıkpaşazâde, 1484, calls her Malhun Hatun, Edebâli’s daughter, and has her die before Osman. Oruç calls the sheikh’s daughter Râbia; Neşrî names no father. It is certain she was not Edebâli’s daughter and likely, but not certain, that she was Orhan’s mother. Who Ömer Bey was is not settled.

    TDV Mal Hatun · Edebâli

  4. Melek and Efendire

    The deed Two more women stand as witnesses: Melek, daughter of Melik, and Efendire, daughter of Akbaşlı.

    Around it These two and Mal Hatun are discussed as possible wives of Osman or of Orhan; the deed does not say.

    TDV Mal Hatun

The two deeds are the firmest anchors for the end of Osman’s life. He is alive in September 1323; by March 1324 Orhan holds the lordship. Osman died in between. Neither deed gives his age. His birth is put at 1257 or 1258, worked out from a chronicle count (dead at 69 after 27 years of rule); neither date comes from a document.

Söğüt and the frontier, a country of captains

Söğüt was a frontier town where Seljuk land met Byzantine land, north-west of Eskişehir. Turkmen families lived in the villages and took their flocks up to the Domaniç summer pastures. Captains known as alp organised the raids. Osman was an alp gazi of that kind. He gathered Turkmen and refugees (garip) for the frontier war. He was not a plain shepherd.

Ertuğrul Gazi’s tomb at Söğüt: a small domed building of pale stone with two grated windows, among pine trees, with a pile of rocks in front
Ertuğrul Gazi’s tomb at Söğüt. Photo: Maderibeyza, 22.12.2007; CC BY-SA 3.0, file page.

Söğüt

Ertuğrul’s tomb: from an open grave to a restored tomb

Hexagonal

A domed hexagon, entered through a rectangular porch.

  1. Late 1200s

    Osman has an open grave made for his father. The exact date is not known.

  2. Mehmed I Çelebi

    The open grave becomes a tomb.

  3. 1757

    Sultan Mustafa III has the tomb restored.

  4. 1886

    Sultan Abdülhamid II has it restored again. Two fountains are added at the entrance during these repairs.

Around the tomb: Ertuğrul’s wife Halime Hatun, his son Savcı Bey, a memorial grave of Osman, and the graves of companions such as Konur Alp, Akçakoca and Aktimur Bey.

Two men of learning stood close to Osman: Sheikh Edebâli of Bilecik and the jurist Dursun Fakih, Edebâli’s son-in-law. Osman visited Edebâli’s lodge on holy days to ask his view on religious and practical questions. Edebâli led the ahi brotherhood and was the first Ottoman judge (kadı) and mufti. He died in 1326 and lies in the lodge with his wife, his daughter and others.

A brick and stone building with a grey dome and two tall minarets on a rocky, wooded hillside, seen through bare branches
The tomb and lodge complex of Sheikh Edebâli at Bilecik, seen from the hillside. Photo: Acar54; CC BY-SA 4.0, file page.

The land registers show endowments to jurists and ahis already under Osman. In his last years his vizier was Alâeddin Paşa, the agent named in the deed of 1323.

The stories, and what historians make of them

The tree of the dream

When was each story first written down?

In the chronicle, Osman dreams of a tree that grows from his navel and shades the world. Here the tree stands for the sources. The documents of his own time are the roots, two writers of the 1330s ring the trunk, and the stories told later hang in the crown, higher the later they were written down. Tap a leaf to see who first wrote it, and what a document or a historian says.

  • Written at the time
  • Told in a later chronicle
  • A document says otherwise
  1. Written in his lifetime

    Bapheus, as a Byzantine historian wrote it

    Osman leads a force against a Byzantine army near Nicomedia and wins.

    Source Georgios Pachymeres, born at Nicaea in 1242. His history covers 1260 to 1307. He is the first historian to name Osman (as Atmanes), at Bapheus on 27 July 1302.

    What it shows Osman as the boldest raid leader among the Turkmen of that frontier, a border fighter tied to the Çobanoğulları of Kastamonu. The Byzantine force under Léon Mouzalôn numbered about 2,000 and the Turks about 5,000. After the victory Osman’s fame spread to Paphlagonia and warriors gathered under his banner. İnalcık: 27 July 1302 can be accepted as the date the dynasty began.

