Kaykaus II

Izz al-Din Kaykaus II was a Seljuk sultan of Rum, son and one of the successors of Kaykhusraw II. ² The Encyclopaedia of Islam treats him in the article on the name Kayka'us, in a section on the second sultan of that name. He is best known for the long contest with his brother over the divided sultanate in the years of Mongol overlordship, and for ending his life in exile. ¹

When Kaykhusraw II died he left three minor sons: the eldest, Izz al-Din, whose mother was Greek; the second, Rukn al-Din Kilij Arslan, whose mother was Turkish; and the youngest, who was sickly, 'Ala' al-Din, whose mother was Georgian. ² For several years the high dignitaries, above all the freedman Karatay, who held the real power, tried to keep a kind of joint rule of the three brothers, and then of the two who remained after the suspicious death of the youngest during a mission to the Mongols. ² When Izz al-Din and Rukn al-Din came of age this arrangement proved impossible, since the two princes stood for different attitudes and relied on different circles. ¹

The article says that Rukn al-Din exercised his powers in the east of Asia Minor, relying on the Mongols, with whom he was in contact, and on their trusted official at his court, the parwana Mu'in al-Din Sulayman. Izz al-Din reigned in the west, allied with his Greek family and with the Turkmen groups on the frontier, and adopted their anti-Mongol attitude. ¹

A series of complicated episodes marks the struggle, according to the article. At Karatay's death in 652/1254 Rukn al-Din revolted at Kayseri and was taken prisoner; two years later the Mongols invaded again under Baydju, in an invasion the article calls in one way more dangerous than that of 641/1243, because it aimed at settling part of the Mongols in the country. ³ Izz al-Din was defeated in a battle in which Michael Palaeologus, then an exile at Nicaea, took part, and fled to Greek territory, while Rukn al-Din was proclaimed sultan at Kayseri. When Rukn al-Din left to pay homage to the supreme khan, Izz al-Din reappeared at Konya in 655/1257. ³

The khan Möngke wanted their common collaboration, or at least peace between them, with a view to his campaign against the caliph, and so he re-established the partition of the dominions. The two brothers took part in the campaign of the Il-Khan Hülegü in Syria in 658/1260. ³ When Hülegü left, they began their struggle again. Izz al-Din, threatened by the Mongols, fled for good to Constantinople, which his old friend Palaeologus had retaken from the Latins. ³

The flight turned out unluckily. The new emperor, wanting to turn all his forces against the Latins and the Mongols of Russia, tried to make peace with the Mongols of Iran and Asia Minor. Izz al-Din was imprisoned on the northern borders of the Byzantine state and freed by a Mongol raid, but could withdraw only to the Crimea, from where he watched events in Asia Minor. Without having tried to recover his throne, he died there in 678/1279-80. ³

A number of Turks who had followed him stayed in Dobruja, where, the article says, they still carry his name, deformed into Gagauz. In Asia Minor his popularity among the Turkmens was shown by revolts made in his name and by the support his sons later found there. The author adds that it is surely no accident that the great Turkmen epic Danishmend-name was in its first form dedicated to him. ³ The article names two sons: Mas'ud, who landed in Asia Minor from the Crimea and was later given the sultanate by the Il-Khan Ahmad, and Kaykubad III, who tried from the Crimea in 1282 to reconquer his father's throne. ^{4 5}

This card rests on one encyclopaedia article, whose OCR text is damaged in places. The article gives no birth date, no date of accession and no burial place, and the museum does not supply them.