Osman Pazvantoğlu's grandfather was originally from the…
September 1798 CE
Osman Pazvantoğlu's grandfather was originally from the Eyalet of Bosnia, and part of the guards of the city of Sofia, hence Osman's name: pasban-oğlu, "son of the guard".
Initially a mercenary in service to the Wallachian prince Nicholas Mavrogenes, Osman Pazvantoğlu had disobeyed the latter on one occasion, and was saved from reprisals through his friend Rigas Feraios' intervention.
Having gathered a large army of mercenaries, he rebels against the Ottoman sultan Selim III, and, acting as an independent ruler, he mints his own coins and has diplomatic relations with foreign states (including the French Republic).
In 1798, he holds territories that spread from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains and from Belgrade to Varna.
In 1793, he had undertaken a military expedition to the Pashaluk of Belgrade but had been soundly defeated by the Serbs in Ottoman service at the Battle of Kolari.
The 1798 military expedition of Hüseyin Küçük (having one hundred thousand soldiers) fails in its goal to conquer Vidin and capture Pazvantoğlu, and will indirectly result in the fall and execution of Prince Constantine Hangerli, after Küçük accuses him of not having provided the Ottoman Army with enough funds.
He also attempts to annex the Sanjak of Smederevo but is stopped by sixteen thousand Serbian soldiers in Ottoman service.