Story of Ertugrul and Halime
Source : Google photo of Ertugrul Bey
Synopsis : It is said that all great things have a small beginning. When a brave fighter of the Kayi tribe in Turkey took up his sword to protect the poor and helpless from bandits and tyrants to give them justice, he became the star who rallied all the tribes that came under his leadership to root out the evil hordes of Genghis Khan and later the Knight Templars and the Byzantine rulers. This is the story of Ertugrul Bey and his incredible struggle to lay the foundation of the greatest empire that his son Osman 1 founded later called the Ottoman empire. Ertugrul fought for equality, justice for all and protection of the poor and needy. He never turned away anyone who needed his help.
How many of you have ever heard of Ertugrul the brave heart? I suspect most people do not know their own history let alone Ertugrul, the brave heart. He lived a long time ago in the 11th century but left behind an empire that lasted over 600 years called The Ottoman empire based in Turkey. It was an empire that outlasted all others and was known as the glorious period in the Islamic world that left its mark in the annals of history as the one that started when a young man stepped forward to fight injustice and tyranny during his time.
He was the son of a great warrior Suleiman Shah who was the head of the Kayi tribe and his equally illustrious mother Hayme who taught young Ertrugul that fighting injustice and tyranny anywhere was a very noble cause so the young dashing boy grew up believing it and trained very hard for his cause just like his other brothers and the young men of his tribe.
They were nomads who wanted peace and lived in tents that they moved to greener pastures for the goats and sheep but they were assailed on all sides by their enemies that included the Knights Templars, the Mongol marauders, other tribes that wanted their land, bandits who attacked them and their markets where they sold their beautiful rugs and later the Byzantine Christians who saw them as threats to their ambition to rule the world from Constantinople. They were at first dismissed as goat herders but soon learned to their dismay the superb fighting skills of the tribe under Ertugrul who emerged as their leader they would die for in battle.
The Kayi tribe was known for its most excellent woolen rugs of intricate designs and dazzling colors woven by the Kayi women that were highly prized in many European countries and in the Middle East. With the income from the sale of their carpets and rugs, they bought food and other necessities but every woman knew the dangerous time they all lived in and trained in horse riding ,archery and how to defend themselves so they all carried knives in their waist.
The young men constantly honed their skill in sword fighting, archery, horse riding and in hand to hand combat because they never knew when they would be attacked. They were peace loving people who were generous to a fault to anyone who sought their protection and shelter and extended their protection to other tribes that often came under attack. There were many such tribes spread out over a vast area of the present day Turkey that a noble Sultan tried to bring together to fight their common enemy that put their very existence in jeopardy. This was Genghis Khan and his blood thirsty hordes that wanted to conquer the whole world and nearly did. The Knight Templars also posed a serious threat to all Moslems who lived in the area because they too wanted to capture Moslem territories and expand their influence so they occupied Jerusalem causing a lot of bloodshed.
They fought the Byzantine soldiers because by this time the Christian Church was divided into the Catholics ruled by the Pope in the Vatican and the Orthodox Christians ruled by a king from Niceae and later from Constantinople who was also their Pope. The world’s greatest Orthodox Christian church was built in Constantinople that still stands today but not as a Church anymore. It has been turned into a mosque now. The Templars were the military arm of the Catholic church who protected Jerusalem from the Moslems and made lots of money through trade and loaning money at usurious rates to the European kings who sent many crusades to Palestine to occupy Jerusalem.
Ertugrul who was the third son of the tribe chief Sulayman Shah changed the history forever but even he did not know how his fight for truth, justice and equality would lay the foundation of a vast empire that someday would shine as a glorious beacon to all that would outshine all the empire building powers of that period.
This is the mesmerizing story of a great man who fought his enemies tooth and nail, suffered a great deal when his enemies captured him and tortured him, beat him to break his bones, nailed his hand to a tree with a spike, poisoned him, kidnapped his baby son and posed a direct threat to his beautiful wife Halime Sultan, his mother Hayme and to his tribe. He never let down his father Suleyman Shah who came to trust the judgment of Ertugrul more than all his other sons. But he fought on and managed to survive his imprisonment and tortures escaping many times to regain his strength to continue his struggle. His trusty fighting campanions Bamsy, Turgut, Abderrahman, Artuk Bey and Dundar Bey among others formed a very formidable fighting force and fought numerous battles and won most of them.
His story starts when one day while hunting in the forest for deer, he came upon a group of heavily armed Templar soldiers who had in their custody a beautiful princess , her father and younger brother. The Templars were on their way to their castle to lock up their prisoners in their dungeon to use them as pawns for political bargaining in their effort to expand their territory.
