Anatolia
Culturally, Anatolia always remained a region of diversity. By the late 6th century, most of the non-Greek indigenous languages—such as Isaurian, Galatian, and Lycian—had died out, except for Armenian and some related dialects in the northeast. There is some slight evidence, however, that certain languages survived longer in the more isolated regions. Greek dominated, although a wide range of dialect forms seems to have developed, some of which still survive outside modern Turkey: Pontic Greek, for example, moved with its refugee speakers during the 1923 exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey.
In theory, a uniform Christian faith dominated, but in practice local variations, often bordering on the heretical, marked many districts. From the later 7th century there is evidence for several heretical dualist sects, most important among whom were the Paulicians of the eastern mountain region (centred around modern Divrigi), who in the 9th century—with military and financial assistance from the Caliphate—posed a serious threat to the unity of the state until they were crushed by the emperor Basil I (867–886). During the iconoclastic period the various theme districts took different sides, although this development reflects local vested interests and political opportunism rather than religious affiliations.
In its efforts to cope with demographic and fiscal problems and to eradicate religious opposition, the state often transferred populations from one area to another. Anatolia thus gained from the import of Slavic and other Balkan peoples, while southeastern Europe received heretical groups who brought with them dualist ideas and stimulated the growth of heterodox beliefs (such as Bogomilism in Bulgaria) during the 10th and 11th centuries. From the 11th century there was a large-scale migration of Armenians and Syrians into southwestern Asia Minor, partly a result of imperial expansion eastward in the 10th century and partly a result of the Seljuq threat in the mid-11th century.
The results of the arrival of the Seljuqs and their defeat of the Byzantine forces under the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 deprived the Byzantines of central and eastern Anatolia. Thereafter they were limited to the coastal regions, although in the west, more open to attack and infiltration from the plateau, even this position remained precarious. Under the emperors of the Comnenus dynasty (1081–1185), Byzantine authority was reestablished across the western part of the peninsula, partly through skillful exploitation of the First and Second Crusades. After another disastrous battle with the Seljuqs at Myriocephalon in 1176, however, effective control over much of the reconquered territory was lost.
After the disaster of the sack and capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and the establishment of the Latin empire, northwestern Anatolia became the centre of the most important of the Byzantine successor states, the empire of Nicaea under the dynasty of the Lascarids. Centred in the Aegean region and Bithynia, the Lascarids established a modus vivendi with the Seljuq power and retook Constantinople from the Latins in 1261. The reconquest of Constantinople was, in fact, a disaster for the empire's Anatolian possessions, since with the transfer of imperial attention back to Constantinople the Asian provinces were neglected just as the Mongols weakened Seljuq hegemony over the nomadic Turkmen tribes, allowing them unrestricted access to the ill-defended Byzantine districts. Most of the southwestern and central coastal regions were lost by about 1270, and the interior, including the important Maeander River valley, by 1300. Independent Turkmen principalities or emirates, among them the fledgling power of the Ottomans, posed a constant threat to the surviving districts. By 1315 the Byzantines had lost the remaining Aegean regions, and Bithynia succumbed by 1337. With the loss in 1390 of the semiautonomous region around Philadelphia to the Ottomans, the history of Byzantine Anatolia comes to an end. (For further details on the history of the Byzantine Empire, see also the article Byzantine Empire.)
By John Frederick Haldon
The Seljuqs of Anatolia Origins and ascendancy
As early as the 10th century, irregular groups of Turkmen warriors (also called Oguz, Ghuzz, or Oghuz), originally from Central Asia, began to move into Azerbaijan and to encroach upon the Armenian principalities of Vaspurakan, Taik, and Ani along the easternmost border of the Byzantine Empire. Armenian historians of this period speak of their adversaries as “. . . long-haired Turkmens armed with bow and lance on horses which flew like the wind . . . .” The Armenian princes appealed to Constantinople for protection from these forays, and in 1000 the emperor Basil II (ruled 976–1025) annexed the domains of David of Taik. In 1021 the ruler of Vaspurakan ceded his lands to Basil because he was unable to withstand the Turkmen incursions; the following year, Sempad of Ani handed his principality over to the emperor on the condition that he be allowed to continue to rule until his death, and Ani was subsequently conquered outright by the Byzantines in 1045. These attempts by the Byzantines to reorganize their eastern frontier doubtless weakened their defenses and may have ultimately brought about the total collapse of the empire.
