The Seljuk sultanate of Rum

Who rules

Name

Rukn al-Din Süleymanshah II (Süleyman Şah), son of Kılıç Arslan II

Title

sultan of Rum, at Ikonion (Konya)

Since

enthroned at Konya on 8 Dhu'l-Qa'da 592 AH (3 October 1196), the day after his brother Kaykhusraw left the city by night (TDV, from Ibn Bibi); Brand, following Choniates, puts the takeover in 1197

Born

about 1158 (modern reference works; not pinned in a chronicle)

Family

Seljuk house of Rum, descended from Qutlumush; son of Izz al-Din Kılıç Arslan II (died 26 August 1192 at the siege of Aksaray)

Confidence

high

Reign 1196-1204 secure. Dates of each brother's fall come from Ibn Bibi and Ibn al-Athir as given in the TDV encyclopedia; the Byzantine side from Choniates as read by Brand.

Threats

• Kaykhusraw, sheltered by the emperor, and the exiled brothers' partisans.
• Qaysarshah and his Ayyubid backers on the Euphrates.
• Leo of Cilicia on the Taurus passes.
• The Turkmen of the uç, whose raids can drag the sultan into war with Byzantium.
• Georgian expansion towards Erzurum and Kars, which will draw him east.

Ruler

Süleymanshah II, about 41 or 42, sultan since October 1196. Known to his Byzantine neighbours as Rouknatinos (Rukn al-Din). Bar Hebraeus calls him shrewd and orderly, drawn to the teachings of the philosophers though he kept the outward forms of religion. The caliph al-Nasir sent him a diploma of the sultanate, a parasol (çetr) and a banner (TDV; the date is not pinned, so it may fall after 1 January 1200).

Consort

Not pinned. No wife of Süleymanshah is named in the sources reached. (The Georgian chronicle's story that he demanded Queen Tamar's hand belongs to the war of 1202-1203: later.)

Heirs and children

• Izz al-Din Kılıç Arslan (III), his son, a young child: he succeeded as a minor in July 1204 and was put aside by Kaykhusraw in March 1205. His birth date is not pinned; he is alive and a child on 1 January 1200 only on the evidence that he was still a boy in 1204.
• No other children are pinned.

Brothers and kin

• Muhyi al-Din Mas'udshah: holds Ankara with Çankırı and lands reaching towards Eskişehir and probably Kastamonu (Mas'ud of Ankara). Beaten once by Süleymanshah before 1196 but still master of his own share. Besieged and taken in 1204 (later).
• Mughith al-Din Tughrilshah: holds Elbistan (Tughrilshah of Elbistan); recognised Süleymanshah as his overlord in 594 AH (1197-1198). Moved to Erzurum in June 1202 (later).
• Mu'izz al-Din Qaysarshah: holds Malatya (Qaysarshah of Malatya) and refuses submission; tied to the Ayyubids. Loses Malatya on 19 Ramadan 597 (23 June 1201) (later).
• Ghiyath al-Din Kaykhusraw I: the youngest son, sultan at Konya 1192-1196, now a landless exile and the obvious rival (see 'kaykhusraw_1200').
• Nasir al-Din Barkyaruqshah: held Niksar and Koyulhisar; dispossessed in Muharram 594 (about 14 November to 13 December 1197). Whereabouts and fate on 1 January 1200 not pinned.
• Nizam al-Din Arghunshah (TDV's article on Süleymanshah names the lord of Amasya Arslanshah): held Amasya; dispossessed in Muharram 594 with Niksar. Fate not pinned.
• Arslanshah: held Niğde in the 1186 share. Niğde's walls were repaired under Süleymanshah in 1196, so the city was his by then. Arslanshah's fate is not pinned.
• Sanjarshah: held Ereğli (Herakleia Kybistra) in the 1186 share. His fate is not pinned; Ereğli was in King Leo's hands at some point before Süleymanshah recovered it in 595 AH (1198-1199).
• Nur al-Din Mahmud Sultanshah: held Kayseri, where he built the Hoca Hasan madrasa in 589 AH (1193); besieged there by Malikshah in 587 AH (1191) and dispossessed by him before 593 AH (1196-1197). His fate is not pinned.
• Qutb al-Din Malikshah: the eldest, held Sivas and Aksaray, seized Konya in 1189-1190, driven out in 1191-1192, and later took Kayseri from Mahmud Sultanshah. Coins struck at Kayseri in his name and his great mosque at Sivas are both dated 593 AH (about 24 November 1196 to 13 November 1197), so he outlived Kaykhusraw's fall; he died in or about 1197 and Süleymanshah took his cities. Dead on 1 January 1200.

