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Ahlatshahs


The Shah-Armens also called the Kings of Armenia or Rulers of Ahlat (Turkish: Ahlatşahlar Beyliği), were the 11th- and 12th-century Turcoman rulers of an Anatolian beylik founded after the Battle of Manzikert (1071), and centered in Ahlat on the northwestern shore of the Lake Van. This region comprised most of Bitlis and Van provinces and parts of Batman, Muş, Siirt and Diyarbakır.

The dynasty is sometimes also called Sökmenli in reference to the founder of the principality, Sökmen el-Kutbî, literally "Sökmen the Slave", one of the commanders of the Great Seljuq Alp Arslan. The Ahlatshah Sökmenli should not be confused with the Artuqid branch of Sökmenli, which ruled in Hasankeyf during approximately the same period.

Another title Sökmen and his descendants assumed, as heirs to the local Armenian princes according to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, was the Persian title Shah-i Arman ("Shah of Armenia"), often rendered as Ermenshahs (Turkish: Ermenşahlar).

The Beylik was founded by the Turkish slave commander Sökmen who took over Ahlat (Khliat or Khilat) in 1100. Ahlatshahs were closely tied to Great Seljuq institutions, although they also followed independent policies like the wars against Georgia in alliance with their neighbors to the north, the Saltukids. They also acquired links with the branch of the Artuqid dynasty based in Meyyafarikin (now Silvan), becoming part of a nexus of Turkish principalities in Upper Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia.


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