For the Great Seljuq sultans—themselves Turkmens who had established a vast polity based in the Iranian plateau—these lawless elements posed a threat to the stability of their state. By diverting their aggressions into Anatolia, the sultans prevented depredations in Muslim territories, increased their own power against the Byzantine Empire, and provided land and livelihood for the Turkmen warriors. On occasion, the Great Seljuq sultans Toghrïl Beg (1038–63) and Alp-Arslan (1063–72) or their close relatives led these expeditions in person. Beginning in the 1040s, Anatolia was subjected to periodic Turkmen raids for nearly 30 years, some reaching as far west as Sivas (Sebastea) and Konya (Iconium). These offensives culminated in the decisive Battle of Manzikert north of Lake Van on Aug. 26, 1071, in which the Turkmen forces under Alp-Arslan vanquished the Byzantine army and captured the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes. With the frontier completely shattered, the Turkmens were able to range over most of Anatolia virtually at will.
In the eastern and central regions, the earliest settlements were those of the Mangujakids, who came to exercise control over Divrigi (Tephrike), Erzincan (Keltzine), and Kemah (Camcha) until 1252; the Saltuqids, who ruled in Erzurum (Theodosiopolis) until 1201; and, most importantly, the Danishmendids, who were centred in Sivas, Kayseri (Caesarea Cappadociae), and Amasya (Amaseia) until 1177. In western Anatolia another important chieftain was Sulayman, the son of Qutalmïsh, a distant cousin of the ruling Great Seljuq sultan Malik-Shah (1072–92), who had succeeded his father Alp-Arslan. About 1075, Sulayman captured Nicaea (Iznik) and Nicomedia (Izmit), threatening Constantinople. This prompted the new emperor Michael VII Ducas (1071–78) to appeal to Pope Gregory VII for aid against the invaders, promising in return his support for the reunification of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Sulayman's activities also attracted the concern of Malik-Shah, who attempted unsuccessfully to dislodge his kinsman on several occasions. However, after making Nicaea his capital and renaming it Iznik, about 1080 Sulayman assumed the title “sultan” in defiance of Malik-Shah, an event generally accepted as marking the beginning of independent Seljuq rule in Anatolia—known as Rum (“Rome”—i.e., the eastern Roman Empire). He spent the next several years expanding his holdings to the east and to the south and finally was killed at Antioch (Antakya) in 1086 by his relative Tutush of the Syrian branch of the Seljuqs, who was loyal to Malik-Shah.
Seljuq Expansion
After a six-year interregnum Sulayman's second son Qïlïch Arslan, released from captivity after the death of Malik-Shah, finally was able to repossess Iznik in 1092 and then gradually to regain control of his father's dominions. Four years later western European crusaders, responding to the call of Pope Urban II to liberate the Holy Land, entered Anatolia on their way to Jerusalem. After dispersing the ragtag army of the People's Crusade, Qïlïch Arslan was defeated by the forces of the First Crusade at Iznik and again at Dorylaeum (Eskisehir) in 1097 and driven back onto the Anatolian plateau. There he regrouped and established a capital at Konya, a city that would remain the principal Seljuq centre until the end of the dynasty at the beginning of the 14th century. In the wake of the crusader triumph, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus (ruled 1081–1118) again subjugated the western regions of Anatolia. In alliance with his major Turkmen rival Malik Danishmend Ghazi, Qïlïch Arslan I continued to struggle against the crusaders, but, when Malik Danishmend Ghazi died in 1104, he revived his father's policy of expansion eastward. After taking Mosul in 1107, he engaged the forces of the Great Seljuq sultan Muhammad Tapar, son of Malik-Shah, but was drowned in the Khabur River. This clash, the last encounter of the Iran-based Great Seljuqs with the descendants of Qutalmïsh, limited the ambitions and the sphere of influence of the latter to Anatolia.
Qïlïch Arslan I's real political heir was his son Rukn ad-Din Mas'ud I. He seized Konya in 1116 with the help of his father-in-law Amir Ghazi Gümüshtegin Danishmend, who had come to power after the death of his father Malik Danishmend Ghazi. During his nearly 40-year rule Rukn ad-Din Mas'ud held back the Byzantines while patiently expanding his territories at the expense of his crusader, Danishmendid, and other Muslim neighbours. When the Danishmendids broke into warring factions after 1142, Rukn ad-Din Mas'ud began to absorb their holdings and began the real development of Konya as a capital city. By the time of his death in 1155, the Seljuq state had become the dominant power in central and eastern Anatolia.
