Othman and Malkhatoon
Othman, at his succession, was twenty-four years of age, and was already of proved skill as a leader, and of tried prowess as a combatant. His early fortunes and exploits…
From The Ottoman Turks by E.S. Creasy, 1854.
Othman, or, according to the oriental orthography, Osman, is regarded as the founder of the Ottoman empire; and it is from him that the Turks, who inhabit it, call themselves Osmanlis, the only national appellation which they recognise. Ertoghrul never professed to act, save as the vassal and lieutenant of the Sultan of Iconium. But Othman, after the death of the last Alaeddin in 1307, waged wars and accumulated dominions as an independent potentate. He had become chief of his race twelve years before, on Ertoghrul’s death, in 1288.
Othman, at his succession, was twenty-four years of age, and was already of proved skill as a leader, and of tried prowess as a combatant. His early fortunes and exploits are favourite subjects with the oriental writers, especially his love adventures in wooing and winning the fair Malkhatoon. These legends have probably been coloured by the poetical pens, that have recorded them in later years; but it is less improbable that they should be founded on fact, than that no similar traditions should have been handed down by the children and followers of so renowned a chief, as the founder of the Ottoman empire.
The Scheikh Edebali, celebrated for his piety and learning, had come, while Othman was very young, to Itbourouni, a village near Eskischeer. Othman used often to visit the holy man, out of respect for his sanctity and learning; and the young prince’s visits became still more frequent, after he had one evening accidentally obtained a view of the Scheikh’s fair daughter, Malkhatoon, a name which means “Treasure of a Woman.”
Othman confessed his love; but the old man thought that the disparity of station made a marriage imprudent, and refused his consent, Othman sought consolation for his disappointment in the society of his friends and neighbours, to whom he described, with a lover’s inspiration, the beauty of Malkhatoon. He discoursed so eloquently on this theme to the young chief of Eskischeer, that the listener fell in love with Malkhatoon upon hearsay; and, going to her father, demanded her hand for himself. Edebali refused him also; but feaing his vengeance more than that of Othman, the old man removed from the neighbourhood of Eskischeer to a dwelling close to that of Ertoghrul.
The chief of Eskischeer now hated Othman as his rival. One day when Othman and his brother Goundonroulp were at the castle of their neighbour, the lord of Inseni, an armed force suddenly appeared at the gate, led by the chieftain of Eskischeer and his ally, Michael of the Peaked Beard, the Greek lord of Khirenkia, a fortified city at the foot of the Phrygian Olympus. They demanded that Othman should be given up to them; but the lord of Inseni refused to commit such a breach of hospitality.
While the enemy lingered irresolutely round the castle wall, Othman and his brother seized an advantageous moment for a sudden sally at the head of a few companions. They chased the chief of Edciscbeer off the field in disgrace, and took Michael of the Peaked Beard prisoner. The capture and the captors became staunch friends; and in after times, when Othman reigned as an independent prince, Michael left the Christian for the Mussulman creed to join him, and was thenceforth one of the strongest supporters of the Ottoman power.
Othman had, by this encounter at Inseni, triumphed over his rival, and acquired a valuable friend; but he could not yet gain the maiden of his heart. For two more years the course of his true love ran through refusal and anxiety, until, at length, old Edebali was touched by the young prince’s constancy, and interpreted a dream as a declaration of heaven in favour of the long-sought marriage.
One night, when Othman was resting at Edebali’s house (for the shelter of hospitality could never be denied even to the suitor whose addresses were rejected), the young prince, after long and melancholy musing on her whom he loved, composed his soul in that patient resignation to sorrow, which, according to the Arabs, is the key to all happiness. In this mood he fell asleep, and he dreamed a dream.
He saw himself and his host reposing near each other. From the bosom of Edebali rose the full moon (emblem of the beauteous Malkhatoon), and inclining towards the bosom of Othman, it sank upon it, and was lost to sight. Thence sprang forth a goodly tree, which grew in beauty and in strength ever greater and greater. Still did the embracing verdure of its boughs and branches cast an ampler and an ampler shade, until they canopied the extreme horizon of the three parts of the world.
Under the tree stood four mountains, which he knew to be Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus, and Haemus. These mountains were the four columns, that seemed to support the dome of the foliage of the sacred tree, with which the earth was now pavilioned. From the roots of the tree gushed forth four rivers, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Danube, and the Nile. Tall ships and barks innumerable were on the waters. The fields were heavy with harvest. The mountain sides were clothed with forests.
Thence in exulting and fertilising abundance sprang fountains and rivulets, that gurgled through thickets of the cypress and the rose. In the valleys glittered stately cities, with domes and cupolas, with pyramids and obelisks, with minarets and towers. The Crescent shone on their summits: from their galleries sounded the Muezzin’s call to prayer. That sound was mingled with the sweet voices of a thousand nightingales, and vrith the prattling of countless parrots of every hue. Every kind of singing bird was there. The winged multitude warbled and flitted round beneath the fresh living roof of the interlacing branches of the all overarching tree; and every leaf of that tree was in shape like unto a scymetar. Suddenly there arose a mighty wind, and turned the points of the sword-leaves towards the various cities of the world, but especially towards Constantinople. That city, placed at the junction of two seas and two continents, seemed, like a diamond set between two sapphires and two emeralds, to form the most precious stone in a ring of universal empire.
Othman thought that he was in the act of placing that visioned ring on his finger, when he awoke.
Othman related this dream to his host; and the vision seemed to Edebali so clearly to presage honour, and power, and glory, to the posterity of Othman and Malkhatoon, that the old Scheikh no longer opposed their union. They were married by the saintly Dervise Touroud, a disciple of Edebali. Othman promised to give the officiating minister a dwelling-place near a mosque, and on the bank of a river. When Othman became an independent prince, he built for the Dervise a convent, which he endowed richly with villages and lands, and which remained for centuries in the possession of the family of Touroud.
The Ottoman writers attach great importance to this dream of the founder of their empire. They dwell also on the prophetic significance of his name, signifying the resistless energy with which he and his descendants were to smite the nations of the earth. “Othman” means the “Bone-breaker.” It is also a name given to a large species of vulture, commonly called the royal vulture, and which is, in the East, the emblem of sovereignty and warlike power, as the eagle is with the nations of the West.
Creasy, E. S. The Ottoman Turks. Richard Bentley, 1854.
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