Controversial scholarly debates around the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire in the last century are not only rooted in the scarcity or heterogeneity of sources, but also in the mentalities and ideologies that canonised thought paradigms. This book uses an interdisciplinary approach at the interface between Ottoman, Byzantine, Mediterranean and Southeast European studies. Unusual sources such as Western Anatolian numismatics and predominantly European documents met innovative methods from the study of violence and power networks. Making a case study around the military aḳıncı institution, the author re-evaluates the emergence of the Ottoman polity in dealing with various warlords and across multiple identities and political affiliations.