- Kilij Arslan II
from 1156 until his death in 1192.
As
Arnold of Lubeck reports in his "Chronica Slavorum", he was present at the meeting ofHenry the Lion with Kilij-Arslan during the former's pilgrimage toJerusalem in 1172. When they met near Tarsus, the sultan embraced and kissed the German duke, reminding him that they were blood cousins ('amplexans et deosculans eum, dicens, eum consanguineum suum esse'). When the duke asked for details of this relationship, Kilij Arslan informed him that 'a noble lady from the land of Germans married a king of Russia who had a daughter by her; this daughter's daughter arrived to our land, and I descend from her.' The Russian king in question is assumed to have beenSvyatoslav II .In 1159, Kilij Arslan attacked
Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus as he marched pastIconium (Konya , capital of Rüm), as Manuel returned from negotiating withNur ad-Din inSyria . In 1161 Manuel's nephewJohn Contostephanus defeated Kilij Arslan, and the sultan travelled toConstantinople in a show of submission. In 1173 Kilij Arslan, now at peace with the Byzantines, allied with Nur ad-Din againstMosul .The peace treaty with the Byzantines lasted until 1175, when Kilij Arslan refused to hand over to Manuel the territory conquered from the
Danishmends , although both sides had for some time been building up their fortifications and armies in preparation for a renewed war. Kilij Arslan tried to negotiate, but Manuel invaded the sultanate in 1176, intending to capture Iconium itself. Kilij Arslan was able to drive Manuel's army into a valley near Myriokephalon, and although Manuel's force was not totally annihilated, the sultan forced the emperor to negotiate a fragile peace.In 1179 Kilij Arslan captured and held to ransom Henry I, the renowned
count of Champagne , who was returning overland from a visit toJerusalem . The ransom was paid by the Byzantine Emperor and Henry was released, but died soon afterwards.In 1180 the sultan took advantage of the instability in the
Byzantine Empire after Manuel's death to secure most of the southern coast ofAnatolia , and allied withSaladin , Nur ad-Din's successor, that same year. Then in 1182, he succeeded in capturing the city ofCotyaeum from the Byzantines. In 1185 he made peace with EmperorIsaac II Angelus , but the next year he transferred power to his nine sons, who immediately fought each other for control. Despite Kilij Arslan's alliance with Saladin he was unable to stop the armies of theThird Crusade , but the remnants of the German army were in any case destroyed by the Turks after the death of Frederick Barbarossa.Kilij Arslan died in 1192. He was succeeded by
Kaykhusraw I , although his other sons continued to fight for control of the other parts of the sultanate.
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