The Turkish History Podcast

The second reign of Keyhüsrev begins in Konya.  The court in Konya exerts its power over Anatolia, and with the Great Seljuk Empire gone, the Roman Sultan takes upon himself the mantle of the sole successor to the inheritance of Seljuk.  Court officials arrive from the East in Konya, bringing with them the skill and cultural capital of the more central lands of Islam, and the building works in Konya accelerate.  Meanwhile, Keyhüsrev clashes with Theodore Laskris, the Emperor of Nicea, and ultimately brings the Turkish armies to the walls of the great port city of Antalya. 

The English and the French arrive in the Levant to contest the rule of the Holy Land with the Ayyubid Sultanate.  The Third Crusade sees some of the most vicious fighting and brilliant generalship of all of the Crusades, resulting in a stalemate.  But though Richard the Lionheart and Saladin part on terms of deep mutual admiration and respect, the results of the Third Crusade are unsatisfying to all sides.  In Europe, the Pope declares a new Crusade.  But this Fourth Crusade is strapped for cash and, under the influence of the Venetians, takes a detour leading to Constantinople...

After being driven from Konya, Keyhüsrev flees to Constantinople.  The once and future Roman Sultan bides his time in the New Rome, marrying and fathering a child, while a great fleet sets sail in the West bound for the Queen of Cities...

The first reign of Keyhüsrev begins. But while the young Sultan struggles to hold Western Anatolia, his half-brother Sulayman II seizes the initiative in the East, driving Keyhüsrev from Konya. Sulayman then sets out to invade Georgia and reunify Anatolia... Ambitions whose rewards others will ultimately reap.

In the aftermath of the disaster of the march of the Third Crusade across Anatolia, the Sultanate of Rum falls apart.  The elderly Sultan of Rum is forced to wander across Anatolia seeking aid to return to the throne.  And we say goodbye to the Limping Lion, and bring to the throne the next Roman Sultan - the Sultan who will come to inaugurate the golden age of the Seljuks of Rum. 

The Holy Roman Emperor crosses the Dardanelles into Anatolia expecting to find a friend on the throne in Konya.  But while Sultan Kılıç Arslan II desires peace and alliance, the wild tribes and certain of his sons have other ideas...

Saladin consolidates power throughout Syria and northern Iraq, becoming the greatest power in the Muslim world and strangling Outremer.  After a crusader provocation, he assembles a great army and marches it into the Levant, ultimately crushing the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin.  Jerusalem itself soon falls to the Ayyubid Sultan.  And the shocking news of the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem causes fear and guilt to spread across Europe, leading the Third Crusade.  Soon, the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, is leading a great crusading army to the Holy Land by way of Anatolia...

After the battle of Myriokephalon, Kılıç Arslan II consolidates Seljuk rule of Anatolia.  The Sultan of Rum negotiates with the rising power of Saladin, and conquers further in the West after the death of Manuel Komnenos.  But as the elderly Sultan continues to cling to life, and as great invasion is summoned from the West, the future claimants to the throne in Konya start sharpening their knives...  

With Kılıç Arslan II consolidating his power over Anatolia, Emperor Manuel Komnenos sets out to reverse the verdict of Manzikert.  The Imperial Armies move on to the plateau to rebuild Dorylaeum, and expeditionary forces are sent off to northern Anatolia.  And a great Roman army is assembled and set on the road to Konya - a road that will, along the way to Konya, take them to an abandoned fortress guarding a steep mountain pass.  A fortress named Myriokephalon and a pass named Tzivitzre...

As the Danishmend Beylik falls into crisis, Kılıç Arslan II sets out to conquer Anatolia.  But fearful of the growing power of the Sultan of Rum, Nüreddin Zengi, the greatest force in the Muslim world, sets out to oppose him.  An alliance is constructed against Konya - an alliance that will stand for so long as Nüreddin lives...  And in Constantinople, Emperor Manuel Komnenos watches the events in Anatolia with growing trepidation, and decides to take a gamble on reversing the verdict of Manzikert. 

