There was the effort to be as consistent in spelling as sources and authorities would permit. But where consistency was lacking in originals, a consistent transliteration sometimes presented difficulties with which I was incompetent to cope. Even a philologist, with a system, would be puzzled when he found his sources conflicting with each other in spelling, and--as is often the case--with themselves. And if a philologist thinks that he can establish his system by transliterating the _spoken_ word, let him travel from Constantinople to Cairo overland, and he will have a bewildering collection of variants before he reaches his journey’s end. I was not long in Turkey before I learned that _Osman_ and _Othman_ were both correct. It depended merely upon whether you were in Constantinople or Konia! After you had decided to accept the pronunciation of the capital, you were told that Konia is the Tours of Turkey. My acknowledgements to kind friends are many. I am grateful for the year-in and year-out patience and willingness of the officials of the Bibliothèque Nationale during long periods of constant demand upon their time and attention. Professors John De Witt, D.D., LL.D., of Princeton Theological Seminary, Duncan B. Macdonald, Ph.D., of Hartford Theological Seminary, and Edward P. Cheyney, Ph.D., LL.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, have read portions of the manuscript, and have made important and helpful suggestions. The whole manuscript has been read by Professors Talcott Williams, LL.D., of Columbia University, and R. M. McElroy, Ph.D., of Princeton University, who have not hesitated to give many hours to discussion and criticism of the theory that the book presents. Above all, I am indebted for practical aid and encouragement in research and in writing, from the inception of the idea of the book until the manuscript went to press, to my wife, with her Bryn Mawr insistence upon accuracy of detail and care for form of narrative, and to Alexander Souter, D.Litt., Regius Professor of Humanity in Aberdeen University, my two comrades in research through a succession of happy years in the rue de Richelieu, rue Servandoni, and rue du Montparnasse of the queen city of the world. H. A. G. PARIS, _September 1, 1915_. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE OSMAN: A NEW RACE APPEARS IN HISTORY 11 CHAPTER II ORKHAN: A NEW NATION IS FORMED AND COMES INTO CONTACT WITH THE WESTERN WORLD 54 CHAPTER III MURAD: THE OSMANLIS LAY THE FOUNDATIONS OF AN EMPIRE IN EUROPE 110 CHAPTER IV BAYEZID: THE OSMANLIS INHERIT THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE 180 APPENDIX A TRADITIONAL MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE OSMANLIS AND THEIR EMPIRE 263 APPENDIX B THE EMIRATES OF ASIA MINOR DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 277 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 303 BIBLIOGRAPHY 319 INDEX 369 MAPS PAGE