    TDV Pachymeres · Osman I

  2. Written in his lifetime

    Two deeds around his last year

    Two endowment deeds, about six months apart.

    Source The Asporça Hatun deed (early Ramazan 723, early September 1323) and the Mekece deed (mid Rebîülevvel 724, 8 to 18 March 1324).

    What they show In the first, Osman is alive: Orhan is named as the son of Osman Gazi, son of Ertuğrul. In the second, Osman is gone and Orhan holds the lordship. So Osman died between the two dates. No source gives his birth: a chronicle count (aged 69, after 27 years of rule) works out at 1257.

    TDV Orhan · Osman I · Mal Hatun

  3. Written within ten years

    Two voices from the 1330s

    Two writers of the 1330s mention Osman, or lords like him.

    Source Âşık Paşa’s Garibnâme of 1330 describes the frontier captains (subaşı, alp gazi) that Osman belonged to. İbn Battûta, born in 1304, crossed Bursa and İznik and writes the name as Osmancık.

    What they show İbn Battûta describes the respected place of the Ottomans among the neighbouring principalities and calls Orhan the son of “Sultan Osmancık”. Neither he nor Pachymeres, Kantakuzenos, Gregoras or al-ʿUmarî names Ertuğrul.

    TDV Osman I · İbn Battûta · Ertuğrul Gazi

  4. Told in a later chronicle

    Ertuğrul and the Seljuk sultan

    Ertuğrul comes to the Söğüt frontier, helps the Seljuk sultan Alâeddin in a battle, and is given land.

    First written down The first Ottoman chronicles, from the early 1400s, some 80 years after Osman died. They give his father’s name as Gündüz Alp (Ahmedî, Enverî, Karamânî Mehmed Paşa) or Süleyman Şah (Oruç, Âşıkpaşazâde, Neşrî).

    What the documents and historians say The deed of 1323 already names Osman as Ertuğrul’s son. A later land register lists a farm at Söğüt endowed “for Ertuğrul’s soul”, the earliest record about him. İnalcık reads the tale of help to the sultan as a faint memory of the Seljuk and Nicaean wars of 1225 to 1231.

    TDV Ertuğrul Gazi · Osman I

  5. Told in a later chronicle

    Descent from the Kayı tribe

    Osman’s line runs back through the Kayı tribe to Gün Han, son of Oğuz Khan.

    First written down in full Yazıcıoğlu Ali, in his Târîh-i Âl-i Selçûk, 1436–37, about 112 years after Osman’s death. It answered the pressure that Timur’s son Şâhruh put on the Ottoman court.

    What historians say Wittek held that the descent was a later dynastic claim, made in Murad II’s time. Köprülü took the Kayı as the first ethnic core of the state. The sources agree that Osman’s tribe was of Oğuz (Turkmen) stock. The Kayı link is probably Yazıcıoğlu’s idea but may be right. Murad II was the first Ottoman ruler to stamp the Kayı mark on his coins.

    TDV Osman I · Kayı · Wittek

  6. Told in a later chronicle

    The frontier lords ask him to be han

    Border lords gather at Osman’s door, talk long, and ask him to be their han. He accepts.

    First written down Yazıcıoğlu Ali, 1436–37: “siz han olun”, “you be khan”, say the lords.

    What historians say İnalcık places the Anatolian beys’ own declarations of sultanate, with the Friday sermon and coin in their name, in 1335, after the last Ilkhan had died. The scene sits beside the later claim that Osman had the sermon read in his name.

    TDV Osman I

  7. Told in a later chronicle

    The dream at Edebâli’s lodge

    Osman sleeps at Sheikh Edebâli’s lodge in Bilecik. A moon rises from the sheikh’s chest and enters his. A tree grows from his navel; its shade covers the world, mountains rise beneath it, and rivers flow from each. Edebâli says: “God has given you and your line sovereignty. May it be blessed.”

    First written down Âşıkpaşazâde, who finished his history in 1484, about 160 years after Osman’s death. His sources are Yahşi Fakih, son of the imam İshak Fakih, and Mahmud Paşa, Edebâli’s son.

    What historians say İnalcık holds that Yahşi Fakih’s lost life of the early beys is Âşıkpaşazâde’s main source, and that its place names and routes check out. He reads blessing stories like this one, told of many Turkmen lords, as a way of showing that a ruler’s authority was divinely confirmed.

