Oghuz Turks
The Oghuz, Oguz or Ghuzz Turks were a western Turkic people who spoke the Oghuz languages from the Common branch of Turkic language family. In the 8th century, they formed a tribal confederation conventionally named the Oghuz Yabgu State in central Asia; the name Oghuz is a Common Turkic word for "tribe". Byzantine sources call the Oghuz the Uzes. By the 10th century, Islamic sources were calling them Muslim Turkmens, as opposed to shamanist or Buddhist. By the 12th century this term had passed into Byzantine usage and the Oghuzes were overwhelmingly Muslim; the Oghuz confederation migrated westward from the Jeti-su area after a conflict with the Karluk branch of Uigurs. The founders of the Ottoman Empire were descendants of the Oghuzes. Today, a percentage of the residents of Turkey and Turkmenistan are descendants of Oghuz Turks and their language belongs to the Oghuz group of the Turkic languages family. In the 9th century, the Oghuzes from the Aral steppes drove Bechens from the Emba and Ural River region toward the west.
In the 10th century, they inhabited the steppe of the rivers Sari-su, Emba to the north of Lake Balkhash of modern-day Kazakhstan. A clan of this nation, the Seljuks, embraced Islam and in the 11th century entered Persia, where they founded the Great Seljuk Empire. In the 11th century, a Tengriist Oghuz clan—referred to as Uzes or Torks in the Russian chronicles—overthrew Pecheneg supremacy in the Russian steppe. Harried by another Turkic people, the Kipchaks, these Oghuz penetrated as far as the lower Danube, crossed it and invaded the Balkans, where they were struck down by an outbreak of plague, causing the survivors either to flee or to join the Byzantine imperial forces as mercenaries; the Oghuz seem to have been related to the Pechenegs, some of whom were clean-shaven and others of whom had small'goatee' beards. According to the book Attila and the Nomad Hordes, "Like the Kimaks they set up many carved wooden funerary statues surrounded by simple stone balbal monoliths." The authors of the book go on to note that "Those Uzes or Torks who settled along the Russian frontier were Slavicized, though they played a leading role as cavalry in 1100- and early 1200-era Russian armies, where they were known as Black Hats....
Oghuz warriors served in all Islamic armies of the Middle East from the 1000s onwards, in Byzantium from the 800's, in Spain and Morocco." In centuries, they adapted and applied their own traditions and institutions to the ends of the Islamic world and emerged as empire-builders with a constructive sense of statecraft. Linguistically, the Oghuz are listed together with the old Kimaks of the middle Yenisei of the Ob, the old Kipchaks who emigrated to southern Russia, the modern Kirghiz in one particular Turkic group, distinguished from the rest by the mutation of the initial y sound to j. "The term'Oghuz' was supplanted among the Turks themselves by Türkmen,'Turcoman', from the mid 900's on, a process, completed by the beginning of the 1200s.""The Ottoman dynasty, who took over Anatolia after the fall of the Seljuks, toward the end of the 13th century, led an army, predominantly Oghuz." The original homeland of the Oghuz was to the east of the Altai Mountains of Central Asia, the domain of Turkic peoples since prehistory.
During the 2nd century BC, according to ancient Chinese sources, a steppe tribal confederation known as the Xiongnu and their allies, the Wusun defeated the neighboring Yuezhi and drove them out of western China and into Central Asia. Various scholarly theories link the Xiongnu to Turkic peoples and/or the Huns; the first usage of the word "Oghuz" appears to have been the title of Oğuz Kağan, given in 220 BC to the Xiongnu king Modu Shanyu, who founded the Xiongnu Empire. According to a controversial theory with few scholarly adherents, one transliteration of Yuezhi, as Hu-chieh, may refer to the Turkic Uyghurs. However, the Yuezhi are believed to have spoken an Indo-European language or languages. Sima Qian recorded the name Wūjiē 烏揭 or Hūjiē 呼揭, of a people hostile to the Xiongnu and living west of them, in the area of the Irtysh River, near Lake Zaysan. Golden suggests that these might be Chinese renditions of * Ogur ~ * Oguz. Byzantian emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos mentioned the Uzi and Mazari as neighbours of the Pechenegs.