In Anatolia, Kılıç Arslan II rides East to confront Yağıbasan and begin the reconquest of Anatolia.  He makes an alliance with the Saltukid Bey İzzeddin, whose beylik has been raiding Georgia since Manzikert.  And in Syria, Nureddin Zengi dispatches to Egypt two obscure Kurdish commanders...

Kılıç Arslan II finds him surrounded by enemies on all sides, as the Sultanate of Rum faces an existential war against enemies in the West, the East, the North, and the South.  To end the war, the Limping Lion is forced to come to terms with Emperor Manuel Komnenos.  And thus, the Sultan of Rum makes a visit to Constantinople.

After the death of Mesud, his son Kılıç Arslan II succeeds him as the next Sultan of Rum.  However, the succession of the second Sword Lion to the throne is not bloodless.  A series of murders in Konya ultimately kick off a chain of escalating events that spiral further and further out of Kılıç Arslan's control.  And the falling dominoes ultimately end with the new sultan facing a truly existential war on all sides...

The aging Mesud organizes his new conquests on the southern marches of Anatolia into a new satrapy run from Elbistan, and sets up his son and favored successor, Kılıç Arslan II, as its ruler.  A new power arises in nearby Cilicia as Thoros the Great lays the foundations of the coming Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, prompting the Sultan of Rum and the Roman Emperor to organize joint military campaigns to topple this potential threat.  And we say goodbye to Mesud, as the longest-reigning Roman Sultan departs from this world.  

Mesud returns to Konya triumphant after mauling the Second Crusade, and a new power arises in Syria as Nüreddin Zengi succeeds his father to take over the Zengid Emirate.   After the broken Second Crusade meets its ignoble end in front of the walls of Damascus, Mesud and Nüreddin rip apart the remnants of the County of Edessa.  And Mesud abandons the quixotic dreams of his father and grandfather to conquer the center of the Muslim world, and instead completes his consolidation of power in Anatolia.

After destroying the German crusading army of King Conrad III, Mesud turns his forces against the French crusaders led by King Louis VII.  After an initial loss to the French in the Meander valley, Mesud regroups his forces and faces the French again on the passes of a mountain named Mount Cadmus.   There Mesud hopes to avenge his father and earn a place of honor among the Sultans of Rum and the Muslim heroes of the Crusades...

The fall of Edessa to Imad al-Din Zengi sparks the Second Crusade.  Two great crusading armies assemble in Western Europe - a German army led by King Conrad III and a French army led by King Louis VII.  As the crusading armies converge on Anatolia, seeking passage to the Holy Land, the Emperor of the Romans and the Sultan of Rum join forces to oppose them.  The German army decides to march along the route taken by the First Crusaders, and Sultan Mesud seeks redemption on the plains of Dorylaeum...

Following the death of the Danishmend King Muhammad, Mesud is finally the pre-eminent Turkish potentate in Anatolia.  With the Sultanate of Rum rejuvenated, he now sets out to conquer.  Meanwhile, a new Emperor dons the purple in Constantinople, and goes to war with the new master of Turkish Anatolia.  And yet again, an army of invasion begins mustering in the West...

The messengers from the Caliph in Baghdad and Sanjar, the Great Sultan of the East, arrive in Kastamonu to find that Emir Ghazi has died before they could proclaim him as King.  Instead, his son Muhammad is granted the title - inevitably leading to conflict between this new King of the North and the Sultan of Rum in Konya.  War erupts between and among a shifting web of alliances of Turks, Greeks, Crusaders and Armenians.  And Sultan Mesud ultimately emerges as the leading power of Turkish Anatolia.

