Kilij Arslan I
Sultan of Rum
(–1107)

Other names: Qilich Arslan, Soliman

Biographical

A son of Suleyman ibn Qutalmish who conquered Asia Minor, founding the Sultanate of Rum in 1077, and who was killed in 1086. Kilij Arslan, who was of a very young age, and his brothers were kept in captivity in Isfahan as hostages after the death of their father by the Seljuk sultan Malik Shah. Malik Shah's son and successor, Barkiyaroq, allowed Kilij Arslan to return to the dominions of his father in 1092. Acknowledged by the Turkish amirs of Asia Minor, he took up his residence in Nicaea, and defeated the first bands of crusaders under Walter the Penniless and others in 1096; but, on the arrival of Godfrey of Bouillon and his companions, he was prudent enough to leave his capital in order to attack them as they were besieging Nicaea. He suffered, however, two defeats in the vicinity, and Nicaea surrendered on the 23rd of June 1097. As the crusaders marched by way of Dorylaeum and Iconium towards Antioch, the Greeks subdued the Turkish amirs residing at Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Lampes and Polybotus; and Kilij Arslan, with his Turks, retired to the north-eastern parts of Asia Minor, to act with the Turkish amirs of Sivas (Sebaste), known under the name of the Danishmand. Afterwards there arose a rivalry between the Seljfiks and the Danishmand, which ended with the extinction of the latter about 1175. Kilij Arslan took possession of Mosul in 1107, and declared himself independent of the Seljuks of Iraq; but in the same year he was drowned in the Khabur river through the treachery of his own amirs, and the dynasty seemed again destined to decay, as his sons were in the power of his enemies. Kilij Arslan was called Soliman by the crusaders.

Place of death: Khabur river
Place of burial: Maiyafarikan