Kaykhusraw in 1200

Ghiyath al-Din Kaykhusraw I gave up Konya on terms in October 1196 (TDV) or 1197 (Brand): his emirs negotiated safe departure for his family, treasure and household. His wanderings are told three ways. Ibn Bibi (as summarised in TDV): first to Leo at Sis (Kozan), then to his brothers Tughrilshah at Elbistan and Qaysarshah at Malatya, then to the Ayyubids at Aleppo, to Amid, to the lord of Ahlat, then to Trebizond and by ship to Constantinople.

Choniates (as read by Brand): first to the emperor's court, where Alexios III, on good terms with Süleymanshah, refused him help; then back into Anatolia, perhaps among the Turkmen, where his brother drove him off again; then Cilicia and northern Syria; then back to Constantinople, where he married a daughter of Manuel Maurozomes and stayed until the crusaders' siege of 1203. Bar Hebraeus: to Syria, where al-Zahir of Aleppo would not help him, then wandering until he reached Constantinople, where the emperor honoured him and gave him a leading patrician's daughter as wife. On 1 January 1200 he is most probably at or near Constantinople as the emperor's guest (Peacock and Yildiz put his residence there in 1197-1203), but the date of his final arrival is not pinned, and he may still have been on the road in the east.

His marriage date is not pinned, and it is disputed: Wikipedia (from Peacock and Yildiz) makes Kayqubad, born about 1192, the son of Maurozomes's daughter, which would put the marriage before the exile. His young sons Kaykaus and Kayqubad are with him in exile (they reappear with him in 1205; their exact whereabouts in 1200 are not pinned).

Officers and household

Not pinned. The sources reached name no vizier, atabeg, chamberlain or commander of Süleymanshah for the winter of 1199-1200. The household follows the Seljuk pattern: a vizier for the revenues and chancery, a commander of the household slave troops, emirs holding iqta' revenues with troops to keep, and governors (subaşı) in the cities. The last named vizier before him, Ikhtiyar al-Din Hasan, was killed in 586 AH (1190) under Kılıç Arslan II.

Any name for 1200 would be the campaign's own.

Great families

Not a land of old noble houses. The weight lies with the sultan's household, the emirs who hold iqta', the kin of the Danishmendid house (dispossessed in the 1170s but still serving the Seljuks), and the Turkmen chiefs of the frontier. In the towns the Greek and Armenian notables, the Muslim judges (qadi) and the merchants matter.

Castles and towns

Held directly by the sultan: Konya, Aksaray, Kayseri, Sivas, Tokat, Niksar, Koyulhisar, Amasya, Niğde, Ereğli, Karaman (Laranda), Akşehir (Philomelion), Ilgın, the Beyşehir lake district, Uluborlu (Sozopolis), Kırşehir, and the Black Sea port of Samsun (Aminsos), which Choniates lists among Rukn al-Din's lands and calls 'recently taken by the Turks'. Held by brothers: Ankara and Çankırı (Mas'ud), Elbistan (Tughrilshah), Malatya (Qaysarshah). Kastamonu, Kütahya (Kotyaion) and Eskişehir (Dorylaion) sit on the frontier: in the shares of 1186 they went to Mas'ud and Kaykhusraw, but who commands them on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Mints tolls markets

Süleymanshah strikes coins at Konya, Aksaray, Kayseri and Sivas (TDV; a coin of 595 AH, 1198-1199, is known). Wealth comes from the caravan roads that cross the plateau (Konya, Aksaray, Kayseri, Sivas to the east; Sivas and Amasya to the Black Sea at Samsun), from salt, flocks and horses, and from the trade with Byzantium: merchants of Konya traded into the empire, and in 1200 Turkish merchants trading through Samsun appealed to the sultan when a Byzantine galley preyed on them. The great stone caravanserais and the fair at Yabanlu belong to later reigns; in 1200 the roads still rely on towns and a few early hans.

