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. For 1200 it gives Sulayman II's consolidation and the exile court of Kaykhusraw. Written eighty years later from court tradition, favourable to the Seljuk house and weak on dates.
About this source
- Title
- al-Awamir al-Ala'iyya fi'l-umur al-Ala'iyya (Saljuqnama)
- Author
- Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad)
- Author's dates
- died after 1285
- Written
- about 1281 to 1285, at Konya
- Language
- Persian
- Covers
- 1192 to 1280
- Kind
- History
The free Persian text is the anonymous abridgement printed by Houtsma (the Internet Archive item binds vols 3 and 4 together); the full text exists only in the facsimile and in Duda's German, both in copyright. No English translation.
Where to read it
Editions
- M. T. Houtsma (ed.), Recueil de textes relatifs a l'histoire des Seldjoucides, vols 3 and 4 (Leiden, 1891 and 1902): the Turkish version and the Persian abridgement of Ibn Bibi
- A. S. Erzi (ed.), El-Evamiru'l-Ala'iyye fi'l-umuri'l-Ala'iyye, facsimile of the Aya Sofya manuscript (Ankara, 1956), the full text (not freely online)
Translations
- H. W. Duda, Die Seltschukengeschichte des Ibn Bibi (Copenhagen, 1959), German (not freely online)
- Russian extract (T. K. Beisembiev, 1999) on the years 1204 to 1211, at vostlit.info