[40] The early European historians make the wildest statements about Osman’s field of action. Many of them call Ottomanjik, a place four days or five north-east of Eski Sheïr, his first conquest: Cuspianus (Antwerp ed., 1541), p. 6; Spandugino, in Sansovino, p. 143; Egnatius, p. 28. Cf. Hadji Khalfa, op. cit., fol. 1789. But this place was not captured by the Osmanlis until the reign of Bayezid: Evliya, op. cit., ii. 95. Paulo Giovio, an Italian historian greatly esteemed in his day, puts among the notable conquests of Osman the city and district of Sivas, as does also Rabbi Joseph, in his famous _Chronicles_, Eng. trans. of Biallobotzky, ii. 505. Donado da Lezze, _Historia Turchesca_, Rumanian edition of Ursu, pp. 4 and 5, makes him conqueror of Rum, province of Sivas, Phoenicia, ‘et altri luoghi’! Cuspianus, _De Turcarum Origine_, quotes Donado da Lezze almost literally. Richer, _De Rebus Turcarum_, written for the information of Francis I of France, says, p. 11: ‘Circiter 1300, Ottomannus impune invitis omnibus _summam imperii_, quod ante partitum tenebant factiosi magistratus, _occupavit_, seseque Asiae minoris sive Anatoliae _imperatorem_ nominare sit aggressus. _Syvam_, quae eadem cum Sebaste est, _expugnavit_, et oppida ad Euxinum posita _non pauca_ cepit.’ (The italics are mine.) Hussein Hezarfenn, one of the Ottoman historians whose work has been most widely read and quoted in Europe, says of Ertogrul, _who never saw the sea_, ‘He equipped several ships, with which he made a raid into the Aegaean Sea, pillaged the islands, descended upon Greece, penetrated up to the Peloponnesus, and returned to his home (_the little village of Sugut!_) laden down with wealth and followed by a great army composed of experienced warriors of all sorts of nations whom the renown of his bravery and his good fortune attracted to his service: which increased so greatly his reputation in Asia that Sultan Alaeddin even found it to his advantage to cultivate him’: trans. of _Petits de la Croix_, ii. 288-9. [41] I am not sure that I am justified in using the expression ‘undisputed sway’ even for this small territory. Pachymeres, IV. 30, pp. 345-7, speaks of a certain Soleiman pasha, who was threatening Nicomedia in 1303; and V. 23, p. 427, of Alisur retiring to the Sangarius after Roger had relieved Philadelphia in 1307. [42] Probably the first conquest of Osman. This city, on the Kara Su, is still a thriving place. Its situation is most picturesque. The author of the _Arabic History of the Kurds_ (Bibl. Nat., Paris, MS. of Ducaurroy, fol. 151 rº, 152 rº) makes Biledjik the city granted to Ertogrul by Alaeddin, and declares that he captured Sugut (Sukidjeh) from the ‘infidels of Tekkur’. [43] Angelcoma of the Byzantines. [44] The only conquest of Osman not in the direction of Byzantium. Hadji Khalfa, op. cit., fol. 1851.