When "Osman I" sent word to the surrounding emirates, threatening them with war or the jizya.. or embracing Islam and joining him.. several regions submitted to him.. and some of them paid the jizya.. while many refused and decided to fight. He gathered the remnants of the Seljuks of Rum along with the remnants of the men of the Byzantine Empire, against the small emirates that had refused to submit to the Ottomans.. and they formed a large army, which set out under the command of the Byzantine Emperor "Michael IX Palaiologos" toward the Ottomans, who had begun to advance on "Magnesia". And in mid-April of the year 1302 AD, the Byzantine army camped in the south of "Magnesia", facing the Ottomans. And on the eve of that same day, the Ottomans withdrew without a fight. "Michael's" army was large, and "Osman" was afraid to engage it.. so he withdrew once again to the borders of Izmid. And slowly he began to tempt the lords of the small towns around "Magnesia" with money, women and gifts.. over a period of time that was not short.. and they responded to him gradually.. so "Michael's" army began to shrink slowly.. and fall apart little by little. And at the same time, in Egypt, Sultan "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" was facing grave problems. What happened was that the minister of the king of Morocco was on his way to the Hejaz to perform the Hajj, and he stopped in Egypt to rest.. and he was a completely deranged hardliner.. so when he settled in Cairo he was surprised to find that the Christians were in the best of circumstances, with their own trade, working in the diwan and the palace.. adorning themselves and their horses with gold and silk and living like royalty. This did not please our friend the minister of the king of Morocco.. so he met with two of the influential Circassian Mamluks.. namely the emir "Salar" and "Baybars al-Jashankir".. and mind you, don't get confused.. that is other than "al-Zahir Baybars" who fought the Tatars. He kept drumming into them that this was forbidden and wrong and that Islam would be lost, and that "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" would turn Egypt into an infidel Christian state, where the cross is worshipped.. and the rest of the well-known nonsense of his. He also went around to a group of sheikhs and lavished gifts on them.. so they adopted his point of view.. and the clamor began from the pulpits.. a Christian must not work in the Sultan's palace or in the diwans of the emirs.. and must not adorn himself with gold.. and they are forbidden to ride horses, mules and donkeys.. let them walk on their own two feet. And the matter developed with violence, and after those inciting sermons from the sheikhs.. the common people and the mob attacked the churches, burning and destroying some of them.. and they prevented Christians from dressing like Muslims.. they were even forbidden to wear a cloak or a white turban.. he had to make a blue mark on it with paint, so that he would be recognized as a second-class citizen.. and treated with a measure of contempt. History called this sedition "the Affair of the People of the Covenant". "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" mobilized the Bahri Mamluk forces to put down the sedition.. but he was taken by surprise by the Mongol sultan of Persia, "Mahmud Ghazan".. who sent an army led by his vizier "Qutlugh Shah Noyan" to occupy Egypt and the Levant. And at that very moment the Christians decided to take up arms to defend themselves and their churches.. so "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" met with the senior priests and men of the church.. and asked them to close the churches indefinitely, until the Mongol threat was repelled. And they responded to him indeed. "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" sent an army of three thousand soldiers to the Levant.. and when the Mongol vizier found them too few.. he decided to ignore them completely and entered Hama.. but the small army pursued him persistently.. and the battalions of the Levant joined it.. and their total number reached about ten thousand soldiers. And the Mongol army was 80 thousand soldiers.. so they inflicted a crushing defeat on this small army at the "Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar". And on Saturday, 2 Ramadan 702 AH.. corresponding to 20 April 1303 AD.. al-Nasir "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" moved from Cairo to the Levant to meet the army of "Mahmud Ghazan".. and the Mongol army was 80 thousand soldiers, as we said.. and the army of al-Nasir "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" this time consisted of 200 thousand soldiers.. the two armies clashed and a terrible battle unfolded.. because al-Nasir "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" was fighting in the battle himself.. and he was a precious target for the Mongols the whole time.. if he fell.. they would win the war. But al-Nasir "Muhammad ibn Qalawun" triumphed.. and he besieged the Mongols to the point that they almost died of thirst.. so he opened the road to the river for them.. and when they went down to drink.. he did not touch them.. until they reached the river.. and drank.. and the water bloated them and weighed them down.. then he attacked them and all but annihilated "Ghazan's" entire army.. this battle was called the "Battle of Shaqhab" or the "Battle of Marj al-Suffar".. when its outcome reached the Mongol Khan "Mahmud Ghazan".. his blood pressure rose and he bled from his nose constantly.. and he died days after the news reached him.. on 11 May, in the year 1304. Note that the one who stood up to the Mongols a second time was not the Ottomans.. it was Egypt. And at that very moment.. in Anatolia.. "Osman" was facing a new problem. The Byzantines hired mercenary forces that offered their services to whoever paid the most.. most of them from Europe.. and they sent these forces out.. and they numbered only five thousand soldiers.. under the command of "Roger de Flor".. to break the siege of "Philadelphia" that the Ottomans had imposed on it. And "de Flor" made his way across Asia Minor to Philadelphia.. and found the Ottoman army already besieging it.. so he fell upon it with his men.. and defeated the Ottomans badly despite their greater numbers.. and broke the siege of Philadelphia. You ask yourself here: "Where exactly did Osman I win? When every time he meets someone he either withdraws or is defeated?".. He won in attacking the small cities and towns, where he could terrorize the peasants and the old women.. other than that, he never won a real battle throughout his life. The historian "Zubayda Ata" says in "The Lands of the Turks in the Middle Ages: Byzantium, the Seljuks of Rum and the Ottomans", published by Dar al-Fikr al-Arabi, pages 155 - 156.. that "de Flor" with his five thousand men, had he continued fighting.. would have finished off the Ottoman state completely!! But the truth is that the Byzantine princes quarreled among themselves.. and his men got busy attacking Magnesia and collecting war spoils.. and the allies began fighting one another.. which allowed the Ottoman state to come into being and to remain. The greatest "victory" "Osman" achieved was the conquest of an entire city.. like the city of Bursa.. shortly before his death in the year 1324 AD. The Turk "Ashiq Pasha Zade" in "The History of Ashiq Pasha Oghlu" page 234 says that gout had ruined "Osman's" feet because he was used to comfort, and he never led his troops himself.. he would wait for them in his chamber among the women, and he was a great glutton for eating meat. The date of "Osman's" death, like everything in the history of this rotten family, is disputed.. some historians said 1324.. others 1320.. others 1326 and others 1327.. and some swear that he is still alive and that the one who died was a double.. and "Osman" himself is coming back, God willing. With the death of "Osman", there are 2 candidates for the throne.. his sons.. "Alaeddin Osman" and "Orhan Osman". And while the gaze of each of them turned toward the throne.. there shone in Egypt the star of a jurist and man of religion.. who decided that he was a preacher.. coming from the Levant.. and he slowly began to cause a new bout of sedition. And this jurist's name was "Taqi al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halim ibn Abd al-Salam al-Numayri al-Harrani".. whom we know by another name he became famous for. "Ibn Taymiyyah". And the story of "Alaeddin" and "Orhan Osman" and "Ibn Taymiyyah" would take long to talk about.. so we will continue our talk about what happened later. And there remains more of the talk.. to come.