Sultanate of Rum

The Sultanate of Rum was the Seljuk Turkish state of Anatolia, lasting from 1077 to 1307 and the beginning of Turkish history in the peninsula. After Manzikert in 1071 broke Byzantine Asia Minor, Suleiman ibn Qutalmish broke with the Great Seljuks and carved a sultanate out of the conquered Roman lands, Rum being the old eastern name for Rome itself. The sultans ruled first from Nicaea, then from Konya, and at their height in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century they held the Mediterranean and Black Sea ports, the trade roads from Persia, and a chain of caravanserais that still dots Turkey. Genoese merchants, Persian poets and Byzantine brides all passed through Konya's courts, and under Kayqubad the Great the realm was the richest power between the Aegean and Van. The Mongols ended it: crushed at Köse Dağ in 1243, the sultans became Ilkhanid puppets, and by 1307 the last of the line was gone, leaving Anatolian beyliks to quarrel over the inheritance until the Ottomans gathered it in.