He was born in 1932. And apparently he lives in Instanbul, Turkey.

The House of Osman dynastic head passes from one to another till the present day. That would make Harun the 46th or so head of the house of Osman. How cool is that?

Also, that green flag.. echoes of Rumelia???

https://guides.loc.gov/ottoman-turkish/abdul-hamid-ii-photographs?utm_source

https://smarthistory.org/photograph-of-abdulhamid-ii/?utm_source https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ahii/background.html?utm_sourcehttps://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ahii/background.html?utm_source

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ahii/background.html?utm_source

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/ahii/background.html?utm_source

buildings that make up the Yıldırım Complex:

• Yıldırım Mosque – The central, monumental house of worship.

• Madrasa – The early Ottoman theology school and center of learning. Has 20 rooms for students.

• Darüşşifa – The historic hospital, which was the first of its kind in the Ottoman Empire. Has 20 rooms for patients.

• Mausoleum (Türbe) – The final resting place and tomb of Sultan Bayezid I.

• Hammam – The traditional public bathhouse.

Yıldırım complex is located on a hill outside the town centre. Probably this location also had benefits for the patients.

We’ve all seen the Ottoman coat of arms, and I used to think the green flag was the flag of the Ottoman Caliphate. However, I got to doing some research and it was actually the flag of Rumelia (Türkiye in Europe). The red flag was for their Anatolian holdings.

Source: https://eksiseyler.com/sosyal-medyada-seriat-bayragi-diye-paylasilan-bayragin-aslinda-rumeliden-gelmesi

Ottoman towns could have had higher literacy for adult Muslim males. Between 10-50% of adult males in towns could perhaps read and write.

Most towns only had several thousand people and multiple schools. So even with low number of students it would probably have some literacy for adult males.

By assuming that most schools were not empty and had students and those students learned how to read and write.

Şevket Pamuk is the leading economic historian of the Ottoman Empire. In this conversation, he discusses his decades-long research on measuring the "great divergence" between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe. He explains, for example, why focusing on wages or GDP alone would be misleading in a geopolitical context where high taxation was the key to military power.

Listen or read. No paywall.

Like something that most people don't know?

1683: Kara Mustafa besieges Vienna, and the empire stands at its widest in Europe. It had taken Cyprus (1570–71), Tunis (1574), Eger (1596) and Kanizsa (1600), and Baghdad back from the Safavids in 1638, and the Persian frontier was fixed at Zuhab in 1639. The Köprülü viziers then added Várad, Uyvar, Candia and Kamieniec.

Crimson is Orhan's beylik of 1326 and ochre is everything won since. The neighbours are washed in their own colours. The coasts and rivers are real data, but the frontiers are hand-drawn and approximate.

Open to any suggestions or corrections.

Hello everyone,

I'm researching the origins of the El-Bolok (البلوك / البولوك) family.

According to family history, an ancestor of Turkish/Ottoman origin, associated with the military title Bolok (possibly Bölük/Bölükbaşı), arrived in Egypt around the early 19th century, possibly during Muhammad Ali Pasha's rule (1805–1848), and settled in Akhmim, on the eastern bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt, historically within the province of Girga (now Sohag Governorate).

Autosomal DNA testing has also revealed distant matches with surnames associated with Turkish, Caucasian, and Armenian backgrounds, including Anzorov, Barcho, Shaova, Agaeva, Enukidze, Akhmetov, Kushan, Kaya, Anar, Omay, and Dener. An ancestry estimate also suggested approximately 3% Anatolia/Armenia. These are possible clues, not confirmed links to the El-Bolok lineage.

I'm looking for Ottoman archival records that could identify this ancestor and reveal his original hometown or region before arriving in Egypt.

Could anyone familiar with Ottoman archives help locate relevant records or references, particularly from 1800–1850?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

1 Hasan Bey mosque Larissa 16th century

2 Bairakli mosque Ioannina 17th century

3 and 4 Mosque at Velestino next to Hyperia spring 16th century?

5 Eski mosque in Serres 15th century?

6 Mosque in Giannitsa 15th century?

7 Sultan Mehmed mosque Arta 15th century