Çobanoğlu

Çobanoğlu (Turkish plural "Çobanoğulları") was an Anatolian Turkish Beylik founded by the dynasty of the same name and controlled the region in and around the northern Central Anatolian city of Kastamonu in the 13th century, ruling as an independent entity in intervals.

The founder of the dynasty was Hüsameddin Çoban, a prominent statesman and a commander of the Sultans of Rum during the reigns of Kaykaus I and his successor Kayqubad I. In the early decades of the 13th century, Hüsameddin Çoban was one of the commanders of the raids that extended Seljuk territory in northern Anatolia at the expense of the Byzantine Empire of Trebizond. As a result, he had acquired Kastamonu as a fiefdom. Between 1224-1227, he also led the Seljuk army and fleet that set sail from Sinop and captured and fortified the city of Sudak in Crimea.

After Hüsameddin Çoban's death, his hereditary possessions centered in Kastamonu were ruled respectively by his son and grandson, Alp Yürek and Yavlak Arslan. Until the last years of Yavlak Arslan's reign, the Beys of Çobanoğlu pursued a prudent policy of allegiance to the Mongols who had taken control of Anatolia after the Battle of Köse Dag. A rebellion in the end by Yavlak Arslan resulted in his death in the battle in front of Kastamonu against combined Seljuk-Mongol forces, and the region was given to the Seljuk commander Şemseddin Yaman Candar, whose descendants were to found the Beylik of Candaroğlu in the same region.

Yaman Candar was momentarily pushed out of the region by Yavlak Arslan's son Çobanoğlu Mahmud Bey, who also organized further raids into Byzantine territory to extend his domain. But in 1309, this last Bey of Çobanoğlu fell victim to an ambush by Yaman Candar's son Candaroğlu Süleyman Pasha and the region of Kastamonu passed to the Beylik of Candaroğlu.

Çobanoğlu dynasty left important works of architecture in and around Kastamonu.

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[Category:Anatolian Seljuk Sultanate and Turkish Beyliks]