Sultanate of Rum

The Sultanate of Rum ruled much of Anatolia from 1077 to 1308, established when the Seljuk Turk Suleiman ibn Qutalmish seceded from the Seljuk Empire following the Seljuk victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Its capital moved from Nicaea, held from 1077 to 1097, to Iconium, modern Konya, which remained its seat from 1097 until the sultanate's end, with Sebastia, modern Sivas, serving as an additional capital from 1211 to 1220. The sultanate seized key Byzantine ports on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts and extended east as far as Lake Van, reaching its height in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries when it absorbed neighboring Turkish states including the Danishmendids, Menguujekids, Saltukids and Artuqids. Its power collapsed after defeat by the Mongols at the Battle of Kose Dag in 1243, which reduced it to a Mongol vassal state, and central authority dissolved entirely when its last sultan, Mesud II, was murdered in 1308, fragmenting Anatolia into small principalities called beyliks, among them the Ottoman dynasty that eventually reunified the region.