Kaykaus ibn Kaykhusraw or Kayka'us II ( fa, عز الدين كيكاوس بن كيخسرو, ''ʿIzz ad-Dīn Kaykāwus ibn Kaykhusraw'') was the sultan of the Seljuqs of Rûm from 1246 until 1262.

Life

Kaykaus was the eldest of three sons of Kaykhusraw II. His mother was Prodoulia, who was ethnically

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman c ...

. 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 Mongol invasions of Anatolia occurred at various times, starting with the campaign of 1241–1243 that culminated in the Battle of Köse Dağ. Real power over Anatolia was exercised by the Mongols after the Seljuks surrendered in 1243 until the ...

. For most of his tenure as the Seljuq Sultan of Rûm, he shared the throne with one or both of his brothers,

Kilij Arslan IV Kilij Arslan IV ( 1ca, قِلِج اَرسلان) or Rukn ad-Dīn Qilij Arslān ibn Kaykhusraw ( fa, رکن الدین قلج ارسلان بن کیخسرو) was Seljuq Sultan of Rûm after the death of his father Kaykhusraw II in 1246. However, ...

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 who then fled to the Byzantine empire in 1256. The Byzantine court detained him, though, they welcomed him as usual. So Kaykaus's brother Kayqubad appealed to

Berke Khan Berke Khan (died 1266) (also Birkai; , tt-Cyrl, Бәркә хан) was a grandson of Genghis Khan and a Mongol military commander and ruler of the Golden Horde ( division of the Mongol Empire) who effectively consolidated the power of the Blue ...

of the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmen ...

. Nogai invaded the Empire in 1265 and released him and his men after Emperor

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire ...

detained an envoy from Cairo to Berke. Berke gave Kaykaus

appanage An appanage, or apanage (; french: apanage ), is the grant of an estate, title, office or other thing of value to a younger child of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture. It was common in much o ...

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

and had him married to his daughter, Urbay Khatun.Bruno De Nicola, ''Women in Mongol Iran: The Khatuns'' (2017), p. 115 He died an

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

in 1279 or 1280 in Crimea. According to

Rustam Shukurov use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kabulistan , death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a wel ...

, Kaykaus II "had dual Christian and Muslim identity, an identity which was further complicated by dual Turkic/Persian and Greek ethnic identity".

Legacy

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 {{More citations needed, date=October 2010 Jimri ( tr, Cimri) was a pretender to the Sultanate of Rum, promoted by the Turkmen in the chaos after Baibars’ invasion of Mongol-dominated Anatolia in 1277. He was executed the following year. The prete ...

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 Seljuq throne in 1280. Some modern historians consider the Byzantine noble

Athanasios Soultanos Athanasios ( el, Αθανάσιος), also transliterated as Athnasious, Athanase or Atanacio, is a Greek male name which means "immortal". In modern Greek everyday use, it is commonly shortened to Thanasis (Θανάσης), Thanos (Θάνος), S ...

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 aristocratic family of the Soultanoi was indeed begun by a close relative of Kaykaus, whence their name. In the Ottoman period the rebel

Sheikh Bedreddin Sheikh Bedreddin (1359–1420) ( ota, شیخ بدرالدین), full name Sheikh Bedreddin Mahmud bin Israel bin Abdulaziz was an influential mystic, scholar, theologian, and revolutionary. He is best known for his role in a 1416 revolt against t ...

, who drew support largely from Turkmen migrants to the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

, claimed descent from Kaykaus II.

References

Sources

* *Claude Cahen, ''Pre-Ottoman Turkey: a general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history'', trans. J. Jones-Williams, (New York: Taplinger, 1968) 271–279. *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaykaus 02 13th-century births 1270s deaths Sultans of Rum Seljuk dynasty 13th-century Turkic people People from the Seljuk Empire of Greek descent

Life

Legacy

See also

References

Sources

External links