Mongol invasions in Byzantine Asia Minor and the collapse of Seljuk Sultanate

The Battle of Köse Dağ was fought between the Seljuk Turks of Anatolia and the Mongols on June 26, 1243 at the defile of Köse Dağ, a location between Erzincan and Gümüşhane in northeast Anatolia, Turkey; the Mongols achieved a decisive victory. During the reign of Ögedei, the Seljuks of Anatolia offered friendship and a modest tribute to Chormaqan. Under Kaykhusraw II, however, the Mongols began to pressure the Sultan to go to Mongolia in person, give hostages, and accept a Mongol darugachi. Under the leadership of the commander Bayju, the Mongols attacked the Seljuk Sultanate of Anatolia in the winter of 1242-43 and seized the city of Erzurum. Sultan Kaykhusraw II immediately called on his neighbours to contribute troops to resist the invasion. The Empire of Trebizond sent a detachment and the sultan engaged a group of "Frankish" mercenaries. A few Georgian nobles such as Shamadavle of Akhaltsikhe also joined him, but the majority of the Georgians were compelled to fight alongside their Mongol masters. The decisive battle was fought at Köse Dağ on June 26, 1243. The primary sources do not record the size of the opposing armies but suggest that the Mongols faced a numerically superior force. Bayju brushed aside an apprehensive notice from his Georgian officer regarding the size of the Seljuk army, stating that they counted as nothing the numbers of their enemies: "the more they are the more glorious it is to win and the more plunder we shall secure", he replied. The Seljuk commander, Kaykhusraw II, rejected the proposal of his experienced commanders to wait for the Mongol attack. Instead, he sent a force of 20,000 men, led by inexperienced commanders, against the Mongol army. The Mongol army, pretending a retreat, turned back, encircled the Seljuk army and defeated it. When the rest of the Seljuk army witnessed their defeat, many Seljuk commanders and their soldiers, including Kaykhusraw II, started to abandon the battlefield. Eventually, the Seljuk army was left without leaders and most of their soldiers had deserted, without seeing any combat. After their victory, the Mongols took control of the cities of Sivas and Kayseri. The sultan fled to Antalya but was subsequently forced to make peace with Bayju and pay a substantial tribute to the Mongol Empire. The defeat resulted in a period of turmoil in Anatolia and led directly to the decline and disintegration of the Seljuk state. The Empire of Trebizond became a vassal state of the Mongol empire. Furthermore, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia became a vassal state of the Mongols. Real power over Anatolia was exercised by the Mongols. After a long period of fragmentation, Anatolia was unified by the Ottoman dynasty. Mongol invasions of Anatolia occurred at various times, starting with the campaign of 1241–1243 that culminated in the Battle of Köse Dağ. Real power over Anatolia was exercised by the Mongols after the Seljuks surrendered in 1243 until the fall of the Ilkhanate in 1335. Because the Seljuk Sultan rebelled several times, in 1255, the Mongols swept through central and eastern Anatolia. The Ilkhanate garrison was stationed near Ankara. Timur's invasion is sometimes considered the last invasion of Anatolia by the Mongols. Remains of the Mongol cultural heritage still can be seen in Turkey, including tombs of a Mongol governor and a son of Hulagu. By the end of the 14th century, most of Anatolia was controlled by various Anatolian beyliks due to the collapse of the Seljuk dynasty in Rum. The Turkmen Beyliks were under the control of the Mongols through declining Seljuk Sultans. The Beyliks did not mint coins in the names of their own leaders while they remained under the suzerainty of the Ilkhanids. The Osmanli ruler Osman I was the first Turkish ruler who minted coins in his own name in the 1320s, for it bears the legend "Minted by Osman son of Ertugul". Since the minting of coins was a prerogative accorded in Islamic practice only to be a sovereign, it can be considered that Osmanli became independent of the Mongol Khans. In the 12th century, the Byzantines managed to reassert their control in Western and Northern Anatolia. After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Latin Crusaders, two Byzantine successor states were established: the Empire of Nicaea, and the Despotate of Epirus. A third one, the Empire of Trebizond was created a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople by Alexios I of Trebizond. Of these three successor states, Trebizond and Nicaea stood near the Mongolian Empire. Control of Anatolia was then split between the Greek States and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, with the Byzantine holdings gradually being reduced. During the Military governor Chormaqan's tenure in Persia, no hostilities occurred with the Seljuk Turks. 