With Mesud installed on the throne of the Sultanate of Rum in Konya, his father-in-law, the Danishmend Bey Emir Ghazi rises to become the overlord of Turkish Anatolia.  Emir Ghazi brings the Danishmend beylik to the zenith of its power, but in doing so clears the board of potential rivals to Mesud and provides stability and security to his vassal in Konya.  And as imperial authority in the Western half of the Great Seljuk Empire melts down, the Caliph in Baghdad and the Great Sultan of the East dispatch messengers to Anatolia...

Following the peace treaty signed with Emperor Alexios Komnenos, the Sultan of Rum Şahinşah begins marching back to Konya.  But he does not make it far before being confronted by his half brother Mesud, who rides West with Danishmend support.  A new Sultan comes to the throne in Konya, but one who owes his throne and his loyalty to the Danishmend Bey Emir Ghazi - just as a new Emperor dons the purple in Constantinople.

Following the death of Kılıç Arslan, the Sultanate of Rum falls into disorder and becomes eclipsed by the other beyliks, in particular the Danishmend Beylik to the east ruled by Emir Ghazi.  The Sultanate becomes divided between the sons of the dead Sword Lion - the brothers Mesud and Melik Arap in central Anatolia, the young Tuğrul Arslan in Malatya as a puppet of his mother and new stepfather, and Şahinşah in captivity in Iran.  Eventually, Şahinşah returns from the East and faces off against Alexis Komnenos in the aging Emperor's final campaign.  And the stage is set for the arrival of the next great Roman Sultan - Mesud I.  

As the western half of the Great Seljuk Empire continues to collapse, a string of fortuitous events dramatically improves Kılıç Arslan's position.  Like his father before him, the Sword Lion decides to take the ultimate gamble, and sets out to the East.  And, also like his father before him, he takes with him his young son...

Following the Turkish victory over the Crusade of 1101, Kılıç Arslan's position as the leading Turkish potentate in Anatolia is secured, and the Sultanate of Rum is re-established.  But the rebirth of the Sultanate of Rum in Konya and Kılıç Arslan's rise from the ashes cause great tension within the Turkish alliance that won the war, in particular, with Gümüştegin Ghazi, the Silver Prince, the leader of the Danishmend Beylik and the strongest member of the alliance.  And conflict and even war soon erupt between the Sword Lion and the Silver Prince. 

The Sultanate of Rum lies in ruins following the destruction of the First Crusade and the loss of Western Anatolia to the Byzantine Empire.  The Danishmend Beylik led by Gümüştegin Ghazi takes up the mantle of the leading Turkish state in Anatolia, and scores a key victory against the Norman Crusaders in Outremer.  And yet more crusaders arrive from the West - both threatening the Sword Lion and providing him with an opportunity to restore his reputation and renew his leadership...

In the aftermath of the catastrophic Crusader invasion of Anatolia, while the Turks are in crisis, Emperor Alexios Komnenos launches a reconquest.  An army led by John Doukas retakes the Aegean coast and Western Anatolia, an army led by Theodore Gabras retakes the Black Sea coast, and the Emperor himself marches out of Pelakanon and into the center of Anatolia.  But the Turks rebound and begin to mobilize a response.  And the Emperor stops at Akşehir, then called Philomelion, to consider his options.

Following the fall of İznik, Kılıç Arslan regroups his forces, belatedly calling for aid from across Turkish Anatolia.  The Crusaders depart from İznik and begin their march to the Holy Land.  Kılıç Arslan springs an ambush near Eskişehir on the Plains of Dorylaeum, leading to disaster yet again.  In the aftermath of the great defeat, the Sword Lion is unable to oppose the Crusaders head on, but the war continues as a wide swathe of destruction is cut across Anatolia - and the seeds of a transformed Sultanate of Rum are planted. 

The crusading army marches into a completely undefended Anatolia and right up to the walls of İznik, the capital of the Sultanate of Rum.  Finally waking up to the danger, Kılıç Arslan makes a deal with the Danishmends and begins racing back West.  Kılıç Arslan fights the Crusaders in front of the walls of İznik and the Turks resist.   Meanwhile, as one of the greatest defeats in Turkish history unfolds, tensions continue to rise between Constantinople and the Crusading army.

