Mesud I

Mesud I, Masud I or Mas‘ūd I (Modern Turkish: I. Rükneddin Mesud or Rukn al-Dīn Mas'ūd (Persian: ركن الدین مسعود‎) was the sultan of the Seljuks of Rûm from 1116 until his death in 1156.

Mesud I
The Alâeddin Mosque in Konya was built during the reign of Masud I. The building served as the “Mosque of the Throne” for the Seljuq Sultans of Rum and contains the dynastic mausoleum.
Seljuq sultans of Rum
Reign1116-1156
PredecessorMalik Shah
SuccessorKilij Arslan II
Died1156
Full name
Rukn al-Dīn Mas'ūd
HouseHouse of Seljuq
FatherKilij Arslan I

Reign

Following the defeat and death of his father Kilij Arslan fighting against Ridwan of Aleppo at the battle of Khabur river in 1107,[1] Mesud lost the throne in favor of his brother Malik Shah. With the help of the Danishmends, Mesud captured Konya and defeated Malik Shah in 1116, later blinding and eventually murdering him. Mesud would later turn on the Danishmends and conquer their lands. In 1130, he started construction of the Alâeddin Mosque in Konya, which was later completed in 1221.[2]

Masud, towards the end of his reign, fought against the armies of the Second Crusade. There were actually two armies, one led by emperor Conrad III of Germany and the other led by king Louis VII of France. Mesud defeated both of them; the first at the battle of Dorylaeum near modern Eskişehir in 1147[3] and the second army in Laodicea near modern Denizli in 1148.

When he died, Mesud was succeeded by his son Kilij Arslan II.

One of Mesud's daughters married John Tzelepes Komnenos, a member of the royal house of Komnenos who had converted to Islam.[4]

See also

References
  1. Anatolia in the Period of the Seljuks and the Beyliks, Osman Turan, The Cambridge History of Islam, Ed. Peter Malcolm Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton and Bernard Lewis, (Cambridge University Press, 1970), 239.
  2. Konya, Julie A. Miller, International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe, Ed. Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, Sharon La Boda, (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1995), 381.
  3. Martin Sicker, The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab conquests to the siege of Vienna, (Praeger Publishers, 2000), 77.
  4. The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries, Charles M. Brand, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 43, (1989), 20.
Preceded by
Malik Shah		 Sultan of Rûm
1116–1156		 Succeeded by
Kilij Arslan II


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