Osman's conversion

**Osman's conversion** (1293) was a religious and political event which took place at Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. There, the Muslim ruler of Nicaea, Osman , renounced the Muslim faith and became an Orthodox Christian instead, fulfilling the terms of his alliance with the Byzantine emperor Romanos VI Melissenos.

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Since the outbreak of the Scythian Wars, the Nicene question plagued and troubled the Emperors of the Romans day and night. Although Theodore II had repelled the steppe barbarians time and time again, their invasions left a profound mark upon the Roman Empire that not even the Lion could heal within his lifetime. The Scythians had come to fundamentally alter the East, and reshape the ashes they left behind to their own image. The last time a storm of that magnitude had hit the region, the Seljuks had forever changed the Levant and Alp Arslan had taken half of the Empire for himself at the Battle of Manzikert. For the next century, the three Great Komnenids very nearly restored Rhomania to its former dignity and power, but their work was left unfinished until John III , Theodore II's father, at last retook Iconium only a decade before the Scythians struck. When they did, all the conquests from the previous centuries were lost. The enemies were numerous. Rebel imperial generals, Turkish leaders, Isabella of Armenia and, of course, the Khans themselves; combined, their efforts expelled the Emperors from Asia Minor and threatened to bring the collapse of the Empire itself. Fortunately for the Romans, the coalition of capable men put together by Theodore II prevented the worst from happening, but did not, could not, restore the *status quo*. Much was regained, but much more was lost, perhaps permanently.

Chief among the new Anatolian powers that rose during the Scythian Wars and consolidated in its aftermath was a band of Oghuz Turks, led by a warlord who called himself Ertugrul Ghazi . The first time that he appears in Roman sources was in 1243, when Emperor John III defeated him in a skirmish whilst marching back from Cilicia to Constantinople and forced him and his small emirate of Ancyra into a tributary position. He reappears four years later, having joined Güyük Khan in his fearsome rampage in Anatolia and being given command over a significant detachment of Turks in return. Ertugrul was ordered to besiege Nicomedia while the Great Khan crossed the Bosporus, but it was truly at Nicaea that he settled, in lieu of the Georgians whose orders had been to take the larger and richer city. Even after the Scythians retreated, he was able to keep control of his new lands. Predictably, the early relationship between Ertugrul and Emperor Theodore II was hostile. Indeed, in 1251 they met in battle near to the city of Abydos, by the Hellespont, as the Nicene Turks came to the aid of the rebel and self-proclaimed Despot of Laodicea, Alexios Axouchos. The Emperor's plans were temporarily thwarted by Ertugrul's intervention and constant raids, but Axouchos' choice was sealed, and with it the outcome of the war.

It would be only a couple of years later that Constantinople and Nicaea made peace. The Scythians were coming again, and in face of that threat, Theodore II and Ertugrul held secret negotiations to stall their advance. To prepare for the seemingly inevitable invasion, Roman arms moved to occupy Phrygia and the fortress of Dorylaeum, while the Archon of Nicaea (as he is known in Roman sources) made war against his Turkish brethren to the east to rob the Great Khan of a potential ally. Once the Scythians no longer posed a threat, the alliance between the two men continued. Theodore II had been forced to pledge that Nicaea would be held by Ertugrul for as long as he lived, and the Emperor would be damned to break his oath while his wounded Empire was still surrounded by enemies. Indeed, to the Romans it seemed that the Turk had become the Emperor's client, even though Ertugrul and later his son Osman held a very different view. The reality told a story of an alliance. The Romans would not trouble the Turks, whilst the Turks would not trouble the Romans. Naturally, borderland raids never ceased, but those were far fewer and in between than before, with Ertugrul controlling his men with an iron fist and directing them against other Turks in Asia Minor. Thus, Nicaea was able to expand their hold in the peninsula, while the peace and stability in the East allowed Theodore II to exclusively campaign for a decade in the Balkans and return Bulgaria to the fold. Such was the nature of their symbiotic relationship, which continued, albeit colder, well into the reigns of their successors.