Treaties

• Mas'ud of Ankara has his own peace with Byzantium: after taking Dadibra in Paphlagonia in 1196 he made terms late in 1196 and the emperor paid him the sum agreed (Choniates via Brand).
• Byzantium: at peace since he took Konya. Brand (after Choniates) says Alexios III and Rukn al-Din 'remained at peace for several years' while the sultan dealt with his brothers, and that Alexios refused to help Kaykhusraw. TDV speaks of a yearly payment from the emperor under the treaty. The terms are not pinned. Confidence: medium-high that a peace is in force on 1 January 1200.
• Cilicia: after Süleymanshah's campaign of 595 AH (1198-1199) that recovered Ereğli and reached towards Adana, no peace treaty is dated. Vahram of Edessa's rhymed chronicle mentions an undated treaty by which Leo received money from 'the sultan of Iconium'. State of war or truce on 1 January 1200: not pinned.
• Elbistan: Tughrilshah's recognition of Süleymanshah as overlord, 594 AH (1197-1198).
• The caliph: a diploma of the sultanate from al-Nasir li-Din Allah (date not pinned).

Wars and feuds

• Against Qaysarshah of Malatya: open quarrel over his refusal to submit; no siege yet (Malatya falls on 23 June 1201). Confidence medium.
• Against Mas'ud of Ankara: a cold feud; Mas'ud was beaten once but holds his share. Confidence medium.
• Against Kaykhusraw, the exiled claimant: no fighting, but the emperor's shelter for him is a standing lever. Confidence high.
• Against Leo of Cilicia: Leo took many castles from the Turks after Kılıç Arslan II's death (Bar Hebraeus says seventy-two, from Turks and Greeks together); TDV says Leo's attack on Ereğli and Kayseri was beaten off in 1199 and that Süleymanshah's campaign of 595 AH (1198-1199) recovered Ereğli and reached towards Adana. Whether fighting or a truce holds that winter is not pinned (the Cilicia sheet records no fighting in 1199). Confidence low on the state of things on 1 January.
• With Byzantium: peace; the Turkmen of the uç raid on their own account when they can, as in the Maeander raids of about 1191-1192 and the camp on the Bathys near Dorylaion in 1196. No raid is dated to the winter of 1199-1200. Confidence medium.

Relations

Byzantium

Peace with Alexios III, who keeps the deposed Kaykhusraw at his court. The quarrel of 1200 (piracy against Samsun's shipping, the murder plot, Michael Doukas's raids) has not begun.

Cilicia

Hostile neighbour on the Taurus. Leo crowned king in January 1198 or 1199. Late in the 1190s Leo crossed the Taurus against Ereğli and Kayseri and was beaten off in 1199 (TDV 'Ereğli'); Süleymanshah's campaign of 595 AH (1198-1199) took back Ereğli (TDV 'Süleyman Şah II'). Kaykhusraw had sheltered with Leo at Sis in his exile.

Ayyubids

Qaysarshah of Malatya is tied to them and looks to them for help. TDV says Süleymanshah took Malatya in 1201 'with Ayyubid support', which points to a split among the Ayyubid princes (al-Adil against al-Zahir of Aleppo and al-Afdal in 1199-1201); which prince stood with whom on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Eastern emirates

The Saltukids of Erzurum, the Mengujekids of Erzincan and Divriği and the Artuqids of Harput are independent on 1 January 1200 (see the emi records). Their submission and the conquest of Erzurum come in 1202 (later).

Georgia

No direct war yet. Georgian pressure on Erzurum and Ani leads to Süleymanshah's campaign and defeat in 1202-1203 (later).

Caliphate

Recognises him as sultan.

