The Effect of the Çobanoğlu Principality on the Ottomans

"Ottomans" Book Written by Halil İnalcık
The "Ottomans" Book, written by Halil İnalcık, deals with the effects of post-Seljuk principalities on the Ottoman Empire, the structure of Ottoman Society and its effects on Turkey and the EU. However, there are some things between the lines that can shed light on why the Western Black Sea and Western Anatolia, which date back to centuries, are kept aside. Perhaps these in-depth readings also explain why the “Western Study Groups”, which are renewed every ten years and specialize in changing colors, are called the “Western” Working Groups.

“Emir-i Vilayet-i Uç” or “Etrak-ı Uç”
“Ottomans” is a branch of the Anatolian Seljuk State. There are three main Margraves in the West. Ghazi settled here and Muslim Turkmens became the dominant ethnic element in these three regions at the earliest. Abu'l Fida and Ibn-i Said determine that before the year 1300, the Turkmens settled in the vicinity of 200,000 tents in Antalya-Denizli, 100,000 Tent in Kastamonu and 30 thousand tents in the vicinity of Kütahya-Karahisar. This reveals the settlements of the Western End Principalities. The western border borders of the Seljuk state are the Western Mediterranean Region, the Western (Aegean) Region and the Western Black Sea Region.

According to this;
1- Alaiye, centered in Alanya and Antalya in the Western Mediterranean, emerges as "Emir-i Vilayet-i Uç" and "Etrak-ı Uç".
2- The Çobanoğulları Principality centered in Kastamonu-Sinop-Crimea in the Western Black Sea Region is the "Uc Principality" and the overlord "Turkish Edge Principality".
3- In the western region, on the Denizli-İzmir axis, Çaka principality is an important pioneering Gazi Principality.
The Western Black Sea border principality grew up in the middle of Trabzon-Istanbul-Crimea Greek states, first with the names of Çobanoğluları Fly Principality and then Osmanoğulları Uç Principality and Devlet-ü Aliye, despite these three. And finally it has covered it all.

Tribe and Pedigree Unity Between Cobanogullari and Osmanogullari
There is also a clan union between Hüsameddin Çoban Bey from the Kayı clan, son of Karatekin, and Osman Gazi, the founder of the Ottomans, from the Kayı clan, his father Ertuğrul Gazi and his grandfather Süleyman Şah. Apart from the fact that Hatice Hüma Hatun, mother of Mehmed the Conqueror, was from Kastamonu, this blood kinship united in the Kayı clan is one of the sources of the sultans' trust in this region. Surrounding their immediate surroundings with the people of the Western Black Sea, the Ottomans chose the milk mothers of 13 sultans from Sherbani (Şenpazar). Undoubtedly, this clan and lineage unity must have been important in connecting Ertuğrul Gazi, who settled in Engürü, to Hüsameddin Bey, the chief of Kastamonu at first.

“Mediterranean and Black Sea: Turkish Lakes”
The first of the most striking determinations in Halil İnalcık's work "Ottomans" is that the infrastructure of the Ottoman Navy, which turned the Black Sea and the Mediterranean into a Turkish Lake and symbolized by Barbaros Hayrettin Pashas, ​​was created by two Western Anatolian Turkish principalities based in "İzmir" and "Kastamonu". Çaka Bey, who established the Turkish Naval Forces in 1081 with 40 ships, took the Crimean Suğdak, which was under the rule of Trabzon Greek, from the Greeks in 1224, via Sinop, the first overseas expedition in history, and Hüsamettin Çoban Bey, the Western Black Sea Commander, assumed the sovereignty of the Black Sea. are the architects of Because İnalcık sees these naval veterans as the 'Core of the Ottoman Naval Power' and the 'seigniory established in Western Anatolia towards 1300 and their light navy' as a 'great danger to the Latin and Greek sovereignty in the Mediterranean and Black Seas'. Thus, the Kipchak Khan and the Russian Knezs were also connected to the Western Black Sea Margrave.
Stating that 'Western Anatolia fell completely under the domination of the Turkmen between 1290-1304', İnalcık repeats Marco Polo's naming of Anatolia as "Turcomania -Turcoman City -Country" in the 1270s. Halil Hodja argues that the dissolution of some navies in order to save the ports of Byzantium had other consequences: "While the idle sailors who would later become Muslims provide technical staff to the Turkish Veterans, they make Byzantium the main competitor in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Only the Genoese and the Knights of Rhodes remain the main rivals.”

Ertuğrul Gazi is attached to the Çobanoğulları Principality
The influence of the Çobanoğulları Principality on the Ottoman Empire is not limited to the formation of naval forces. In fact, the tradition of the margrave, which would make the Ottoman Empire the "State-i Aliye", is a legacy from the Çobanoğlu principality. In other words, the Çobanoğulları Principality, which was founded by Hüsamettin Çoban Bey, who made a border principality against Byzantium in the Western Black Sea region right after Manzikert, the most important margrave of the Seljuks, had the authority of suzerain during the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. Alaaddin Keykubat administration (1221-1237), Osman Gazi's father, Ertuğrul Gazi, made Gündüz Alp and Gök Alp dependent to Hüsameddin Çoban Bey. The Turkish principality, which was established as the second generation, "Ottomans" was legally bound to the "Uç Emir (Çobanoğulları Principality) and (hence) the Seljuk Sultan as part of the tip". “Towards 1291, in Kastamonu, the famous Seljuk Emir Hisameddin Muzafferüddin Yavlak Aslan from my shepherd ancestry was a tip emir with the title of sipah-bed-i dire-i tip. Contemporary source connects the emergence of Pacymeres Osman Gazi to the incident of “Sons of Amurius”, Emir of Kastamonu.

Çobanogullari Tributary Principality Transforms into Osmangullari Triad Principality in Sakarya
The fight for the throne (1291), the sipah-bed-i dire-i-tip Muzafferüddin Yavlak Aslan killed Kılıç Arslan and the heir to the Seljuk Throne Kılıç Arslan was killed by the victim's son Ali. “The chief emir of Kastamonu, Ali, who had left the Seljuk-Mongol nationality, started to attack the Byzantine lands, conquered it up to the Sakarya river, and even advanced his raids to the other side of the river. But he later established peaceful relations with the Byzantines. Osman Gazi's area was located to the south of it, in the Söğüt region, on the far side of the Central Sakarya Valley. Pachymeres clearly states that when Ali stopped his raiding activity, Osman Gaza took over the leadership. And he started violent attacks against the Byzantine lands. Veterans are now starting to gather under his banner. Pachymeres also explains that they came from Paphlagonia, that is, from the region of Kastamonu.”
And a new era begins….