From the epoch when the Ottomans made durable conquests in the Greek
empire, Asia each spring threw new hordes into Europe, until the time
when the successors of Orkhan had extended their domination from the
shores of the Sea of Marmora to those of the Danube.
The conquest of Gallipoli, which had opened the gate of the Greek empire
and the whole of the European continent to the Ottomans, was announced
by "letters of victory" to the neighboring princes of Orkhan, whose
father had divided with Osman the heritage of the Seljukian sultans. The
use of these "letters of victory" has been preserved to this day in
Turkey, and their style, already so pompous in the days of Orkhan, has
become so proudly emphatic that this kind of document to-day is not the
least curious of those which belong to the annals of the Turkish nation.
Orkhan left to his son, Suleiman Pacha, and Hadji-Ilbeki the charge of
preserving the conquests made in Europe; Suleiman established his
residence at Gallipoli, and Ilbeki at Konour. The first overran the
country as far as Demitoka; the second as far as Tschorli and Hireboli.
Adjebeg received in fief the valley which still bears his name.
But Suleiman enjoyed for only a few years the fruits of his conquests.
One day while hunting wild geese between Boulair and Sidi-Kawak, that is
to say near the palatine of the Cid, and following at a gallop the
flight of his falcon, he fell so violently from his horse (1359) as to
be instantly killed. His body was deposited, not in the mausoleum of
the Osman family at Prusa, where he had caused a mosque to be erected in
the quarter of the confectioners, but near the mosque of Boulair, also
founded by him. Orkhan, to perpetuate the exploits of his son, caused a
tomb to be built to his memory on the shore of the Hellespont, the only
one which, during more than a century, was erected in memory of an
Ottoman prince on Greek soil. Of all the sepulchres of Turkish heroes
which the national historians mention with holy respect, that of the
founder of the Ottoman power in Europe is the most venerated and the
most frequented by pilgrims. It is still to be seen to the north of the
embouchure of the Hellespont.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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