The People's Crusade invades Anatolia, and the chaotic army of undisciplined peasants is easily destroyed by the forces of the Sultanate of Rum under Ilhan Bey as Kılıç Arslan besieges Malatya.  But the chaos and ineptitude of the People's Crusade proves to be a boon to both the Byzantine Emperor and even the now-assembling First Crusade.  In Constantinople, Emperor Alexios uses the chaos and the ineptitude of the People's Crusade to bind the arriving First Crusaders to him.  And supremely overconfident and unconcerned, Kılıç Arslan ignores the approaching threat and instead stays in Central Anatolia.

As Turkish power is entrenched across Anatolia and Kılıç Arslan consolidates the power of the Sultanate of Rum, in Constantinople Emperor Alexios Komnenos calls for aid from the West.  The Emperor envisions a relatively large, but still manageable, army of experienced Latin knights of the type that have fought for Byzantium in the past in order to retake Anatolia.  But his call for aid coincides with a papal reform movement in Rome seeking to entrench the power of the Papacy, and Pope Urban II uses the opportunity to raise a great host of holy warriors.  The Pandora's box is opened, and the crusading era is launched, as the unruly "People's Crusade" makes its way to Constantinople and ultimately comes to the gates of the Turkish world. 

As Kılıç Arslan sits in prison in Esfahan, Emperor Alexios Komnenos attempts to restore imperial authority on the coasts of Anatolia, even if the plateau itself remains lost to him.  Constantinople tangles with the Black Sea beylik of Karategin and the Marmara beylik of İlhan.  In İzmir, the rebel Turkish Roman General Çaka Bey creates the first Turkish navy and establishes an Aegean beylik - becoming the supreme Turkish potentate in Western Anatolia.  This situation is upended as Kılıç Arslan returns to claim the Sultanate.  And Emperor Alexis begins to contemplate from where he could possible raise the troops to oppose Turkish rule in Anatolia...

After the death of Sulayman, his sons Kılıç Arslan and Daud are imprisoned in Esfahan by Melik Shah.  In their absence, the Sultanate of Rum is ruled under a quasi-regency by the man Sulayman left in charge of İznik - Ebu'l Kasım.   Ebu'l Kasım fights and negotiates with the Roman Emperor and the Great Seljuk Sultan, maintaining the independence of the Sultanate - until Kılıç Arslan and Daud manage to return as Al-Dawla Al-Nizamiyya comes crashing down.  

In 1081, Sulayman reigns in İznik as the Sultan of Rum.  But his sultanate is aspirational - really, he is a mere border lord.  A bey among beys.  And so Sulayman begins to lay the foundations for the Sultanate of Rum, expanding his power across Western Anatolia.  Burning with ambition and desire to reclaim the birthright of the line of Kutalmish, Sulayman then invades Antioch and even Aleppo.  And the very audacity that allowed him to found the Sultanate of Rum destroys him.  

Following Manzikert, the civil war in Byzantium and the failure of the Roman Empire to retake Anatolia, the first Turkish beyliks emerge in Anatolia.  In the anarchy caused by the collapse of the Roman military apparatus, bands of Turks begin making alliances with the settled elites of Anatolia, offering them protection for a price.   Soon the Turks are invited into the cities of Anatolia, replacing the now-vanished Roman military to become the lords of new principalities - beyliks.  In the east of Anatolia, numerous beyliks emerge - the Mengucekids, the Danishmands, the Saltukids and the Artukids.  But in the West, on the very doorstep of Constantinople, another political entity is born as the sons of Kutalmish, and in particular his son Sulayman, dive deep into Byzantine politics.  Through canny political maneuvering, Sulayman founds the next great Turkish state - the Sultanate of Rum.  

