Real History of all Characters in Dirilis Ertugrul||Drama serial Ertugrul

Real History of all Characters in Dirilis Ertugrul||Drama serial Ertugrul

The people who are fans of Dirilis Ertugrul or watched this TV show, they know how Dirilis Ertugrul gave us light in many ways. How Ertugrul taught us the true Islamic way of life through hadith and ayat of Quran-al-hakeem.

There are some other TV series also which enlightened the historical facts of our great Islamic history like Payitaht Abdulhamid, Yunus Emre and Mehmetic Kutulamre, etc. They taught us about true Islamic values. In these TV Series, many characters names are real in history and they have added a lot of values to our Great Islamic history and foundation of the Ottoman Empire. We have collected some real information about these characters from different books and websites so let’s put some light on these great personalities.

CHARACTER PROFILES

Ertugrul Bey

Ertugrul Ghazi was the son of Suleyman Shah, who was the leader of Kayi Tribe. They migrated from Khorasan and entered the Seljuq Empire. Ertugrul was brave and always ready to fight for Islam. He was also guided spiritually by Ibn-Arabi. Ertugrul became the leader of the Kayi tribe after the death of his father. The whole journey of Ertugrul is full of fights and challenges. He defeated Templers and Mongols in many fights with help of the Seljuk Empire.

Ertugrul had 3 brothers (Sungertekin, Gundogdo, and Dundar). He is married to Seljuk Princess Halime Sultan and they had three sons (Gunduz, Savci, and Osman). His younger son Osman after many years founded a great empire that lasts up to 6 Centuries. The full history of Ertugrul life, his fights, and his migration is very interesting and can’t be covered here, so you can click here to read full history.

The real history of Ertugrul can be identified by the coins minted by Osman Ghazi during his era. Rest are Folk tales and theories but they are really strong theories. The most powerful role of Ertugrul Ghazi is played by

Bamsi Beyrik

He is a legendary character of Turk history and found in many folk tales. He was a kind-hearted, very strong and aggressive warrior. We found his history in a historical book “Dede Korkut”. His nature was also funny. He spent about 16 years in the dungeon of the Byzantine Empire. He fell in love with a princess who helped him to escape. Rest of his life is not mentioned anywhere. He never met with Ertugrul Ghazi, they casted this character in series to keep legacy of this great man.  In the Dirilis Ertugrul, this character played by  Nurettin Sönmez

Turgut Alp

Turgut alp was a true companion of Ertugrul Ghazi in real history. He was a true friend and very much loyal and faithful to his bey, Ertugrul bey. He is famous for the fight with his axe. He spent all his life fighting battles with Ertugrul Ghazi. He was the commander of Alps in kay tribe. He lived a very long life of 125 years and had been a great source of wisdom for Ertugrul sons to establish great Empire. The full history of Turgut Alp from birth to death is available in another full article, click here to read more.

Cengiz Coskun Played this powerful role with beauty.

Osman I

During the time 1258 AD, when Mongols is at its peak. Hulagu Khan attacked Baghdad and killed everyone there and Muslims were facing too many hardships. The Birth of Osman took place in the house of Ertugrul Ghazi, as we know he was the leader of Kayi Tribe. He was the youngest son of Ertugrul Ghazi. Ertugrul was fighting for his state but state falls later on and tribes founded his own beyliks, Osman also founded his own independent beylik which later on turned into a great empire,

Read Full History Osman from birth to his death and how the Ottoman Empire founded, click here

The character of Osman played by Emre Üçtepe in season 5 and will be played by Burak Ozcivit in Dirilis Osman.

Gundogdu & Sungurtekin

Ertugrul path was full fights and difficulties but his brother wanted to live quietly, they separated their path from Ertugrul and live a life that historians don’t know about him. They migrated towards Ahlat while Ertugrul was going to Asian minor. The character of Gundogdo is played by Kaan Taşaner and Sezgin Erdemir played the role of Sungurtekin

Dundar bey

While Ertugrul was on his difficult journey and his two brothers left him then Dundar bey supported him and he was young that time. He was great warrior also but later on, he opposed Osman Ghazi and was killed by him. He was a loose character in history and not a leader like his brother, Ertugrul ghazi. He made many mistakes He died in the age of 92 year. In Dirilis Ertugrul TV series this character is played by Batuhan Karacakaya

