This presentation is about a figure called Abdülaziz, who arguably played a significant part in the foundation of the Ottoman Empire. His memory was deliberately obliterated from the mainstream chronicles written to glorify the role of the House of Osman and its “unchallenged success story beginning with the earliest moments of the Ottoman enterprise.” In this presentation, rather than offering an alternative to what happened, I will investigate how the groups that were sidelined by the centralizing state in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries chose to remember the beginnings of Ottoman history. In this alternative version, Abdülaziz was a vizier and a member of the Seljuk dynasty who granted “independence” to his vassal Osman, the eponymous founder of the Ottoman dynasty. Abdülaziz was the one who interpreted the famous dream of Osman/Ertuğrul, a harbinger of universal dominion. He married his daughter to Osman, and their son Orhan became the dynasty’s second ruler. Abdülaziz also commanded the first raids in Europe against the Byzantines alongside several other frontier lords who were not necessarily devoted followers of the Ottoman center. His son Israil was the father of Bedreddin of Simavna, who led a rebellion with perennialist, utopian, and millenarian overtones against the Ottoman state in the early fifteenth century. Following this rebellion and the grandson’s downfall and execution, this family’s claims and Abdülaziz’s deeds were expunged from historical accounts. Abdülaziz’s memory reappeared much later among the circles that were marginalized due to the centralizing Ottoman state’s actions in both political and religious life. By examining neglected historical accounts, this presentation focuses on how an alternative historical narrative was assigned to marginalized groups, effectively calling its legitimacy into question. The presentation also demonstrates how to make use of the concepts of memory and censorship in order to go beyond a one-dimensional historiographic tradition of the Ottoman rise created by state-sponsored and ideologically driven compositions.