Churches

The sultan's subjects include many Christians. The Greek Orthodox metropolitans of Ikonion, Caesarea, Sebasteia, Amaseia, Neocaesarea, Ankyra and Melitene answer to the patriarch of Constantinople, though several sees had few faithful left (the metropolitan of Ankyra told the synod in 1173 that few Christians remained in his city). Armenians are numerous in Cappadocia, Sivas and Malatya. The Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) church is strong around Malatya; its patriarch Michael the Great died in 1199 (date to be checked against the Malatya record).

Kaykhusraw's Greek captives settled near Akşehir (1196-1197) kept their faith. The Latin Church has no see here. Muslim judges (qadi), preachers and Sufis serve the towns; the madrasas and the great mosques mostly belong to later reigns, but the great mosque of Konya (begun by the earlier sultans, finished only in 1220), the Hoca Hasan madrasa at Kayseri (1193), Malikshah's great mosque at Sivas (1196-1197) and the mosque on the citadel hill of Ankara (dated 1178) stand.

Coinage

Silver dirhams and copper coins in the sultan's name from Konya, Aksaray, Kayseri and Sivas (TDV). His brothers struck their own coins in their shares (TDV on Kılıç Arslan II says the sons had coinage and the Friday sermon (khutba) in their own names); Tughrilshah's coins call him melik and sometimes great sultan.

The host

The sultan's household slave troops (ghulam), the emirs' iqta' contingents, the cities' garrisons, and the Turkmen of the frontier as auxiliaries. No numbers are given for 1199-1200. In about 1191-1192 the Turkmen emir Arsanes was said by Choniates to have brought 8,000 men to the second false Alexios: a single chronicler's figure for a Turkmen band, not for the sultan's army.

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

1. 1200 (season not pinned; Brand puts the rift in 1200)A Byzantine galley under Constantine Phrangopoulos, sent after a shipwreck at Kerasous, preys on ships trading with Samsun (Aminsos). Turkish merchants appeal to Süleymanshah, who demands compensation; Alexios III denies responsibility and the sultan breaks off treaty talks.Depends on: the emperor licensing the galley and refusing compensation. Stopped by: the emperor paying at once or reining in Phrangopoulos.
2. 1200 (Brand; some put it in 1201)Michael Doukas, bastard son of the sebastokrator John Doukas and governor of Mylasa and Melanoudion, rebels, flees to Konya, and is given Turkish troops to raid the Maeander valley.Depends on: Michael's revolt failing in the west and the sultan wishing to punish the emperor. Stopped by: the emperor buying Michael back, or the sultan refusing him.
3. 1200, after the merchants' affairAlexios III commissions one Chasisios to murder the sultan; he is caught with the emperor's letter. The sultan is 'doubly affronted'.Depends on: the quarrel over the merchants. Stopped by: a settlement before the plot.
4. autumn 1200Alexios marches into Bithynia as far as the baths of Pythia near Prousa and writes to Süleymanshah offering peace or war; a Turkish embassy comes to Constantinople and peace is made. It holds to the end of Alexios's reign.Depends on: both sides being busy elsewhere. Stopped by: a Turkish victory on the Maeander or a new provocation.
5. 19 Ramadan 597 AH (23 June 1201) by Ibn al-Athir and TDV; June of the Greek year 1511 (June 1200) by Bar HebraeusSüleymanshah takes Malatya from Qaysarshah, who flees to his father-in-law al-Adil and is settled at Edessa.Depends on: the Ayyubid split leaving Qaysarshah without help. Stopped by: al-Adil sending an army to Malatya, or a war elsewhere.
6. any time in 1200Kaykhusraw at Constantinople marries a daughter of Manuel Maurozomes (date not pinned; it may already have happened).Depends on: the emperor's favour. Stopped by: Kaykhusraw leaving the capital.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201: laterWhen Bohemond III of Antioch dies and the war over his succession opens, Bohemond IV seeks help from Süleymanshah and al-Zahir of Aleppo against Leo (the Cilicia sheet's account).Depends on: Bohemond III's death and Leo pressing Raymond-Roupen's claim. Stopped by: a settlement at Antioch.
2. 2 Shawwal 598 AH (25 June 1202) and after: laterSüleymanshah takes Erzurum from the Saltukids, gives it to Tughrilshah, and is beaten by the Georgians near Basiani (dated 1202 by TDV, 1203 by others).Depends on: Georgian pressure on Erzurum. Stopped by: peace with Georgia.
3. 1 Dhu'l-Qa'da 600 AH (1 July 1204): laterAfter a long siege Mas'ud surrenders Ankara and is killed with two sons on the road to the frontier fortress he was promised. Süleymanshah dies on 6 July 1204.Depends on: Süleymanshah alive and free of other wars. Stopped by: his death or defeat.

