Abstract:

The founding period of the Ottoman Principality has been the subject of many scientific publications. However, our knowledge of not only the history of this period, but also many facts such as culture, art, architecture, economy and institutional structure is extremely limited. There are still many divergent opinions as to the origins of the Ottomans and the date in which the Beylik was first founded. Most of what is known about the 14th century of the Ottoman Principality consists of the data in the Ottoman chronicles written after the second half of the 15th century. In this context, the existence of disjointed and incomplete information in modern historical studies and the existence of different views and thoughts on many issues are better understood. Another important problem is the inadequacy of alternative field studies and the ignoring of existing studies due to the lack of interdisciplinary collaboration. This being the case, the main purpose of this article is to emphasize the vitality of the archaeological and architectural data concerning the socio-cultural structure of the early Ottoman period.  For this purpose, the reason why the Ottoman archaeology is indispensable for researchers of the Ottoman period will be explained through important historical examples. Another important source of information is the Ottoman architectural works. If read properly and correctly, architectural works/remains provide content that is a document for many scientists, especially archaeologists, art historians, architects and historians. In this article, architectural data will be evaluated in the context of cultural interaction and social cultural structure.

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