Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Sultanate of Rum
1077–1308
The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ("Rum" = "Rome," i.e., formerly Byzantine Anatolia); also the Sultanate of Konya. Persian was the language of administration and literature; the population was largely Greek-Orthodox.
- Existed
- 1077–1308
- Shown on the map
- 1094–1259, 1305–1313 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 367k km²
- Region
- Europe
Names
The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ("Rum" = "Rome," i.e., formerly Byzantine Anatolia); also the Sultanate of Konya. Persian was the language of administration and literature; the population was largely Greek-Orthodox.
History
Founded in 1077 by Suleiman ibn Qutalmish of a cadet branch of the Great Seljuks, in the wake of the Byzantine collapse after Manzikert (1071). Capital first at Nicaea (İznik, from 1081), then, after the First Crusade forced the Seljuks eastward, at Konya (Iconium) from 1097/1116. The sultanate contested the First, Second and Third Crusades. It defeated the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos at the Battle of Myriokephalon (1176) under Kilij Arslan II, ending Byzantine hopes of reconquering Anatolia, and annexed the rival Danishmendids (1178). Under Kayqubad I (r. 1220–1237) the sultanate reached its zenith of prosperity, building caravanserais and trading with the Genoese. Then the Mongols under Baiju crushed Sultan Kaykhusraw II at the Battle of Köse Dağ (26 June 1243), reducing Rum to a Mongol (Ilkhanid) vassal. Real power passed to Mongol governors and to emergent Turkish beyliks; the last Seljuk sultan (Mesud II, or by some accounts Mesud III) died c. 1308, and Anatolia fragmented into the beyliks — among them the Ottoman beylik, which would inherit the region.
Common questions
- What was the Sultanate of Rum?
- The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ("Rum" = "Rome," i.e., formerly Byzantine Anatolia); also the Sultanate of Konya. Persian was the language of administration and literature; the population was largely Greek-Orthodox.
- When did the Sultanate of Rum exist?
- The Sultanate of Rum existed 1077–1308. On this map it is drawn 1094–1259, 1305–1313.
- How large was the Sultanate of Rum?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Sultanate of Rum covered about 367,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- Who ruled the Sultanate of Rum?
- Founded in 1077 by Suleiman ibn Qutalmish of a cadet branch of the Great Seljuks, in the wake of the Byzantine collapse after Manzikert (1071). Capital first at Nicaea (İznik, from 1081), then, after the First Crusade forced the Seljuks eastward, at Konya (Iconium) from 1097/1116.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia and the scholarship of Donald Queller, Thomas Madden and Jonathan Harris on the Fourth Crusade, whose post-conspiracy reading of 1204 this document follows. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Sultanate of Rum en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Rum
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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