Ottoman Dynasty
The
Ottoman Dynasty (or the
House of Osman) ruled the
Ottoman Empire from
1281 to
1923, beginning with
Osman I (not counting his father,
ErtuÄŸrul), though the dynasty was not proclaimed until
1383 when
Murad I declared himself
sultan. Before that the tribe/dynasty might have been known as
Söğüt but was renamed
Osmanlı (Ottoman in English) in honour of Osman.
The sultan was the sole and absolute regent, head of state and head of government of the empire, at least officially, though often much power shifted de facto to other officials (in principle all his subservient creatures), especially the
Grand Vizier, after whose palace the Ottoman government was known as
High Porte, the Sultan's own
Topkapi palace being mainly a
seraglio, 'harem'.
See the article on
state organisation of the Ottoman Empire for further information on the sultan and the structure of power.
The Ottoman dynasty is known in Turkish as
Osmanlı, meaning "House of Osman". The first rulers of the dynasty never had called themselves sultans, but rather
beys, or "chieftain", roughly the Turkic equivalent of Emir, which would itself become a gubernatorial title and even a common military or honorific rank. Thus they still formally acknowledged the sovereignty of the contemporary Seljuk
Sultanate of Rüm and its successor, the
Ilkhanate.
The first Ottoman to actually claim the title of
sultân (سلطان)â€"an Arabic title, in Islam originally the power behind the throne of the Caliph in Bagdad, later used for various independent Muslim
Monarchs, more prestigeous then
Emir, no fixed relative value to
Malik 'king' or the originally Persian title
Shahâ€" was
Murad I, who ruled from 1359 to 1389. With the 1453 capture of Constantinople, the road was open for the Ottoman state to become an empire, with Sultan Mehmed II as its
pâdişah (پادشاه), a Persian title meaning "lord of kings" and roughly equivalent to a Christian
emperor as would ultimately be formally established.
In addition to such secular titles, the Ottoman sultans also sporadically were addressed by, or adopted, the title of
Caliph of Islam, giving them theoretical leadership over all Muslim rulers around the world, though their legitimacy in this regard has been called into question and was naturally illegitimate in the eyes of other branches of Islam, especially Shiites. The first Ottoman ruler to be addressed by the title was
Abdülhamid I in 1774, though he did not claim the title himself
[Alavi, Hamza. "Ironies of History: Contradictions of the Khilafat Movement". Retrieved 6 April 2006.]. The first sultan to actually claim the title of caliph was
Abdülaziz, who ruled from 1861 to 1876.
A coup d'état happened in 1453 after the conquest of Constantinople. Due to the popularity the Sultan earned at the conquest, he felt safe in ordering his Grand Vizier killed.
In Europe, the hated but often feared Ottoman padishah was often referred to informally by such terms unrelated to the Ottoman protocol as "the Grand Turk".
The sultans further adopted in time many secondary formal titles as well, such as "Sovereign of the House of Osman", "
Sultan of Sultans" (roughly King of Kings), and "
Khan of Khans".
As the empire grew, sultans adopted secundary titles expressing the empire's claim to be the successor in law (sometimes even before the conquest was a fact!) to the structures of the absorbed states and stressing their religious fervor in armed jihad. Furthermore they tended to enumerate even regular provinces, not unlike the longs lists of -mainly inherited- feudal titles in the full style of many Christian European monarch.
For generations the full style of the Ottoman rulers was unstable, as often in the East, and generally comprised only a few titles. A Sultan might even have to accept a style fitting in the eyes of his foreign kingmaker, as
Tamerlane appointed in 1402 the Ottoman Sultan (deposed in 1410) Sulaiman Shalabi Khan, who was styled
as-Sultan ul-Azam, Sayyid us-Saladin ul-Arab wal Ajam, Malik ur-Rikaab ul-Umam, Ghiyas ud-Daula wa ud-Dunya, Sultan ul-Islam was ul-Muslimin, as-Sultan ibni us-Sultan, Hasib-i-Nasib-I-Zaman, Amir of Rumelia, the last held like a fief from Tamerlane. Sultan Murad Khan II Khoja-Ghazi, 6th Sovereign of the House of Osman (1421 - 1451), was
'Abu'l Hayrat, Sultan ul-Mujahidin, Khan of Khans, Grand Sultan of Anatolia and Rumelia, and of the Cities of Adrianople and Philippolis.
