Battle of Köse Dağ

The Battle of Köse Dağ took place in eastern Anatolia on 26 June 1243 when an army of the Sultanate of Rum, led by Sultan Kaykhusraw II, confronted an invading Mongol army under the general Baiju and was decisively defeated. The battle was the pivotal event of the Mongol conquest of Anatolia: Rum, previously a significant independent power in the eastern Mediterranean, was reduced to the status of a client kingdom, and its territories were later formally annexed by the Mongol Ilkhanate.

Battle of Köse Dağ
Part of the Mongol invasions of Anatolia
The Mongols chasing the Seljuks of Rum. Hayton of Corycus, Fleur des histoires d'orient.
Date June 26, 1243 Location Köse Dağ Mountain Result Mongol victory
Belligerents
Mongol Empire	Seljuq Sultanate of Rum Various mercenaries
Commanders and leaders
Baiju Noyan	Kaykhusraw II
Strength
Around 30,000	Around 80,000

Köse Dağ

Mughan plain

Erzurum

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Points of interest during the Köse Dağ campaign

The Mongol Empire first achieved territorial contact with the Sultanate in the early 1230s by conquering a large swathe of western Iran, but largely left it alone over the next decade. Instead, under their general Chormaqan, Mongol armies subjugated Transcaucasia and reduced the Kingdom of Georgia to a vassal state. After the accession of Kaykhusraw II to the Rum throne in 1237, relations deteriorated, and Mongol raids on Rum territory began in 1240. Two years later, Baiju, who had replaced Chormaqan after the latter became disabled, captured and pillaged the city of Erzurum, escalating hostilities into open war.

Kaykhusraw built a large army to confront the invasion, but his 80,000-strong force lacked the discipline and cohesion of the 30,000 Mongols. For most of the first day of fighting, the army of Rum looked to be gaining the upper hand, but its right wing was broken late on by a contingent of Georgians in Baiju's army. During the night, Kaykhusraw's disintegrating army fled; Baiju missed the opportunity to capture the sultan because he suspected the deserted enemy camp was a trap. Nevertheless, the Mongols captured several cities following their success at Köse Dağ, and exacted a vast annual tribute from their enemy. Rum never recovered from this critical defeat.

Background

In 1071, the Seljuk Turks decisively defeated the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert and quickly overran Anatolia. The Seljuk general Suleiman ibn Qutalmish (r. 1077–1086) soon established an independent state in the region; known as the Sultanate of Rum, it unified the native tribes and gained control of the entire region over the next 150 years. By the 1230s, aided by the collapse of Byzantine power, Rum had also attained significant maritime and commercial capabilities through their control of the key ports of Antalya and Sinope.

The Mongol Empire was established in 1206 by Genghis Khan (r. 1206–1227). During his reign, the Mongols dismantled the Jin dynasty and the Western Xia state in northern China, the Qara Khitai in Turkestan, and the Khwarazmian Empire in Central Asia and Persia. Under Genghis's son and successor Ögedei Khan (r. 1229–1241), further military campaigns were launched against the remnants of the Jin, while another force invaded first the Russian principalities and then Europe itself between 1236 and 1242.

One further army, commanded by the general Chormaqan, was dispatched in 1230 to eliminate the renegade Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din who had founded a state in western Iran. This mission was soon accomplished, with Jalal al-Din killed by a Kurd in August 1231. Chormaqan set up his headquarters on the fertile Mughan plain, and for the next decade consolidated Mongol rule over western Iran and Transcaucasia. With 30,000 men under his command, he marched every year against hostile fortresses in the Caucasus region, focusing especially on subduing the Kingdom of Georgia; by 1239 the Mongols had conquered much of its land and forced the remainder, ruled by Queen Rusudan, to become a vassal state. In c. 1240, Chormaqan was incapacitated by either deafness, a form of paralysis, or possibly both. He was replaced by Baiju, his second in command.

Prelude

Kayqubad I, the sultan of Rum between 1220 and 1237, had correctly feared that Jalal al-Din's activities would draw the attention of the Mongols towards his kingdom. Although it was known for its excellent pastures, the Mongols did not initially attack Rum, aside from a single 1232 raid led by Baiju on the lands around Sivas. They instead accepted the Seljuk offerings of friendship and a small tribute; Kayqubad also accepted the Mongols' request that he personally travel to the Mongol ruler in Karakorum to pay homage, but died before he did so. Relations deteriorated during the reign of Kayqubad's successor Kaykhusraw II (r. 1237–1246). Even though he initially also submitted, Kaykhusraw may have felt that the Mongols did not want to attack or that he could repel them. By 1240, relations had degraded so badly that the Mongols began to raid Seljuk territory; Rum was likely also weakened that year by the Babai revolt led by a local preacher. Nevertheless, Kaykhusraw acted aggressively, campaigning against the city of Amid, close to Mongol territory, in 1240–41.

