OSMAN. This transcription of the Arabic name Othmân (which first appears in history as borne by the famous companion of Mohammed, and third caliph, see vol. xvi. pp. 548, 563) corresponds to the pronunciation of the Persians and Turks, and is therefore commonly used in speaking of Osman I. Ghâzi, the founder of the dynasty of Osmanli or Ottoman Turks. He took the title of sultan in 699 A.H. (1299 a.d.), ruled in Asia Minor, and died in 726 A.H. Osman II., the sixteenth Ottoman sultan, came to the throne in 1616 a.d., and was strangled in a sedition of the Janissaries in 1621. See Turkey.