Osman I
Life and reign
The frontier lord whose small beylik in Anatolia around 1299 grew into the Ottoman state. He gave his name to the dynasty, Osmanli, and his dream of a tree covering the world became imperial legend. Six centuries of his house began with his horsemen.
Related Monarchs and Houses
Saladin
Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, sultan of Egypt and Syria from 1174, who destroyed the crusader army at Hattin in 1187...
Mehmed II
Conqueror of Constantinople, breaching the Theodosian walls in May 1453 at the age of 21 with the largest cannon of the age. He...
Suleiman the Magnificent
Tenth and greatest Ottoman sultan, called the Lawgiver by his own people. He took Belgrade, Rhodes and Hungary, reached the gates...
Cyrus the Great
Founder of the Persian empire, who toppled the Medes, Lydia and Babylon in under three decades, creating the largest empire yet...