Kaykhusraw II | |||||
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Seljuq sultans of Rum | |||||
Reign | 1237–1246 | ||||
Predecessor | Kayqubad I | ||||
Successor | Kaykaus II | ||||
Died | 1246 | ||||
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House | House of Seljuq | ||||
Father | Alâeddin Keykubad I | ||||
Mother | Mah Peri Khatun |
Full name | |
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Ghīyāth al-Dīn Kaykhusraw bin Kayqubād |
Ghiyath al-Din Kaykhusraw II or Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Kaykhusraw bin Kayqubād (Persian: غياث الدين كيخسرو بن كيقباد) was the sultan of the Seljuqs of Rûm from 1237 until his death in 1246. He ruled at the time of the Babai uprising and the Mongol invasion of Anatolia. He led the Seljuq army with its Christian allies at the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243. He was the last of the Seljuq sultans to wield any significant power and died a vassal of the Mongols.
Kaykhusraw was the son of Kayqubad I and his Armenian wife Hunat Hatun, the daughter of Kir Fard. Although Kaykhusraw was the eldest, the sultan had chosen as heir the younger ‘Izz al-Din, one of his two sons by the Ayyubid princess Ghaziya Khatun, daughter of emir Al-Aziz Muhammad of Aleppo. In 1226 Kayqubad assigned the newly annexed Erzincan to Kaykhusraw. With the general Kamyar, the young prince participated in the conquest of Erzurum and later Ahlat.
In 1236-37, raiding Mongols assisted by the Georgians devastated the Anatolian countryside as far as the walls of Sivas and Malatya. Since the Mongol horsemen disappeared as quickly as they had come, Kayqubad moved to punish their Georgian allies. As the Seljuq army approached, Queen Russudan of Georgia sued for peace, offering her daughter Tamar in marriage to Kaykhusraw. This marriage took place in 1240.