According to this text, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman Gazi, was the first Ottoman Sultan who ruled for 600 years, followed by 35 successive Sultan rulers. The concept of the Ottoman Empire's founding date, known as "Istiklal-i Osmâni," gained prominence in the 20th century as part of the Westernization trend within the Ottoman Empire. During that period, various European dynasties established a founding date for the last Balkan states that had separated from the Ottoman Empire, celebrating it as a holiday.
For this reason, during that era, the idea of the Ottoman Empire's founding date was introduced, and in the 20th century, prominent Ottoman historians like Aşıkpaşazade, Neşri, Ruhi, and Oruç examined important Ottoman historical records and works. As a result, 1299 was recorded as the year of the Ottoman Empire's establishment.
After the acceptance of the Second Constitutional Era, on November 30, 1909, the "Tarih-i Osmanî Encümeni" was established with the aim of providing accurate information about Ottoman history to society and creating a historical consciousness among the people. One of the first activities of this institution was to determine the answer to when the Ottoman Empire became an independent state, Istiklal-i Osmâni. Efdaleddin Bey was tasked with researching this matter.
Aşıkpaşazade, who provided the most detailed account of the period, unfortunately, wrote about the era during the reigns of Fatih and II. Beyazıt. Based on this, the founding date of the Ottoman Empire was determined as the year 699 in the Islamic calendar, equivalent to September 28, 1299, to August 18, 1300, in the Gregorian calendar. The earliest accounts of this period were recorded by Imam İshak Fakîh, who served as the religious leader to Orhan Gazi, the son of Osman Gazi. His son, Yahşi Fakîh, documented Ottoman history up to Yıldırım Beyazıt, and Aşıkpaşazade drew from his records.
According to Aşıkpaşazade, Osman Gazi in the year 699 Hicri (1299 AD) eliminated the Byzantine governors and conquered Bilecik and Yenişehir, reaching the Byzantine border. In the same year, he also took control of Karacahisar. Immediately after, he organized the territory he established among his son Orhan, his brother Gündüz, and other Alpars, and launched raids on İznik, one of the most important cities of the Byzantine Empire.
The claims regarding the Ottoman dynasty's lineage from the Kayı tribe were asserted in the 1440s. Aşıkpaşazade mentioned that Osman Gazi stated, "I am the son of Gökalp." The assertion that the Ottoman dynasty's lineage descended from Kayı Han, the grandson of Oğuz Khan, and thus the ancestors of the Ottoman dynasty, was first recorded in the work "Tarih-i Al-i Selçuk" by Yazıcızade Ali during the reign of Sultan Murat II and was reiterated by Aşıkpaşazade. However, some consider this as a claim, and historical facts from Osman Gazi's era suggest that this was not a topic of discussion.
Some historians argue that after the conquest of İnegöl in 1299, Osman Gazi declared independence, while others maintain that Osman Gazi declared independence after the collapse of the Anatolian Seljuk State in the same year. Some even suggest that in 1299, Sultan 2. Gıyaseddin Mesud of the Anatolian Seljuk State sent flags and seals to Osman Gazi, symbolically granting independence to the nascent Ottoman state.
According to Halil İnalcık, although the "Istiklâl-i Osmânî" date is mentioned as February 25, 1300 in the Devlet Salnâmes (State Yearbooks) published from 1847 onwards, it lacks a solid foundation. In a speech in 2009, the renowned historian Halil İnalcık stated that the transition of the Ottoman Empire from a beylik (principality) to a state after the Battle of Bafeus occurred in 1302.
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