Englishhood_A2-B1
L4a-Ex7_1
L4a-Ex7_1
The Ottoman Empire used to be one of the largest empires in history.
It existed for about 600 years, and at its peak it included Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece,
Hungary and many other countries.
Here are some interesting facts about two of its greatest rulers.
Osman I, 1299 to 1324, the founder of the Ottoman Empire.
Osman, a Seljuk Turk, was the founder of the Ottoman Empire in around 1300.
He was a great warrior, much like other famous leaders of that time, such as Jenkins Khan.
It was on the coronation day of Osman's successor that the tradition of wearing Osman's belt and sword began,
a tradition that made all the following 36 sultans remember that their power came from this legendary warrior.
Today you can see Osman's beautifully decorated sword in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.
Osman was definitely real, but in some ways he is like King Arthur in England, the founder of an idea and an almost mythical figure.
In fact, no one wrote anything about him during his lifetime, and no one even knows what he looked like.
Historians only wrote about this great ruler after his death.
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