A number of subsequent tribal confederations bore the name Oghuz affixed to a numeral indicating the number of united tribes included. These include references to the Tokuz-Oghuz; the tribes of the Sekiz-Oghuz and the Tokuz-Oghuz occupied different areas in the vicinity of the Altai Mountains. However, the Transoxanian Oghuz Turks who founded the Oghuz Yabgu State were not the same tribal confederation as the Toquz Oghuz from whom emerged the founders of Uyghur Khaganate. During the establishment of the Göktürk Khaganate—a region extending from east of the Caspian Sea to the east of the Aral Sea and neighbouring the Karakum Desert in the south, similar to modern Kazakhstan—the Oghuz, in the above sense, remained in northeastern areas of the Altai, along the Tula River and near the Barlyk River. By the time of the Orkhon inscriptions "Oghuz" was being applied generically to all inhabitants of the Göktürk Khaganate. Within the khaganate, the Oghuz community expanded, incorporating other tribes.
Ibn al-Athir, an Arab historian, claimed that the Oghuz Turks were settled in Transoxiana, between the Caspian and Ar
Turkmens
Turkmens are a nation and Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia the Turkmen nation state of Turkmenistan. Smaller communities are found in Iran and North Caucasus, they speak the Turkmen language, classified as a part of the Eastern Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages. Examples of other Oghuz languages are Turkish, Qashqai, Gagauz and Salar. All Turkic tribes that were part of the Turkic dynastic mythological system were designated "Turkmens". Only did this word come to refer to a specific ethnonym; the term derives from Türk plus the Sogdian affix of similarity -myn, -men, means "resembling a Türk" or "co-Türk". A prominent Turkic scholar, Mahmud Kashgari mentions the etymology Türk manand; the language and ethnicity of the Turkmen were much influenced by their migration to the west. Kashgari calls the Karluks Turkmen as well, but the first time the etymology Turkmen was used was by Makdisi in the second half of the 10th century AD. Like Kashgari, he wrote that Oghuz Turks were called Turkmen.
Some modern scholars have proposed that the element -man/-men acts as an intensifier, have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks". Among Muslim chroniclers such as Ibn Kathir, the etymology was attributed to the mass conversion of two hundred thousand households in 971 AD, causing them to be named Turk Iman, a combination of "Turk" and "Iman" إيمان, meaning "believing Turks", with the term dropping the hard-to-pronounce hamza. All of the Western or Oghuz Turks have been called Türkmen or Turkoman; the modern Turkmen people descend, at least in part, from the Oghuz Turks of Transoxiana, the western portion of Turkestan, a region that corresponds to much of Central Asia as far east as Xinjiang. Oghuz tribes had moved westward from the Altay mountains in the 7th century AD, through the Siberian steppes, settled in this region, they penetrated as far west as the Volga basin and the Balkans. These early Turkmens are believed to have mixed with native Sogdian peoples and lived as pastoral nomads until the Russian invasion of the 19th century.
Signs of advanced settlements have been found throughout Turkmenistan including the Djeitun settlement where neolithic buildings have been excavated and dated to the 7th millennium BCE. By 2000 BCE, various Indo-European peoples began to settle throughout the region, as indicated by the finds at the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Notable early tribes included the nomadic Dahae and Scythians; the Achaemenid Empire annexed the area by the 4th century BCE and lost control of the region following the invasion of Alexander the Great, whose Hellenistic influence had an impact upon the area and some remnants have survived in the form of a planned city, discovered following excavations at Antiocheia. The Parni, a Dahae tribe came to dominate the region, established the Parthian Empire, which later fractured as a result of invasions from the north. Ephthalites, Göktürks came in a long parade of invasions; the Sassanid Empire based in Persia ruled the area prior to the coming of the Muslim Arabs during the Umayyad Caliphate by 716 CE.