We resume the narrative, and begin by introducing the land that will come to be the homeland of the Turks.In the aftermath of the Battle of Manzikert, the Roman state falls into chaos.  As a result of civil war, invasion and rebellion, Imperial authority collapses over much of Anatolia.  And the Turks begin to enter Anatolia, and the seeds of the coming Beyliks, and even a Sultanate, are sown.  

This is the fifth and last episode in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode we cover the court culture of the Great Seljuk Empire and the greatest cultural achievements of the Empire.  How the Sultan and his court lived, and the life and times of two of the most important cultural figures of the Great Seljuk Empire: Al-Ghazali and Omar Khayyam.  

This a standalone episode on the history of the Ismaili Nizaris and their Order of Assassins.  The minority sect of Ismailism first arises as the Abbasid Caliphs keep the Shi'a Imams in confinement in Samarra - a hidden religion, secretive and rigidly hierarchical, and professing a unique system of beliefs drawing heavily from Greek philosophy and Gnosticism.  The Ismailis ultimately go on to establish the Fatimid Caliphate, which takes up the mantle of the greatest Muslim state in the world.  But after the coming of the Seljuks and their imposition of Sunni orthodoxy in Iran, the Shi'a are put on the back foot.  And there comes to be founded in the remote mountain fortress of Alamut in northern Iran the Nizari sect of Ismailism - and the famed and fearsome Order of Assassins. 

This is the fourth episode in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode we cover religion in the Seljuk Empire.  How reality differed from the picture of strident Sunnism presented by pro-Seljuk propaganda, and the relationship between the Seljuk and Abbasid dynasties, the treatment of the Shia, the conflict among the Sunni Madhhabs, Sufism, and the treatment of minority religions. 

This is the third episode in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode we cover the economy of the Great Seljuk Empire.  The collision of two different economic systems - that of the nomads and that of the settled world - and how this led to an economic transformation.

This is the second in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode, we cover the Seljuk Military.  The composition of the armies, how the armies fought, and the armies relationship to the broader political world. 

This is the first in a short series of non-narrative episodes on the nature of the Great Seljuk Empire.  In this episode, we cover the structures of state in the empire - the various power centers, the role of the Seljuk Dynasty, the bureaucrats, the tribes, the Emirs and the ways in which all of these power centers interacted to govern the truly massive Empire.  

Under the rule of Nizam ul-Mulk and Melik Shah, the Great Seljuk Empire reaches the zenith of its power.  But as Al-Dawla Al-Nizamiyya unfolds, tensions roil under the surface.  Tensions between the Seljuk and Abbasid dynasties, between the court and the tribes, between the court and the Emirs and between the state and its vassals.  And when the partnership between Nizam ul-Mulk and Melik Shah breaks down and Al-Dawla Al-Nizamiyya finally ends, these tensions burst out to tear the Empire apart.  The succession to Melik Shah results in a multi-sided civil war between his wife Terken Khatun, his brother Tutush and his son Berkyaruk as the Emirs carve up the Empire.  The golden age of the Great Seljuk Empire ends - and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum breaks free to chart its own destiny.  

After Melik Shah's ascension to the throne, Nizam ul-Mulk seizes control of the state, inaugurating a period of history termed "Al-Dawla Al-Nizamiyya" or "the State of the Nizam."  The vizierate is now above the sultanate.  Melik Shah finishes his father's work in conquering Transoxiana from the Karakhanids, and then retires to the palaces of Esfahan - as Nizam ul-Mulk entrenches his control of the state.  And as the state continues to "cook" as the Chinese would have said, the wild Turkmen are pushed out to the frontiers, settling in Anatolia and conquering all of the Levant, even invading Egypt.  The Great Seljuk Empire enters its golden age, but the seeds of its destruction are planted...

The Heroic Lion rides East after his great victory at Manzikert.  But his sojourn in his capital again proves short-lived as he is drawn into war with the Karakhanid Khanate.  Alp Arslan leads a massive army to cross the Amu Darya and into Central Asia, but the end soon comes for him, tragically soon.  Alp Arslan's chosen heir Melik Shah must ally with the immensely talented Grand Vizier Nizam ul-Mulk to defeat his uncle Kavurt - and it soon becomes apparent where real power now lies.  

