According to a letter from Manuel I Komnenos to Henry II (1154–89) of
England, after the battle of Myriokephalon Sultan Kilij Arslan
sent to beg our imperial majesty supplicantly, employing the language of entreaty,
suing for peace, and promising to fulfil every wish of our imperial majesty, to give
us his service against all men, to release all the prisoners who were detained in his
kingdom, and in every way to conform to our desires.43
In reality Manuel agreed to demolish the fortresses of Dorylaion and Soublaion
and to become a Seljuq tributary,44 although it should be noted that
even before 1176,Manuel had paid sums to Kilij Arslan as part of his special
relationship with the Seljuqs. The friendship (philia) betweenManuel and
Kilij Arslan continued until Manuel’s death in 1180. The sultan’s failure to
exploit his victory at Myriokephalon and Byzantium’s gradual weakening
after 1180 are not to be explained entirely in military terms.45 Kilij Arslan
decided to divide the sultanate – most probably in 1187 – between his nine
sons, a brother and a nephew. However, soon afterwards he handed the
whole realm over to his eldest son, Qutb al-Din, upon which Kilij Arslan’s
other sons ceased to recognise his authority. Seeking undisputed power,
Qutb al-Din arrested his father, but the old sultan escaped and settled
in Sozopolis in the ‘realm’ of his youngest son Kay-Khusraw I (1192–6,
1205–11). Kilij Arslan recognised Kay-Khusraw as his heir before his death
in 1192, and that same year Kay-Khusraw entered Konya.
AfterQutb al-Din’s death in 1195, his brother Rukn al-Din of Tokat gradually
occupied almost all the sultanate’s lands. Kay-Khusraw I was forced
to leave his capital in September 1196. After a long journey trekking across
Cilician Armenia, Ablastayn and the Pontos, the ex-sultan sailed to Constantinople
in 1200, where he was received with great honour by Alexios III
Angelos (1195–1203). Kay-Khusraw was wedded to the daughter ofManuel
Maurozomes, a member of the Komnenian elite, and was even baptised and
adopted by the emperor as his son. He was still in Constantinople when
the Fourth Crusaders arrived on 23 June 1203 and he helped his adoptive
father, Alexios III, to flee the capital on the night of 17–18 July 1203.
Whenthe crusaders finally took Constantinople inApril 1204, the empire
broke up into its constituent parts. In Asia Minor, ‘Theodore, who was
calledMorotheodore [i.e. ‘silly Theodore’],46 ruled over the city of Philadelphia;
another, Sabbas by name,47 ruled Sampson and its surrounding territory;
and David, brother of Alexios, who had taken over Trebizond and
was also known as Grand Komnenos, subdued the whole of Paphlagonia
. . .’48 Others who seized this opportunity to establish local power bases
included Leo Gabalas of Rhodes and, on the upperMaeander, Nikephoros
Kontostephanos and Kay-Khusraw I’s father-in-law Manuel Maurozomes
(from 1205). One of the most successful was Theodore I Laskaris (1205–21),
founder of what emerged as the Nicaean state; he managed to unite all
the Byzantine territories in Anatolia, save those conquered by the Latins or
occupied by the empire of Trebizond.
Of all the emperors recognised as legitimate in or just before 1204, none
managed to establish himself in Asia Minor after the fall of Constantinople.
49 In 1203–4 Alexios III was in Adrianople, and then he moved to
Mosynopolis in Thrace (see below, p. 734). It was his son-in-law, Theodore
I Laskaris, who acted as the emperor’s chief deputy in Anatolia, where at
first his imperial connections offered Theodore little advantage; what he
really needed was military help so as to vanquish his rivals.
When help arrived it came in the form of the Seljuqs. In June 1204 Rukn
al-Din died and his young son Kilij Arslan III (1204–5) succeeded him as
sultan. That summer Kay-Khusraw I and Manuel Maurozomes left the
environs of Constantinople and hastened to the sultanate of Rum. They
passed through Nicaea, where Theodore and Kay-Khusraw concluded an
agreement. With the sums advanced by Theodore, Kay-Khusraw was able
to depose Kilij Arslan III inMarch 1205; in return, the sultan gave Theodore
a military force to help him subdue his main rivals – TheodoreMangaphas,
Sabbas Asidinos and probably also Nikephoros Kontostephanos – and to
reconquer some of the lands occupied by the Latins. Only two Greek rivals
remained:ManuelMaurozomes, now himself at large in Laodicea, and the
Grand Komnenos David in Paphlagonia. Despite receiving support from
his son-in-law, Kay-Khusraw I, by 1207Maurozomes had been defeated and
imprisoned by Theodore while his lands were absorbed by the sultanate.
Relations between the empire of Nicaea and the Seljuq sultanate should
be seen in terms of the family ties between them. While Kay-Khusraw I
was married to Maurozomes’ daughter, Theodore I Laskaris’ wife Anna
was the daughter of Alexios III, to whom Kay-Khusraw was indebted. The
sultan certainly tried to take advantage of the Byzantine empire’s disintegration
but, strikingly, his direct assaults were reserved for the lands of
other, peripheral rulers. These included Trebizond – capital of the Grand
Komnenos Alexios I (1204–22), which Kay-Khusraw attacked in 1205 – and
Antalya, which he captured on 5 March 1207.
For the Seljuqs, the situation after 1204 was unique: for the first time
their sultanate faced several Greek states in Asia Minor, instead of a single,
centralised empire. And yet the sultan, constrained by his family ties,
did not exploit the situation to the full. What set Theodore I Laskaris
and Kay-Khusraw I against each other was Maurozomes’ imprisonment at
Theodore’s hands, Theodore’s coronation as emperor in 1208 and, finally,
the appearance of Alexios III Angelos in the sultanate of Rum around
1210.50 In 1211 the sultan declared open war. In a battle at Antioch-onthe-
Maeander some time after 15 June 1211 the Nicaean army was almost
defeated, but Theodore managed to kill Kay-Khusraw, and the sultan’s
eldest son Kay-Kawus I (1211–19) signed an ‘inviolable alliance’ with him.
Thereafter the Seljuqs did not dare threaten the empire ofNicaea directly.
In fact in 1214 the Seljuqs and the Nicaeans simultaneously attacked their
common enemy, the empire of Trebizond, whose ruler, the Grand Komnenos
Alexios I, was forced to cede western Paphlagonia to Theodore and
eastern Paphlagonia, with Sinope as its centre, to Kay-Kawus. The sultanate
of Rum became the Nicaean empire’s only eastern neighbour. The former
rivals pursued different courses: the sultanate, which reached its apogee
during the long reign of Kay-Qubad I (1219–37) expanded eastwards; for
his part, John III Vatatzes (1221–54) of Nicaea was largely preoccupied with
military operations in the Balkans. Yet the Nicaean–Seljuq joint
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