Battle of Antioch on the Meander

A map showing the Nicaean Empire and Seljuk Sultanate.

Date	c 1211
Location	Asia Minor
Result	Nicaean victory

Belligerents

Empire of Nicaea

Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm

Commanders and leaders

Theodore Laskaris

Kaykhusraw I †

Strength

2,000 men^[1]

Unknown

Byzantine–Seljuq Wars

Kapetron 1st Manzikert Caesarea Iconium 2nd Manzikert Seljuk campaigns in the Aegean 1st Nicaea 2nd Nicaea Philomelion Campaigns of John I Komnenos Myriokephalon Hyelion and Leimocheir Cotyaeum Trebizond Attalia Antioch on the Meander Battle of Gallipoli (1312)

The Battle of Antioch on the Meander (also known as the Battle of Alaşehir^[2]) was a military engagement near Antioch-on-the-Meander between the forces of the Empire of Nicaea and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. The Turkish defeat ensured continued Nicaean hegemony of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. The Seljuk sultan, Kaykhusraw I, was killed on the field of battle.

1 Background
2 Battle
3 Outcome
4 References
5 Sources

Background

Following the fall of Constantinople to the forces of the Fourth Crusade (1204) and the partition of the Byzantine Empire the Seljuq Sultan of Rūm, Kaykhusraw I, had given asylum to the Byzantine ex-emperor Alexios III. The sultan used the pretext of assisting Alexios back to power to attack Theodore Laskaris, crowned emperor in 1208, who had built up a powerbase in the former Byzantine territory of western Anatolia. This new polity was to become known as the Empire of Nicaea, though its emperors always claimed to be the rightful "Emperor of the Romans" (Byzantine Emperor). Having failed to persuade Theodore to abdicate in favour of Alexios, the sultan invaded Theodore’s territory in the spring of 1211.^[3]

Battle

Kaykhusraw I was to pay dearly for his invasion as he was defeated and killed in a battle in the Meander Valley near Antioch-on-the-Meander. The Seljuk army was initially victorious with Laskaris's 800 Latin^[4] mercenary cavalry bearing the brunt of the casualties due to their impetuous charge; once exhausted by their onset, the Latins were struck in the flank and rear by the Seljuk forces.^[5] However, the Seljuk troops stopped to plunder the Nicaean camp,^[6] allowing Theodore's forces to rally and counter-attack the now disorganised Turks. Theodore sought out Kaykhusraw I and engaged him in single combat, killing him.^[7]^[8] Sources relate that Laskaris was initially unhorsed by the sultan, but he subsequently brought Kaykhusraw down by hacking at his mount's legs; once the sultan was thrown to the ground, Laskaris stabbed him to the heart.^[5] The Seljuk forces were routed and the former emperor Alexios, Laskaris' father-in-law, was captured during the battle and subsequently imprisoned, ending his days in enforced monastic seclusion.^[7] Following the battle, the Turks carried the body of their sultan back to Konya where he was buried in the dynastic mausoleum.^[9]

Outcome

The battle freed Nicaea from Seljuk pressure, but Laskaris's army had suffered heavy casualties. In particular, his very effective Latin mercenary cavalry had been almost destroyed. As a result, Laskaris could not adequately defend his territory from an attack by the Latin Empire of Constantinople and he had to cede some territory bordering the Sea of Marmara.^[7] However, the victory gave Laskaris considerable prestige and the capture of Alexios ended internal opposition to his rule. The battle was the last major encounter between the Seljuks and the Byzantines. Ultimately, the Seljuks had failed to take all of Asia Minor. However, even though the Nicaean Empire would strengthen (at the cost of the Latins) and the Seljuks would weaken, the Turks, under Ottoman leadership, would ultimately conquer Byzantine Asia Minor a little over 100 years later.

References

^ Treadgold 1997, p. 717.
^ Redford 1991, p. 70.
^ Finlay & Tozer 1877, pp. 365–366.
^ "Latin" is the term used for people, of mixed national origins, from western Europe who followed the "Latin Rite" (Roman Catholic) rather than the "Greek Rite" (Greek Orthodoxy). Latins, sometimes alternatively called "Franks", were prominent in many of the eastern Mediterranean lands in this period.
^ ^a ^b Finlay & Tozer 1877, p. 366.
^ Holt, Lambton & Lewis 1970, p. 246.
^ ^a ^b ^c Abulafia & McKitterick 1999, p. 547.
^ Niketas Choniates. Orationes, 172.1-10.
^ Redford 1991, p. 70: "The importance to the Seljuks of burial in the tomb tower in Konya is well known, and is graphically illustrated by the care taken to reinter the body of Giyaseddin Keyhusrev in Konya after he was killed by the troops of Theodore Lascaris after the battle of Alaşehir."

Sources

Abulafia, David; McKitterick, Rosamond (1999). The New Cambridge Medieval History V: c. 1198-c. 1300. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052136289X. http://books.google.com/books?id=bclfdU_2lesC.
Finlay, George; Tozer, Henry Fanshawe (1877). A History of Greece from its Conquest by the Romans to the Present Time B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864: The Byzantine and Greek Empires. Part 2, A.D. 1057-1453. III. Oxford, United Kingdom: Clarendon Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=_kMTAAAAYAAJ.
Holt, Peter Malcolm; Lambton, Ann K. S.; Lewis, Bernard (1970). The Cambridge History of Islam: The Central Islamic Lands from Pre-Islamic Times to the First World War, Volume 1, Part 1. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521291356. http://books.google.com/books?id=4AuJvd2Tyt8C.
Redford, Scott (1991). "The Alaeddin Mosque in Konya Reconsidered". Artibus Asiae (Zürich: Artibus Asiae Publishers) 51 (1-2): 54–74. doi:10.2307/3249676. ISSN 00043648. JSTOR 3249676.
Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2. http://books.google.com/?id=nYbnr5XVbzUC.