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

Sebinkarahisar

Mavrokastron (the Black Castle, the Byzantine Koloneia) is a fortress on a basalt rock above the Kelkit valley.

Its alum mines, near the road north to Kerasous (Giresun), supplied much of the alum that Europe's cloth industry needed in the 12th century. On TDV's account it is Saltukid on 1 January 1200 and passes to the Mengujekid Muzaffar al-Din Muhammad's house in 598 AH (1201-02).

Who holds it

Title
Saltukid governor (by TDV's account)
Since
about 1170 (Saltukid after the Danishmendid fall)
Confidence
low

TDV 'Sebinkarahisar' (Acun): the Saltukids took the town after the Danishmendids fell (1170 or shortly before) and the Mengujekids took it in 598 AH (1201-02). The assignment's Mengujekid attribution is later.

Lord in 1200

A Saltukid commander (by TDV's account; low confidence).

How things stand that morning

Saltukid by TDV's account.

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, Greeks and Armenians; numbers not recorded.

Fairs and markets

None recorded for 1200.

Militia

The lord's garrison in the citadel.

Walls and castle

Castle on the basalt rock east of the town.

Trade and crafts

Alum mining and export through the Black Sea ports; the Kelkit valley road.

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. 598 AH (1201-02), laterThe Mengujekids take the town.Depends on: Saltukid collapse. Stopped by: A Saltukid recovery.

Where the sources disagree

  • Assignment lists it as Mengujekid; TDV dates the Mengujekid takeover to 598 AH (1201-02).

Evidence: One modern summary.

On the map: Point only; district 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, 'Sebinkarahisar' (F. Acun), vol. 38, 2010
  2. TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi, 'Mengucukluler' (F. Sumer, history; N. C. Akcil, architecture), vol. 29, 2004

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