Kilij Arslan I

Kilij Arslan I
Seljuq sultans of Rum
Reign	1092–1107
Predecessor	Suleyman I
Successor	Melikshah
Born	1079
Died	1107 (aged 27–28) Khabur River, near Mosul
House	House of Seljuq
Father	Suleyman I of Rûm

Kilij Arslan (Old Anatolian Turkish: قِلِج اَرسلان; Persian: قلج ارسلان‎‎ Qilij Arslān; Modern Turkish: Kılıç Arslan, meaning "Sword Lion") (‎1079–1107) was the Seljuq Sultan of Rûm from 1092 until his death in 1107. He ruled the Sultanate during the time of the First Crusade and thus faced the attack. He also re-established the Sultanate of Rum after the death of Malik Shah I of Great Seljuq and defeated the Crusaders in three battles during the Crusade of 1101.

After the death of his father, Suleyman, in 1086, he became a hostage of Sultan Malik Shah I of Great Seljuq, but was released when Malik Shah died in 1092. Kilij Arslan then marched at the head of the Turkish Oghuz Yiva tribe army and set up his capital at Nicaea, replacing Amin 'l Ghazni, the governor appointed by Malik Shah I.

Following the death of Malik Shah I the individual tribes, the Danishmends, Mangujekids, Saltuqids, Chaka, Tengribirmish begs, Artuqids (Ortoqids) and Akhlat-Shahs, had started vying with each other to establish their own independent states. Alexius Comnenus's Byzantine intrigues further complicated the situation. He married the daughter of the Emir of the Chaka to attempt to ally himself against the Byzantines, who commanded a strong naval fleet. In 1094, Kilij Arslan received a letter from Alexius suggesting that the Chaka sought to target him to move onto the Byzantines, thereupon Kilij Arslan marched with an army to Smyrna, Chaka’s capital, and invited his father-in-law to a banquet in his tent where he slew him while he was intoxicated.

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