The majority of the inhabitants were converted to Islam. Next came the Oghuz Turks, who imparted their language upon the local population. A tribe of the Oghuz, the Seljuks, established a Turko-Iranian culture that culminated in the Khwarezmid Empire by the 12th century. Mongol hordes led by Genghis Khan conquered the area between 1219 and 1221 and devastated many of the cities which led to a rapid decline of the remaining Iranian urban population; the Turkmen survived the Mongol period due to their semi-nomadic lifestyle and became traders along the Caspian, which led to contacts with Eastern Europe. Following the decline of the Mongols, Tamerlane conquered the area and his Timurid Empire would rule, until it too fractured, as the Safavids, Khanate of Bukhara, Khanate of Khiva all contested the area; the expanding Russian Empire took notice of Turkmenistan's extensive cotton industry, during the reign of Peter the Great, invaded the area. Following the decisive Battle of Geok Tepe in January 1881, Turkmenistan became a part of the Russian Empire.
After the Russian Revolution, Soviet control was established by 1921 as Turkmenistan was transformed from a medieval Islamic region to a secularized republic within a totalitarian state. By 1991, with the fall of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan achieved independence as well, but remained dominated by a one-party system of government led by the authoritarian regime of President Saparmurat Niyazov until his death in December 2006. Turkmen is the language of the titular nation of Turkmenistan, it is spoken by over 5,200,000 people in Turkmenistan, by 3,000,000 people in other countries, including Iran and Russia. Up to 30% of native speakers in Turkmenistan claim a good knowledge of Russian, a legacy of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Turkmen is not a literary language in Iran and Afghanistan, where many Turkmen tend towards bilingualism conversant in the countries' different dialects of Persian, such as Dari in Afghanistan. Variations of the Persian alphabet are, used in Iran. Genetic studies on mitochondrial DNA (m
Suleiman ibn Qutulmish
Kutalmışoglu Suleiman founded an independent Seljuq Turkish state in Anatolia and ruled as Seljuq Sultan of Rûm from 1077 until his death in 1086. Suleiman was the son of Qutalmish, who had struggled unsuccessfully against his cousin Alp Arslan for the throne of Great Seljuq Empire; when Kutalmish died in 1064, Suleiman fled with his three brothers into the Taurus Mountains and there sought refuge with Turkmen tribes living beyond the borders of the empire. Alp Arslan responded by launching a series of punitive expeditions against them. Of the four brothers, Suleiman alone survived the raids and was able to consolidate his leadership of the Turkmen. In 1078, the Byzantine emperor Michael VII sought the help of Suleiman against Nicephorus Botaneiates, the commander of the Anatolic Theme, who had challenged the emperor for the throne. Suleiman intercepted Botaneiates' small force between Cotyaeum and Nicaea, whereupon the usurper persuaded Suleiman to join his rebellion by offering him incentives superior to those of the emperor.
Nicephorus' bid for power was successful, in return for their support Suleiman's Turkmen were allowed to settle on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, near Constantinople itself. Two years Suleiman lent his support to another pretender, Nicephorus Melissenus, it was the latter Nicephorus who opened the gates of Nicaea to the Turkmen, allowing Suleiman to establish a permanent base. All Bithynia was soon under Suleiman's control, a circumstance which allowed him to restrict communication between Constantinople and the former Byzantine subjects in Anatolia. In 1084, Suleiman left Nicaea. Suleiman expanded his realm, in 1085 he proceeded to massacre its inhabitants. Moreover, the treasures of the church of St. Cassianus were stolen and the church was converted into a mosque, he was killed near Antioch in 1086 by the Seljuq ruler of Syria. Suleiman's son, Kilij Arslan I, was captured, Malik Shah transferred him to Isfahan as a hostage, it is uncertain whether Tutush killed Suleiman out of loyalty to Malik-Shah I or for personal gain.
