60 chapter 1
entourage of the first sultans;62 Oruç and other late fifteenth-century histo-
rians, more learned in Islamic traditions, even link Osman’s genealogy with
Ebu Muslim, the Abbasid champion and hero of an epic set in Horasan. But
as the Ottoman dynasty became more and more settled and institutional-
ized, part of which involved developing a more regular army that replaced the
now obsolete free warlords and raiders, the meaning of gaza was increasingly
taken to refer to the proper Islamic meaning of Holy War instead of just loot-
ing and plundering, which seems to have been its understanding during the
early Ottoman period. Ahmedi’s emphasis on the gazi as an enemy of infidelity
(an emphasis much discussed in the context of the Wittek thesis debate) falls
into this reformulation of sultanly legitimacy: in later texts as well, the sultan
increasingly becomes the champion of orthodox faith. The emphasis is on his
personal charisma rather than on individual warriors and dervishes, and of
course on the importance of faith rather than the loot acquired in the gaza
raids. The sultans’ prayers before important battles, and especially Murad I’s
prayer before the first battle of Kosovo, as recounted by Neşrî, nicely illustrate
this point:63
O God, possessions and slaves are yours; you give them to whom you will,
and I am an insignificant, incapable slave of yours ... You know that my
intention is not to gain property and riches. I did not come here for male
or female slaves. I only genuinely and sincerely desire your approval.Stories of dreams, where a saint or the Prophet himself invests the leader of
the dynasty with divine grace, can also be placed in this tradition. On the
other hand, emphasis on the personal charisma (devlet) of the sultan was very
widely used during the civil strife that followed the battle of Ankara.64
Apart from religious justifications, however, there had to be a dynastic one
as well. Different accounts of how the Seljuk sultan Alâ’eddin had granted
the region of Söğüt to Osman’s father, Ertoğrul, were systematized by Neşri,
who polished away discrepancies of time and even put forward the sugges-
tion that the Seljuk ruler had somehow bestowed his inheritance on Osman.
Again Aşıkpaşazade’s gazi-oriented version has Osman defying Ala’eddin and
proclaiming himself independent, but Neşri’s “legalist” version prevailed in
the long run to the point that Feridun Bey’s celebrated collection of chancery
documents, issued in 1575, contains the alleged patents sent by Ala’eddin to
62 See e.g. Vryonis 1971, 392–396; Ocak 1993a; Ocak 1993b.
63 Neşri – Unat – Köymen 1987, I:287; Flemming 1994, esp. 66–67.
64 Kastritsis 2007, 206–207. On this notion cf. Sigalas 2007; Sariyannis 2013, 87–92.