Ibn-e-Arabi

He was a great mystic Sufi poet, philosopher, and Islamic scholar. He wrote many influential books. His writings had a great impact beyond Muslims. He was a great source of spiritual powers for Ertugrul. He was born in Andalusia in 1165. He traveled all the Islamic areas from Spain to Arab and then finally reached Damascus. He died in the age of 75 in 1240 AD in Damascus during Ayyubids dynasty. In TV serial this character is portrayed by Osman Soykut

Suleyman shah

He was the leader of the Kayi tribe. He spent most of his life in Khorasan and then migrated towards Turks lands and entered the Seljuk Empire. Oghuz Turks were lived in the form of tribes and they put their tents where they found green grass for animals and source of water. He was married to Hyma Hatun. He was the son of Kaya alp. He died in 1227 during crossing Euphrates River in Syria. His tomb is located in Syria Qalat Jabar. This strong character in season 1 is portrayed by Serdar Gökhan

Halime Sultan

She was the wife of Ertugrul Ghazi and also the princess of the Seljuk Empire. She was very loyal to his husband and dedicated support for his bey. She prefers the life in tents instead of the palace and gave the birth of great sultan who founded a great empire. Esra Bilgic played this beautiful role.

Hayme Hatun

She was a brave lady and lived a long life. She is the mother of Ertugrul Ghazi and wife of Suleman shah. She had been with his son Ertugrul through his all difficult journey and finally reached Sogut. She had been a great support to Ertugrul and also fulfil the duty as a bey of her tribe after the death of Suleman shah. This legendary role is played by Hülya Darcan

Saddetin Kopek

He served the Seljuk Empire as an administrator of court and civil arts. He constructed Palaces and caravansary. Zazadin caravansary is one of famous that recently opened for public after renovation. His ambition was to become sultan of the empire. He always played games put poison in his people to gain power. He managed to kill the Sultan Aladdin and his wife. He also poisoned the minds of sons of Sultan Aladdin but later on, Kaykhusraw 2 gave his death warrant and Ertugrul cut his head and hang on palace walls, this character is portrayed by Murat Garibagaoglu

Artuk bey

Artuk bey in TV series had been a great support for Ertugrul Ghazi and we can say he was the right hand of Ertugrul Ghazi. But, in real history, he never met Ertugrul and served as commander of Seljuk army and had been governor of Jerusalem. He has an entirely different story in history. You can read here full story click here

In Resurrection Ertugrul TV serial, this character played by Ayberk Pekcan

Al-Aziz of Aleppo

Al-Aziz was the grandson of great Sultan Salah Uddin Ayyubi who conquered Jerusalem and Quds from Christians and crusaders and gave freedom everyone to live life according to his religion.

Az-Zahir Ghazi was the father of Al-Aziz. His father had died too early when he was just three years old. He was immediately inherited as ruler of Aleppo. But a guardian is appointed with him to look after all the matters until he reached 17 year age. Guardian was the Shahab Uddin Tughrul, he also served a treasurer after 17 years when Al-Aziz gained all powers. His daughter Ghazya Hatun also married to the son of sultan Aladdin, sultan Ghyasuddin

This character role is portrayed by Mehmet Inci

Bayku Noyan

He was the commander of the Mongol army and appointed by Ogede Khan. His mission to expand the empire in the Persian area, modern-day Iran area.  He took the command in 1241 to succeed Chormagan commander. After his succession, his first step is the battle of Kose Dag, where he shattered the power of the Seljuk Empire. After this lose, the empire lost its major power and becomes an empty vessel.

In reality, there is found a sister of Noyan called Sara. She was very cruel and had become a real cause of pain for the Kayi tribe. Bayku Noyan accomplished many missions but he failed at one point. There is an article that gives a detailed history of Bayku Noyan.  According to Rashid-al-din, he was killed by Hulagu Khan

wikipedia

Ertugrul (Ottoman Turkish: ارطغرل‎, romanized: Erṭoġrıl, Turkish: Ertuğrul Gazi; often with the title Gazi) (died c. 1280[3]) was the father of Osman I.[4] According to Ottoman tradition, he was the son of Suleyman Shah, leader of the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks, who fled from western Central Asia to Anatolia to escape the Mongol conquests, but he may instead have been the son of a Günduz Alp.[5][1] According to this legend, after the death of his father, Ertuğrul and his followers entered the service of the Seljuks of Rum, for which he was rewarded with dominion over the town of Söğüt on the frontier with the Byzantine Empire.[6] This set off the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the founding of the Ottoman Empire. Like his son, Osman, and their descendants, Ertuğrul is often referred to as a Ghazi, a heroic champion fighter for the cause of Islam.[7]