    TDV Edebâli · Osman I · Âşıkpaşazâde

  8. Told later; a document says otherwise

    Mal Hatun, daughter of Edebâli

    Osman marries Malhun Hatun, Sheikh Edebâli’s daughter. She is Orhan’s mother.

    First written down Âşıkpaşazâde, 1484, about 160 years after Osman’s death.

    What a document says The Mekece deed of March 1324 names her Mal Hatun, daughter of Ömer Bey. It is certain she was not Edebâli’s daughter, and likely, though not certain, that she was Orhan’s mother. Oruç gives the sheikh’s daughter the name Râbia; Neşrî tells of a youthful meeting in the village of İtburnu and names no father.

    TDV Mal Hatun · Edebâli

  9. Told later; a document says otherwise

    Edebâli and Mal Hatun die, and Osman buries them

    Edebâli and Mal Hatun die a month or two apart. Osman, who dies three months later, buries both with his own hands at Bilecik.

    First written down Âşıkpaşazâde, 1484, about 160 years after Osman’s death.

    What a document says Mal Hatun is a witness in the Mekece deed of March 1324, after Osman’s death, so she outlived him. Edebâli died in 1326 (one source says 1327).

    TDV Mal Hatun · Edebâli

  10. Told in a later chronicle

    The silver dome at Bursa

    During the long siege of Bursa, Osman looks at the city from its walls, sees a monastery chapel gleaming like silver, and asks to be buried under that dome.

    First written down Âşıkpaşazâde, 1484.

    What is known Bursa surrendered on 6 April 1326, so the burial there came after it. Orhan buried his father in the round chapel. İbn Battûta, in the 1330s, already names Osman’s tomb inside a mosque that had been a church. The building burned in 1801 and the earthquake of 1855 damaged it badly; the present tomb dates from 1863.

    TDV Osman Gazi Türbesi · Orhan

  11. Told in a later chronicle

    The sermon read in his name

    Osman declares himself an independent lord: the Friday sermon (khutba) is read in his name.

    First written down Âşıkpaşazâde (chapter 14), at Karacahisar. Neşrî, who wrote between about 1485 and 1493, puts it after the death of the Seljuk sultan Alâeddin.

    What historians say İnalcık: the arguments for independence in Âşıkpaşazâde were added much later by people who believed the dynasty began with Osman. The Mongols took the Seljuk sultan Alâeddin III to Tabriz in 1302, the last Seljuk ruler held on until 1308, and the Anatolian beys took sermon and coin only in 1335.

    TDV Osman I · Neşrî

  12. Told in a later chronicle

    Ertuğrul’s dream, and Râbia

    The dream is Ertuğrul’s, not Osman’s, and the sheikh’s daughter who marries Osman is called Râbia.

    First written down Oruç b. Âdil, in his Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân, in a text of about 1495 and a longer one of 1500–03, about 175 years after Osman’s death.

    What historians say Oruç kept this version although he knew Âşıkpaşazâde’s book. İnalcık’s advice is to read the opening sections of the chronicles with care, separating vague claims from the historical information they carry.

    TDV Edebâli · Mal Hatun · Oruç b. Âdil

Years are counted from 1324, when the deeds show that Osman had died.

The historians

How much weight can the chronicles carry?

Four readings of the chronicle layer

Little weightMuch weight

  1. 1

    Imber

    Has called the early period a “black hole”.

  2. 2

    Wittek

    Read the Kayı descent as a later dynastic claim and proposed the “ghaza thesis”: warriors for the faith as the core of the early state. Lindner and others criticise it.

  3. 3

    İnalcık

    Answers that dismissing the chronicles wholesale as tales is the easy way out: their place names and routes check out, and Pachymeres supplies detail they lack.

  4. 4

    Köprülü

    Defended the Kayı as the state’s first ethnic core.

How the stories travelled

  1. İshak Fakih

    a contemporary of the first beys

    Handed his accounts to his son.

  2. Yahşi Fakih

    his son

    Wrote a life of the first beys. It has not survived.

  3. Âşıkpaşazâde

    finished 1484, about 160 years after Osman

    Names Yahşi Fakih and Mahmud Paşa, Edebâli’s son, as his sources.

