Royal kin and queens · The Seljuk sultanate of Rum · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Mas'ud of Ankara

Mas'ud has held Ankara since his father divided the realm, with Çankırı (Gangra) and lands reaching towards Eskişehir (Dorylaion); some lists add Kastamonu.

He kept a small court of poets at Ankara (TDV names Bedi'i, Muhyevi and Mahmud of Ankara). In 1196 he backed a pretender claiming to be the murdered emperor Alexios II, who was killed outside Gangra, and while bargaining with Alexios III over his price he took the Byzantine town of Dadibra in Paphlagonia (probably Devrek) after a four-month siege, ambushing the relief army on Mount Baba and parading two captured generals round the walls; those townsmen who wished left with their goods, the rest stayed and paid taxes to the Turks, and Turks were settled there. Late in 1196 Alexios III agreed to pay him the full sum he had asked (Choniates, as read by Brand), which is the peace that holds on the Paphlagonian frontier in 1200.

Süleymanshah defeated him once before taking Konya, but he still holds his share on 1 January 1200, the last brother of weight in the north-west. Ankara was a city of few Christians by then: its Greek metropolitan said in 1173 that few remained.

Who he is

Name
Muhyi al-Din Mas'udshah (Mesud Şah), son of Kılıç Arslan II
Title
melik of Ankara
Since
the share-out of 1186 (TDV dates the division about 580 AH, 1184-1185)
Born
not pinned
Family
Seljuk; brother of Süleymanshah II. Had at least two sons, killed with him in 1204 (names not given).
Confidence
high

TDV 'Kılıcarslan II', 'Süleyman Şah II', 'Ankara'; Brand p. 151.

Overlord

None in practice. He fought for his father at Konya against Barbarossa in 1190 and was later beaten by Süleymanshah, but he did not submit. He treats with Byzantium on his own account (the peace of late 1196).

What it holds

  • Ankara and its citadel
  • Çankırı (Gangra)
  • Dadibra in Paphlagonia (probably Devrek), taken from the Byzantines in 1196
  • Kastamonu (probably; see map_caveat)
  • the lands reaching towards Eskişehir (Dorylaion) (claimed under the 1186 share)

How it was acquired

His father's share-out of 1186 (about 580 AH by TDV's reckoning).

Allies and rivals

Rival of Süleymanshah, who beat him once and besieges and kills him in 1204 (later). At peace with Alexios III since late 1196, on terms paid by the emperor. On the Byzantine frontier of Paphlagonia and Bithynia: Herakleia Pontike, Amastris and the coast are imperial (byzantium).

How things stand that morning

Holds Ankara and Çankırı in his own name. His hold on Kastamonu and the Eskişehir plain is not pinned: the Turkmen of the uç grazed the Dorylaion plain (they camped on the Bathys there in 1196) and the later uç lords of Kastamonu, the Çoban family, are dated by TDV to the late twelfth century. Beyond Çankırı and Kastamonu to the north and west lie the Byzantine coast towns and Bithynia (byzantium).

Wealth

The Ankara plain, salt, flocks and the road from the plateau to Bithynia and the Paphlagonian coast.

Military

The citadel of Ankara with its double Byzantine walls; Çankırı's castle on its rock. He held Ankara through a long siege in 1203-1204 before surrendering on terms.

Threats

  • Süleymanshah
  • Turkmen of the uç
  • Byzantine frontier forces in Paphlagonia

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.

  1. 1203-1204: laterSüleymanshah besieges Ankara for a long time; Mas'ud surrenders on 1 Dhu'l-Qa'da 600 (1 July 1204) for a frontier fortress and is killed with two sons on the road.Depends on: Süleymanshah free of other wars after the peace with Byzantium of autumn 1200 and the taking of Malatya. Stopped by: Süleymanshah's defeat or death, or an alliance of Mas'ud with Byzantium or Kaykhusraw.

Places of note

  • Ankara citadel and the mosque in it: The Alaeddin mosque on the citadel hill is dated 1178 (TDV).

Where the sources disagree

  • Extent of the share: TDV 'Kılıcarslan II' says Ankara with Çankırı, reaching Eskişehir; Wikipedia adds Kastamonu; TDV 'Ankara' names only Ankara.

Evidence: Holder and dates secure; the extent of his lands in 1200 is not pinned.

On the map: Ankara and Çankırı are firm. Kastamonu and the Eskişehir plain are drawn from the shares of 1186 and are uncertain for 1200.

Primary sources for Sultanate of Rum

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 Anonymous Syriac Chronicle to 1234, Anonymous (a Syrian Orthodox writer, probably of Edessa) (about 1234 to 1240). An Edessene chronicle independent of Michael the Syrian in its later part, with a secular section reaching 1234 that gives the Jazira, Edessa, Harran, Mardin and Melitene about 1200 under al-Adil's sons and the Artuqids, the Seljuks of Rum, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks of Antioch, and a church section to 1207 on the Jacobite succession after Michael's death in 1199. Read online
  • The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. Read online
  • 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 Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
  • The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
  • The Cream of the History of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (about 1240 to 1260). The annals of Aleppo. Read online
  • History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
  • The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online

5 more in the sources library for Anatolia and the Caucasus.

Sources and studies

  1. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Kılıcarslan II' (A. Özaydın)
  2. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Süleyman Şah II'
  3. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Ankara'
  4. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 'Kastamonu'
  5. C. M. Brand, Byzantium Confronts the West 1180-1204 (1968), pp. 98-99, 149-151, 362 (following Niketas Choniates, Euthymios Tornikes and Ibn Bibi)
  6. Wikipedia, 'Kilij Arslan II'

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.