- Silence

- Muezzin singing

- The Ottoman Empire will initiate a new cycle in the history of the Muslim dynasties.

- This adventure started with the founder, Osman.

- Music

- Mehmet I, who rebuilds the Seldjoukids’Anatolian Empire.

- Mehmet II, the founder of Istanbul,

- Selim I, who will become caliph,

- and the symbol of the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman the Magnificient, the legislator, the builder.

- Erected at the turn of the 14th century on the remains of the Seldjoukid State of Anatolia,

- then in the 15th century on those of the Byzantine Empire,

- the Ottoman Empire after the catch of Constantinople in 1453, becomes a major power.

- Along this long political, religious and human adventure,

- the Ottomans will print their marks in the East and in the West.

- Back on the studio with Profesors Gilles Veinstein and Farouk Bilici.

- Both of you are famous specialists of this great dynasty.

- So, first, the first question we wish to ask you, the question about the origins of this dynasty:

- who are the Ottomans, and who is Osman, who gave birth to this prestigious dynasty,

- Gilles Veinstein.

- First of all, this dynasty wasn’t born in Istanbul but in the northwest of Asia Minor,

- not far from the town of Bursa.

- And the character who is the founder of this dynasty, Osman, we don’t know much about him, really.

- There is the legend and there is what the historians managed to set up.

- And the Ottomans, as they will be destined to such a fortune, will grant themselves noble and glorious origins.

- In fact, those origins seem to very dark,

- it’s the head of a small group of Turkmen fighters into which, right from the start,

- local Catholic – mainly Greek - elements mixed,

- and that will be starting point of this Ottoman State

- that will be a very small thing in the beginning.