  4. Neşrî, Oruç and others

    chronicles of the 1400s

    Draw on the same book.

1299

The traditional date

The old chronicle story dates Osman’s taking of Bilecik, and his independence, to this year. It falls in a time of Mongol unrest in Anatolia.

27 July 1302

Bapheus

The first dated action in a source of his own time. İnalcık: it can be accepted as the beginning of the dynasty.

Both dates are in use. Which one a book gives depends on whether it follows the chronicles or Pachymeres.

Bursa and İznik, cut off for years

Osman did not live to see Bursa fall. After the battles of 1303 he cut the city off with two small forts, and the siege lasted 23 years. His son Orhan took Bursa on 6 April 1326. İznik followed on 2 March 1331.

The siege

Bursa, cut off for 23 years

West fortsmall fort (havale)East fortsmall fort (havale)BursaProusaTophanethe chapel, later the tombUludağN
Schematic plan, not to scale: the city under Uludağ and a small fort (havale) built east and west of it. The towers are named Aktimur and Balabancık. The chapel at Tophane later became the tomb.
130323 years1326

Other accounts say 20 to 25 years.

6 April 1326

  1. 1

    In spring 1326 Orhan comes before Bursa with all his force and asks the city to give itself up.

  2. 2

    No plunder and no captives: the soldiers who enter will not harm the people.

  3. 3

    Those who wish may leave with their goods, under the protection of Orhan’s soldiers.

  4. On surrender

    30,000 gold

    paid to Orhan.

İznik held out longer. Emperor Andronikos III crossed the sea to relieve it, and on 1 and 2 June 1329 his army broke at Pelekanon. Wounded in the leg, he was carried onto a ship on a carpet. Two years later İznik gave in.

A ruined tower and an arch in the old wall of İznik at the Saray gate, with a tall poplar behind it
The wall at the Saray gate of İznik. Photo: Dosseman, 14.10.2018; CC BY-SA 4.0, file page.

Where he lies, and what he looked like

Osman lies in Bursa, in the tomb at Tophane on the hill of the old citadel. The tomb seen today was built in 1863. It stands where a round Byzantine building, the “Silver Dome” (Gümüşlü Kümbet), once stood. The chronicles say Orhan buried his father there after taking the city.

The porch of Osman Gazi’s tomb at Tophane: two slender columns, red-framed doors and Turkish flags, with a guard in Ottoman dress at the door
The porch of Osman Gazi’s tomb at Tophane in Bursa. Photo: Francesco Bini, 29.09.2022; CC BY-SA 4.0, file page.

The tomb

The tomb of 1863, and who lies in it

DomeDrumOctagonal bodyPorchEntrance hallTürbedar’s room
The tomb at Tophane in Bursa, drawn as an elevation: body, drum and dome are all octagonal.
  • 7 windows

    Eight sides: a door on one, a window on each of the other seven.

  • 1863

    Rebuilt for Sultan Abdülaziz after the fire of 1801 and the earthquake of 1855.

  • 17 sarcophagi

    Five have a known owner. The other twelve do not.

  • UNESCO 2014

    The tomb lies inside the World Heritage site “Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the birth of the Ottoman Empire”.

  1. 1

    The porch

    Two slender columns carry Sultan Abdülaziz’s tuğra (his seal).

  2. 2

    The entrance hall

    Wooden arches. The türbedar’s room lies on the west side.

  3. 3

    The tomb

    An octagonal chamber under a dome, with a ten-line inscription by Osman Nevres dated 1280 (1863).

  4. 4

    Osman’s sarcophagus

    At the centre: wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, a railing round it, a velvet cover worked in metal thread. Cover and latticework were restored in 2004.

17 sarcophagi, five with a known owner

Tap a gold tile. The tiles do not show where each one stands.

  • Osman Gazi

    At the centre of the tomb, under the velvet cover.

  • Alâeddin Bey

    Osman’s son. The chronicles call him Alâeddin Ali.

  • Asporça Hatun

    Orhan’s wife. Her deed of September 1323 shows Osman alive.

  • İbrâhim

    Orhan’s son, born to Asporça.

  • Savcı Bey

    Murad I’s son.

