City · Erzurum: the Saltukids · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Erzurum

Erzurum is the great city of the high Armenian plateau, at 1,900 m on the plain where the roads from Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, the Black Sea and inner Anatolia meet.

The Arabs called it Arzan al-Rum to tell it from Arzan in the Jazira. The Saltukids made it their capital after Manzikert; Nasir al-Din Muhammad built its Great Mosque in 575 AH (1179-80). Byzantine and Muslim writers describe it as rich, with merchants of many peoples and a carpet industry. In January 1200 it is the seat of Mama Khatun, whose nephews are plotting against her.

Who holds it

Name
Mama Khatun
Title
Ruler of Erzurum
Since
587 AH (1191)
Family
Saltukid
Confidence
medium

See Mama Khatun.

Lord in 1200

Mama Khatun in person, from the citadel; her officers not named.

Allies and rivals

See Saltukids.

How things stand that morning

Saltukid capital under Mama Khatun.

Wealth

Tolls and markets of the caravan road.

Threats

  • The palace feud (597 AH).
  • Georgian raids.
  • Suleymanshah II (1202).

Charter

None: a lord's town, not a commune.

Council

No town council recorded; the emir's governor and the qadi.

Communities

Muslim Turks and Persians; Armenians (an old Armenian city and see); Greeks and Georgians. Numbers not recorded.

Fairs and markets

None recorded for 1200.

Militia

The emir's garrison; the townspeople turned out to defend the walls against the Georgians in 580 AH (1184-85).

Walls and castle

A citadel (Ickale) of Byzantine origin, repaired by the Saltukids, with their brick and stone watchtower (Tepsi Minare); town walls, of which only fragments survive.

Trade and crafts

Caravan trade between Tabriz and Khoy, Erzincan and Sivas, and north over the mountains to Trebizond; carpets; horses and flocks of the plateau.

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. 597 AH (from about 11 October 1200)Mama Khatun is deposed and her nephew Ala al-Din Melikshah rules from the citadel.Depends on: The nephews' party. Stopped by: Outside help for her.

Places of note

  • Great Mosque of Erzurum: Built 575 AH (1179-80) by Abu'l-Fath Malik Muhammad (Nasir al-Din Muhammad).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Monuments dated by inscriptions; the Saltukid town is otherwise known from later descriptions.

On the map: The town's near land only; its district is drawn under Mama Khatun.

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

  1. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Erzurum' (C. Kucuk, history; R. H. Unal, architecture)
  2. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Saltuklular' (A. Ozaydin, history; N. C. Akcil, architecture), vol. 36, 2009

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