Biography

Nothing is known with certainty about Ertuğrul's life, other than that he was the father of Osman; historians are thus forced to rely upon stories written about him by the Ottomans more than a century later, which are of questionable accuracy.[8][9] An undated coin, supposedly from the time of Osman, with the text "Minted by Osman son of Ertuğrul", suggests that Ertuğrul was a historical figure.[10] Another coin reads "Osman bin Ertuğrul bin Gündüz Alp".[11] According to these later traditions, Ertuğrul was chief of the Kayı tribe[12] of Oghuz Turks. As a result of his assistance to the Seljuks against the Byzantines, Ertuğrul was granted lands in Karaca Dağ, a mountainous area near Angora (now Ankara), by Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I, the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm. One account indicates that the Seljuk leader's rationale for granting Ertuğrul land was for Ertuğrul to repel any hostile incursion from the Byzantines or other adversary.[13] Later, he received the village of Söğüt which he conquered together with the surrounding lands. That village, where he later died, became the Ottoman capital under his son Osman I. Ottoman historians have differing opinions on whether Ertuğrul had two or possibly three other sons in addition to Osman: Gündüz Bey, and Saru Batu Savcı Bey or Saru Batu and Savcı Bey.[citation needed]

islamichistoryproject

Who knew that one TV show could enlighten us in so many ways! As the Muslim world is sucked into the hysteria of Ertugrul and similar Ottoman dramas, its crucial that we uncover what is historical fact, and what is purely for entertainment purposes, if we want to truly benefit from the history of the Ottoman period. I too, love watching Ertugrul and similar shows like ‘The Magnificent Century’ and ‘Yunus Emre’ which teach so many great life lessons, not to mention incorporate Quranic stories and Hadith. But at the same time instead of creating fictional heroes, lets celebrate the truth in the history and appreciate our heroes for what they ACTUALLY did.

I have collated information from various Turkish sources and posts on social media (with references) from emerging information about the many valiant characters that we have grown to love from this TV series. This is not a complete account of their lives, but I have included the information that is historically proven. InshaAllah as more translations come to light we can piece together more about their lives. Enjoy!

CHARACTER PROFILES

Ertugrul Bey

Ertugrul is the father of Osman.  With the small part of Kayi tribe, Ertugurl with only 400 tents, went on the challenging path toward the West and made foundation for one of the greatest empires. After Sultan Aleaddin was poisoned by Sadettin Kopek, he revolted against Kopek’s government, and proclaimed his own State,  the City of Sogut its capitol.

His love and respect for his wife was widely known. He had four sons with Halime Sultan, and he died at 90 years old. The last ten years of his life were spent quietly in his tribe, when due to the old age, he transferred all his responsibilities to his youngest son Osman. A historical proof of his life are the coins minted by Osman which identify Ertuğrul as the name of his father, but beyond this not much is known about him apart from folktales.

There is information and historical facts about him that are kept in Turkish archives, within Ibn Arabi’s chronologies, in Western archives about Templars, in Byzantine’s chronologies and in legends – but this information only amounts to around 7 pages of sources according to the actor Engin Altan Duzyatan, who gave life to this great character. Despite this Engin considers it a great privilege to play Ertugrul as he was the first person in Turkish history to move away from the nomadic lifestyle and look to establish a state that went onto last 600 years.

We do know he was buried in Sogut in 1280. Around his tomb are graves of Halime Sultan, Hayme Mother, his sons, Gunduz, Savci Bey, Saru Batu and Osman, his brother Dundar, Turgut Alp, Samsa Alp, Abdurahman, and many others of his Alps, who reached Sogut with Ertugrul Bey. The ones that were not buried there, died along the way.

Osman I

Osman is known as the father of the Ottoman Empire as from his Beylik (principality) the expansion of the Ottoman territory began. In the history books you will often see Ottoman rule referred to as the Osmanli dynasty. Osman came very late to his parents. He was born late in Ertugrul and Halime’s life. When Osman was born, (1258), Ertugrul was around 67 years old, and as Halime was older too, when normally women cannot have children anymore, he was considered as a Miracle sent by God. Historians consider a black hole in Ottoman history during Osman’s life as what is written about him was uncovered 100 years after he died.

Gundogdu & Sungurtekin

They did not support Ertugrul’s path and as we know, and over time faded in history. They lived a quiet and unremarkable life, not much is known or written about them. There are only verbal accounts, which were told by people through generations. According to that, they suffered big losses during a great Mongol invasion, and what was left of them, they lived subserviently under the Mongol’s rule.

