Kaykaus II

Kaykaus II
Golden dinar with the names of the three co-sultans of Rum: Kaykaus II, Kayqubad II, and Kilij Arslan IV
Sultan of Rum
Reign1246–1262
PredecessorKaykhusraw II
SuccessorKilij Arslan IV
Co-sultansKayqubad II (1249–1254)
Kilij Arslan IV (1249–1254) and (1257–1262)
Born1234
Died1279 (aged 44–45)
Crimea
SpouseUrbay Khatun
HouseHouse of Seljuq
FatherKaykhusraw II
MotherProdoulia
ReligionIslam
Orthodox Christianity

Kaykaus ibn Kaykhusraw or Kayka'us II (Turkish: İzzeddin Keykavus, Persian: عز الدين كيكاوس بن كيخسرو, ʿIzz ad-Dīn Kaykāwus ibn Kaykhusraw, Greek: ’Ίζ αλ-Ντίν Καϊκαούσης) was the sultan of Rum from 1246 until 1262.

Biography

Early life

Kaykaus was the eldest of three sons of Kaykhusraw II. His mother was Prodoulia, who was a Byzantine Greek, may have had Kaykaus baptized as a child. It was common for the Christian slave-concubines and wives of the Seljuk harem to baptise their sons.

Mongol invasion and civil war

He was a youth at the time of his father's death in 1246 and could do little to prevent the Mongol conquest of Anatolia. For most of his tenure as the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm, he shared the throne with one or both of his brothers, Kilij Arslan IV and Kayqubad II. Mongol commander Baiju threatened him and warned him of being late with paying tribute and requested new pastures in Anatolia for the Mongol cavalry. The Mongols defeated Kaykaus at the battle of Aksaray, after which he fled to the Empire of Nicaea in 1257 with his children and followers.

Aid from Nicaea

He exchanged messages with the Nicaean Emperor Theodore II Laskaris before his arrival and was welcomed in Sardis and given gifts. The Emperor helped Kaykaus regain his lands by giving him a modest force of 400 soldiers under primmikerios Isaac Doukas Mourtzouphlos. In exchange for the aid, Kaykaus returned to the Byzantines Laodicea, Chonae and the two small fortresses of Sakaina and Ypsele. With the forces he was given, he managed to recapture Iconium.

Life in Exile

Kaykaus ruled for only a few years, as he lost Iconium again on 12 August 1261, and had to flee from Attaleia to Byzantine Constantinople in summer 1262, following his defeat at the Battle of Sivrihisar by Kilij Arslan IV and the Mongol general Alijaq. The Byzantine court welcomed him as before, along with his mother, wife, four sons, daughter, sister, his two maternal uncles Kyr Khāya and Kyr Kattidios, along with his guide, the Metropolitan of Pisidia Makarios, the Sufi Saint Sarı Saltık, the commanders Uğurlu and ‘Alī Bahādur, as well as other other notable members of the court of Rum. The family of the deposed sultan either lived in the capital or were sent to reside in Nicaea.

However, tensions grew between the former Sultan and the new Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in the midst of the Arsenite Schism. Kaykaus, convinced by his emirs, formed a conspiracy to depose Michael. After the plot was uncovered, Kaykaus tried to escape with two of his sons, but was captured and imprisoned in Ainos, while the rest of his family were sent to Berroia. ‘Alī Bahādur was executed, while Uğurlu and other emirs were blinded for organising the conspiracy, on charges of treason. Kaykaus' brother Kayqubad appealed to Berke Khan and his nephew Nogai of the Golden Horde. The Mongols, Bulgarians and Tatars jointly invaded Thrace in the winter of 1264/1265. Michael's army was chased away and Ainos was besieged. After negotiations, Kaykaus was released and handed over, and in exchange the siege was lifted. Berke gave Kaykaus an appanage in Crimea and had him married to his daughter, Urbay Khatun. He died an exile in 1279 or 1280 in Crimea.

Identity and faith

According to researcher Rustam Shukurov, Kaykaus "had dual Christian and Muslim identity, an identity which was further complicated by dual Turkic/Persian and Greek ethnic identity". Kaykaus and his sons were all said to be baptised, and whilst in Constantinople, the family visited churches, received communion and attended Easter services under the watch of the Patriarch Arsenios. Even when in Crimea, Kaykaus still insisted on his Christian faith, defending the former Patriarch Arsenios against charges of non-canonical communication with pagans (Kaykaus and his family) by asking for the engolpion he had left in Constantinople and offering to eat pork to prove his orthodoxy.

