What was the first Ottoman capital? Istanbul, definetly not, Edirne, nope, Bursa, close but tecnically not right.
Söğüt.
Never heard of it? Its a small town in the Sakarya valley between Izmit, Iznik and Eskişehir in the province of Bilecik. Ertuğrul led his mobile community of 400 families of nomadic families here after an eventful crossing of Antolia. Things started badly when his father Süleyman Şah drown crossing the Euphrates near Ja'bar Castle in Syria - his grave remains a little exclave of Turkish territory within Syria. When Ertuğrul helped the Selcuk Sultan Alattin in a battle against the Mongols he was given Söğüt in gratitude. And from this seed the whole Ottoman State grew.
I started the day in Iznik - at the Otogar I got the feeling not to many
foreigners go from there to Bilecik, there were plenty of dolmuses to Osmaneli, which is, or now actually was, on the main north south highway following the Sakarya valley, with plenty of buses heading south to Bilecik.
I'd heard of Osmaneli, and peered out at it as I went past in buses - so
when I arrived at the Otogar, I headed up for a quick wander round. Osmaneli will never become the next 'Safronbolu' but it does have a generous collection of old Ottoman houses, definetly enough to get off a bus and wander round for 30 mins. Most are in pretty bad condition, but restoration is begining - lets just hope its well done. So up the hill, past the mosque, taking whatever street took my fancy, old Osmaneli is not huge, eventually a large, ruined monumental building caught my eye at the top of the hill. So up I headed to find the shell of an enormous 19th century church.
On to Bilecik, via Vezirhan, another small town, laking the charms of Osmaneli, but with one old well preserved Ottoman Caravansaray. Unfortunately it looks like the local council or government put a lot of money into restoring it without actually find a use for it - leaving it permanently locked.
Bilecik Otogar - next bus to Söğüt 1 hour, time to find the early Ottoman mosque I'd heard about it. Memory said the mosque was down in the valley so I walked across the road and headed down. Unfortunately my notes weren't enough to tell me it was the Seyh Edebali Turbesi signposted from opposite the Otogar I was looking for, but wandering vaguely downwards through the centre of town took me in the right direction. Curious stumps of minarets stood curiously alone below in the valley - I suspect the old town was destroyed and abandoned and the typical concrete boxed above a recent 'new city'. Eventually I caught sight of the single domed mosque I'd read about in my "History of Ottoman Architecture".
Seyh Edebali's mosque, built in the time of Osman, is a candidate for the earliest Ottoman mosque. It follows the basic form of a dome above a square box, that would be the theme in the variation of Ottoman architecture. Building a dome was still ambitious for Ottoman architecture, they built 4 thick solid arches on each side, corbelled in leading eventually to the little brick dome. Getting a photo was a challenge with the Turkish family with their kids running wild, climbing up and down and minbar, I wonder what the reaction would be to a foriegn family acting like this.
Up the little hill beside the mosque was the main event, the Tomb of Seyh Edebali, the Sufi Saint and Father in Law of Osman. The tomb is clearly in the form of a simple old Turkish house and seems to represent the house of Edebali, where Osman would stay when he was in town, and continue his courtship of Edebali's beautiful daugher Malhatun. Edebali original opposed the union because of their unequal status, but he couldn't refuse tradition Turkish hospitality and Osman continued to stay in Edebali's house when he was in Bilecik. It's hard to believe the house is actually 700 years old, I suspect it has been restored and rebuilt several times. The main hall off the balcony has become a prayer room, while a second room to one side has the saints tomb, and the other the women's area.
It was presumably in the main room that Osman slept, on a traditional Turkish unrolled matress and where he had his famous dream - He saw the full moon, the symbol of Malhatun, rise from the chest of Edebali and settle in breast of Osman himself. And from his chest sprouted a tree, which grew firm and strong and its branches extended out into the furtherst corners of th world. Beneath the branches were four great mountains, the Caucasus, the Atlas, the Taurus and the Haemus which supported the branches of the canopy of this sacred tree which spread across the whole ark of heaven. From the roots of tree gushed the four great rives, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile and the Danube, upon which many ships sailed. Beneath the tree the lands were filled abundant harvests, amidst hills covered in rich forrest, and cities full of domes and minarets, yopped by the cresent moon and from where the Muezzin's call could be heard. Suddenly a wind push all the branches towards Constanintople which was a Jewel shimmering in the distance, a Diamond set between Saphires and Emeralds, as a precious ring of Universal Empire. As Osman reached out his finger to the ring he awoke. Whether Osman actually had this dream or it was part of the mytholigisation of the Ottoman dynasty noone knows but it became a central myth of the Ottoman Dynasty. When he heard of Osman's dream, Edebali surrendered to manifest destiny and accepted the marriage of his daughter with Osman, girding Osman with a "Sword of Islam", which became an heirloom of the dynasty, and the ceremony would be repeated in the Mosque of Eyup in Istanbul, as the equivalent of an Ottoman Coronation.
Time running out, up the hill for the bus to Söğüt, 20 minutes through rolling hills, green, a few crops, but land you can see the early Turks grazing their sheep in, eyeing the more fertile land controlled by Byzantines down in the Sakarya valley and beyond. The tomb of Ertuğrul was easy to find, in a little wooded park beside the road as the bus came into town, around it a large space, monumentalised on the cheap, probably in the 80s, for the annual festival honouring the foundation of the Ottoman dynasty; Beyond a more modern modern monumental pavilion with bust of all the Ottoman Soverigns.
The tomb itself is the small tomb of a minor tribal leader, redecorate in the dubious style in the 19th century when the Ottomans felt the need to articulate as sense of dynasty. Unfortunately that involved walling in the portico which looks quite pretty in the old 19th century pictures inside. The tomb itself was repainted in some pretty garish 19th century faux-Italian painting, plus a Mihrab with some very average tiles and a massive crystal chandelier, that crowds out the whole space. The flanked by a Turkish flag, which while not out of place in nationalist Turkey, is not standard in the other Ottoman tombs, but more interestingly beside it is the sky blue flag of Osman's Oğuz Turks and beside the grave offerings of 'earth' from visitors.
The friendly head scarfed woman who acted as custodian doesn't seem to get many visitors and talked enthusiastically, unfortunately I wish I could of undestood more of what she said. As I emerged from the tomb, a bus back to Bilecik emerged - decision get on now, or spend another exploring the minor sites scattered through town, guilt guilt, it was getting late, back to Bilecik and on to Bursa.