If for the Romans the Archon of Nicaea was a tool to keep the Turks in check and assure the Eastern themes from great incursions, the large scale rebellions that Osman, who now called himself Sultan of Rum, now faced in his dominion were an unpleasant development. Ertugrul's son and successor, named *Atouman* in Roman sources (particularly Pachymeres), had greatly extended his father's state to incorporate Iconium and all the other minor Anatolian emirates, seeking to reestablish the old Sultanate of Rum. Unfortunately for him, his efforts overextended his budding empire, and his new and discontent subjects took the first opportunity they had to break free of their shackles. For most of a decade, the so-called Sultan and the Turks fought for every inch of territory and patch of dirt, whilst the Emperors at Constantinople were challenged by crises of their own and were unable (and unwilling) to intervene. Perhaps Osman could have put down the uprisings by himself, were it not for the Mamluk involvement, which bled his forces dry. Atouman was not forced to turn to his Roman allies at Constantinople. Much to his disappointment, he would find out that Theodore II no longer reigned as Emperor, and that few were willing to march to aid the Sultan of Rum, especially as Emperor Romanos V lied in his deathbed. Upon his refusal to enter Nicomedia to have an audience with the then Co-Emperor Romanos VI, he was left to his own devices.

When the situation failed to improve, Osman was forced to set aside his pride and join the recently anointed *Basileus* Romanos VI at Nicomedia for his long awaited audience. He was escorted through the city to Diocletian's Palace, and there led to the Emperor's presence by the Immortals. Osman was deprived of his weapons, and his companions were forced to wait in the barracks as he had words with Romanos VI in the gilded audience hall of the ancient Pagan Augustus, during whose reign the persecution against Christians had reached its apogee. In a way, it was irony that fated the two men to converse there. The famed historian George Pachymeres witnessed the meeting as the Emperor's *Mystikos* and envoy from the Church. He set down in his chronicle that "the Emperor said the Persians had risen against Atouman, and driven him back to Nicaea. He reminded Atouman of their old friendship, and offered him a new friendship, and further offered to welcome him in the purple house. The Emperor told him to kneel before him and kiss his knees, and acclaim him as his sole Emperor. Atouman did as ordered, and the Emperor brought him across the Bosporus to the City, there to be shown the light of the Christian faith, and be baptized by the Ecumenical Patriarch". The chronicle offers a rich description of Romanos VI's return to the capital in triumph, riding in through the Golden Gate and marching throughout the long Mese until the procession reached the Hagia Sophia. However, Osman was not bound in chains, but rode behind the imperial retinue. A trophy all the same, even if unshackled. A great ceremony followed, reminiscing, according to Pachymeres, the baptisms of the ninth century; a glorious festival in honor of the Church and the Emperor. With Patriarch Athanasius I's words, the man who had entered the Church of the Holy Wisdom as Osman Ghazi left as Alexander Anatolios. He chose his name to honor the great Macedonian conqueror of Antiquity, and his new family as an eternal reminder to himself that he was an Easterling, who although now professed the Christian faith, had not entirely abandoned his Turkish roots.

The Hippodrome came alive with games and church bells rang for a week, whereas the masses of Constantinople indulged in street feasts and large gatherings in the forums of Constantine and Theodosius, and in the Augustaion before the Hagia Sophia and the ruined Great Palace. Of course, not everyone had reason to celebrate. Many of the ungrateful aristocrats looked down upon Romanos VI's achievement, even as the newly minted general Alexander Anatolios rode with all haste to Nicaea to surrender the city and what remained of his state to the Roman Empire. The Emperor might have gained Nicaea bloodlessly, as well as the service of its former master, but had been awarded with the outrage of several Eastern magnates, who had looked forward to the conquest of Nicaea and now feared the sudden shift of the balance of power with Osman's christianization. Their concern only grew when Romanos VI announced that Anatolios was to be betrothed to his sister, the lady Martha Melissene, and was to be created a prestigious and high-ranking *Sebastokrator* upon his entrance to the imperial family. It seemed that the Emperor's efforts to flawlessly integrate his former client had had the adverse consequence of alienating much of the Eastern aristocracy, and even some elements of the Western and civilian nobles and courtiers, due to Anatolios' new rank and seniority at court. As for the former Sultan of Rum himself, he accepted his new circumstances, although he had little reason to love his new Emperor. The board of the game had forever changed. There was no going back now, and Alexander Anatolios would have to learn to navigate the Byzantine court now and earn the respect of the Eastern army, if he did not wish to completely fade into obscurity. The dice was cast, and only time would tell who saw, came and conquered in this new age.