The Beginnings of Ottoman Power

The immediate consequence of the collapse of the Seljuks State was the autonomy - and subsequent indepance - of the oudj or frontier marches to the west, nort, and south of Anatolia. These were ruled by beys or emirs who turned their estates into emirates or beyliks. These beys were very acticefrom the begining of the 14th century both against Byzantium and their coreligions and sought aggradisement at the expence of their neighbours, whether Christian or Moslem. It was not until the second half of the 14th century that one of them attained an uncontested superioriority over the others. This happened when the successors of the bey Osman succeeded in eliminating pracrically all their opponents in Asia Minor and thus made possible the creation of an Ottoman Empire.

History Of The Turks

Contrary to what is generally believed, the Turks are in no way related to the Arabs. this misconception arose from the fact that they borrowed their religion and writing from the Arabs, while for centuries the dominated the Arab countries. This resulted in certain customs and practies of Arab-Moslem origin, but, while these have had a far from negligible influence, the can in no way be taken as indicating an assimilation of the Turks by the Arabs.
The Turks are neither Indo-Europeans, nor Semites, but are related to the peoples of eastern Upper Asia: the Toungoos, the Mongols, and the Manchus. However, the were differentiated from them by their successive migrations to the west, and their contacts with the peoples of Middle and Near East and of the Mediterranean finally lead to their being considered as more western than they were in fact.