Kilij Arslan I

Kilij Arslan I (1079 - 1107) was the Sultan of Rum; it was he who had to deal with the Europeans of the First Crusade when they attempted to "free" the Holy Land from non-Christians in the late 1090s.

Prior to the First Crusade, however, he had his own set of difficulties. The Turks were organized in several different tribes that saw each other as rivals: Seljuks (Aslan's tribe), Danishmends, Mangujekids, Saltuqids, Tengribirmish, Artuqids, and Akhlat-Shahs. Upon the death of Arslan's father, Suleyman (d.1086), the Sultan Malik Shah I of Isfahan imprisoned him, seeing him as a potential rival. When Malik died in 1092, a quarrel among his jailers allowed him to escape, after which he assembled an army and set up a capital for himself in Nicaea.

In times of political rivalry, carefully chosen alliances become vital. A non-Turkish complication in this part of the world was the size and proximity of the Byzantine Empire. Nicaea was in Byzantine Territory, and Arslan was able to set up his capital there (relatively safe from his Turkish rivals) because of a strategic alliance.

Arslan married the daughter of Emir Tzachas, a Seljuk Turkish military commander. Tzachas had earlier in life become a significant member of Byzantine society, until he lost his position when Emperor Alexios Comnenos I came to power and dismissed him. He then became an enemy of the Byzantines. Arslan married the daughter, Ayşe Hatun, to strengthen his own power against the Byzantines.

Then there was a twist: Arslan received a communication from Alexios, claiming that Tzachas intended to usurp him. Arslan marched his army to Tzachas' location, invited his father-in-law to a banquet, and killed him. This simple act ingratiated him to Alexios. When the Crusade of 1101 captured Nicaea and sent Ayşe Hatun to Costantinople to be held for ransom, Alexios sent her back without a ransom, in order to honor his alliance with Arslan.

Kilij Arslan, whose name means literally "sword lion," drowned in 1107 while crossing the Khabur River to escape a losing battle against a rival. In January 2021, archaeologists found his grave in Silvan, in Turkey.

Emperor Alexios Comnenos' name keeps cropping up in discussions of the Crusades, and he should probably be discussed a little more, but that's for tomorrow.

The Battle of Mersivan

The Crusade of 1101 had high hopes: the First Crusade had already been successful, establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Germans, French, and Lombards (joined by Byzantines from Constantinople) who set out as reinforcements at the request of Pope Paschal II thought they would be avoiding any serious battles. They were mistaken, however, when different groups of Turks banded together and met them at the Battle of Mersivan. The Turkish leader, Kilij Arslan I, had his forces push the invaders where he wanted them to go.

The westerners were then at a disadvantage in the Mersivan area, dealing with dry open land bereft of supplies that was more suited to the cavalry regiments of the Seljuk and Danishmend Turks. Over the several days of the battle, the Turks outmaneuvered the Crusaders at every turn, surrounding them on the very first day.

On day two, a raid by the German division failed, and they were cut off from the main army with no supplies or communication. After a relatively inactive third day, the next day saw Turkish reinforcements. The Crusaders tried to break out of their position, inflicting some damage to the Turks, but they failed to achieve their goal. The fifth day saw the Crusaders' camp captured. Shockingly, the knights fled, leaving behind families and priests to be killed or enslaved. The Lombards, mostly peasant class who did not have horses, could not flee and were largely wiped out, although some were captured and made slaves.

This defeat, and the rounding up and destruction of those who fled, taking place just a few years after the First Crusade, taught the Muslim world that the Crusaders were not invincible. The leader of the Turks, Kilij Arslan I, had redeemed himself after the losses brought by the First Crusade, and established a capital at Iconium. I'll tell you more about Kilij Arslan next time.

The Crusade of 1101

Because the First Crusade was successful, in 1100-1101 several of those who had avoided going on the First (or started and turned back because of the difficulties in traveling such distances) decided to conduct their own Crusade. Because they had avoided the First, this Crusade is sometimes called the Crusade of the Faint-Hearted. Stephen, Count of Blois (1045 - 1102), fled from the Siege of Antioch, for instance, and was so strongly criticized that his wife refused to allow him to stay home. This new Crusade was an opportunity for him and others to redeem themselves.

Pope Urban had died before the First Crusade was completed, but his successor, Pope Paschal II, called for reinforcements to supplement the armies who remained in the Holy Land. His urging resulted in three separate groups deciding to take up the Cross.

One group was from Lombardy, led by the Archbishop of Milan, Anselm IV. They were untrained and undisciplined peasants who, when they reached Constantinople, pillaged the city (even killing Emperor Alexios I's pet lion) until they were gathered and shipped to a camp at Nicomedia.

A second group met them there in May 1101. These were led by Stephen of Blois and other nobles, bringing French, Germans, and Burgundians. They were joined by Raymond IV of Toulouse, who had been successful on the First Crusade and had been offered the position of "King of Jerusalem," which he refused (the title went to Godfrey of Bouillon).

The largest contingent in this combined army was Lombards, who wanted to march the army north where they could rescue Bohemond I of Antioch, who was held captive by a Turkish dynasty, the Danishmends. The Seljuk Turks, realizing that combining forces was necessary to defeat the intruders, persuaded the Danishmend Turks to join them. This proved disastrous for these new Crusaders, but that is a story for tomorrow.