Kilij Arslan II

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Izz ad-Din Kılıj Arslan II, also Qïlïch Arslan, قيليج ارسلان, (Turkish: Kılıç Arslan, meaning Lion Sword) was a Seljuk sultan of Rüm. He succeeded his father Mas'ud in 1156.

As Arnold of Lubeck reports in his Chronica Slavorum, he was present at the meeting of Henry the Lion with Kilij-Arslan during the former's pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1172. When they met near Tarsus, the sultan embraced and kissed the German duke, reminding him that they were blood cousins ('amplexans et deosculans eum, dicens, eum consanguineum suum esse'). When the duke asked for details of this relationship, Kilij-Arslan informed him that 'a noble lady from the land of Germans married a king of Russia who had a daughter by her; this daughter's daughter arrived to our land, and I descend from her.' The Russian king in question is assumed to have been Svyatoslav II.

In 1159, Kilij Arslan attacked Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus as he marched past Iconium (Konya, capital of Rüm), as Manuel returned from negotiating with Nur ad-Din in Syria. In 1161 Manuel's nephew John Contostephanus defeated Kilij Arslan, and the sultan travelled to Constantinople in a show of submission. In 1173 Kilij Arslan, now at peace with the Byzantines, allied with Nur ad-Din against Mosul.

The peace treaty with the Byzantines lasted until 1175, when Kilij Arslan refused to hand over to Manuel the territory conquered from the Danishmends, although both sides had for some time been building up their fortifications and armies in preparation for a renewed war. Kilij Arslan tried to negotiate, but Manuel invaded the sultanate in 1176, intending to capture Iconium itself. Kilij Arslan was able to drive Manuel's army into a valley near Myriokephalon, and although Manuel's force was not totally annihilated, the sultan forced the emperor to dismantle his fortifications along the frontier.

In 1180 the sultan took advantage of the instability in the Byzantine Empire after Manuel's death to secure most of the southern coast of Anatolia, and allied with Saladin, Nur ad-Din's successor, that same year. In 1185 he made peace with Emperor Isaac II Angelus, but the next year he transferred power to his nine sons, who immediately fought each other for control. Despite Kilij Arslan's alliance with Saladin he was unable to stop the armies of the Third Crusade, but the remnants of the German army were in any case destroyed by the Turks after the death of Frederick Barbarossa.

Kilij Arslan died in 1192. He was succeeded by Kay Khusrau I, although his other sons continued to fight for control of the other parts of the sultanate.