Ertugrul and a few of his close associates came upon the scene and promptly killed all the Templars and rescued the princess called Halime Sultan. He gave them shelter in his tribe and vowed to protect them all the time. He also fell in love with the beautiful princess who also fell in love with him so his parents gave their blessing to their marriage later.
Halime was no ordinary princess. She came from a ferocious tribe that had fallen on hard times. She was very educated and superbly trained in sword fighting, horse riding and archery. She was an artist when it came to design beautiful patterns in the carpet and introduced dazzling colors that she extracted from plants and barks of some trees to dye the wool so her new designs and colors drew great admiration in the market. The traders paid in gold a good price that increased the income of the tribe.
He fought many battles with the Templars who were the enemy of all Moslems and eventually captured their castle and killed them all. He found huge amount of gold in their castle that he distributed to all the poor people of his tribe who had lost their sons in the battle. He equally helped Christians, Greeks and others who needed his help and protected them. But the Mongol warlord Noyan gave him the most trouble whom he was able to kill when he managed to escape from his captivity in the Mongol camp.
Source : Google photo of Mongol warlord Noyan who tortured Ertugrul
The Real History of Ertugrul and Halime
The following information on Ertugrul Bey, Halime and his parents, brothers and other important persons in the life of Ertugrul are drawn from the Islamic history , written records of Ibn Arabi and other sources like Byzantine records, records of Knight Templars etc . The photos shown here are from the Turkish U tube episodes called Dirilis meaning Insurrection that is wildly popular.
Source : Google photo of Ertugrul Bey and Halime Sultan
With the small part of Kayi tribe, Ertugurl with only 400 tents, went on the challenging path toward the West and made foundation for one of the greatest empires. After Sultan Aladdin was poisoned by Sadettin Kopek who was his vizier, Ertugrul revolted against Kopek’s government, and proclaimed his own State, the City of Sogut its capitol.
His love and respect for his wife was widely known. He had four sons with Halime Sultan, and he died when he was 90 years old. The last ten years of his life were spent quietly in his tribe when due to the old age, he transferred all his responsibilities to his youngest son Osman. A historical proof of his life are the coins minted by Osman which identify Ertuğrul as the name of his father, but beyond this not much is known about him apart from folklores.
There is information and historical facts about him that are kept in Turkish archives, within Ibn Arabi’s chronologies, in Western archives about Templars, in Byzantine’s chronologies and in legends – but this information only amounts to around 7 pages according to the actor Engin Altan Duzyatan, who gave life to this great character. Despite this Engin considers it a great privilege to play Ertugrul as he was the first person in Turkish history to move away from the nomadic lifestyle and look to establish a state that went on to last 600 years.
We do know he was buried in Sogut in 1280. Around his tomb are graves of Halime Sultan, Hayme Mother, his sons, Gunduz, Savci Bey, Saru Batu and Osman, his brother Dundar, Turgut Alp, Samsa Alp, Abdurahman, and many others of his Alps, who reached Sogut with Ertugrul Bey. The ones that were not buried there, died along the way.
We all know that everything comes to an end someday so did the life of Ertugrul in Sogut one day when he was 90 .He is buried here in Sogut but what wrenched my heart was to see the simple grave of Halime Sultan near the entrance to the mausoleum of Ertugrul as shown in the following video. How tragic it is that in death they were separated.
Source : Google photo of the grave of Ertugrul Bey in Sogut , Turkey
Source : U tube video of the grave of Ertugrul in Sogut, Turkey
Here you will find the short description of the principal characters who played a decisive role in the life of Ertugrul and Halime starting with Osman1.
Osman 1:
Source : Google photo of Osman 1 , founder of the Ottoman empire, 4th son of Ertugrul and Halime Sultan
The extent of the Ottoman empire
Source : Google map of the Ottoman empire, its rise and fall
Osman is known as the father of the Ottoman Empire as from his Beylik (principality) the expansion of the Ottoman territory began. In the history books you will often see Ottoman rule referred to as the Osmanli dynasty. Osman came very late to his parents. He was born late in Ertugrul and Halime’s life. When Osman was born in 1258, Ertugrul was around 67 years old, and as Halime was older too, when normally women cannot have children anymore, he was considered a Miracle child sent by God. Historians consider a black hole in Ottoman history during Osman’s life as what is written was discovered more than 100 years after his death.
Gundogdu & Sungurtekin
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