Sultanate of Rum

The Sultanate of Rum, Sultanate of Rome (modern Turkish: Anadolu Selçuklu(ları) Devleti or Türk(iye) Selçuklu Devleti) or Sultanate of the Romans was a Turkish state ruled by the Seljuk dynasty located in Anatolia and whose historical period spans from 1077 to 1307.

Historical background

Approximately 970, Selyūq ibn Dūqāq, a tribal chief of the Oguz Turkic confederation, converted to Islam, with his horde (established in the desert confines of Chorasmia and whose members are known as Turkmen). i>) and founded the Turkish dynasty of the Great Seljuks (1038-1194). From 1038, Selyuq's grandson, Togril Beg establishes his authority in Persia and Iraq and is proclaimed from 1055 (after entering Baghdad) as sultan and protector of the Abbasid caliphate. The power of the latter had deteriorated with the establishment in Egypt of the rival caliphate of the Fatimids, of Shiite obedience.

The Great Seljuks, starting in 1048, carried out several campaigns in Anatolia, on the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire, in order to prevent a Byzantine-Fatimid alliance. The Turkmens, in their destructive raids in search of loot combined with their neophyte zeal for ghazi, found in the arid central plateau of Anatolia, a climate similar to their ancestral home of central Asia. This climate was ideal for their horses, camels and the rest of their livestock. Perhaps for these reasons, the Turkmen nomads launched all their military force towards this sector, facing the Armenian and Greek nobility of the Byzantine Empire instead of following the orders of the great Seljuk Sultans, their nominal leaders, to head to Syria, Palestine. and Egypt to confront the Fatimids.

The battle that Sultan Alp Arslan (nephew and successor of Togril) won over the Byzantine emperor Romanus IV Diogenes, in Manzikert, in 1071, was decisive for the definitive installation of the Turks in Anatolia.

Establishment

Between 1070 and 1080, Suleiman ibn Kutalmish, a distant cousin of Sultan Malik Shah I (son and successor of Alp Arslan), rose to power in western Anatolia, with the support of the Turkmen tribes, semi-autonomous from the power of the Great Seljuks and who settled in almost all of Anatolia after the power vacuum that occurred after the battle of Manzikert. In 1075, Suleiman conquered the Byzantine cities of Nicaea (İznik) and Nicomedia (İzmit). Defying Malik Shah, he declared himself sultan in 1077 and established the capital at Nicaea. The sultanate was expanded, but when Suleiman was assassinated at Antioch (Antakya) in 1086 by Tutush I, the Seljuk ruler of Syria, the dynasty was brought to an end when Suleiman's son, Kilij Arslan, was imprisoned. When Malik Shah died in 1092, Kilij Arslan was freed and immediately took back his father's territories. Kilij Arslan first establishes his capital in Iznik (ancient Nicaea). Defeated by the Crusaders in 1097, he retreated into Anatolia where he established his state around Iconium (Konya). Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and the Germanic troops of the Third Crusade devastated Konya in 1099. In 1107 he captured Mosul, but the same year he died while fighting against Mehmed Tapar, son of Malik Shah.

Konya was captured by Malik Shah II but was again conquered by Kilij Arslan's son, Mesud, in 1116 with the help of the Danismendidas whose possessions were eventually included in the sultanate. At the death of Mesud in 1156 the kingdom included almost all of Anatolia. Izz ad-Din Kilij Arslan II (1156-1192), the son of Mesud, conquered the last possessions of the Danismendidas in 1174 after the death of Nur al-Din, who had proclaimed eastern Anatolia and Armenia as a protectorate. A Byzantine invasion by Manuel I Comnenus was thwarted at the Battle of Myriocephalus on 17 September 1176. The Frankish states during the Third Crusade occupied Konya in 1190. With the founding, in 1198, of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, the sultans of Konya They had a Christian state as a neighbor.