In 1242, Baiju escalated hostilities into open war. His Mongol army, accompanied by Christian Georgian and Armenian auxilaries he had called up, demanded the submission of the city of Erzurum, which had been under the rule of Rum since 1071; when the Mongol ambassadors were insultingly rejected, the city was besieged. After two months, the Mongols' siege engines breached the walls, whereupon the city was sacked—unusually for the Mongols, even churches were pillaged for their treasures, which the Christians distributed among their own settlements. Baiju then retreated to spend the winter on the Mughan plain, before marching into Rum again the following year.

Battle

Kaykhusraw attempted to build a strong army to repel the Mongol invasion by hiring large numbers of mercenaries from surrounding regions. These included knights from the Crusader Latin Empire, nobles from the Greek remnants of the Byzantine Empire, warriors from the Ayyubid dynasty in Aleppo, and the Arab tribes of Iraq, while his own armies contained a contingent of Georgian knights because of his marriage to Tamar, a Georgian princess. Kaykhusraw also concluded a treaty with John III Vatatzes, the ruler of the Empire of Nicaea (a Byzantine successor state), who likely hoped Rum would remain between his state and the Mongols. Other powers in the area, such as Cilician Armenia, promised they would supply troops for Rum but had no intention of raising the ire of the Mongols, whom they regarded as a much more dangerous enemy, and so their armies delayed their arrival until the battle was over. Although the powerful remnants of the Khwarazmian army had been employed by Rum as mercenaries until 1237, they had resisted Kaykhusraw's accession and refused to fight for him.

The core of the Mongol army was around 30,000 experienced and disciplined troops, who were mostly ethnic Mongols but also included Uighurs and men from Turkestan, led by Baiju and a number of competent officials. This force had ten years of experience fighting as a unit, and so had a solidarity the Turkish forces lacked. They were accompanied by Georgian and Armenian cavalry, including Hasan-Jalal I, the ruler of the Principality of Khachen. The Mongol force was certainly outnumbered by Kaykhusraw's army, whom contemporary chroniclers claimed to have contained 160,000 or 200,000 men; a more realistic estimate is 80,000.

Köse Dağ Mountain in eastern Anatolia

Battle was joined on 26 June near Köse Dağ Mountain (the name means "bald mountain"), around 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Sivas. Kaykhusraw attacked without waiting for his entire army. The two armies strove for a day, but just as Kaykhusraw was gaining the upper hand, his right wing was broken by troops under the command of Aghbagha, a Georgian prince. During the night, the disintegrating forces of Rum fled their camp; they included the sultan, who was concerned that some of his more disloyal subjects could defect to Baiju, and who thus fled to Ankara. When the sun rose on the second day of battle, the Mongols suspected that the deserted enemy camp was a trap before realising their enemy had indeed fled; their delay in advancing cost them any chance of capturing Kaykhusraw.

Aftermath

The victory at Köse Dağ established Mongol dominance in Asia Minor. After the battle, the Mongols captured a slew of cities in Anatolia, including Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan, and Ankara, while Kaykhusraw was fleeing to Antalya. Rum was only spared total annihilation by the negotiations of the vizier Muhezzibeddin, who agreed terms of surrender including a vast tribute: annual payments of 12 million silver coins, 500 bolts of silk, 500 camels, and 5,000 sheep (equivalent to around 400,000 gold dinars) were to be transported to Mongolia at the expense of Rum's treasury. Later envoys confirmed the appointment of a Mongol daruyachi (lit. '"overseer"') to supervise the region, along with the official submission of the Seljuk rulers to the Mongol throne.

Upon Kaykhusraw II's death in 1246, his kingdom was rent apart by factions representing his three underage sons. Although some sultans of Rum, especially Kaykaus II (r. 1246–1261), proved troublesome for the Mongols, Seljuk power steadily decreased, finally dying out in 1308. Its territories were assumed by the Ilkhanate, one of the successor states of the Mongol Empire.

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