Bayburt is a castle town on the upper Coruh, on the road from Erzurum towards the Pontic passes and Trebizond.
It had been a Byzantine bishop's see; the Saltukids held it, sometimes losing it to the Danishmendids, until the Seljuks took it with Erzurum in 1202. Tughrilshah later rebuilt the castle against the Komnenoi of Trebizond.
Who holds it
- Title
- Saltukid governor
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- medium
Saltukid from 1072 to 1202, at times under the Danishmendids (TDV).
Lord in 1200
A governor for Mama Khatun (name not pinned).
How things stand that morning
Saltukid.
Charter
None: a lord's town, not a commune.
Council
No council recorded; the lord's governor (shihna or subashi) and the judge (qadi).
Communities
Muslims, Armenians and Greeks; numbers not recorded.
Fairs and markets
None recorded for 1200.
Militia
The lord's garrison in the citadel.
Walls and castle
Castle on the rock above the Coruh (Byzantine; rebuilt after 1202).
Trade and crafts
The road between Erzurum and the Black Sea.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: TDV outline only.
On the map: Point only.
Primary sources for Saltukids
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 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
- 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
- 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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.