As Alp Arslan returns from the campaign in Syria, news reaches him that the Emperor of the Romans, Romanos Diogenes, is on the warpath.  A large Byzantine army marches East to retake Manzikert, as the Heroic Lion races West from Azerbaijan with whatever forces he can get his hands on.  The two armies meet on the plains of Manzikert in August 1071, where the fate of Anatolia is decided and where the Turkish nation finds its homeland.  

After Alp Arslan's ascension to the throne, the Heroic Lion is forced to ride East to put down a nascent revolt in Khorasan and to defeat his brother Kavurt (twice).  Alp Arslan also bounces back to the Caucasuses to re-invade Georgia.  At the same time, tensions rise between the increasingly "cooking" court and the tribes, and a new tribal confederation of Turkmen, the Nawakiyya, forms in northern Syria.  At times allied with the Shia Emirs of Aleppo and even the Fatimid Caliphs of Egypt, the Nawakiyya raid deep into Anatolia.  Meanwhile, the constant Turkish raiding of Anatolia results in a new Emperor of the Romans, Romanos Diogenes, taking the purple.  The complex multi-way relationship between the Seljuk Court, the Nawakiyya, the Emirate of Aleppo, the Fatimid and Abbasid Caliphs, and the Roman Empire is upended.  And the Heroic Lion marches West to discipline the Nawakiyya and the Emir of Aleppo - as Romanos Diogenes marches East to a certain fortified city named Manzikert.  

After the death of Tughrul, the founder of the Great Seljuk Empire, the inevitable succession crisis breaks out.  A son of Chaghri named Alp Arslan manages to quickly win the 4-way civil war and succeeds his uncle Tughrul as the Sultan of what is by now the most powerful state in the world.  To secure the loyalty of his wild Turkmen followers, Alp Arslan then gathers the mighty hordes of the Oghuz and invades deep into the Caucuses and Anatolia.  The Turks cut a trail of destruction across the region, and ultimately come before the walls of the great Armenian city of Ani, which is brutally sacked.   Alp Arslan is thus secured on his throne - and the stage is set for a conflict in a decade's time at a place called Manzikert...

After conquering Baghdad without a shot being fired, Tughrul sets forth to fulfill the promises made in Baghdad.  He aims to conquer all of Iraq, Syria, the Levant and even Egypt.  To overthrow the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo and truly re-unite the Muslim World. But though his initial campaigns in Iraq are successful, the Oghuz tribes find the climate of Iraq intolerable.  Revolts against the Seljuk court arise, and the aging and childless founder of the Great Seljuk Empire faces down his own destruction and the inevitable succession crisis that will surely follow his death...  

Tughrul continues his conquest of Iran and begins truly building the Seljuk state, which is now fast on its way to becoming the Great Seljuk Empire.  He achieves pre-eminence over his brother Chaghri to become the paramount leader of the House of Seljuk and invades Anatolia, attacking a certain well-fortified city that happens to be named Manzikert.  And as Buyid power evaporates in Iraq, Tughrul comes to the aid of the Caliph Al-Qa'im at the urging of the Abbasid vizier Ibn Muslima, leading to the crowning victory of Tughrul's career and his coronation as the King of East and West. 

In the aftermath of the Battle of Dandankan, Tughrul expands west into Iran.  But instead of being a traditional barbarian warlord on horseback, Tughrul is committed to ruling in the existing Perso-Islamic tradition.   To become a Khan-Sultan.  And tension quickly arises between his role as Khan and his role as Sultan.   As Tughrul presents himself as the restorer of order and Sunni orthodoxy in his quest to conquer Iran, the wild Oghuz tribes are driven by the need for pasturage and are pushed along by Tughrul into Anatolia - setting up a conflict between the Turks and the Roman Empire.