Sultans:Ertugrul Gazi

   Ertugrul (1191/1198-1281) was the father of Osman I,the founder of the Ottoman Empire.He was the leader of the Kayi clan of the Oghuz Turks.When arriving in Anatolia from Merv (Turkmenistan) with his 400 horseman to aid the Seljuks of Rum against the Byzantines,Ertugrul set off the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the founding of the Ottoman Empire.Like his son,Osman,and his future descendants,Ertugrul is often referred to as a Ghazi,a heroic champion fighter for the cause of Islam.
   Ertugrul was born in Ahlat.In 1230 he inherited the command of the Kayi tribe of the Oghuz Turks as a result of his assistance to the Seljuks against the Byzantines.Ertugrul received lands of Karaca Dag,a mountainous area near Angora (now Ankara) by Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I,the Seljuk Sultan of Rum.One account indicates that the Seljuk leader's rationale for granting Ertugrul land was Ertugrul to repel any hostile incursion from the Byzantines or other adversary.Later he received the village of Sogut which he conquered in 1231 together with the surrounding lands.That village where he later died became the Ottoman capital in 1299 under Osman I Ertugrul's son.Ertugrul had two other sons,Saru Batu Savci Bey and Gunduz Bey.
   In the 19th century,the Ottoman Navy frigate Ertugrul was named in his honor.The Ertugrul Gazi mosque in Turkmenistan is also named in his honor.And in the TV series Dirilis Ertugrul,Ertugrul is portrayed by Turkish actor Engin Altan Duzyatan.

Introduction:Ottoman Empire

   The Ottoman Empire,also historically referred to as the Turkish Empire or Turkey was a Sunni Islamic state founded in 1299 by Oghuz Turks under Osman I in northwestern Anatolia.With conquests in the Balkans by Murad I between 1362 and 1389,the Ottoman sultanate was transformed into a transcontinental empire and claimant to caliphate.The Ottomans overthrew the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) by Mehmed II.
   During the 16th and 17th centuries in particular at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent,the Ottoman Empire was a powerful multinational multilingual empire controlling much of Southeast Europe,Western Asia,the Caucasus,North Africa,and the Horn of Africa.At the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states.Some of these were later absorbed into the empire,while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.
   With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin,the Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries.Following a long period of military setbacks against European powers and gradual decline,the empire allied with Germany with the imperial ambition to recover the lost territories but it collapsed and was dissolved in the aftermath of World War I,leading to the emergence of the new state of Turkey in the Ottoman Anatolian heartland,as well as the creation of modern Balkan and Middle Eastern states.
   Finally,in this blog "Ottoman Empire" we will talk about this empire's details and about  the Ottoman Sultans.