Battle of Iconium (1190)

Battle of Iconium
Part of Third Crusade
The battle of Iconium, by Hermann Wislicenus (c.1890)
Date May 18, 1190 Location Iconium (modern day Konya) Result Decisive Crusader Victory Main Seljuk army routed Sultanate of Rûm's capital city sacked; Crusaders take a massive amount of loot Qutb al-Din replaced by his father, who agrees to let the Germans pass through and sends them hostages
Belligerents
Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of Hungary	Sultanate of Rûm
Commanders and leaders
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia Prince Géza of Hungary Děpolt II, Bohemian Noble	Qutb al-Din
Strength
Holy Roman Empire: 15,000 Hungary: 2,000	Larger than the Crusaders
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Heavy

Decisive Crusader Victory

Holy Roman Empire: 15,000

The Battle of Iconium (sometimes referred as the Battle of Konya) took place on May 18, 1190 during the Third Crusade, in the expedition of Frederick Barbarossa to the Holy Land. As a result, the capital city of the Sultanate of Rûm fell to the Imperial forces.

After the disastrous Battle of Hattin and the Siege of Jerusalem, much of the Crusader states had been seized by Saladin's forces. Pope Gregory VIII called for a new crusade to restore the city to Christian hands and help the remaining crusader strongholds. Barbarossa responded to the call immediately. He took up the Cross at Mainz Cathedral on March 27, 1188 and was the first to set out for the Holy Land in May 1189 with an army of about 100,000 men, including 20,000 knights (some historians think these numbers are exaggerated and propose 15,000 men, including 3,000 knights). He was also joined by a contingent of 2,000 men from the Hungarian prince Géza, the younger brother of the king, Béla III of Hungary.

After passing through Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire, the forces arrived to Anatolia, held by the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. The Turks offered to let Barbarossa and his army pass through their territory for the price of 300 pounds of gold and "the lands of the Armenians". Barbarossa refused, supposedly saying "Rather than making a royal highway with gold and silver, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose knights we are, the road will have to be opened with iron".

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