Where the sources disagree

• Date of Süleymanshah's takeover of Konya: TDV (from Ibn Bibi) 8 Dhu'l-Qa'da 592 (3 October 1196); Brand (following Choniates) 1197; the Byzantine sheet's realm record (con.json) says 1197. The brief's 1196 agrees with TDV.
• Lord of Amasya: TDV's articles on Kılıç Arslan II and on Amasya name Nizam al-Din Arghunshah; its article on Süleymanshah says Amasya was taken from Arslanshah (the name of the lord of Niğde). We follow Arghunshah.
• Order of conquests: TDV's article on Süleymanshah has him take Sivas, Aksaray and Kayseri before Konya; but a Kayseri coin and the Sivas mosque inscription in Malikshah's name are dated 593 AH (from about 24 November 1196), after Konya fell. The cities probably passed to Süleymanshah in 1197.
• Fall of Malatya: Bar Hebraeus puts it in June 1200 (Greek year 1511); Ibn al-Athir and TDV on 19 Ramadan 597 (23 June 1201). On Bar Hebraeus's date it falls in the game's first summer; we follow 1201.
• War with Cilicia in 1199: TDV 'Süleyman Şah II' says Süleymanshah campaigned against Leo in 595 AH (1198-1199) and recovered Ereğli, reaching towards Adana; TDV 'Ereğli' says Leo's attack on Ereğli and Kayseri was beaten off in 1199. The Cilicia researcher (cil.json) records no fighting with the Seljuks in 1199 and no war since a treaty of about 1190. Neither TDV article names its source; the campaign should rule.
• Tughrilshah's submission: TDV's Süleymanshah article dates it about Muharram 594 (late 1197); its Tuğrul Şah article says 594/1198. 594 AH runs from about 14 November 1197 to 2 November 1198, so both fit.
• The fall of Basiani: TDV puts the defeat in early Dhu'l-Qa'da 598 (July 1202); Wikipedia and Mikaberidze put it in 1203. Later than 1 January 1200 in either case.
• The GM's Church notes cover only the Latin Church and say nothing of Rum; no conflict.

Evidence: The chain of conquests is dated by Ibn Bibi and Ibn al-Athir (through the TDV encyclopedia), and the Byzantine relations by Choniates (through Brand). The household, the emirs and the iqta' holders of 1199-1200 are not named in the sources reached; the Turkmen are known only from Byzantine glimpses. Hijri dates converted with 592 AH beginning about 6 December 1195, 594 AH about 14 November 1197, 595 AH about 3 November 1198, 596 AH about 22 October 1199.

On the map: The sultanate had no linear border. The plateau towns and their districts are firm; the western and Paphlagonian edges are pastures and raiding grounds of Turkmen who obeyed the sultan when it suited them; the Taurus edge with Cilicia moved with each campaign (Ereğli changed hands before 1199). Brothers' appanages are drawn as lord records inside this outline.

Primary sources for this realm

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
• The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. 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
• Comfort of Hearts and Sign of Joy: a History of the Seljuks, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rawandi (Ravandi) (1203 to 1204, dedicated to Kaykhusraw I of Rum). A history of the Great Seljuks from their origins to the death of the last sultan Toghril III in 1194, begun at Hamadan and finished for Kaykhusraw of Rum when the author moved to Anatolia. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online

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