“The Osman's Dream” Ertugrul's son Osman who established the Ottoman Empire in 1299 after his father's heroic achievements saw a dream which became one of the most resilient founding myths of the Ottoman empire. (1/5)

One night, the first sultan, Osman, was sleeping in the house of a holy man called Sheikh Edebali when: "He saw that a moon arose from the holy man’s breast and came to sink in his own breast. A tree then sprouted from his navel and its shade compassed the world. (2/5)

Beneath this shade there were mountains, and streams flowed forth from the foot of each mountain. Some people drank from these running waters, others watered gardens, while yet others caused fountains to flow" When Osman awoke he told the story to the holy man, who said: (3/5)

‘Osman, my son, congratulations, for God has given the imperial office to you and your descendants and my daughter Malhun shall be your wife’. First communicated in this form in the later fifteenth century, a century and a half after Osman’s death in about 1323, the... (4/5)

..empire began quite literally with a dream, conjuring up a sense of temporal and divine authority and justifying the visible success of Osman and his descendants at the expense of their competitors for territory and power in the Balkans, Anatolia, and beyond. (5/5)

Reference: Caroline Finkel, Osman’s Dream The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1923