Çaka Bey

Turkish representation in the form of a bust in the Museum of Çeşme near Izmir

Çaka Bey (also Çakan Bey , Middle Greek Τζαχάς Tzachas ; * approx. 1040 , † 1092 ) was a Seljuk Bey and pirate in the 11th century.

After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 he was commissioned by Alp Arslan to conquer Western Anatolia. During his campaigns he was captured by the Byzantines . After spending some time in Byzantine captivity, he gained control of Smyrna around 1081 . He built up the first Turkish fleet and in addition to pirate activities, he conquered various Byzantine islands, u. a. Samos , Chios and Lesbos . Çaka Bey claimed the Byzantine imperial title for himself from 1091 and married his daughter to the Seljuk Sultan Kılıç Arslan I. According to Byzantine sources, he had him murdered in 1092. The Byzantines under Alexios I were able to recapture the area controlled by Çaka Bey shortly afterwards.

swell

• Anna Komnena , Alexiade 7 , 183-187; 8 , 198; 9: 214-220

literature

• Claude Cahen : Pre-Ottoman Turkey: A General Survey of the Material and Spiritual Culture and History c.1071-1330 . New York 1968, p. 81.
• Jean-Claude Cheynet: Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (= Publications de la Sorbonne. Series Byzantina Sorbonensia. Vol. 9). Reimpression. Publications de la Sorbonne Center de Recherches d'Histoire et de Civilization Byzantines, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85944-168-5 , p. 93 No. 118.
• Ali Sevim: Türk Tarihi - Fetih, Selçuklu ve Beylikler Dönemi , Türk Tarih Kurumu 1989; P. 217ff.