Scholarly record

THE MILITARY ROLE OF KILIJ ARSLAN SELJUK SULTAN OF RUM DURING THE FIRST CRUSADE

D. Pozsar

Abstract

There seems to be general agreement that the western military capabilities were more efficient than the Seljuks in the course of the marvelous victories that comprised the First Crusade. This paper focuses on the role of Kilij Arslan I on the warfare between the Seljuk Turks and the Christian forces in Asia Minor during the three main military waves of the First Crusade. Kilij Arslan was the leader of the Turkish forces against the People’s Crusade and the first (1096-1099) and second (1100-1101) Princes’ Crusade as well. This turbulent episode was the period of jostling for control between the Crusaders and the Seljuks. It was also the period of the “soldiers of fortune”, the period of the highly talented leaders of the Western European forces such as Baldwin of Boulogne, Bohemond of Taranto or Tancred. During this time period the Seljuk forces tried to stop the European armies to reach the inner territory of Asia Minor and breaking through into Syria. The theatre in the territory of the Sultanate of Rum seems less important in the historiography of the First Crusade than the Syrian or the Palestinian battlefields. The aim of this paper to present the armed interaction between the Seljuk armies of Kilij Arslan and the Western European armies, and to analyse the results of these confrontations. From this viewpoint, there might be another interpretation of the questionable European military advantage period.

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