Seljuks in Dobruja

Seljuks in Dobruja refers to Seljuk Turks settled at Dobruja, now in Bulgaria and Romania, in the 13th century.

Seljuk Turks in Anatolia (most of modern Turkey) were defeated by the Mongols in the Battle of Kösedağ (1243). During the rest of the century, they were more or less puppets of the Mongols. In 1257, the Mongols divided Seljuk lands between two brothers, Izzettin Keykavus II and Kılıç Aslan IV. Moreover, İzzettin was forced to obey his younger brother. Although İzzettin tried to struggle, in 1262 he had to flee from Antalya, a port in Seljuk territory to Byzantine territory with a large partisan group.

Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who had just recaptured Constantinople (modern İstanbul) from the Latin Empire, was a relative of İzzettin. However, he had allied himself with the Mongols of Baghdad (who’ll soon be called Ilkhanids) and instead of supporting İzzettin, he kept İzzettin as a refuge and settled İzzettin's partisans to the area between Varna in Bulgaria and the estuary of the Danube (1262–1263), a region which later on was named as Dobruja (Turkish: Dobruca). After an unsuccessful revolt in Byzantine Empire, İzzettin fled to Crimea, which was under Golden Horde rule. But his followers stayed in the area allocated to them. Their new leader was Sarı Saltık Dede, whose tomb is in Babadag, modern Romania.

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