Upon the death of Malik-Shah I, Kilij Arslan I re-established the Sultanate of Rûm
Malik-Shah I
Jalāl al-Dawla Mu'izz al-Dunyā Wa'l-Din Abu'l-Fatḥ ibn Alp Arslān, better known by his regnal name of Malik-Shah I, was Sultan of the Seljuq Empire from 1072 to 1092. During his youth, he spent his time participating in the campaigns of his father Alp Arslan, along the latter's vizier Nizam al-Mulk. During one of such campaigns in 1072, Alp Arslan was fatally died only a few days later. After that, Malik-Shah was crowned as the new sultan of the empire, Malik-Shah did not access the throne peacefully, had to fight his uncle Qavurt, who claimed the throne. Although Malik-Shah was the nominal head of the Seljuq state, the vizier Nizam al-Mulk held near absolute power during his reign. Malik-Shah spent the rest of his reign waging war against the Karakhanids on the eastern side, establishing order in the Caucasus. Malik-Shah's death to this day remains under dispute. Although he was known by several names, he was known as "Malik-Shah", a combination of the Arabic word malik and the Persian word shah.
Malik-Shah spent his youth in Isfahan. According to the 12th-century Persian historian Muhammad bin Ali Rawandi, Malik-Shah had fair skin, was tall and somewhat bulky. In 1064, Malik-Shah, only 9 years old by along with Nizam al-Mulk, the Persian vizier of the Empire, took part in Alp Arslan’s campaign in the Caucasus; the same year, Malik-Shah was married to Terken Khatun, the daughter of the Karakhanid khan Ibrahim Tamghach-Khan. In 1066, Alp Arslan arranged a ceremony near Merv, where he appointed Malik-Shah as his heir and granted him Isfahan as a fief. In 1071, Malik-Shah took part in the Syrian campaign of his father, stayed in Aleppo when his father fought the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at Manzikert. In 1072, Malik-Shah and Nizam al-Mulk accompanied Alp-Arslan during his campaign in Transoxiana against the Karakhanids. However, Alp-Arslan was badly wounded during his expedition, Malik-Shah shortly took over the army. Alp-Arslan died some days and Malik-Shah was declared as the new sultan of the empire.
However, right after Malik-Shah accession, his uncle Qavurt claimed the throne for himself and sent Malik-Shah a message which said: "I am the eldest brother, you are a youthful son. Malik-Shah replied by sending the following message: "A brother does not inherit when there is a son.". This message enraged Qavurt. In 1073 a battle took place near Hamadan. Qavurt was accompanied by his seven sons, his army consisted of Turkmens, while the army of Malik-Shah consisted of ghulams and contingents of Kurdish and Arab troops. During the battle, the Turks of Malik-Shah's army mutinied against him, but he managed to defeat and capture Qavurt. Qavurt begged for mercy and in return promised to retire to Oman. However, Nizam al-Mulk declined the offer. After some time, Qavurt was strangled to death with a bowstring. After having dealt with that problem, Malik-Shah appointed Qutlugh-Tegin as the governor of Fars and Sav-Tegin as the governor of Kerman. Malik-Shah turned his attention towards the Karakhanids, who had after the death of Alp-Arslan invaded Tukharistan, ruled by Malik-Shah's brother Ayaz, unable to repel the Karakhanids and was killed by them.
Malik-Shah managed to repel the Karakhanids and captured Tirmidh, giving Sav-Tegin the key of the city. Malik-Shah appointed his other brother Shihab al-Din Tekish as the ruler of Tukharistan and Balkh. During the same period, the Ghaznavid ruler Ibrahim was seizing Seljuq territory in northern Khorasan, but was defeated by Malik-Shah, who made peace with the latter and gave his daughter Gawhar Khatun in marriage to Ibrahim's son Mas'ud III. In 1074, Malik-Shah ordered the Turkic warlord Arghar to restore what he had destroyed during his raids in the territory of the Shirvanshah Fariburz I. During the same year, he appointed Qavurt's son Rukn al-Dawla Sultan-Shah as the ruler of Kerman. One year Malik-Shah sent an army under Sav-Tegin to Arran, ruled by the Shaddadid ruler Fadlun III. Sav-Tegin managed to conquer the region, thus ending Shaddadid rule. Malik-Shah gave Gorgan to Fadlun III as a fief. Throughout Malik's reign new institutions of learning were established and it was during this time that the Jalali calendar was reformed at the Isfahan observatory.
