Söğüt

Söğüt lies in the northwestern Anatolian hills near the Sakarya, on what was once a frontier between Byzantine lands and the Seljuk world. Ottoman tradition remembers it as the winter quarters of Ertuğrul and his followers. His son Osman emerged here as the leader of a small principality in the late thirteenth century, giving his name to a dynasty that would rule an empire.

Many stories about the earliest Ottomans were recorded long after their lifetimes, but the association of Osman and his father with Söğüt remained central to the dynasty's memory. The town contains a tomb attributed to Ertuğrul and a mosque bearing his name, both altered in later centuries. From this frontier base Osman and his followers took neighbouring Byzantine strongholds, including Bilecik. As Ottoman power expanded, the political centre moved to larger cities, but Söğüt retained its place in accounts of the dynasty's beginnings.