Rings of chain: Imagination of predecessors in Ottoman identity

The remnants of the Ottoman history books emerged completely during the Interregnum (Fetret Devri, 1402-1413) and after, when the state had a second establishment process, and the Ottoman dynasty had to prove its legitimacy and establish a strong new identity against the sovereignty claims of the Timurids and the surrounding Turkish-Islamic dynasties. Legitimacy was established by being connected to the Oghuz-Kayı narrative, on the other hand, the necessity of legally inheriting the dominance from the previous powers necessitated the establishment of a historical relationship between the Ottomans and the previous dynasties, especially the Seljuks, and the sacred authorities. This relationship setup brought the Ottomans to the stage as the successors and legitimate heirs of the previous ones, on the other hand, the danger of being overshadowed by the previous ones necessitated emphasizing how different and superior the new state was from the previous ones. While the Ottomans' thoughts about their predecessors sometimes emerged with a conscious construction, sometimes they were relatively unconscious in attitudes. In this thesis, it will be discussed how the work of establishing a successor-predecessor relationship with the predecessors appeared in the Ottomans, and which political, military and social events that took place in the past and at that time were effective while doing this work.