Kai Kaus II.

Izz ad-Din Kai Kaus II (also Kaikaus , Turkish II. İzzedin Keykavus ; † around 1279 in the Crimea ) was the eldest son of the Rumeljuk sultan Kai Chosrau II of Iconium (Konya) and a Greek-Byzantine princess of Nikäa . From 1246 to 1257 he ruled the Sultanate of the Rum Seljuks .

Sultan in Anatolia

After the invasion of the Mongols ( Battle of Köse Dağ 1243), who had demoted the Rum Seljuks to defeated vassals, a famine broke out in the devastated areas of Anatolia, and according to his father's plan for partition, Kai Kaus II found himself with rival claims to the throne confronted two younger half-brothers. Kılıç Arslan IV. (1248–1265), Kai Chosraus II. Son with a Turkish woman, tore the eastern half of the sultanate from Sivas with Mongolian help and crowned himself sultan in Kayseri in 1240 . Her two youngest half-brother Kai Kobad II. (1249-1257) was Kai Chosraus II. Son with the Georgian Tamar - daughter of Queen Rusudan  - and was in Malatya directly under Mongolian rule, he was later murdered in Erzurum by his own emirs.

Kai Kaus II then renewed the alliance with Nikäa, which his father had with John III in 1243 . had closed, and was able to overrun Kılıç Arslan 1254 first in Kayseri and take prisoner. Before another Mongol invasion, even more powerful than that of 1243, Kai Kaus II was only able to flee to his Greek allies in Nicaea.

Kılıç Arslan became the new sultan in Kayseri in 1256. But when he stopped paying tribute, the Mongols intervened again, while Kai Kaus II moved back into Konya at the same time. On the eve of their final attack on the Abbasids - caliphate in Baghdad sat Mangu Khan in 1257 by Kai Kobads II death the two brothers still living as part of rulers one to bring peace to the Anatolian side, and both brothers had to 1260 with auxiliary troops on the Mongolian campaign. Hülegüs to participate in Syria. After the Mongol defeat in Palestine against the Mameluks under Baibars, they fought again, and again Kai Kaus II, who had bet on the Mameluks, had to flee from another Mongol invasion of Greek territory, while Kılıç Arslan entered Konya in 1261.

Exiled in Dobruja

Kai Kaus II hoped for support for a new civil war from the new Nicean Emperor Michael VIII . But Michael, who had just entered Constantinople victoriously in 1261 and had destroyed the Latin Empire , was looking for a respite and peace with the Persian-Mongolian Ilkhans who ruled in Tabriz , who in turn wanted to have their backs free to fight their rulers on the Volga Tatar-Mongolian brothers of the Golden Horde .

Kai Kaus II. Was therefore 1263 /64 far from Anatolia to the embattled with the Bulgarians Dobrogea deported and banned his followers to this northern border of the Byzantine Empire. In fact, however, the Seljuk border troops who had settled on the Danube were prisoners.

Emigrant in the Crimea

The Tatars had invaded Bulgaria across the Danube as early as 1241/42, in their second advance in 1264/65 they were already partially Islamized and liberated Kai Kaus II. On the Crimean peninsula he found asylum with Kara Nogai Khan , but no serious support for one return to Anatolia again. In Anatolia, his brother Kılıç Arslan was deposed and executed by the Mongols in 1265 , but Kılıç Arslan's son Kai Chosrau III. (1265–1282) appointed as the new vassal. Vizier Sulaiman reigned for him, before the vizier was also executed in 1277 for conspiracy with Baibars.

The remaining Dobruja Seljuks either joined the Tatars or returned to Anatolia via Constantinople by 1307, where Michael's successors needed them as border guards against the Ottomans , whom Kai Kaus's second father had recruited. The Seljuks who remained in Dobruja joined the Bulgarians, converted to Christianity and, together with Christian Cumans or Pechenegs, became the ancestors of the Gagauz . Their common name Gagavuz is said to be derived from Keykavuz .

Descendants as sultans

Kai Kaus' II. Son Mas'ud II returned during the reign of Kai Chosraus III. returned to Anatolia, submitted to the Mongols, received Sivas, Erzincan and Erzurum from them and was finally installed as sultan in Konya in 1282 . But even with Mongolian help, Mas'ud was just as unable to assert himself against insurgent emirs in Konya as he was against his nephew Kai Kobad III. (1284 / 93–1303), son of his brother Faramarz and thus Kai Kaus' II. Grandson, and retired to Kayseri.

Kai Kaus' II. Other grandson, Mas'ud's son Mas'ud III. , ruled after Mas'ud II's death in 1307 only a few months before he was also murdered. With both Mas'uds, the Rum-Seljuk dynasty died out in 1307/08, even though another Rum-Seljuk prince called Kılıç Arslan V. tried in vain to win Konya back until 1315/18.

The Turkish revolutionary Sheikh Bedreddin also claimed to be descended from Kai Kaus II.

See also

• Islam in Dobruja and Islam in Crimea

literature

• Seljūks . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 24 : Sainte-Claire Deville - Shuttle . London 1911, p. 6 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

predecessor	Office	successor
Kai Chosrau II.	Sultan of Rum 1246–1257	Kılıç Arslan IV.