Kara Yülük Osman

Uthman Beg or Osman Beg (; ; 1356 – 1435) was a late 14th and early 15th-century leader of the Turkoman tribal federation of Aq Qoyunlu in what is now eastern Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan and Iraq. Name He was born Baha-ud-Din Uthman and was later given the nickname Qara Iluk or Qara Yuluk meaning The Black Leech. However, John E. Woods argues that this interpretation is doubtful since "leech" in modern Turkish is sülük, not yülük, which means cleanshaven or smooth. Early life Uthman Beg was the son of Fakhr-ud-Din Qutlugh, likely by his Greek wife, Maria, sister of Alexios III of Trebizond. He is estimated to have been born 1356. According to Byzantine and Aq Qoyunlu sources, he later married his maternal cousin, a daughter of Alexios III and his consort Theodora Kantakouzene. He was afraid of the intentions of his brothers, Ahmed and Pir Ali when they joined Kadi Burhan al-Din of Sivas. He eventually killed his opponents and took over their territories in 1398 but retreated from Erzinjan on the arrival of the Ottomans under Süleyman Çelebi.