Rukn ad-Din Mas'ud's son 'Izz ad-Din Qïlïch Arslan II (1155–92), who ruled nearly as long as his father, is considered one of the most important of the Anatolian Seljuq sultans. He first concluded an alliance with the Byzantines to free his hand in dealing with the remnants of the Danishmendids, and he was able to seize all their territories in 1174 after the death of their protector Nureddin, the counter-crusading strongman of Syria. Qïlïch Arslan II then crushed his erstwhile Byzantine allies under the emperor Manuel Comnenus at the Battle of Myriocephalon on Sept. 17, 1176. This defeat, which occurred only slightly more than a century after the Battle of Manzikert, marked the end of Byzantine aspirations to reconquer Anatolia and the rise of the Seljuqs to total ascendancy there. Qïlïch Arslan's victory may also have won him the recognition of the 'Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, for he began to mint coins bearing the name of al-Mustadi' (1170–80).
In accordance with the notion of corporate rule prevalent in many Turkish states—which held that all male members of the dynasty shared equally in the sovereignty—about 1186 the aging sultan appanaged his realm among his 10 sons, a brother, and a nephew. The political rivalries and disunity produced by this measure among the Seljuq princes, coupled with the irruption of the Frankish warriors of the Third Crusade, who occupied Konya in 1190, temporarily brought an end to the expansion of the state and appeared to nullify the achievement of 'Izz ad-Din Qïlïch Arslan II. The situation was further complicated by the founding in 1198 of the kingdom of Cilician Armenia by refugees from the frontier and the population that had been resettled there by the Byzantines. Occasionally allied with the crusaders and later with the Mongols, the Cilician kings were frequently at odds with their Turkmen neighbours. In 1194 the Anatolian Seljuqs finally became the sole representatives of the dynasty after the death of the last Great Seljuq sultan in Iran.
The Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204 destroyed the unity of the Byzantine Empire for many decades and created a patchwork of Greek principalities, some of which were allied with the Seljuqs against the crusaders. For a brief period, Russia was threatened by Latin Christianity from the South and the West.
Qïlïch Arslan's son by a Byzantine princess, Ghiyas ad-Din Kay-Khusraw I (Kaikhosrau; 1192–96, 1205–11), seized Konya in 1205 with the aid of the Greek lord Maurozomes and the frontier Turkmens. Under this ruler and his two sons and successors, 'Izz ad-Din Ka'us I (1211–20) and 'Ala' ad-Din Kay-Qubadh I (1220–37), the Anatolian Seljuqs achieved the zenith of their power. Ghiyas ad-Din Kay-Khusraw I reunified the Seljuq state and began to expand at the expense of what was left of the Byzantine Empire in the west and north. His most important achievements included the capture of the harbour of Antalya (Attalia) on the Mediterranean coast in 1207 and the conclusion of commercial treaties with the Italians. Thereafter the Seljuqs were no longer limited to the interior of the Anatolian plateau, a fact of great economic as well as political significance. Kay-Khusraw I was killed in 1211 after a battle with the Greek Theodore I Lascaris, founder of the Nicaean empire and enemy of Maurozomes. His eldest son, 'Izz ad-Din Kay-Ka'us I, first made peace with Theodore and then went on the offensive, taking Sinop in 1214 and thus giving the Seljuqs a maritime outlet on the Black Sea. At this time he also compelled the Greek ruler of Trebizond (Trabzon) to accept Seljuq overlordship. 'Izz ad-Din also subjugated Cilician Armenia, but he was not as successful in his efforts to dominate the Ayyubid descendants of the great Muslim hero Saladin in Syria and was forced to withdraw from Aleppo in 1218.
