ErtuÃÂrul or ErtuÃÂrul Ghazi (; died ) was a 13th-century uch bey (marcher-lord), who was the father of Osman I. Little is known about ErtuÃÂrul's life. According to Ottoman tradition, he was the son of Suleyman Shah, the leader of the Kayñ tribe (a claim which has come under criticism from many historians) of the Oghuz Turks (then known as Turkomans), which fled from western Central Asia to Anatolia to escape the Mongol conquests; but according to contemporary numinastic evidence, he was the son of Gündüz Alp. According to the legend, after the death of his father, ErtuÃÂrul and his followers entered the service of the Sultanate of Rum, for which he was rewarded with dominion over the town of SöÃÂüt on the frontier with the Byzantine Empire. This set off the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the founding of the Ottoman Empire.
Nothing is known for certain about ErtuÃÂrul's life, except that he was the father of Osman. As a result, historians are compelled to rely on stories written about him by the Ottomans more than a century later, which are of questionable accuracy.
According to the sources written 100âÂÂ150 years after the establishment of the Ottoman state, ErtuÃÂrul's lineage is traced to Noah, through Oghuz Khagan. Ottoman historian and ambassador to the Qara Qoyunlu, à Âükrullah states that ErtuÃÂrul's lineage goes to Gökalp, a son of Oghuz Khagan. The author states that the information was shown during a court of Jahan Shah, from a book written in Mongolian script. Since historians like à Âükrullah did not have any information about the lineage of the Oghuzes, they attributed Kayñ Khan to Gök Alp (it should be "Khan" instead of "Alp") and not to Gün Khan. However, it is also possible that the Ottoman dynasty was a member of the Kayñ tribe.
An undated coin, from the time of Osman, with the text "Minted by Osman son of ErtuÃÂrul", suggests that ErtuÃÂrul was a historical figure. Another coin reads "Osman bin ErtuÃÂrul bin Gündüz Alp", though ErtuÃÂrul is traditionally considered the son of Suleyman Shah.
In Enveri's Düsturname (1465) and Karamani Mehmet Pasha's chronicle (before 1481), Gündüz Alp is Ertugrul's father. After Aà Âñkpaà Âazade's chronicle TevÃÂrëḫ-i ÃÂl-i ÿOsmÃÂn (15th century), the Suleyman Shah version became the official one.
According to many Turkish sources, ErtuÃÂrul had three brothers named; Sungur-tekin, GündoÃÂdu and Dündar. After the death of their father, ErtuÃÂrul with his mother Hayme Hatun, Dündar and his followers from the Kayñ tribe migrated west into Anatolia and entered the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, leaving his two brothers who took their clans towards the east. In this way, the Kayñ tribe was divided into two parts. According to these later traditions, ErtuÃÂrul was chief of his Kayñ tribe.
As a result of his assistance to the Seljuks against the Byzantines, ErtuÃÂrul was granted lands in Karaca DaÃÂ, a mountainous area between Diyarbakñr and Urfa, by Kayqubad I, the Seljuk Sultan of Rum. One account indicates that the Seljuk leader's rationale for granting ErtuÃÂrul land was for ErtuÃÂrul to repel any hostile incursion from the Byzantines or other adversary. Later, he received the village of SöÃÂüt which he conquered together with the surrounding lands. That village, where he later died, became the Ottoman capital under his son, Osman I. Osman's mother has been referred to as Halime Hatun in later myths, and there is a grave outside the ErtuÃÂrul Gâzi Tomb which bears the name, but it is disputed.
According to many sources, he had two other sons in addition to Osman I: Saru-Batu (Savci) Bey and Gündüz Bey. Like his son, Osman, and their descendants, ErtuÃÂrul is often referred to as a Ghazi, a heroic champion fighter for the cause of Islam.
A tomb and mosque dedicated to ErtuÃÂrul is said to have been built by Osman I at SöÃÂüt, but due to several rebuildings nothing certain can be said about the origin of these structures. The current mausoleum was built by Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876âÂÂ1909) in the late 19th century. The town of SöÃÂüt celebrates an annual festival to the memory of the early Osmans.
In 1826, ErtuÃÂrul Cavalry Regiment of the Ottoman Army was named in his honor. The Ottoman frigate ErtuÃÂrul, launched in 1863, was named after him. Abdul Hamid II also had a yacht with the same name. The ErtuÃÂrul Tekke Mosque (late 19th century) in Istanbul, Turkey and the ErtuÃÂrul Gazi Mosque in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (completed in 1998), are also named in his honor. The mosque in Turkmenistan was established by the Turkish government as a symbol of the link between Turkey and Turkmenistan.
ErtuÃÂrul is one of several statues that surround the Independence Monument in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The statues depict people praised in the Ruhnama, a spiritual guide written by Turkmenistan president Saparmurat Niyazov. The ErtuÃÂrul statue has also been depicted on a 2001 commemorative coin.
Two statues of ErtuÃÂrul on horseback were placed by a private cooperative housing society in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2020. They were inspired by ', a 2014 TV series. A bust of ErtuÃÂrul was erected in Ordu, Turkey, in 2020. However the bust was removed by local authorities after it was pointed out that it resembled the actor from the TV series.
Ertugrul has been portrayed in the Turkish television series ' (1988), adapted from a novel by the same name, ' (2014âÂÂ2019) and the sequel ' (2019).