On the Question of the Ottoman Principality’s Founder’s Name

Abstract

One of the ongoing debates about the Ottoman Empire, that is one of the most important powers in the world history, is for the name of the founder of the Ottoman Principality. In some Byzantine sources, the name, in forms of Atman, Ataman, Atuman; the recording of the Arab geographer al-Umari as Tuman / Taman in his work has led to quite different interpretations. Some modern Ottoman historians questioned the ethnic origin of the founder and entered into deep discussions. As a matter of fact, the name recorded as Osman in all Turkish sources with all Ottoman chronicles, especially the way of writing in Byzantine sources, is completely related to the features of colloquial Arabic. The difference in the phraseology and spelling of other words was also seen in the name Osman; which was spoken and even written as Atman, Itman or Utman in colloquial Arabic, in the region where the Byzantine-Arab theme was intense, it seems also to have passed to the Byzantine sources as Atman in the form of spoken and even written in this field.