| Kilij Arslan I | |
|---|---|
| Sultan of Rum | |
| Reign | 1092–1107 |
| Predecessor | Suleyman I |
| Successor | Malik Shah |
| Born | 1079 |
| Died | 1107 (aged 27–28) Khabur River, nearMosul |
| Burial | |
| Consort | Aisha Khatun |
| Issue | Malik Shah Mesud I |
| House | House of Seljuq |
| Father | Suleyman I of Rûm |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Kilij Arslan ibn Suleiman (Old Anatolian Turkish:قِلِیچ اَرسلان;Persian:قلیچ ارسلان,romanized: Qilij Arslān;Turkish:I. Kılıç Arslan orKılıcarslan,lit. "Sword Lion") (1079–1107) was the SeljuqSultan ofRum from 1092 until his death in 1107. He ruled the Sultanate during the time of theFirst Crusade and thus faced the earliest attacks from Christian forces. He also re-established the Sultanate of Rum after the death ofMalik Shah I of theSeljuk Empire and defeated the Crusaders in three battles during theCrusade of 1101.[2] Kilij Arslan was the firstMuslim and Turkish commander to fight against the Crusaders, commanding his horse archers as a teenager.[3]
After the death of his father,Suleiman ibn Qutalmish, in 1086, he became a hostage of SultanMalik Shah I of Great Seljuq in Isfahan, but was released when Malik Shah died in 1092 in the wake of a quarrel among his jailers.[4] Kilij Arslan then marched at the head of the Turkish Oghuz Yiva tribe army and set up his capital atNicaea, replacing Amin 'l Ghazni, the governor appointed by Malik Shah I.
Following the death of Malik Shah I the individual tribes, theDanishmends, Mangujekids, Saltuqids, Tengribirmish begs,Artuqids (Ortoqids) and Akhlat-Shahs, had started vying with each other to establish their own independent states.Alexius Comnenus's Byzantine intrigues further complicated the situation. He married Ayşe Hatun, the daughter of theEmirTzachas to attempt to ally himself against the Byzantines, who commanded a strong naval fleet. They had four sons:Malik Shah,Mesud I, Arab and Toghrul. In 1094, Kilij Arslan received a letter from Alexius suggesting that the Tzachas sought to target him to move onto the Byzantines, thereupon Kilij Arslan marched with an army toSmyrna, Tzachas's capital, and invited his father-in-law to a banquet in his tent where he slew him while he was intoxicated.[5]
The People's Crusade (also called the Peasants' Crusade) army ofPeter the Hermit andWalter the Penniless arrived at Nicaea in 1096. A German contingent of the crusade overran the castle Xerigordon and held it until Kilij sent a force to starve them out. Those that renouncedChristianity were spared and sent into captivity to the east, the rest were put to death.[6] Kilij Arslan also cunningly sent spies to trick theCrusaders into thinking Xerigordon was ripe for the taking, and the ill-disciplined Crusaders rushed to Xerigordon despite orders against this. They were consequently ambushed, forcing Peter the Hermit eventually to give up the crusade.
The remainder of Peter's crusade composed almost entirely of unarmed civilians was surprised near the village of Civetot by Kilij Arslan's army.[6] They were easily overwhelmed and around 17,000 out of the 20,000 remaining Christians died.[7] He then invaded theDanishmendEmirate ofMalik Ghazi in easternAnatolia.
The First Crusade would start a few months later.
Because of this easy first victory he did not consider the maincrusader army, led by various nobles of western Europe, to be a serious threat. He resumed his war with the Danishmends, and was away from Nicaea when these new Crusadersbesieged Nicaea in May 1097. He hurried back to his capital to find it surrounded by the Crusaders, and was defeated in battle with them on 21 May. The city then surrendered to theByzantines and his wife and children were captured. When thecrusaders sent the Sultan's wife toConstantinople, to their dismay she was later returned without ransom in 1097 because of the relationship between Kilij Arslan andAlexios I Komnenos.
As result of the stronger invasion, Rum and the Danishmends allied in their attempt to turn back the crusaders. The Crusaders continued to split their forces as they marched across Anatolia. The combined Danishmend and Rum forces planned to ambush the Crusaders nearDorylaeum on 29 June. However, Kilij Arslan'shorse archers could not penetrate the line of defense set up by the Crusader knights, and the main body underBohemond arrived to capture the Turkish camp on 1 July. In this battle, the Kilij Arslan and his troops won the respect of his enemy, as theGesta Francorum states: "had the Turks been Christian, they would be the finest of all races."[8]
Kilij Arslan was defeated and settled for harassing the Crusader army with guerilla warfare and hit-and-run tactics. He also destroyed crops and water sources along their route in order to hinder the Crusader Army from collecting supplies, ultimately with little success.
Gazi Gümüshtigin capturedBohemond resulting in a new force ofLombards attempting to rescue him. In their march they took Ankara from Arslan upon the Danishmends. In alliance withRadwan theAtabeg ofAleppo he ambushed this force at theBattle of Mersivan. In 1101 he defeated another Crusader army atHeraclea Cybistra, which had come to assist the fledglingCrusader states inSyria. This was an important victory for the Turks, as it proved that an army of Crusader knights was not invincible. After this victory he moved his capital toKonya and defeated aforce led by William II of Nevers who attempted to march upon it as well as the subsequent force a week later.
In 1104 he resumed his war with the Danishmends who were now weakened after the death of Malik Ghazi, demanding half the ransom gained for Bohemond. As a result, Bohemond allied with the Danishmends against Rum and the Byzantines.
After the crusades he moved towards the east, takingHarran andDiyarbakr. In 1107 heconquered Mosul, but he was defeated byMuhammad I Tapar supported byIlghazi of theArtuqids andFakhr al-Mulk Radwan ofAleppo at the battle ofKhabur River.[9] Having lost the battle, Kilij Arslan drowned trying to escape across the river.[10]
In January 2021, archaeologists led by professor Ahmet Tanyıldız from theDicle University discovered his and his daughter Saide Hatun's grave inSilvan, Diyarbakır.[11] Researchers dug two metres deep across a 35-square-metre area and focused their works on two gravesites in Orta Çeşme Park.[12]
| Preceded by | Sultan of Rûm 1092–1107 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