Three faces, none from life

Was he a sultan? The coin and the sermon

A sultan has his name read in the Friday sermon and struck on coins. İbn Battûta, in the 1330s, writes “Sultan Osmancık”. But no Turkmen bey in Anatolia took the title “greatest sultan” before 1335, when the last Ilkhan had died. An inscription of 1337 calls Orhan “sultan of the ghazis”. The silver coin shown here was struck in Orhan’s time.

Two sides of an old silver coin with Arabic lettering inside a lobed frame
A silver coin of Orhan’s time, İznik Turkish-Islamic Art Museum. Photo: Mkadioglu2020, 18.07.2021; CC BY-SA 4.0, file page.

Quick answers

Was Osman I a sultan?

The sources use different words. Pachymeres writes of a frontier raid leader. İbn Battûta, in the 1330s, writes “Sultan Osmancık”. No Turkmen bey in Anatolia took the title “greatest sultan” before 1335, and an inscription of 1337 calls his son Orhan “sultan of the ghazis”. Later Ottoman tradition counts Osman as the first of the line.

When did the Ottoman state begin?

The traditional date is 1299, from the old chronicle story. İnalcık reads Bapheus, 27 July 1302, the first date from a source of Osman’s own time, as a date that can be accepted for the beginning of the dynasty. Both dates are in use.

Was Mal Hatun the daughter of Sheikh Edebâli?

Âşıkpaşazâde says so, in 1484. The Mekece deed of March 1324 names her as the daughter of Ömer Bey, and it is certain she was not Edebâli’s daughter.

What did Osman look like?

No likeness made in his lifetime is known. Three well-known faces were made at least 225 years after his death: the miniature of 1579/80, a painting from the circle of Paolo Veronese, and Laurence Johnson’s engraving of 1603 for Knolles’s history of the Turks.

Where is Osman buried?

In Bursa, in the tomb at Tophane that Sultan Abdülaziz had built in 1863. His son Orhan’s tomb is beside it. A memorial grave (makam) for Osman also stands at Söğüt, outside Ertuğrul’s tomb.

Sources

Open the source list
  1. Osman I, Halil İnalcık — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2007, checked 20.10.2026
  2. Orhan, Halil İnalcık — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2007, checked 20.10.2026
  3. Mal Hatun, Feridun Emecen — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2019, checked 20.10.2026
  4. Edebâli, Kamil Şahin — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 1994, checked 20.10.2026
  5. Ertuğrul Gazi, Fahameddin Başar — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 1995, checked 20.10.2026
  6. Kayı, Faruk Sümer — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2022, checked 20.10.2026
  7. Pachymeres, Georgios, Levent Kayapınar — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2007, checked 20.10.2026
  8. Âşıkpaşazâde, Abdülkadir Özcan — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 1991, checked 20.10.2026
  9. Neşrî, Abdülkadir Özcan — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2007, checked 20.10.2026
  10. Oruç b. Âdil, Abdülkadir Özcan — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2007, checked 20.10.2026
  11. Wittek, Paul, Turgut Akpınar — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2013, checked 20.10.2026
  12. İbn Battûta, A. Said Aykut — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 1999, checked 20.10.2026
  13. Osman Gazi Türbesi, Doğan Yavaş — TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, printed 2007, checked 20.10.2026
  14. Osman Gazi Türbesi – Bursa — Kültür Portalı, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, kulturportali.gov.tr, checked 23.10.2026
  15. Ertuğrul Gazi Türbesi – Bilecik — Kültür Portalı, Ministry of Culture and Tourism (text of the Bilecik provincial directorate), kulturportali.gov.tr, checked 23.10.2026
  16. Şeyh Edebali Türbesi – Bilecik — Kültür Portalı, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, kulturportali.gov.tr, checked 23.10.2026
  17. Portret van sultan Osman I (RP-P-1905-4914) — Rijksmuseum, engraving by Laurence Johnson for Richard Knolles’s history of the Turks, published in London by Adam Islip, 1603, Public Domain, checked 20.10.2026
  18. Türbeler — Bursa Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, bursa.ktb.gov.tr, checked 20.10.2026
  19. Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü Arşiv Rehberi — Directorate General of Foundations, cdn.vgm.gov.tr, entry Asporçe Hatun (723 / 1323), checked 20.10.2026

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