The conqueror of Constantinople was Sultan Muhammad Khan II Fatih Ghazi 'Abu'l Fath (1451 - 1481, 7th Sovereign of the House of Osman), was still 'simply' styled
Kaysar-i-Rum (=Emperor of [Byzantium = the second] Rome), Khan of Khans, Grand Sultan of Anatolia and Rumelia, Emperor of the three Cities of Constantinople, Adrianople and Bursa, Lord of the two lands and the two seas and the first to adopt the 'imperial' style Padishah.
Around 1500 the full style had become practically stabilised, e.g. in 1601:
''Sultan Hân N.N., ::
Padishah, ::
Hünkar, ::
Hakan ül-Berreyn vel-Bahreyn;::
Sovereign of the
House of Osman, Sultan of Sultans, ::
Khan of Khans, ::Commander (
caliph) of the
Faithful and Successor of the
Prophet of the
Lord of the
Universe Protector of the
Holy Cities of
Mecca,
Medina and
Jerusalem::
Emperor of The Three Cities of
Constantinople,
Adrianople and
Bursa, and of the Cities of
Damascus and
Cairo, of all
Azerbaijan, of the
Magris, of
Barka, of
Kairouan, of
Aleppo, of Arabic
Iraq and of
Ajim, of
Basra, of
Al-Hasa, of
Dilen, of
Ar Raqqah, of
Mosul, of
Parthia, of
Diyarbakir, of
Cilicia, of the
Vilayets of
Erzurum, of
Sivas, of
Adana, of
Karaman,
Van, of
Barbary, of
Abyssinia, of
Tunisia, of
Tripoli, of
Damascus, of
Cyprus, of
Rhodes, of
Candia, of the Vilayet of the
Morea, of the
Marmara Sea, the
Black Sea and also its coasts, of
Anatolia, of
Rumelia,
Baghdad,
Kurdistan,
Greece,
Turkistan,
Tartary,
Circassia, of the two regions of
Kabarda, of
Georgia, of the plain of
Kypchak, of the whole country of the
Tartars, of
Kefe and of all the neighboring countries, of
Bosnia and its
dependencies, of the City and Fort of
Belgrade, of the Vilayet of
Serbia, with all the castles, forts and cities, of all
Albania, of all
Eflak and
Bogdania, as well as all the dependencies and borders, and many others countries and cities.
In the beginning, all the sons were given governing experience and any of them could be chosen to lead. Later in Ottoman history, the eldest son would become the next ruler.
Note: Although
Abdul Mejid II was chosen as
caliph in 1922, he was no longer Sultan, as the National Assembly had abolished the sultanate to turn the young 'remnant' state of Turkey into a republic. The caliphate was abolished in turn in
1924.
Also notable among the Osmanlis are the
pretender Cem and the numerous wives of the sultans (for example
Roxelana), though they were not really considered as being a part of the Imperial House.
When
Mehmed II seized
Constantinople on
May 29,
1453, he claimed the title Emperor of the Roman Empire and protector of
Orthodox Christianity. He appointed the
Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius Scholarius, whom he protected and whose stature he elevated into leader of all the
Eastern Orthodox Christians. As emperor of the Romans he laid claim to all Roman territories, which at the time before the
Fall of Constantinople, however, extended to little more than the city itself, plus some areas in
Morea (
Peloponnesos) and the
Empire of Trebizond.
From 1517 onwards, the Ottoman Sultan was also
Caliph (i.e. sucessor to the Prophet), which theoretically gave him overlordship over all Muslim rulers in the world. For example, among the
Mughal Emperors of
India, only
Aurangzeb had the
Khutba read in his own name.
*
Valide Sultan*
Turkey, includes all the full ruler styles with various biographical data in
the Royal Ark*
Sultans, Contemporary Paintings by
Ismail Acar*
Everything about Ottoman Empire Everything about the history, culture and civilization of Ottoman Empire
*
MSN encarta - the Ottoman Empire (see
Sultanate)
*
WorldStatesmen- Turkey