'Ala' ad-Din Kay-Qubadh I built on the accomplishments of his father and brother. From 1221 to 1225 he conquered most of the Mediterranean littoral up to the frontiers of Syria. Following these victories, he launched an expeditionary force across the Black Sea against Crimea, parts of which remained in Seljuq hands until 1239. In the east he annexed territory seized from the Turkmen Mangujakids and Artuqids. These triumphs brought him into conflict with the Khwarazmian adventurer Jalal ad-Din, hIikhn out of eastern Iran by the Mongols of Genghis Khan. Unsuccessful in his attempts to resist the Central Asian conqueror, Jalal ad-Din had taken up the life of a freebooter fighting against the Muslim rulers of Iran, Anatolia, and Syria. In 1230 he took Ahlat from the Ayyubids after a brutal siege and was on the verge of attacking eastern Anatolia when his forces were routed west of Erzincan by a combined Seljuq-Ayyubid army. He fled to Diyarbakir, where he died the next year. After this victory 'Ala' ad-Din ousted the Seljuq prince of Erzurum and conquered the Lake Van area, pushing the borders of the Anatolia Seljuq state up to the old eastern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire. He then successfully defended these new acquisitions by repelling a massive Ayyubid invasion in 1233. By the time 'Ala' ad-Din died in 1237, Mongol reconnoitrers had already begun to probe the borders of his realm, much as the Turkmens had tested the Byzantine marches two centuries earlier.
During the first four decades of the 13th century, the Anatolian Seljuq sultanate emerged as one of the most important Muslim states of the age. Its government, similar to that of the Great Seljuqs, was inspired by Iranian concepts of centralized authority and was largely staffed by Iranian bureaucrats who used Persian as the language of administration. Turkmen tribesmen formed the major arm of the military, but they were sometimes counterbalanced by a servile or conscript bodyguard loyal only to the sultan. The tribes dwelling in the Byzantine borderlands (uj) were led by local chieftains (uj beyleri) who were, by and large, loyal to their Seljuq overlords. In the later 13th century, however, the most powerful march wardens became more independent in conducting military operations against the Byzantines and in intervening in disputes in the Seljuq capital.
The sedentary population over which the Seljuqs ruled was extremely heterogeneous and included large numbers of both Armenian and Greek Christians, most of whom were engaged in agriculture. In the towns and cities, Muslim artisans and craftsmen were often linked to other elements in society through membership in ethical and chivalric organizations known as futuwa. Though there were sometimes violent rivalries among competing futuwa leaders, these groups were generally a source of stability in urban society and often influenced the course of political events. After his conquest of Sinop, 'Izz ad-Din Kay-Ka'us I himself had been initiated into one of these organizations by the 'Abbasid caliph an-Nasir.
Commerce was also an important component of the Anatolian Seljuq economy. The Crusades had created a demand for eastern luxury goods in Europe, and the sultans and their administrators showed great interest in promoting trade. They first secured political control of the major east-west and north-south routes crossing their territories and then built up the infrastructure of commerce. Between 1201 and 1243, for example, nearly 30 fortified rest houses (karvansarai or khan) were erected along the Anatolian high roads for the protection of traveling merchants. Other fortifications, bridges, and harbours were constructed, many of which are still extant. With the immense wealth derived from these policies, the rulers not only built palaces and tombs for themselves but also founded mosques, seminaries, and other religious centres, both as monuments to their piety and as vehicles for the Islamization of their non-Muslim subjects. In addition to architects they patronized historians such as Rawandi (fl. c. 1206) and Ibn Bibi (fl. c. 1285), thinkers such as as-Suhrawardi, Ibn al-'Arabi, and Sadr ad-Din Qunawi, and Persian- and Turkish-language poets such as Yunus Emre, 'Iraqi, and Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi. Jalal ad-Din ad-Rumi, known by his title mawlana (“our master”), authored the massive mystical poem Masnavi-ye Ma'navi (“Spiritual Couplets”), a classic of Persian literature sometimes designated “the Persian Qur'an.” He also established the Mawlawiyah (Mevleviyah) mystical order, whose members utilized music and dance to achieve spiritual states and were thus called “whirling dervishes.” The Mawlawiyah and other religious orders were doubtless more effective in spreading Islam in Anatolia than the sultans' pious foundations. In any event, it is certainly true that the religious and cultural foundations of the modern state of Turkey were laid in Seljuq times.
'Ala' ad-Din Kay-Qubadh was succeeded by his eldest son Ghiyas ad-Din Kay-Khusraw II (1237–46), who reached the throne by killing his two half brothers and their Ayyubid mother along with many military commanders and dignitaries. Although he initially obtained some successes in the southeastern part of his realm by annexing Amida (Diyarbakir), thus pushing the boundaries of the Anatolian Seljuq state up to those of modern Turkey, he faced two severe challenges to his rule. The first was the Baba'i rebellion, a three-year religio-political uprising led by the popular preacher Baba Ishaq that broke out in 1239 among the Turkmens in southeastern and central Anatolia. After finally quelling this revolt, he was faced by a far more dangerous threat as the Mongols steadily bore down upon the region, taking Erzurum in 1242. In 1243 Kay-Khusraw II was crushed by the Mongol commander Bayju at Köse Dag between Sivas and Erzincan, and the Anatolian Seljuqs passed under Mongol suzerainty as vassals. Kay-Khusraw II fled to Antalya, leaving his minister to come to terms with the Mongols. Cilician Armenia transferred its loyalty to the Mongols, and Turkmen revolts broke out along the western frontiers.
