The Ottoman Turks (Turkish: Osmanlı Türkleri), were the founder Turkic people of the Ottoman Empire (c. 1299–1922/1923). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı ("Osman" became altered in some European languages as "Ottoman"), from the house of Osman I (reigned c. 1299–1326), the founder of the House of Osman, the ruling dynasty of the Ottoman Empire for its entire 624 years. Expanding from its base in Bithynia, the Ottoman principality began incorporating other Turkish-speaking Muslims and non-Turkish Christians. Turks were advantageous over non-Turks on issues like taxation, voting and legal rights. Crossing into Europe from the 1350s, coming to dominate the Mediterranean Sea and, in 1453, invading Constantinople (the capital city of the Byzantine Empire), the Ottoman Turks blocked all major land routes between Asia and Europe. Western Europeans had to find other ways to trade with the East.