Kilij Arslan I

Kilij Arslan I (Turkish: I. Kılıç Arslan; Arabic: قلج أرسلان الأول) was the second sultan of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (Anatolia), ruling from 1092 until his death in 1107. He was the son of Suleiman Shah bin Qutalmish, the founder of that Anatolian state. His reign coincided with the first entry of European Crusader forces into Anatolia, and for this reason his name appears in Byzantine, Latin, Syriac, and Arabic sources.

Byzantine sources, particularly the history of Anna Komnene, record his name as Klitziasthlas; some Latin chronicles refer to him by his father's name (Soliman). His reign is defined by two aspects: wars in western Anatolia against Byzantium and the Crusaders, and eastward expansion that culminated in his capture of Mosul, which brought him into direct conflict with the Great Seljuk Empire.

Origins and the Isfahan detention

The earliest record of him concerns his accompanying his father on the 1084 campaign to Antioch. After his father was killed in battle against Tutush (June 1086), Kilij Arslan remained in Antioch under the guardianship of the minister Hasan bin Tahir. In the spring of 1087, when Sultan Malik Shah arrived in Antioch, he was sent to Isfahan, where he was held under house detention. When Malik Shah died in 1092, he and his brother Kulan Arslan received permission from Sultan Berkyaruq to return to Anatolia; by late 1092 or early 1093 he reached Iznik (Nicaea), which he restored as his capital.

The First Crusade

In 1096, an untrained force known as the People's Crusade, led by Peter the Hermit, entered Anatolia; Kilij Arslan quickly defeated them near Kibotos (Civetot). But the following year, the official Crusader armies, in cooperation with Byzantium, besieged Iznik, his capital, which fell to Byzantium in June 1097. Shortly afterward he suffered a major defeat at Dorylaeum (Eskişehir). Following this, his capital moved to Konya (Iconium).

In 1101, three separate Crusader armies attempted to cross Anatolia. Kilij Arslan, in alliance with other Turkmen emirs, defeated them in battles known as Mersivan and Heraclea (Ereğli). As a result, the overland route from Constantinople to Syria became difficult for European forces, which affected the routing of subsequent Crusades (which shifted to the sea).

Eastward expansion and Mosul

After the Crusades, Kilij Arslan turned his attention to eastern Anatolia and the Jazira. He took Malatya from the Danishmendids and besieged Urfa (Edessa) but did not capture it. In 1106 he entered Harran. In 1107, some people of Mosul invited him in, and he took the city; the Friday sermon there was read in his name instead of that of Sultan Muhammad Tapar of the Great Seljuks — a clear sign of the rivalry between the two Seljuk branches.

Death and aftermath

In July 1107, near the Khabur River, he fought Jawali Saqawa (Çavlı), the governor of Mosul appointed by Sultan Muhammad Tapar, who was supported by Ridwan, ruler of Aleppo. As his forces scattered, he attempted to cross the river on horseback to escape capture, and drowned (or perished) there. He is said to have been buried in Silvan (Mayyafariqin) in the Diyarbakır region. His sons Malik Shah (Shahinshah) and Mesud I divided the inheritance, and the state entered a period of fragmentation that the Danishmendids exploited.

In January 2021, Dicle University in Diyarbakır announced that a committee of historians and archaeologists had identified two graves in a türbe (domed shrine) in the central district of Silvan as belonging to Kilij Arslan and his daughter. This announcement was based on the age and sex of the remains and the style of the stonework, not on direct written evidence.