After the death of the last sultan of the Great Seljuks, Toğrül III, in 1194, the Seljuk Turks of Rüm became the sole representatives of the dynasty. In 1204 the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade reduced Byzantine control in Anatolia to the region of Iznik and the principality of Trebizond. Kaikosru I besieged Konya in 1205 and proclaimed himself sultan for the second time in his lifetime. Under the rule of Kaikosru and his two successors, Kaikaus I (1211-1220) and Kaikubad I (1220-1237), the Seljuks of Rüm reached the height of their power. Kaikosru's most important achievement was the capture of the port of Adalia (Antalya) on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia in 1207. Kaikaus captured the city of Sinope (present-day Sinop) on the Black Sea coast and made Trebizond his vassal in 1214. just as he subdued Cilicia, although he had no choice but to surrender Aleppo to Saladin in 1218. Kaikubad conquered the Mediterranean coast of the Byzantine Empire between 1221 and 1225. In 1225 he also sent an expeditionary force across the Black Sea to the Crimea. In the east he defeated the Manguyakids and the Orthochids.

The Seljuk sultans of Rum also subjugate rival Turkish emirates, such as the Danismendidas and the Saltokids, established to the east of the Anatolian plateau. The first four decades of the 13th century are flourishing, especially during the reigns of Kay Ka'us I (r. 1210- 1219) and Kay Qubadh I (r. 1219-1237). The first signs a peace agreement with Emperor Teodoro Láscaris. The second allied himself with the Ayyubids of Syria to oppose the Khorezmites, who put an end to the reign of the great Seljuks and attempted to overthrow the Abbasid caliphate. The Mongol push is felt in Anatolia towards the middle of the 13th century. Kay Khusraw II (r. 1237-1246) and his army composed of Armenians, Greeks and Franks were defeated near Sivas in 1243. Since then, although the sultan remains on his throne in Konya, he nevertheless became vassal of the Mongol khans and pays tribute to them. Dissensions among the sons of Kay Khusraw II broke up the Seljuk territory, which became an Il-Khanid province upon the death of Ma'sud II in 1307.

Fall

Kaikosru II (1237-1246) began his reign by conquering the Kingdom of Amida (Diyarbakır), but in 1239 he had to face a revolt led by a notorious local preacher, Baba Ishaq. After three years, when he had finally suppressed the rebellion, Crimea was lost and the state as well as the army were weakened. At this time, Kaikosru had to face an even more dangerous emerging threat, the Mongols. They conquered Erzurum in 1242 and in 1243 the sultan was crushed by Baiju in the battle of Köse Dağ (a mountain between the Turkish cities of Sivas and Erzincan), making the Seljuks vassals of the Mongols. The sultan fled to Antalya, where he died in 1246.

The Seljuk kingdom was divided among the three minor sons of Kaikosru. The eldest of them, Kaikaus II (1246-1260), assumed rule in the area west of the Kizil Irmak River with Konya as the capital. His younger brothers, Kilij Arslan IV (1248-1265) and Kaikubad II (1249-1257) established their sovereignty east of the Kizil Irmak River, with Sivas and Malatya as capitals, under Mongol administration. In October 1256 Baiju defeated Kaikaus II near Aksaray and all of Anatolia was now officially subject to the Mongol warlord Möngke Khan. In 1260 Kaikaus II fled from Konya to the Crimea where he died there in 1279. Kilij Arslan IV was executed in 1265 and Kaikosru III (1265-1284) became the puppet ruler of all Anatolia. However, the old Seljuk state was beginning to divide into small emirates that did not recognize Seljuk or Mongol power. One of these sultanates, that of the Osmanlis, would be the original nucleus of the future Ottoman Empire. In 1277 Anatolia was invaded by the Mamluk ruler Baibars I and replaced the Mongols as administrators of the Seljuk sultanate, but they soon lost interest and command was again assumed by the Mongols, at least officially.

By the end of his reign, Kaikosru III could actually claim sovereignty over what remained of the Seljuk Turkish sultanate (i.e. the lands around Konya and a small coastline including the port of Kayseri (Caesarea Mazaca)). Some Anatolian rulers recognized the sultan's supremacy in Konya and Kaikosru along with his successors calling themselves Fahreddin, "the Pride of Islam." When Kaikosru was executed in 1282, the Seljuk Dynasty suffered severe infighting that would last until 1303 when Kaikaus II's son, Mesud II, proclaimed himself sultan in Kayseri. He was assassinated, however, in 1307 and his son Mesud III very soon after. A distant descendant of the Seljuk Dynasty established himself as the emir of Konya, but was defeated and his lands conquered by the Karamanids in 1328.

