Suleyman Shah ( ota, سلیمان شاه; Modern tr, Süleyman Şah) was, according to Ottoman tradition, the son of

Kaya Alp Kaya Alp ( ota, قایا الپ, lit=Brave Rock) was, according to Ottoman tradition, the son of Kızıl Buğa ''or'' Basuk and the father of Suleyman Shah. He was the grandfather of Ertuğrul Ghazi, the father of the founder of the Ottoman Empi ...

and the father of Ertuğrul, who was the father of Osman I, the founder of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Early Ottoman genealogies disputed this lineage, and either Suleyman Shah or

Gündüz Alp Gündüz Alp was the likely father of Ertuğrul (13th century) and grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Dynasty. According to some sources, the name of one of the sons of Ertuğrul was also Gündüz Alp, and thus the brother of Osma ...

could be Osman's grandfather and the father of Ertuğrul. An Ottoman

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a :wikt:repository, repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be ...

initially in or near

Qal'at Ja'bar Qal'at Ja'bar ( ar, قلعة جعبر, tr, Caber Kalesi) is a castle on the left bank of Lake Assad in Raqqa Governorate, Syria. Its site, formerly a prominent hill-top overlooking the Euphrates Valley, is now an island in Lake Assad that can o ...

has historically been associated with Suleyman Shah. He succeeded his father as bey in 1214 when he decided to lead the 50,000 strong tribe West in the face of Mongol invasion. After migrating to the North Caucasus, thousands of Kayis settled in Erzincan and

Ahlat Ahlat ( ku, Xelat, ) is a town and district in Turkey's Bitlis Province in Eastern Anatolia Region. From 1929 to 1936, it was a district of Van Province. The town of Ahlat is situated on the northwestern shore of Lake Van. The mayor is Abdulalim M ...

in 1214, while some of the other Kayi groups dispersed in Diyarbakir,

Mardin Mardin ( ku, Mêrdîn; ar, ماردين; syr, ܡܪܕܝܢ, Merdīn; hy, Մարդին) is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for the Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on ...

, and Urfa.

Family tree of Süleymanşâh

Various sources linked Süleymanşâh to Osman Gazi and his father Ertuğrul: Family tree in

Şükrullah Şükrullah was a 15th-century Ottoman historian and diplomat.The Oxford History of Historical Writing Volume 3: 1400–1800'' José Rabasa,D. Daniel R. Woolf, p. 196, 2011 by Oxford University Press He was one of the earliest Ottoman historians. ...

's '' Behcetü't Tevârîh''İnalcık, Halil, 2007; sf. 487

Family tree according to

Oruç Bey Oruç Bey (''Oruç bin Âdil'') was a 15th-century Ottoman historian. Life and career Almost nothing is known from his personal life. Based on the information in the intro of his chronicle, it is believed that he was a clerk born in Edirne and ...

's Oruç Bey Tarıhı
Family tree in

Hasan bin Mahmûd el-Bayâtî Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scottis ...

's '' Câm-ı Cem-Âyîn''İnalcık, Halil, 2007; sf. 488
Family tree in Âşıkpaşazâde's '' History of Âşıkpaşazâde''İnalcık, Halil, 2007; sf. 489
Family tree in Neşrî's '' Kitâb-ı Cihannümâ''İnalcık, Halil, 2007; sf. 490
In chapter fourteenth of '' The History of Âşıkpaşazâde of Âşıkpaşazâde,'' Osman I asserted that he had descended from ''Gökalp'' and '' Suleiman ibn Qutulmish'' the founder of Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate instead of ''"Süleymanşâh ibn

".'' Âşıkpaşazâde, '' History of Âşıkpaşazâde;'' &

Erhan Afyoncu Erhan Afyoncu (born 1967, in Tokat) is a Turkish historian, writer, academician, television programmer and columnist. Rector of the National Defense University. Personal life He saw his primary and secondary education in Tokat, the place of birth. ...

claims that the identity of ''Süleyman Şah'' in the Tomb of Suleyman Shah is unidentified. He also defends that the father of '' Ertuğrul'' according to the recent investigations is ''

.'' Afyoncu, Erhan, ''

Osmanlı İmparatorluğu The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

,'' p. 33-34, Yeditepe Publications, İstanbul, 2011.

Operation Shah Euphrates

In early 2015, during the Syrian Civil War, on the night of 21–22 February, 2015, a Turkish military convoy including tanks and other armored vehicles numbering about 100 entered Syria to evacuate the tomb's 40 guards and to relocate the tomb of Suleyman Shah. The tomb is now temporarily located in Turkey-controlled territory 200 meters inside Syria, 22 km (14 mi) west of

Ayn al-Arab Ayn may refer to: * Ayin or , a letter in many Semitic scripts * Ayn, Savoie, a commune of the Savoie département of France * Ghayn (Cyrillic) (Ғ,ғ), a letter used in the Bashkir, Kazakh, and Tajik alphabets * Ayn Rand, Russian-born American nov ...

and 5 km (3.1 mi) east of the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

, less than 2 km (1.2 mi) southeast of the Turkish village of Esmesi that is in southernmost

Birecik District Birecik; ku, Bêrecûk is a town and district of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey, on the Euphrates. Built on a limestone cliff 400 ft. high on the left/east bank of the Euphrates, "at the upper part of a reach of that river, which runs nearl ...

. The Turkish government has highlighted that the relocation is temporary, and that it does not constitute any change to the status of the tomb site.

In fiction

Serdar Gökhan appeared as Suleyman Shah in the Turkish TV series '' Diriliş: Ertuğrul'', where he starred as a main character in the first season, and its sequel, '' Kuruluş: Osman'', where he made a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

in the thirteenth episode.

References

1227 deaths 13th-century people from the Ottoman Empire Deaths by drowning Ottoman dynasty Year of birth unknown Year of birth uncertain Oghuz Turks 1167 births {{Ottoman-bio-stub