Ottoman School (19th Century) Portrait Of Sultan Osman Gazi. Gouache And Watercolour #3

OTTOMAN SCHOOL (19th century)
Portrait of Sultan Osman Gazi.
Gouache and watercolor on paper
titled at the bottom in a cartouche in Arabic and Latin characters “
Sultan Osman
“.
Framed under glass (at sight)
Height: 28 cm Width: 25 cm
Good condition.
#3 Osman Gazi;?~died in 1323/4)
[
was the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire (first known as the beylik or emirate). Initially a small Turkish principality during Osman’s lifetime, his beylik grew into a vast empire in the centuries following his death. It existed until 1922, shortly after the end of World War I, when the sultanate was abolished.
Due to the scarcity of historical sources dating from his time, very little factual information about Osman has survived. No written sources remain of Osman’s reign, and the Ottomans did not record his life story until the 15th century, more than a hundred years after his death.
[18]
. As a result, historians have great difficulty distinguishing fact from myth in the many stories that circulate about him. One historian even went so far as to declare this impossible, describing the period of Osman’s life as a “black hole.”
According to later Ottoman tradition, Osman’s ancestors were descendants of the Kayı tribe of the Oghuz Turks. However, many scholars of the early Ottoman Empire view this as a later invention intended to enhance dynastic legitimacy.
The Ottoman principality was one of several Anatolian beyliks that emerged in the second half of the 13th century. Located in the region of Bithynia in northern Asia Minor, the principality of Osman was uniquely positioned to launch attacks against the vulnerable Byzantine Empire, which his descendants eventually conquered.