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HISTORY] land. They were crossing the Euphrates, not far from the castle of Jaber, when the drowning of their leader by accident threw confusion into their ranks. Those who had not yet crossed the river refused, in face of this omen, to follow their brethren; the little band, numbering 400 warriors (according to others, consisting of 2000 horsemen) decided to remain under Ertoghrul, son of

the drowned leader. Ertoghrul first camped at Jessin, east of Erzerum; a second appeal to Ala-ud-din was more successful—the numbers of the immigrants had become too insignificant for their presence to be a source of danger. The lands of Karaja Dagh, near Angora, were assigned to the new settlers, who found there good pasturage and winter quarters. The help afforded by Ertoghrul to the Seljukian monarch on a critical occasion led to the addition of Sugut to his fief, with which he was now formally invested. Here Ertoghrul died in 1288 at the age of ninety, being succeeded in the leadership

of the tribe by his son Osman. When, exhausted by the onslaughts of Ghazan Mahmud Khan, ruler of Tabriz, and one of Jenghiz Khan’s lieutenants, the Seljukian Empire was at the point of dissolution, most of its feudatory vassals helped rather than hindered its downfall in the hope of retaining their fiefs as independent sovereigns. But Osman remained firm in his allegiance, and by repeated victories over the Greeks revived the drooping glories of his suzerain. His earliest conquest was Karaja Hissar (1295), where first the name of Osman was substituted for that of the sultan in the weekly prayer. In that year Ala-ud-din Kaikobad II. conferred on him the proprietorship of the lands he had thus conquered by the sword, and presented him at the same time with the horse-tail, drum and banner which constituted the insignia of independent command. Osman continued his victorious career against the Greeks, and by his valour and also through allying himself with Keussē Mikhal, lord of Harman Kaya, became master of Aīnēgeul, Bilejik and Yar Hissar. His marriage with Mal Khatun, the daughter of the learned sheikh Edbali, has been surrounded by poetical legend; he married his son Orkhan to the beautiful Greek Nilofer, daughter of the lord of Yar Hissar, whom he carried off from her destined bridegroom on her marriage-day; the fruits of this union were Suleiman Pasha and Murad. In 1300 the Seljukian Empire crumbled away, and many small states arose on its ruins. It was only after the death of his protector and benefactor Sultan Ala-ud-din II. that Osman declared his independence, and accordingly the Turkish historian dates the foundation of the Ottoman Empire from this event. Osman reigned as independent monarch until 1326. He pursued his conquests against the Greeks, and established good government throughout his dominions, which at the time of his death included the valleys of the Sakaria and Adranos, extending southwards to Kutaiah and northwards to the Sea of Marmora. Infirmity had compelled him towards the end of his life to depute the chief command to his younger son Orkhan, by whom in 1326 the conquest of Brusa was at last effected after a long siege.

Orkhan’s military prowess secured for him the succession, to the exclusion of his elder brother Ala-ud-din, who became his grand vizier. At that time a number of principalities had replaced the Seljukian state. Though Yahsha Bey, grandson of Mahommed Karaman

Oghlu, had declared himself the successor of the Seljukian sultans, the princes of Aidin, Sarukhan, Menteshē, Kermian, Hamid, Tekkē and Karassi declined to recognize his authority, and considered themselves independent, each in his own dominions. Their example was followed by the Kizil Ahmedli Emir Shems-ed-din, whose family was afterwards known as the house of Isfendiar in Kastamuni. The rest of the country was split up among Turcoman tribes, such as the Zulfikar in Marash and the Al-i-Ramazan in Adana. At his accession Orkhan was practically on the same footing with these, and avoided weakening himself in the struggle for the Seljukian inheritance, preferring at first to consolidate his forces at Brusa. There he continued to wrest from the Greeks the lands which their feeble arms were no longer able to defend. He took Aīdos,

Nicomedia, Hērēkē, and, after a siege, Nicaea; Tarakli and Gemlik fell to his arms, and soon the whole of the shore of the Marmora up to Kartal was conquered, and the Byzantines retained on the continent of Asia Minor only Ala Shehr and Biga. These acquisitions were made between 1328 and 1338; in the latter year Orkhan achieved his first conquest from Mussulman hands by the capture of Karassi, the pretext being the quarrel for the succession on the death of the prince, Ajlan Bey.

At this period the state of the Byzantine Empire was such as to render its powers of resistance insignificant; indeed the length of time during which it held out against the Turks is to be attributed rather to the lack of efficacious means at the disposal of its assailants than to any qualities possessed by its defenders. In Constantinople itself sedition and profligacy were rampant, the emperors were the tools of faction and cared but little for the interests of their subjects, whose lot was one of hopeless misery and depravity. On the death of the emperor Andronicus III. in 1341 he was succeeded by John Palaeologus, a minor; and Cantacuzenus, the mayor of the palace, appealed to Orkhan for assistance to supplant him, giving in marriage to the Ottoman prince his daughter Theodora. Orkhan lent the desired aid; his son Suleiman Pasha, governor of Karassi, crossed into Europe, crushed Cantacuzenus’s enemies, and penetrated as far as the Balkans, returning laden with spoil. Thus the Turks learnt the country of the Greeks and their weakness. In 1355 Suleiman crossed over from Aīdinjik and captured the fortress of Gallipoli, which was at once converted into a Turkish stronghold; from this base Bulaīr, Malgara, Ipsala and Rodosto were added to the Turkish possessions. Suleiman Pasha was killed by a fall from his horse near Bulaīr in 1358; the news so affected his father Orkhan as to cause his death two months later. The institution of the (q.v.) holds a prominent place among the most remarkable events of Orkhan’s reign, which was notable for the encouragement of learning and the foundation of schools, the building of roads and other works of public utility.

Orkhan was succeeded by his son Murad. After capturing Angora from a horde of Turkomans encamped there who were attacking his dominions, at first with some success, in 1361 Murad prepared for a campaign in Europe. At that time the Greek emperor’s rule was

confined to the shores of the Marmora, the Archipelago and Thrace. Salonica, Thessaly, Athens and the Morea were under independent Greek princes. The Bulgarians, Bosnians and Servians had at different periods invaded and conquered the territories inhabited by them; the Albanians, original natives of their land, were governed by princes of their own. When, on the death of Cantacuzenus, John Palaeologus remained sole occupant of the imperial throne, Murad declared war against him and conquered the country right up to Adrianople; the capture of this city, the second capital of the emperors, was announced in official letters to the various Mussulman rulers by Murad. Three years later, in 1364, Philippopolis fell to Lala Shahin, the Turkish commander in Europe. The states beyond the Balkan now began to dread the advance of the Turks; at the instigation of the pope an allied army of 60,000 Serbs, Hungarians, Walachians and Moldavians attacked Lala Shahin. Murad, who had returned to Brusa, crossed over to Biga, and sent on Haji Ilbeyi with 10,000 men; these fell by night on the Servians and utterly routed them at a place still known as the “Servians' coffer.” In 1367 Murad made Adrianople his capital and enriched it with various new buildings. He continued to extend his territories in the north and west; the king of Servia and the rulers of Kiustendil, Nicopolis and Silistria agreed to pay tribute to the conquering Turk. Lala Shahin Pasha was appointed feudal lord of the district of Philippopolis, and Timur Tash Pasha became beylerbey of Rumelia; Monastir, Perlepē, and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina were next taken, and the king of Servia consented to furnish to Murad a fixed contingent of auxiliary troops, besides paying a money tribute. In 1381 Murad’s son Yilderim Bayezid married Devlet Shah Khatun,