In 1089, Malik-Shah captured Samarkand with the support of the local clergy, imprisoned its Karakhanid ruler Ahmad Khan ibn Khizr, the nephew of Terken Khatun. He marched to Semirechye, made the Karakhanid Harun Khan ibn Sulayman, the ruler of Kashgar and Khotan, acknowledge him as his suzerain. In 1092 Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated near Sihna, on the road to Baghdad, by a man disguised as a Sufi; as the assassin was cut down by Nizam's bodyguard, it became impossible to establish with certainty who had sent him. One theory had it that he was an Is'maili fanatic, since these made attempts on the lives of Seljuq officials and rulers during the 11th century. Another theory had it that the attack had been instigated by Malik-Shah, who may have grown tired of his overmighty vizier. After Nizam al-Mulk's death, Malik-Shah appointed another Persian named Taj al-Mulk Abu'l Ghana'im as his vizier. Mal
Anatolia
Anatolia known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, the Anatolian peninsula or the Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Armenian Highlands to the east and the Aegean Sea to the west; the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. The eastern border of Anatolia is traditionally held to be a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea, bounded by the Armenian Highland to the east and Mesopotamia to the southeast. Thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. Nowadays, Anatolia is often considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, which comprises the entire country. By some definitions, the area called the Armenian highlands lies beyond the boundary of the Anatolian plateau.
The official name of this inland region is the Eastern Anatolia Region. The ancient inhabitants of Anatolia spoke the now-extinct Anatolian languages, which were replaced by the Greek language starting from classical antiquity and during the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. Major Anatolian languages included Hittite and Lydian among other more poorly attested relatives; the Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century and continued under the Ottoman Empire between the late 13th and early 20th centuries. However, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Neo-Aramaic, Arabic, Laz and Greek. Other ancient peoples in the region included Galatians, Assyrians, Cimmerians, as well as Ionian and Aeolian Greeks. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to an indefinite line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea, coterminous with the Anatolian Plateau; this traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia.
To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria and the Mesopotamian plain. Following the Armenian genocide, Ottoman Armenia was renamed "Eastern Anatolia" by the newly established Turkish government. Vazken Davidian terms the expanded use of "Anatolia" to apply to territory referred to as Armenia an "ahistorical imposition", notes that a growing body of literature is uncomfortable with referring to the Ottoman East as "Eastern Anatolia". Most archeological sources consider the boundary of Anatolia to be Turkey's eastern border; the highest mountains in "Eastern Anatolia" are Mount Ararat. The Euphrates, Araxes and Murat rivers connect the Armenian plateau to the South Caucasus and the Upper Euphrates Valley. Along with the Çoruh, these rivers are the longest in "Eastern Anatolia"; the oldest known reference to Anatolia – as “Land of the Hatti” – appears on Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets from the period of the Akkadian Empire. The first recorded name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula, Ἀσία echoed the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia.
As the name "Asia" broadened its scope to apply to other areas east of the Mediterranean, Greeks in Late Antiquity came to use the name Μικρὰ Ἀσία or Asia Minor, meaning "Lesser Asia" to refer to present-day Anatolia. The English-language name Anatolia itself derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more “sunrise”; the precise reference of this term has varied over time originally referring to the Aeolian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolia Region; the term "Anatolia" is Medieval Latin. The modern Turkish form of Anatolia, derives from the Greek name Aνατολή; the Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin. The term "Anatolia" referred to a northwestern Byzantine province. By the 12th century Europeans had started referring to Anatolia as Turchia, it has also been called "Asia Minor". In earlier times, it was called" Rûm" by the Seljuqs.