Society

After approximately two centuries of Seljuk power, several ethnicities (Turkmen, Greeks, Armenians) and confessions apparently coexisted in relative good understanding. The Islamization of the territory is gradual. The churches and monasteries were saved. The confluence of beliefs participates in the emergence of mystical orders among which is the brotherhood of the Mawlawis, whose center was the tomb of Jalal al Din Rumi (d. 1275) in Konya. Likewise, a form of endogamy is observed between populations. For their part, the sultans do not refuse to marry Greek or Georgian princesses.

Economy

The power obtains its resources from agricultural income and international trade. Anatolia once again became a passageway (land and sea) for north (Crimea)-south (Syria, Egypt) exchanges (lumber and slaves), in addition to relations with the Venetian merchant cities, enemies of the Byzantines.

Architecture

Numerous infrastructures related to this trade remain. A network of kanes that link the main cities of the sultanate and distant from each other the equivalent of a day's walk (approximately 25 km), are founded by the sultans, their wives, viziers or other personalities, often under the waqf regime. They have the appearance of fortresses with corner towers and buttresses. The decoration, when it exists, is concentrated on the entrance porches (in the courtyard or in the great hall) including the aedicules that serve as mosques as in the two Sultan Han near Aq Saray and Kayseri (1229). The bridges, recognizable by their large mitral arch crowned by a parapet with a triangular profile, bear witness to the importance given to the network of communication routes, in addition to the fact that they allowed the collection of taxes. The only vestige of naval architecture in the Arab-Muslim world from this period is the anchorage of the port of Alanya (1228) in the Mediterranean.

Also in civil matters, we must remember the restoration or construction of city fortifications, where that of Erzurum stands out (after 1230). On the other hand, only foundations and fragments of decoration remain of the palaces: ceramic covering, carpentry and stucco. That of Kubadabad on Lake Beyshehir included a courtyard of honor with four iwans, a mosque, baths and an arsenal, as well as a playing field, especially for equestrian practice.

The field of religious architecture is rich in monuments, especially built after 1150, in which the influence of Seljuk Iran, combined with local Greek and Armenian influences, is felt in the type of buildings (mosques and madrasas, mausoleums (gumbat) and in its structure: a courtyard open to one, two or four iwans preceded by a magnified portico and flanked by minarets for the former; towers with a circular or polygonal section with a conical or pyramidal cover for the latter. The new use of materials made it possible to erect numerous constructions in a limited period of time, especially for the two-color marble facings, just like what was used in Syria at the same time. The entrance porches blend the identity of these realizations. In simple volumes, an archway inscribed in a rectangle adheres to abundant decoration, sometimes confining exuberance, with epigraphic stripes, bows and knots, plant and animal motifs, muqarnas: Ince Minare madrasa in Konya (1258), Gök madrasa in Sivas (1271), Ulu Cami mosque in Divrigi (1229). The latter, associated with a hospital, constitutes an example of the complexes with diverse functions that spread throughout Syria and Egypt from the 13th century< /span>.

Except for the elements sculpted in stone, the decorative profusion typical of the Seljuks is found in the work in wood, bronze and stucco. It is worth mentioning the ceramic covering, in the form of a mosaic used for the dome and the albanegas of the Karatay madrasa in Konya (1252) or the interlocking star and cross tiles found in the remains of the palaces (Konya, Antalya, Diyarbakir). The decoration, painted in glazed, polished, sgraffito, or minai type, evokes a characteristic repertoire: characters with round faces and almond-shaped eyes, real and fantastic animals, signs of the zodiac, all in compositions close to heraldry. An influence from Central Asia and its shamanic traditions is revealed. The Seljuk mosques have also left the oldest fragments of Islamic carpets that have come down to us; Its stylized motifs are sometimes associated with Kufic inscriptions. A silk with facing lions adorning medallions (Lyon, historical textile museum) has an inscription with the name of Kay Qubadh (I or III?), while a plate of enameled and gilded glass, a technique that appeared in Syria in the 12th century, looks like that of Kay Khusraw II (Konya, Karatay museum).