Family

In addition to his Mongol bride, Urbay Khatun, daughter of Berke Khan, Kaykaus had multiple wives, though only one accompanied him to Byzantium. The Armenian Kirakos Gandzaketsi reported that Kaykaus was married to a daughter of the emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes, and later Ottoman sources give her name as Anna, however both of these claims are unreliable and likely only indicate that his wife was Christian and possibly Roman (Byzantine). Christian Greek women were the dominant origin of the slave-concubines in the Seljuk harem. This wife continued to live in Constantinople following Kaykaus' escape.

Kakyaus' children, all with unknown mothers, were:

Legacy

1251 Persian manuscript of Ali ibn Khalifa Salmasi's Durar-e makhzan-e kaykawusi ("The Pearls of the Treasury of Kay Kawus"), commissioned for the library of Sultan Kaykaus II. Created in Konya.

Though deposed and exiled, Kaykaus remained popular among the Turkmen of Anatolia and a threat to the stability of the fragile Seljuq-Mongol relationship. The vizier Fakhr al-Din Ali was imprisoned for a time in 1271 for corresponding with him. It was from Kaykaus that Karamanoğlu Mehmed Bey in 1276 sought help in his uprising against the Mongols. Since Kaykaus was in no position to help, Mehmed Bey thought it best to have a representative of Kaykaus’ line on his side, even if only an imposter, and named Jimri as head of the revolt. Kaykaus later dispatched several of his sons from the Crimea as pretenders, one of which, Masud II, was ultimately successful in winning the Seljuk throne in 1280.[citation needed]

Some modern historians consider the Byzantine noble Athanasios Soultanos to have been the brother or son of Kaykaus, but this is unlikely due to the later age Soultanos lived in. However another branch of the Christianized Seljuk royal family was begun by Kaykaus' son, and rose to prominence within Byzantine bureaucracy.

According to later Ottoman tradition, expressed by Yazıcızâde ‘Alī and Seyyid Lokman, most of the anti-Mongol Turkomans that accompanied Kaykaus to Constantinople, were later settled to Southern Dobruja by Michael VIII in 1263/64, in order to reconquer the region for the Byzantine Empire, under the leadership of Kyr Khāya. This gave rise to the controversial claim that these Turkomans may have formed the basis of the modern day Gagauz people.

In the Ottoman period the rebel Sheikh Bedreddin, who drew support largely from Turkmen migrants to the Balkans, claimed descent from Kaykaus II.[citation needed]

Notes

  1. ↑ According to Ibn Bibi, the plot was exposed to Michael by Kyr Kattidios.

References

  1. ↑ "KEYKÂVUS II – TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi".
  2. ↑ Peacock & Yildiz 2013, pp. 118–119, 121.
  3. 1 2 Shukurov 2016, p. 62.
  4. ↑ The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Medieval Middle East. (2012). Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing.
  5. ↑ Shukurov 2016, p. 111.
  6. ↑ Macrides, Ruth (2007). George Akropolites: The History. Oxford University Press. pp. 325-327
  7. ↑ Vryonis 1971, p. 234.
  8. ↑ Shukurov 2014, pp. 40, 41.
  9. 1 2 Shukurov 2016, p. 99.
  10. ↑ Shukurov 2014, pp. 41, 42.
  11. ↑ Shukurov 2016, p. 105.
  12. ↑ Shukurov 2014, p. 47.
  13. ↑ Shukurov 2014, pp. 47, 48.
  14. 1 2 de Nicola 2017, p. 115.
  15. ↑ Shukurov 2014, pp. 49.
  16. ↑ Peacock & Yildiz 2013, p. 133.
  17. ↑ Shukurov 2016, pp. 62–63.
  18. ↑ The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Medieval Middle East. (2012). Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing.
  19. ↑ Shukurov 2016, pp. 114–115.
  20. ↑ Shukurov 2016, pp. 115–116.
  21. ↑ Shukurov 2016, p. 116.
  22. ↑ Shukurov 2014, p. 41.
  23. ↑ Shukurov 2016, pp. 116–117.
  24. ↑ Shukurov 2016, pp. 117–118.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Shukurov 2016, p. 119.
  26. ↑ Shukurov 2016, pp. 190–196.
  27. ↑ Shukurov 2014, p. 43.

Bibliography