Why the Seljuks Fell to the Mongols | Kösedağ 1243

In June 1243 a Mongol army came over a ridge in eastern Anatolia and found the Seljuk camp standing: tents, banners, treasure, and no one inside. The Sultan of Rum had fled in the night. In one day, the state that had ruled Anatolia for a hundred and sixty years became a vassal of the Mongols. This is the story of the Battle of Kösedağ (Köse Dağ): the golden age of Sultan Kayqubad I, from the Red Tower of Alanya and a Seljuk fleet in the Crimea to the caravanserai roads and the painted tiles of Kubadabad; the return of Jalal ad-Din and the Seljuk victory at Yassıçemen that removed the last buffer against the Mongols; the great Mongol campaign into Europe, Legnica and Mohi; the purges of Sadeddin Köpek and the weak reign of Kaykhusraw II; the feigned retreat below Köse Dağ, where Georgians fought on both sides; and how, under Mongol overlordship, Konya became the city of Rumi while the frontier beyliks cleared the ground for the Ottomans. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Empty Camp 00:44 The Golden Age: Alanya, Sudak and Kubadabad 02:12 The Wall Falls: Jalal ad-Din and Yassıçemen 03:09 The Mongols in Europe: Legnica and Mohi 03:51 The Weak Heir and Sadeddin Köpek 05:14 The Battle of Kösedağ 06:42 Surrender 07:26 Aftermath: Rumi, the Beyliks and Osman Where it all began: one caravan and one insult at Otrar. Watch Khwarazm 1219:    • Genghis Khan vs the Khwarazmian Empire: Th...   Audio: English, Türkçe (multi-language audio) Subtitles: English, Türkçe SOURCES & FURTHER READING Primary: Ibn Bibi, al-Awamir al-'Ala'iyya (the Seljuk court history), c. 1280 Bar Hebraeus (Gregory Abu'l-Faraj), Chronography, trans. E. A. Wallis Budge Simon of Saint-Quentin, Histoire des Tartares (Latin envoy to Baiju, 1247) Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh, trans. D. S. Richards Shihab al-Din al-Nasawi, Sirat al-Sultan Jalal al-Din Mangubirti Modern: Claude Cahen, The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sultanate of Rum (2001) Osman Turan, Selçuklular Zamanında Türkiye (1971) Charles Melville, "Anatolia under the Mongols", in The Cambridge History of Turkey, vol. 1 (2009) A. C. S. Peacock and S. N. Yıldız (eds.), The Seljuks of Anatolia (2013) Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the Islamic World (2017) Franklin Lewis, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West (2000) The sources disagree on the size of both armies, so no figures are shown; most say the Seljuk army was the larger. The battlefield is placed on the plain below Köse Dağ between Sivas and Erzincan; its exact site is uncertain and the terrain shown is approximate. Borders are approximate and drawn by hand. ARTWORK (Wikimedia Commons) The Battle of Köse Dağ, 14th-century manuscript, Catalonia (public domain) Dirham of Kaykhusraw II with the lion and sun, 638 AH (1240–41), Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC BY-SA 4.0 Baiju, from a manuscript by David Aubert, 1462 (public domain) The Red Tower (Kızıl Kule), Alanya, photo by angelius1979, CC BY-SA 3.0 Tile panel from Kubadabad Palace, Karatay Museum, Konya, photo by Murat Özsoy 1958, CC BY-SA 4.0 Rumi meeting Shams of Tabriz, Ottoman miniature, 16th century, Topkapı Palace Museum Library (public domain) Commons file pages: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... MAP DATA Historical borders drawn by hand, partly adapted from historical-basemaps by A. Ourednik (GPL-3.0) Terrain colour: NASA Blue Marble (public domain) Elevation: AWS Terrain Tiles (Mapzen; SRTM, GMTED, ETOPO1) Coastlines, lakes, rivers: Natural Earth (public domain) Narration (English and Turkish) and music produced with ElevenLabs. Animation built with Remotion. Empires in Ink — History, drawn in maps. #Seljuks #Mongols #history