Mas'ud II.

Mas'ud II (غياث الدين مسعود بن كيكاوس, Ghīyāth al-Dīn Mas'ūd bin Kaykā'ūs; Turkish II. Gıyaseddin Mesud ) was a Seljuk Sultan of Rum , who ascended the throne several times between 1282 and 1307.

Mas'ud II was the eldest son of Kai Kaus II and as a vassal of the Ilkhan had no real power. Nothing is known about his fate after 1307. Mas'ud II, like part of the sultan's family, spent his youth in exile in the Crimea and Constantinople . In 1280 he returned to Anatolia and claimed the throne. In 1282 the leader of the Ilchane Tekuder had the Sultan Kai Chosrau III. to be executed and made Mas'ud II sultan. Tekuder's successor Arghun divided the Sultanate of Rum into two parts and gave the western part including the capital Konya to the two sons of the former sultan. Mas'ud II, however, invaded the western part in 1286 and disempowered the sons of Kai Chosraus III.

Mas'ud II had to do in Anatolia with the competition of the new and growing Beyliks . Mas'ud II moved against these Beyliks with the permission of the Ilkhan and with Mongolian troops. One of these Beyliks were the Germiyan , who had been settled a generation earlier by the Seljuks in southwest Anatolia. The aim of this policy was to control the potentially dangerous nomads. In 1286 Mas'ud II moved against the Germiyan, with the support of the Ilkhan vizier Fakhr al-Din Ali . Despite a few smaller victories, Mas'ud II could not provide the mobile Germiyan and defeat them completely. Other expeditions were directed against the Beyliks of Karaman and the Esrefids.

Mas'ud II was involved in intrigues against the distant ruler of the Ilchane Ghazan Ilchan , so that he was then deposed from the throne and by his nephew Kai Kobad III. had been replaced. He had to leave Konya and go to Tabriz, the capital of the Ilkhan people. Kai Kobad III. later became part of an intrigue himself and was sentenced to death by Sultan Ghazan Ilchan, but then spared and exiled to Isfahan. In 1303 Mas'ud II was able to become sultan again. The sultanate became weaker and weaker over time and ceased to exist after 1307.

literature

• Claude Cahen / J. Jones-Williams (trans.): Pre-Ottoman Turkey: a general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history . Taplinger, New York 1968.
• Prof. Dr. Mehmet Eti: Examples of coinage in Masud's name (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Kai Chosrau III.	Sultan of Rum 1282–1284	Kai Kobad III.
Kai Kobad III.	Sultan of Rum 1284–1293	Kai Kobad III.
Kai Kobad III.	Sultan of Rum 1294-1301	Kai Kobad III.
Kai Kobad III.	Sultan of Rum 1303-1307