Between the sultan's western towns and the Byzantine valley towns the plateau edge is Turkmen pasture: the upper Maeander, the uplands round Chonai and the hills of Kibyra and Pisidia in the south-west, and the Dorylaion plain and the Bathys valley facing Bithynia in the north-west.
The nomads move their flocks between summer pastures on the plateau and winter grazing lower down, raid the valleys for flocks and captives, and follow pretenders and rebels who promise plunder. Whether they answer to the sultan, to Mas'ud of Ankara or to no one in 1200 is not pinned. On 1 January 1200 the sultan is at peace with Byzantium and no Turkmen raid is dated to that winter.
Each frontier has its own record.
Who rules
- Name
- None named for 1 January 1200; the one chief named in these years is the emir Arsanes (about 1191-1196)
- Title
- Emirs (beys) of the frontier Turkmen
- Confidence
- low
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: No Turkmen chief is named for 1199-1200; the ranges are drawn between the Byzantine valley towns and the sultan's towns, as each record explains.
On the map: One colour for the frontier nomads; each range is drawn in its own record.
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 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 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.