Dundar Bey

He was a brave and renown warrior, a goodhearted and loving man, devoted to his brother, his tribe, and  his family. But history documents him as a weak personality and he made a lot of mistakes and throughout his long life. He died aged 92 or 93, by Osman’s hand. He rebelled against one of Osman’s decision and that was the last straw for Osman.

Turgut Alp

He was one of the greatest and most renown warriors in Turkish history, a blood-brother to Ertugrul and his best follower and supporter, a very smart and capable man.He lived an unusually long life, even for our time. He outlived Erugrul Bey by 35 years, and he was killed in a battle, with his legendary battle-axe in his hand aged 125 years old! After Ertugrul passed away, Turgut become the main support to Osman, and when Osman established his Sultanate he rewarded Turgut with the highest position, as a Governor of the new State.

Bamsi Beyrek

He was a legendary hero; his life has been described in the book of medieval Ottoman’s chronologies of that time, titled ‘’The book of Dede Korkut” . He was a fierce warrior, goodhearted and very funny man. His love life was legendary, since his heart was divided between two loves. He spent 16 years in a dungeon in Byzantine, and the Princess, who lived in that Fortress fell in love with him and helped him escape. It is not known when he died or how long he lived; only that he lived fairly long for that time, and that he was ambushed by trickery and killed, leaving behind a wife and children. We may only guess how long this character will be kept in this series.

Ibn Arabi

As many of us know Ibn Arabi is a famous chronologist, mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, he is one of the world’s great spiritual teachers. Ibn ‘Arabi was born in Murcia, Andalusia, in Spain in 1165 and his writings had an immense impact throughout the Islamic world and Christian world. The universal ideas underlying his thought are of immediate relevance today. He was great inspiration and support to Ertugrul Bey. He died 1240 aged 75.

After his death, Ertugrul Bey continued to draw support from Ibn Arabi, through his numerous writings, books, diaries, teachings and his other spiritual works, and through his followers.

Halime Sultan

She was a Seljuk Princess, very dedicated to her husband and his greatest supporter. She gave up her title and her Palace’s life due to her love and dedication to Ertugrul Bey. Through her marriage to Ertugrul Bey, Seljuk Turks and Oguz Turks, two greatest Turkish branches were irrevocably united by blood ties.

Hayme Mother

She lived a long life and she came with them all the way to Sogut.  She was a smart, caring and brave woman, who acted as the Bey of her tribe, after Suleyman Shah had died. She was widely much respected and she was called ‘’the Mother of the people’’. It is not clear whether she gave birth to Gundogdu, she certainly brought him up. According to one line of sources, Gundogdu was her own son. But, since Suleyman Shah had lost his first wife, before marring Hayme, there are some who believe that Gundogdu was born by that young woman.

Suleyman Shah

He was a greatly respected figure of that time, he had 4 sons with Hayme Mother. He died by drowning in River Euphrates, and the spot near Aleppo, where he was buried in a sacred place for Turks which is now in modern day Syria, and that territory still belongs to Turkey, it is guarded by Turkey’s military guards and you need a passport to get in there, to see the mausoleum of Suleyman Shah. Although due to the emergence of ISIS and the recent ruin of shrines and tombs from extremists, the remains were temporarily removed last year due to the situation around Aleppo, and brought to Turkey to preserve.

Saddetin Kopek

According to Ottoman sources Saddetin Kopek is considered an ambitious and evil  man, his only good quality was his devotion to his State. He eventually managed to kill Sultan Aleaddin, his second wife, the Ayyubid Princess and their two sons by poisoning in 1238. He then proclaimed Sultan Aleaddin’s third and oldest son (from his first marriage), as a new Sultan through whom Kopek gained a total power. However, only one year later, he was hanged from the Palace wall.

artuk beyArtuk Bey

Known as Ertugrul Bey’s right hand man in the TV series, but there is so much more to his story! Artuk Bey (also known as “Son of Eksük” or Ibn Eksuk) was a Turkish General of the Great Seljuk Empire in the 11th century. He was the Seljuk governor of Jerusalem between 1085–1091. Artuk Bey lived in Qüddus up to his death in 1091.

Artuk Bey was one of the commanders of the Great Seljuk Empire army during the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. After the battle, he took part in the conquest of Anatolia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire. He captured the Yeşilırmak valley in 1074. He also served the sultan by quashing a rebellion in 1077.