Sultans of Rüm

This section is an extract of Seljucida Dynasty § Sultanato de Rüm (Anatolia, 1077-1307).[chuckles]edit]

The territory that maintained its identity and would prevail for several decades was that of the sultanate of Rüm (1081–1302). Founded by Suleiman ibn Kutalmish, under the protection of the Byzantine Empire for which his troops fought as mercenary, this sultanate settled in Anatolia and expanded by Mesopotamia and Armenia, joining Christian peoples under his rule: Greek, Syrian and Armenian. He met his stage of splendor under the reign of Kaikubad I (1221–1237). It had a port in the Mediterranean, Antalya, for which it performed commercial liaison functions between the Far East and Europe. They also had a port in the Black Sea, Sinop. From 1231 onwards, the Mongol assaults devastated the sultanate. The Mongolian victory in the battle of Köse Dağ (1243) frowned upon the sultanate (reduced to Mongolian vassals) in multiple Turkmen emirates, as well as the Mongols. Other emirates, located on the border with the Byzantines, remained independent in the Holy War to the Greeks. One of these western emirates, that of the Osmanli, would be the original core of the future Ottoman Empire. By 1276, the Selyúcidas of Rüm actually lost all their power, although nominally maintained it until 1307.

The reigning sultans in Rüm were:

• 1060-1077: Kutalmish
• 1077-1086: Suleiman ibn Kutalmish
• 1092-1107: Kilij Arslan I
• 1107-1116: Melikshah
• 1116-1156: Mesud I
• 1156-1192: Kilij Arslan II
• 1192-1196: Kaikosru I (1.^♪ reign)
• 1196-1204: Suleiman II
• 1204-1205: Kilij Arslan III
• 1205-1211: Kaikosru I (2 or reigned)
• 1211-1220: Kaikaus I
• 1220-1237: Kaikubad I
• 1237-1246: Kaikosru II (1.^♪ reign)
• 1246-1260: Kaikaus II
• 1248-1265: Kilij Arslan IV
• 1249-1257: Kaikubad II
• 1257-1259: Kaikosru II (2 or reigned)
• 1265-1282: Kaikosru III
• 1282-1284: Masud II (1.^♪ reign)
• 1284: Kaikubad III (1.^♪ reign)
• 1284-1293: Masud II (2 or reigned)
• 1293-1294: Kaikubad III (2 or reigned)
• 1294-1301: Masud II (3.^♪ reign)
• 1301-1303: Kaikubad III (3.^♪ reign)
• 1303-1307: Masud II (4th reign)
• 1307: Masud III

Additional bibliography

• Hillenbrand, Carole (2020). «What is Special about Seljuq History?». In Canby, Sheila; Beyazit, Deniz; Rugiadi, Martina, eds. The Seljuqs and their Successors: Art, Culture and History (in English). Edinburgh University Press. pp. 6-16. ISBN 978-1474450348.
• Hillenbrand, Carole (2021). The Medieval Turks: Collected Essays (in English). Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1474485944.
• Kastritsis, Dimitris (2013). «The Historical Epic "Ahval-i Sultan Mehemmed" (The Tales of Sultan Mehmed) in the Context of Early Ottoman Historiography». Writing History at the Ottoman Court: Editing the Past, Fashioning the Future (in English). Indiana University Press.
• Richards, Donald S.; Robinson, Chase F. (2003). Texts, documents, and Artefacts. BRILL.
• Ring, Trudy; Watson, Noelle; Schellinger, Paul, eds. (1995). Southern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places (in English) 3. Routledge.
• Shukurov, Rustam (2020). «Grasping the Magnitude: Saljuq Rum between Byzantium and Persia». In Canby, Sheila; Beyazit, Deniz; Rugiadi, Martina, eds. The Seljuqs and their Successors: Art, Culture and History (in English). Edinburgh University Press. pp. 144-162. ISBN 978-1474450348.
• Tricht, Filip Van; translator Longbottom, Peter (2011). The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204-1228) (in English). Brill.
• Khanbaghi, Aptin (2016). «Champions of the Persian Language: The Mongols or the Turks?». In De Nicola, Bruno; Melville, Charles, eds. The Mongols' Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran (in English). Brill.