Between the sultan's western towns (Uluborlu, Akşehir, the lakes of Eğirdir and Burdur) and the Byzantine valley towns (Laodikeia, Chonai, Tripolis, Antioch on the Maeander), the plateau edge is Turkmen pasture: the upper Maeander plain round Choma (near Çivril), the uplands east and south of Chonai towards Tavas and Acıpayam, and the hills of Kibyra and Pisidia above Attaleia.
These nomads moved their flocks between summer pastures on the plateau and winter grazing lower down, and raided the valleys for flocks and captives. They followed pretenders and rebels who promised plunder: the second false Alexios in about 1191-1192 (with the emir Arsanes), the rebel Theodore Mangaphas, who recruited raiders at Konya in 1193, and later Michael Doukas in 1200. Kaykhusraw, deposed, may have sought their help in 1197 (Brand), and in 1205 an amir of the uç, 'a Turkoman country on the Greek border', brought him back to Konya (Bar Hebraeus).
On 1 January 1200 the sultan is at peace with Byzantium, and no Turkmen raid is dated to that winter.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not pinned for 1 January 1200. The one chief named in these years is the emir Arsanes (Choniates's form; perhaps Arslan), who brought Turkmen to the second false Alexios to raid the Maeander valley (about 1191-1192) and whose Turkmen easily drove off the pretender Andronikos Doukas (about 1196). Whether he still leads them is not pinned.
- Title
- emirs (beys) of the frontier Turkmen
- Since
- the Turkmen have grazed this frontier since the 1170s
- Family
- Oghuz Turkmen clans; names of tribes not recorded for this frontier in 1200
- Confidence
- low
Choniates as read by Brand pp. 98, 149; Bar Hebraeus p. 285 for the uç amir of 1205.
Overlord
The sultan of Konya in name. The sultans used the uç Turkmen as auxiliaries and gave them leave to raid when at war with Byzantium; in peace the Turkmen raided on their own account (Brand, on the raid on Klaudiopolis in 1180, judged such attacks the work of nomads outside the sultan's control).
How things stand that morning
Grazing and, when they can, raiding along the Byzantine frontier; no dated raid in the winter of 1199-1200. West of them the valley towns are Byzantine (Laodikeia and the Maeander: Laodikeia, Chonai, Tripolis); east of them the sultan's towns (Süleymanshah II).
Customs
Tribal chiefs (beys) and elders; pastoral nomadism with seasonal moves between plateau and valley; raiding for captives and flocks, sold or settled in the sultan's lands. No assembly or written law is recorded.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
In 1200
- 1200 (Brand; some put it in 1201)The rebel Michael Doukas, with troops from the sultan, raids the Maeander valley; frontier Turkmen are the natural recruits for such a raid.Depends on: Michael's flight to Konya and the sultan's quarrel with Alexios III. Stopped by: the quarrel being settled first.
Later, on the likely course
- 1205: laterAn amir of the uç brings Kaykhusraw to attack Konya.Depends on: Süleymanshah's death (July 1204). Stopped by: Süleymanshah alive.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Known only from Byzantine glimpses (Choniates) and a later Syriac notice; no tribe, chief or pasture boundary is documented for 1200. The outline is drawn between the Byzantine valley towns and the Seljuk lake towns.
On the map: Pastures and raiding grounds had no fixed edges; the line stands for where Turkmen rather than townsmen held the ground.
Primary sources for The Turkmen
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Chronicle of Smbat Sparapet (Sempad the Constable), Smbat Sparapet, brother of King Hetum I of Cilicia (about 1270 to 1276). The Cilician court chronicle, drawing on Matthew of Edessa for its early part and on family memory later. Read online
- The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online
Sources and studies
- C. M. Brand, Byzantium Confronts the West 1180-1204 (1968), pp. 98-99, 149-151, 362 (following Niketas Choniates, Euthymios Tornikes and Ibn Bibi)
- Bar Hebraeus, Chronography, trans. E. A. W. Budge (1932), p. 285 (the Turkmen amir of the uç and Kaykhusraw, 601 AH)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.