Middle East Kingdoms

Seljuq Sultanate of Rum (Konya / Iconium)
AD 1086 - 1308

The sultanate of Rum was established in territory in Asia Minor, formerly a possession of the Eastern Roman empire.

It was one of a number of minor states to be created by the first mass migration of Turks from east of the Caspian Sea.

After the main Seljuq force had conquered Persia and taken Baghdad, a splinter group defeated the Byzantines in Anatolia and founded Rum ('Rome'), initially under Persian Seljuq suzerainty. Rum, alternatively known as Konya or Iconium, was one of the most powerful Turkic Anatolian states.

To its south, in Cilicia, the kingdom of Lesser Armenia was founded in 1080, while the Crusader state of Edessa was founded to the south-east in 1098.

1060 - 1078

Vied for the rule of Seljuq Baghdad in 1063.

1064

Armenia is conquered.

A stone relief of Seljuq cavalry, which swept through Persia, northern Mesopotamia, Syria, and Anatolia in the eleventh century

1071 & 1074

A unit of six hundred Alani fight in 1071 under the command of the Byzantines against the Seljuq Turks and a further six thousand men in 1074 fight against the Normans in Italy. This cooperation lasts only a short because the Alani are badly paid.

1078 - 1086

Son. First sultan of Rum.

1085

Antioch is taken from the Byzantines and held for just thirteen years before it is lost to the Crusader principality of Antioch.

1092 - 1107

1107 - 1116

1116 - 1156

1156 - 1192

1176

The Byzantines are defeated at the Battle of Myriocephalon.

1192 - 1196

1196 - 1204

1204

1204 - 1210

Restored.

1210 - 1220

1220 - 1237

Died unexpectedly of natural causes.

1237

Al Ashraf of Damascus has been growing more and more discontented with the overlordship of his brother, al Kamil I of Egypt. He forms an alliance with Sultan Kaikubad I and minor Ayyubid rulers with the intention of breaking al Kamil's hold on the region. However, both Kaikubad and al Ashraf die of natural causes in the same year, ending the alliance.

1237 - 1245

1243

The sultanate is struck heavily by the all-conquering Mongols and becomes a vassal state. The Seljuqs begin to disintegrate, despite attempts to retain the sultanate's cohesiveness.

1246 - 1257

1248 - 1265

1249 - 1257

1265 - 1282

1282 - 1304

1284 - 1307

1307 - 1308

1308

The sultanate collapses in the face of Mongol overlordship.

1308 - 1336

Anatolia is ruled on behalf of the Mongols by a regional governor, with the Ottoman Turks making substantial inroads to the west.

1336

The Mongol sultanate of the Jalayirids establishes control over the region.