During the era of the Ottoman Empire mapmakers outside the Empire referred to the mountainous plateau in eastern Anatolia as Armenia. Other contemporary sources called the same area Kurdistan. Geographers have variously used the terms east Anatolian plateau and Armenian plateau to refer to the region, although the territory encompassed by each term overlaps with the other. According to archaeologist Lori Khatchadourian this difference in terminology "primarily result from the shifting political fortunes and cultural trajectories of the region since the nineteenth century."Turkey's First Geography Congress in 1941 created two regions to the east of the Gulf of Iskenderun-Black Sea line named the Eastern Anatolia Region and the Southeastern Anatolia Region, the former corresponding to the weste
Kilij Arslan II
Kilij Arslan II or ʿIzz ad-Dīn Qilij Arslān bin Masʿūd was a Seljuk Sultan of Rûm from 1156 until his death in 1192. As Arnold of Lübeck reports in his Chronica Slavorum, he was present at the meeting of Henry the Lion with Kilij-Arslan during the former's pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1172; when they met near Tarsus, the sultan embraced and kissed the German duke, reminding him that they were blood cousins. When the duke asked for details of this relationship, Kilij Arslan informed him that'a noble lady from the land of Germans married a king of Russia who had a daughter by her. In 1159, Kilij Arslan attacked Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus as he marched past Iconium, as Manuel returned from negotiating with Nur ad-Din Zengi in Syria. In 1161 Manuel's nephew John Contostephanus defeated Kilij Arslan, the sultan travelled to Constantinople in a show of submission. In 1173 Kilij Arslan, now at peace with the Byzantines, allied with Nur ad-Din against Mosul; the peace treaty with the Byzantines lasted until 1175, when Kilij Arslan refused to hand over to Manuel the territory conquered from the Danishmends, although both sides had for some time been building up their fortifications and armies in preparation for a renewed war.
Kilij Arslan tried to negotiate, but Manuel invaded the sultanate in 1176, intending to capture Iconium itself. Kilij Arslan was able to defeat Emperor Manuel I Komnenos's army at the Battle of Myriokephalon, the Sultan forced the emperor to negotiate a fragile peace. In 1179 Kilij Arslan captured and held to ransom Henry I, the renowned count of Champagne, returning overland from a visit to Jerusalem; the ransom was paid by the Byzantine Emperor and Henry was released, but died soon afterwards. In 1180 the sultan took advantage of the instability in the Byzantine Empire after Manuel's death to secure most of the southern coast of Anatolia, sent his vizier Ikhtiyar al-Din to conclude an alliance with Saladin, Nur ad-Din's successor, that same year. In 1182, he succeeded in capturing the city of Cotyaeum from the Byzantines. In 1185 he made peace with Emperor Isaac II Angelus, but the next year he transferred power to his nine sons, who fought each other for control. Despite Kilij Arslan's alliance with Saladin he was unable to stop the armies of the Third Crusade.
During the late 12th century, at the behest of Kilij Arslan II, the Seljuq palace Alâeddin Kosku was built in Konya. Kilij Arslan died after promising Kaykhusraw I the succession. Kaykhusraw I's brothers continued to fight for control of the other parts of the sultanate. Adalian, Rouben Paul. Historical Dictionary of Armenia. Scarecrow Press, Inc. Cahen, Claude. "The Turks in Iran and Anatolia before the Mongol Invasions". In Wolff, Robert Lee. A History of the Crusades. Vol.2. The University of Wisconsin Press. Hamilton, Bernard; the Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press. Magdalino, Paul. "Court and Capital in Byzantium". In Duindam, Jeroen. Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires: A Global Perspective. Vol. 1. Brill. Peacock, A. C. S.. The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Medieval Middle East. I. B. Tauris. Redford, Scott. "Thirteenth-Century Rum Seljuq Palaces and Palace Imagery". Ars Orientalis. 23
Mesud I
Mesud I', Masud I or Ma'sud I (Modern Turkish: I. Rükneddin Mesud or Rukn al-Dīn Mas'ūd was the sultan of the Seljuks of Rum from 1116 until his death in 1156. Following the defeat and death of his father Kilij Arslan I fighting against Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan of Aleppo at the battle of Khabur river in 1107, Masud lost the throne in favor of his brother Malik Shah. With the help of the Danishmends, Masud captured Konya and defeated Malikshah in 1116 blinding and murdering him. Masud would turn on the Danishmends and conquer their lands. In 1130, he started construction of the Alâeddin Mosque in Konya, completed in 1221. Masud, towards the end of his reign, fought against the armies of the Second Crusade. There were two armies, one led German emperor Conrad III and the other led by the French king Louis VII. Masud defeated both of them; when he died, Masud was succeeded by his son Kilij Arslan II. One of Masud's daughters married John Tzelepes Komnenos, a member of the royal house of Byzantium who had converted to Islam
Turkey topics
