Abstract

We know virtually nothing about the origins of the Ottomans and little more about the first two centuries of their history. Even at this writing, what has long been accepted as fact is being eroded bit by bit as an ever-increasing number of studies challenging its traditional underpinnings appear. The earliest recorded reference to the founder of what was to become the mighty Ottoman Empire is a laconic reference in a contemporary Byzantine chronicle to a certain “Othman” fighting a skirmish with a Byzantine force near present-day Yalova on 27 July 1302 (İnalcık, 1993, 2010: 49–56).