His next mission was a campaign to capture Amid (modern Diyarbakır) from the Marwanids. In this campaign he quarrelled with the Commander in Chief Fahrüddevlet who tended to make peace with Marwanids. In a surprise attack he defeated reinforcements to Marwanids. However, when the Sultan Malik Shah I heard about the event he suspected Artuk Bey of dissension.

Artuk Bey left the battle field and attended to Tutush I who was Malik Shah’s discordant younger brother in Syria in 1084. In 1086 he was instrumental in defeating Süleyman, the sultan of Seljuks of Turkey in a battle between Süleyman and Tutush.

The Beylik of Artukids was named after him, founded 11 years after his death by his sons. His valiant sons are El Gazi ibn Artuk who battled Baldwin II of Edessa at the Battle of Hab, Syria (1119) but lost and Soqman ibn Artuk, the ally of the hot tempered Tugtekin Bey, The Governor of Damascus against the Crusaders in 1104 at the Battle of Harran near Raqqa.

On this battle the Seljuk Army finally captured Crusader Knights Baldwin Il of Edessa who called himself, King of Tripoli and Jerusalem and Joscelin of Courtenay who called himself Prince of Galilee. Although, they managed to escape later. Soqman ibn Artuk become famous and a true honour to the late Artuk Bey.

Emir Al-Aziz  of Aleppo

Al Aziz Muhammad ibn Gazi (1213 – 1236) was the Ayyubi Emir of Aleppo and the son of az-Zahir Gazi (r) and grandson of the great Salahuddin Al Ayubi (r), the liberator of Jerusalem from the Crusaders and Templars. His mother was Dayfa Khatun(r), the daughter of Salahuddin’s brother al-Adil(r). Al-Aziz was aged just three when his father az-Zahir Gazi died in 1216 at the age of forty-five. He immediately inherited his father’s position as ruler of Aleppo. A regency council was formed, which appointed Shihab ad-Din Tughril(r) as his guardian. Tughril was a Mamluk of az-Zahir Gazi and the effective ruler of Aleppo for the next fifteen years.

Al-Aziz did not take actual control of power until the age of seventeen, at which point he retained Tughril as his treasurer. In general, he avoided becoming drawn into the complex disputes between different members of the Ayyubi dynasty, and concentrated instead on strengthening the defenses and infrastructure of Aleppo. Among the construction works begun by az-Zahir Gazi and completed by al-Aziz Muhammad were the re-fortification of the citadel, and, within it, the building of the palace, the mosque, the arsenal and the water cisterns.

Al-Aziz is known to have married Fatima Khatun, daughter of al-Kamil, who apparently shared his passion for building and commissioned the construction of two madrasas in Aleppo.

Al-Aziz died on 26 November 1236 at the age of just twenty-three. His eldest son, an-Nasir Yusuf, was only seven years old, so al-Aziz’s mother Dayfa Khatun assumed the regency. Surprisingly, Al-Aziz’s daughter, Ghaziya Khatun, married the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, Kaykhusraw II (Giyaseddin Ibn Kayqubad).

islamichistory

Ertugrul (Ottoman Turkish: ارطغرل‎, Turkish: Ertuğrul Gazi, Erṭoġrıl; often with the title Gazi) (died c. 1280[2]) was the father of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. While his historicity is proven by coins minted by Osman I which identify Ertuğrul as the name of his father, nothing else is known for certain about his life or activities.[3] According to Ottoman tradition,[1] he was the son of Suleyman Shah, leader of the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks, who fled from eastern Iran to Anatolia to escape the Mongol conquests. According to this legend, after the death of his father, Ertuğrul and his followers entered the service of the Seljuks of Rum, for which he was rewarded with dominion over the town of Söğüt on the frontier with the Byzantine Empire.[4] This set off the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the founding of the Ottoman Empire. Like his son, Osman, and their descendants, Ertuğrul is often referred to as a Ghazi,[5] a heroic champion fighter for the cause of Islam.

Biography

Nothing is known with certainty about Ertuğrul’s life, other than that he was the father of Osman; historians are thus forced to rely upon stories written about him by the Ottomans more than a century later, which are of questionable accuracy.[3] According to these later traditions, Ertuğrul was chief of the Kayı tribe[6] of Oghuz Turks, as a result of his assistance to the Seljuks against the Byzantines. Ertuğrul was granted lands in Karaca Dağ, a mountainous area near Angora (now Ankara), by Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I, the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm. One account indicates that the Seljuk leader’s rationale for granting Ertuğrul land was for Ertuğrul to repel any hostile incursion from the Byzantines or another adversary.[7] Later, he received the village of Söğüt which he conquered together with the surrounding lands. That village, where he later died, became the Ottoman capital under his son Osman I. Ottoman historians have differing opinions on whether Ertuğrul had two or possibly three other sons in addition to Osman: Gündüz Bey, and Saru Batu Savcı Bey or Saru Batu and Savcı Bey.

