[20] Thus in Ali and Neshri. Seadeddin attributes this dream to Ertogrul. But the confusion between Ertogrul and Osman is marked in all the Ottoman historians.
[21] The Ottoman historians give as reason for the refusal the social difference between his daughter and the ‘young prince’. This is an excellent illustration of how, writing in the zenith of Ottoman prosperity, the historians lost their sense of proportion or were actually compelled to write in flattering terms of the founder of their royal house.
[22] Hammer, i. 67, in relating this dream, has transcribed with fidelity and felicity the Persian poetry of Idris.
[23] Leunclavius, Pandectes, p. 113, following Ali, attributes the moon dream to Ertogrul, and places it at Konia. Boecler, Commentarius de rebus turcicis, pp. 104-5, following Chalcocondylas, does likewise, but relates the Koran dream of Osman. Seadeddin, p. 11, makes the dream distinctly religious, and while not mentioning the love story or Malkhatun by name, infers that Osman receives intimation of his marriage with Edebali’s daughter only through Edebali’s interpretation of the dream. This failure to mention Malkhatun is all the more significant when we see later how much attention Seadeddin gives to Nilufer. Evliya effendi, ii. 19, says that through the marriage of Osman to Malkhatun, the Ottoman sultans became descendants of the Prophet!
[24] I should except from this statement Rambaud, who, in Hist. générale, iii. 822-4, states that the conversion of the Osmanlis to Islam took place during the chieftainship of Osman. The general character of the work to which he was contributing, and the limits of space, did not allow him to give any reasons in support of this position. Vanell, Histoire de l’Empire ottoman, p. 357, says that Ertogrul was a pagan until he became converted through reading the Koran.
[25] From personal acquaintance with them, I can testify that these nomads (Yuruks) have remained up to the twentieth century with only the most vague idea of Mohammed and with no idea at all of the Koran and the ritual observances of Islam.
[26] See Shehabeddin, MS. Paris, Bibl. Nat., fonds arabe 2325, fol. 69 vº-70 rº, citing Mesoudi and earlier writers for the propagation of Islam among the Bulgarians.
[27] Cf. Cahun’s masterly contribution to Hist. générale, ii. 887.
[28] Abul Faradj, Chronicon Syr., pp. 606-8.
[29] The Ottoman historians mention none, either of friendship or enmity, during the entire life of Osman.