Mesud I

Rukn al-Dīn Mesud Klada ibn Kilij Arslan or Mesud I (Modern Turkish: I. Rükneddin Mesud or Masud (Persian: ركن الدین مسعود) was the sultan of the Sultanate of Rûm from 1116 until his death in 1156.

Mesud I
Coinage of Rukn al-Din Mas'ud I. AH 510-551 (AD 1116-1156). Obverse: Half-length facing bust of Byzantine emperor.
Seljuq Sultan of Rum
Reign	1116-1156
Predecessor	Malik Shah
Successor	Kilij Arslan II
Died	1156
Issue	Kilij Arslan II
Names Rukn al-Dīn Mas'ūd Klada
House	House of Seljuq
Father	Kilij Arslan I
Religion	Islam

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 he conquer some of their lands. In 1130, he started construction of the Alâeddin Mosque in Konya, which was later completed in 1221.^[2]

in 1146, Mesud successfully fended off a Byzantine attack on his capital and toward the end of his reign, fought against the armies of the Second Crusade, 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.

Emperor Manuel I Komnenos persuaded Mesud I to attack Thoros II and demand his submission to Sultan's suzerainty.^[4] However, the ensuing Seljuk attack, which in fact was provoked by an Armenian raid into Seljuk lands in Cappadocia in the winter of 1154, was routed successfully by Thoros in collaboration with a contingent of the Knights Templar.^[4]

The Alâeddin Mosque in Konya was built during the reign of Mesud I. The building served as the “Mosque of the Throne” for the Seljuq Sultans of Rum and contains the dynastic mausoleum.

In the year 603 AE /1154/ once again the Byzantine emperor Manuel sought to stoke Masud and he sent him twice the amount of treasure as previously, saying: «Quench the burning of my heart toward the Armenian people, destroy their fortresses, and exterminate them.» So the sultan came to Anazarbus with many troops, but he was unable to accomplish anything. He sent one of his grandees, named Yaqub, to ravage the territory of Antioch. When they had crossed the gate, the Brothers /the Knights Templar/, as though sent by God, swooped upon them at that place and slaughtered all of them, including their chief. When those in the sultan’s army heard about this, they were horrified. This was not all, for the wrath of God was visited upon them. Their horses perished from tapax /diarrhea/ and they themselves turned to flight, brother not waiting to help brother, nor comrade, comrade. They hamstrung many of the horses and fled on foot through difficult, marshy places, as though they were persecuting themselves. For at that time Thoros was not in his country. Rather, he had gone to Tsets. When he returned and saw what had unfolded everyone thanked God, for they had been defeated without the use of weapons and without a physical battle.

— Smbat Sparapet

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

Kamero, one of Mesud's daughters married John Tzelepes Komnenos, a member of the royal house of Komnenos who had converted to Islam.^[5]

See also

• Battle of Mount Cadmus

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. Ghazarian, Jacob G. The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia during the Crusades: The Integration of Cilician Armenians with the Latins (1080–1393).
5. 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