Division and Decline
After the death of Kay-Khusraw II in 1246, the Seljuq realm was divided among his three sons. The eldest, 'Izz ad-Din Kay-Ka'us II (ruled 1246–60), assumed the rule in the area west of the Kizil River with the support of local Byzantine lords and the Turkmen borderland chieftains. Backed by Mongol generals and Iranian bureaucrats, his younger brothers Rukn ad-Din Qïlïch Arslan IV (1248–65) and 'Ala' ad-Din Kay-Qubadh II (1249–57) were installed east of the Kizil. From this point onward the Seljuq sultans were essentially figureheads, while real power remained in the hands of administrators such as Shams ad-Din Isfahani (1246–49), Jalal ad-Din Qaratay (1249–54), and especially Mu'in ad-Din Sulayman Parvana (1261–77).
In October 1256 Bayju inflicted a second defeat on the Seljuqs near Aksaray. This created a situation even more dangerous for the Seljuqs than had the defeat at Köse Dag, as from this point onward Mongol troops were permanently stationed throughout Anatolia until 1335. In 1257 the Mongol great khan Möngke approved a condominium of 'Izz ad-Din Kay-Ka'us II and Rukn ad-Din Qïlïch Arslan IV under the tutelage of Mu'in ad-Din Sulayman Parvana. In 1260, however, 'Izz ad-Din abandoned Konya and took refuge in Crimea, where he died in 1279. His brother Rukn ad-Din was executed in Aksaray in 1265 by order of the Parvana, who enthroned the child Ghiyas ad-Din Kay-Khusraw III (1265–84) in his father's place.
Seljuq Anatolia then became a battleground for contending external forces. In the 1270s, the Parvana opened diplomatic relations with Mamluks of Syria and Egypt, a military corps of servile origin that had supplanted the Ayyubids and had emerged as the most formidable enemies of the Mongols. The Mamluk ruler Baybars I invaded Anatolia in 1277, defeated the Mongols, and penetrated as far west as Kayseri. In the ensuing confusion the powerful Turkmen chieftain Muhammad Beg Qaraiani seized Konya, established Turkish as the language of administration, and installed a puppet ruler (allegedly a member of the Seljuq family). These events prompted a Mongol counterattack to expel the Mamluks and to replace Mu'in ad-Din Sulayman Parvana, who was himself condemned to death by the khan for complicity with the Mamluks. The Mongol military forces and the Iranian administrative class were then strengthened, and the Mongols established more or less direct control.
The fiction of Seljuq rule was maintained, and coins from this period bear such vague legends as “Sovereignty belongs to God.” After the execution of Ghiyas ad-Din Kay-Khusraw III in 1284, the throne was occupied by Ghiyas ad-Din Mas'ud II (1285–98, 1303–08), a son of 'Izz ad-Din Kay-Ka'us, who had come from Crimea to claim his patrimony. However, he made Kayseri, not Konya, the seat of his government. His reign marks the definitive rise to power of the Turkmen frontier chieftains, especially the Qaramanids, the Ashrafids, and the Germiyanids. In 1291–92 the Mongols once again intervened directly to restore order, and in 1298 Mas'ud was forced to travel to the Mongol capital Tabriz to request military assistance to regain control. Mongol interference and Turkmen fractiousness continued to dominate the last decades of Seljuq rule. While it is recorded that 'Ala' ad-Din Kay-Qubadh III (1298–1303) was put to death by order of Ghazan, the Mongol khan, the fate of his son Ghiyas ad-Din Mas'ud III, who assumed the rule in 1307, is obscure. Though some sources mention the existence of Seljuq scions in later years in various parts of Anatolia, Mas'ud III may be considered the last member of the dynasty to have exercised sovereignty. In 1328 the Qaramanid Turkmens took Konya, and in 1335 Mongol power collapsed, clearing the way for the political fragmentation of the beylik (principality) period in Anatolia and the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
By John E. Woods
"Anatolia." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2004. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service.
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