Legacy

A tomb and mosque dedicated to Ertuğrul is said to have been built by Osman I at Söğüt, but due to several rebuildings, nothing certain can be said about the origin of these structures. The current mausoleum was built by sultan Abdul Hamid II in the late nineteenth century. The town of Söğüt celebrates an annual festival to the memory of the early Osmans.[8]

The Ottoman Navy frigate Ertuğrul, launched in 1863, was named after him. The Ertuğrul Gazi Mosque in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, completed in 1998, is also named in his honor.

In fiction

The Turkish television series Diriliş: Ertuğrul is based on his life. Ertuğrul is portrayed by Engin Altan Düzyatan in the series.

thriveglobal

The warrior’s lament, mixed with the sound from the strings of an Arabian guitar. A sword, in which the ancient inscriptions lie on rusty iron, emerges from the darkness and crosses impetuously over an old and waving flag.

That is, in short, a brief trailer description of one of the most watched television series in Turkey and the Middle East. “Dirilis Ertugrul” in Turkish, or “Resurrection Ertugrul” as it appears in Netflix, where the story of the father of Osman the First is depicted, whom was the founder of the Ottoman Empire.

According to the series, the life of this epic character was marked by great challenges in the 13 Century that involved long nomadic migrations of the Kayi Tribe, from territories settled in what is known today as Iraq, Iran and Syria. Not to mention the fierce wars that ancient Turks had to face with Mongols, Crusaders and the Byzantine Empire.

The series is rich in the reconstruction of historical details, to the point of preserving the names of characters that really existed. In addition, it handles with great care the description of daily life,folklore, economy, commerce, gastronomy, as well as festivities and handicrafts famous for its Persian rugs.

The series weaves the story of a hero by intertwining him with a very deep explanation of theKoran’s passages, allowing the spectators to have a real approach to what the Islam is in its essence.

The series fulfills a clear objective of educating an audience about the real meaning of being a Muslim. Even though, religious and philosophical content, are just one of the many elements that we find in the series. With a large dose of political intrigue and betrayal of all levels, the series explains how the balance of the powers was distributed in the ancient world.

Those who like action, get ready because this series has been made to make us feel pure adrenaline in each chapter. The bad guys become good, the good ones become bad, and friends become enemies and enemies allied. With unexpected twists, sometimes unprecedented and sometimes disappointing, the series presents us the beginnings of an empire that lasted 6 centuries.

The series explains historical episodes with rich details were the law of the eye for an eye is applied, making us to remember the old adage, which says that, the “enemies of my enemies are my friends.”

The powerful photograph of this series, takes us in an aerial tour of the geography of Turkey, and shows us wild Arabian horses galloping with warriors of antiquity for whom the expansion of the Islam was their duty. Dirilis Ertugrul transports us, in each chapter, to the genesis of an Ottoman Empire, which culminated 10 decades ago when the First World War sparked.

Here, no matter what happens in our real world, art and history come together to break the boundaries of politics, religion, time and space, especially today when, Turkey and the United States are facing difficult moments in the diplomatic arena. Tensions that have been increase due to the role of the US in the Syrian War and the new immigration rules in the United States that has been affecting a large Muslim community.

Engin Altan Duzyatan is the Turkish actor who gave life to Ertugrul, a hero that today remains alive; he appears in the coins of the Turkish currency.

In an exclusive interview with Arianna’s Huffington Thrive Global, Engin told us about his role in the series and the way how he sees the future.

sacredfootsteps

With Ertuğrul-fever (still) running high, Humza Sheikh takes us on a three-stop tour, visiting the ‘fathers’ of the Ottoman Empire.

Diriliş:Ertuğrul, the wildly popular Turkish historical-drama series, is set in 13th century Anatolia, at the eve of the founding of the Ottoman Empire. The series has a huge following outside of Turkey too, inspiring numerous Facebook fan groups and memes (including a FB page dedicated to them) and no shortage of jokes based on the double-meaning of ‘bey’ (including this title).

Though no doubt dramatised, the series is based on the lives of real people, namely Ertuğrul Gazi, the father of Osman I, who founded the Ottoman Empire, and his contemporaries. As a huge fan, I decided to find out more about the individuals featured in the series and visit their tombs in Turkey.