Kai Chosrau II.

Dirham , Sivas , AH 638 / AD 1240-1.

Kai Chosrau II ( Persian ﻏﻴﺙ ﺍﻟﺪﻳﻦ ﻛﻴﺨﺴﺮﻭ ﺑﻦ ﻛﻴﻘﺒﺎﺩﺎ; Armenian Քայխոսրով Բ ; Turkish I. Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev ; * at 1221; † 1246 in Antalya ) was the sultan of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum from 1237 to 1246 . During his reign, Kai Chosrau II struggled with the Baba Isaac rebellion and the invasion of the Mongols .

His mother was the daughter of the Armenian Kyr Vart , who was a nobleman and former opponent of Kai Kobad I from Cilicia .

In 1228 Kai Chosrau II was sent to Erzincan by his father, together with the Atabeg Mübarizeddin Ertokuş . Later Kai Chosrau II took part in the conquests of Erzurum and Ahlat . When his father Kai Kobad I died in 1237, he had chosen the younger brother İzzeddin Kılıç Arslan as his successor. However, Kai Chosrau II was able to take the throne for himself with the help of several emirs. Kai Khosrau II had to fight against the Khorezm Shahs who supported his brother. To secure his rule, he got rid of his competitors, some of whom had previously helped him to the throne.

After securing his rule, Kai Chosrau II set about normalizing relations with the other kingdoms and states. He renewed the old treaties with the Ayyubid rulers, the Byzantine rulers of Nicaea and the Ortoqids . In 1240 he was able to incorporate Diyarbakır into his kingdom.

Between the years 1236 and 1237 the Mongols undertook raids deep into Anatolia. They were supported by the Georgians. The Mongols advanced as far as Sivas and Malatya. Kai Khosrau II then undertook a punitive expedition against the Georgian allies. To avoid a war, the Georgian Queen Rusudan gave her daughter Tamar Kai Chosrau II as wife.

When the Mongols invaded the Middle East in the 13th century , they drove many peoples before them. As a result of this flight, many new Turkmen tribes came to Anatolia . These endangered the state order. Conflicts arose between the immigrants and the sultanate. So the Babai Rebellion , caused by Baba Isaac, broke out. The uprising was crushed in 1240. Even so, the sultanate was weakened. So the Mongols were able to wrest Erzurum from the Seljuks in 1242. Thereupon Kai Chosrau II went to battle with Christian allies against the Mongols in 1243 in the battle of the Köse Dağ . Kai Chosrau II lost the battle and had to flee to Western Anatolia. After a peace agreement with the Mongols, he returned to Konya. From then on he was represented by his vizier Şemseddin İsfahani. He later went on a campaign against the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia . Meanwhile he died a sudden death near Antalya in 1246. Kai Chosrau II was the last important sultan of rum.

Coins

Between 1240 and 1244, Kai Chosrau II had dirhamm coins minted in his name in Sivas and Konya . His coins bore a lion and the sun as symbols. This was unique in that Islam banned the depiction of living beings in the post- crusade era . For example, coins from other Islamic countries did not carry any living beings at the time.

According to one interpretation, the sun stands for Kai Chosrau II. Georgian wife Tamar - also called Gurcü Hatun - and the lion for Kai Chosrau II himself. Another opinion says that the lion is the zodiac sign of the wife Tamar.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Album: A Checklist of Islamic Coins. 2nd edition. Stephen Album, Santa Rosa CA 1998, ISBN 0-9636024-1-1 , p. 62.
2. ↑ Seljuk Numatics by Mehmet Eti ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  

Web links

• Kai Chosrau II in Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Turkish)
• Intermarriage and its impact on art in Anatolia in the 13th century by Antony Eastmond of the Courtauld Institute of Art . İstanbul, June 2007 (In English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Kai Kobad I.	Sultan of Rum 1237–1246	Kai Kaus II.