'Ala al-Din Kayqubad I and his immediate successor Giyath al-Din Kaykhusraw II swore an oath of vassalage with the payment of at least token tribute in the name of Ögedei Qaghan.However, the Mongols raided part of Greater Armenia which was under the Sultanate of Rum in 1238. After the death of Ögedei in 1241, Kaykhusraw took the opportunity to terminate the tributary status of his realm, believing he was strong enough to resist the Mongol Empire. Chormaqan's successor Baiju summoned him to resubmit Asia Minor to its tributary status. The Sultan rejected his demands to make him go to Mongolia in person, give hostages, and accept a Mongol darughachi. When the Sultan refused, Baiju declared war. The Seljuks invaded the Kingdom of Georgia, part of the Mongol Empire. Kaykhusraw sent a delegation headed by his vizier to Baiju, realizing the further resistance would only produce a great disaster. Baiju offered terms based on resubmission and the Sultan was undertaken to pay a tribute tax every year in gold, silk, camel and sheep of uncertain quantities. However, the Turkish realm that had been taken by the military force remained occupied by the Mongols. Almost half of the Sultanate of Rum became an occupied country. The Empire of Trebizond became subject to the Mongolian Qaghan, fearing of the potential punitive expedition because they involved in the battle of Köse Dağ. In the Empire of Nicaea John III Doukas Vatatzes prepared for the coming Mongol threat. However, Vatatzes had sent envoys to the Qaghans Güyük and Möngke but was playing for time. The Mongol Empire did not cause any harm to his plan to recapture Constantinople from the hands of the Latins who also sent their envoy to the Mongols. Vatatzes' successors, the Palaiologan emperors of the restored Byzantine Empire, made an alliance with the Mongols, giving their princesses in marriage to the Mongol khans. John III Doukas Vatatzes was a successful ruler who laid the groundwork for Nicaea's recovery of Constantinople. He was successful in maintaining generally peaceful relations with his most powerful neighbors, Bulgaria and the Sultanate of Rum, and his network of diplomatic relations extended to the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy, while his armed forces included Frankish mercenaries. John III effected Nicaean expansion into Europe, where by the end of his reign he had annexed his former rival Thessalonica and had expanded at the expense of Bulgaria and Epirus. He also expanded Nicaean control over much of the Aegean and annexed the important island of Rhodes, while he supported initiatives to free Crete from Venetian occupation aiming toward its re-unification with the Byzantine empire of Nicaea. Moreover, John III is credited with carefully developing the internal prosperity and economy of his realm, encouraging justice and charity. In spite of his epilepsy, John III had provided active leadership in both peace and war. A half-century after his death, John III was canonized as a saint, under the name John the Merciful, and is commemorated annually on November 4 in the Orthodox calendar. For most of the 13th century Trebizond was in continual conflict with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm and later with the Ottoman Turks, as well as Constantinople, the Italian republics, and especially the Republic of Genoa. It was an empire more in title than in fact, surviving by playing its rivals against each other, and offering the daughters of its rulers, who were famed for their beauty, for marriage with generous dowries, especially with the Turkish rulers of inland Anatolia. The common view is that the Empire of Trebizond relied heavily upon wealth gained from its trade with Genoese and Venetian merchants to secure for itself the resources necessary to maintain independence The second son of Alexios I, Manuel I (1238–1263), preserved internal security and acquired the reputation of a great commander. His accomplishments included capturing Sinope in 1254. He was the first ruler to issue silver coins, which were known as aspers. The destruction of Baghdad by Hulagu Khan in 1258 diverted the western terminus of the Silk Road north to the Black Sea, and due to its link with their local capital at Tabriz, Trebizond accumulated tremendous wealth under the suzerainty of the Mongols. Western travelers used Trebziond as their starting point for journeys into Asia; these travelers included Marco Polo, who returned to Europe in 1295 by way of Trebizond. The troubled reign of Manuel's youngest son John II (1280–1297) included a reconciliation with the restored Byzantine Empire and the end of Trapezuntine claims to Constantinople. Trebizond enjoyed a period of wealth and influence during the long reign of John's eldest son Alexios II (1297–1330).
Πηγή: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Köse_Dağ
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions_of_Anatolia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Doukas_Vatatzes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Trebizond