Introduction|7Part I. th through th Centuries: Emergence and Expansion:
From Frontier Beylik to Cosmopolitan Empire
Part I traces the emergence and transformation of the Ottoman realm out of
the pastoral-nomadic principalities of thirteenth-century Beylik Anatolia (Asia
Minor) to a burgeoning empire during the fifteenth century. These chapters cre-
atively use the existing limited sources to present the complex development of
Ottoman identity as it competed with powerful rivals in diverse areas. Some
groups and institutions were prominent during this period, such as Sufis and
their orders.
In chapter 1 Nicolas Trépanier proposes an alternative method for breaking
down the social hierarchy as it was perceived and internalized by post-Byzantine
Anatolians. He uses scenes in narrative sources of the time that depict individ-
uals or groups offering and receiving food as charity. Craftsmen, for example,
banded together to offer charity, and the circumstances of gratuitous food ex-
change dispel the notion that a coherent class of religious professionals existed.
This investigation ultimately offers insight into a layer of identity that was at once
deeply internalized and largely removed from any reference to the state, ethnic-
ity, or religion. Chronologically, this chapter presents the earliest material on the
region as it was being incorporated into the Ottoman beylik. Many of the sources
discuss Sufis or Islamic mystics who were prominent during this period.
In chapter 2 Zeynep Aydoğan also explores the earliest period of Ottoman
history by looking at different cultural and geographical definitions of the land
of Rum in three warrior epics, the Battalname, the Danişmendname, and the
Saltukname. The chapter describes the moving frontier with Rum—the Byzan-
tine Empire—as this frontier changed in one epic to another and examines the
concepts of Rum and Rumi (a person from the land of Rum), showing how these
concepts that once belonged to a rival religion and culture gradually came to be
adopted and appropriated by the Ottomans as an essential component of their
identity. The oral version of the earliest epic, the Battalname, dates to the late
eleventh century, and the written version of the third epic, the Saltukname, dates
to about 1480.
In chapter 3 F. Özden Mercan explores the surrender of Pera to the Otto-
mans in 1453 and the accommodation by the Genoese colony in Pera of Otto-
man rule after the conquest of Constantinople. The Genoese presence in Pera had
a long history, because the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII (Palaiologos) gave
Pera to the Genoese, who established a semiautonomous rule there. Although the
conquest of Constantinople changed the status of the Genoese community, most
of the Genoese families remained in Pera. The Genoese had created connections
with both Byzantines and Ottomans before 1453 and were successful in renewing
privileges with the Ottomans that allowed them to continue their prosperous