Kaykhusraw I

Kaykhusraw I
Reign 1192–1196
1205–1211
Old Anatolian Turkish كَیخُسرو
Persian غياث الدين كيخسرو بن قلج ارسلان
Died 1211
Kuyucak, Aydin Province
Statue of Kaykhusraw I in Antalya, sculpted by Meret Öwezov

Kaykhusraw I (Old Anatolian Turkish: كَیخُسرو, Persian: غياث الدين كيخسرو بن قلج ارسلان, Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Kaykhusraw bin Qilij Arslān), the eleventh and youngest son of Kilij Arslan II, was Seljuk Sultan of Rûm. He succeeded his father in 1192, but had to fight his brothers for control of the Sultanate. He ruled it 1192-1196 and 1205-1211.

He married a daughter of Manuel Maurozomes,[1] son of Theodore Maurozomes and of an illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Manuel Maurozomes fought on behalf of Kaykhusraw in 1205 and 1206.

In 1207 he seized Antalya from its Frankish garrison and furnished the Seljuq state with a port on the Mediterranean.

According to Niketas Choniates, he was killed in single combat by Theodore I Laskaris, the emperor of Nicaea, during the Battle of Antioch on the Meander.[2]

His son by Manuel Maurozomes' daughter, Kayqubad I, ruled the Sultanate from 1220 to 1237, and his grandson, Kaykhusraw II, ruled from 1237 to 1246.

Footnotes

  1. Charles M. Brand, "The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 43 (1989), p. 18.
  2. Niketas Choniates, Orationes 172.1-10.

Bibliography

Preceded by
Kilij Arslan II
Sultan of Rûm
1192–1196
Succeeded by
Suleiman II
Preceded by
Kilij Arslan III
Sultan of Rûm
1205–1211
Succeeded by
Kaykaus I