Kilij Arslan I

The Crusades

People's Crusade

The People's Crusade (also called the Peasants' Crusade) army of Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless arrived at Nicaea in 1096. They had been able to capture a fort that was a four-day march away from Nicaea, called Xerigordos often referred to as Xerigordon in modern historic literature. A contingent of the crusade overran the castle at Xerigordon and held it until Kilij sent a force to starve them out. Those that renounced Christianity were spared and sent into captivity to the east, the rest were put to death. Kilij Arslan also cunningly sent spies to trick the Crusaders into thinking Xerigordon was ripe for the taking, and the ill-disciplined Crusaders rushed to Xerigordon despite orders against this. They were consequently ambushed, forcing Peter the Hermit eventually to give up the crusade.

The remainder of Peter's crusade composed almost entirely of unarmed civilians was surprised near the village of Civetot by Kilij Arslan's army. They were easily overwhelmed and around 17,000 out of the 20,000 remaining Christians died. He then invaded the Danishmend Emirate of Malik Ghazi in eastern Anatolia. The First Crusade would start a few months later.

First Crusade

Because of this easy first victory he did not consider the main crusader army, led by various nobles of western Europe, to be a serious threat. He resumed his war with the Danishmends, and was away from Nicaea when these new Crusaders besieged Nicaea in May 1097. He hurried back to his capital to find it surrounded by the Crusaders, and was defeated in battle with them on 21 May. The city then surrendered to the Byzantines and his wife and children were captured. When the crusaders sent the Sultan's wife to Constantinople, to their dismay she was later returned without ransom in 1097 because of the relationship between Kilij Arslan and Alexios I Komnenos.

As result of the stronger invasion, Rum and the Danishmends allied in their attempt to turn back the crusaders. The Crusaders continued to split their forces as they marched across Anatolia. The combined Danishmend and Rum forces planned to ambush the Crusaders near Dorylaeum on 29 June. However, Kilij Arslan's horse archers could not penetrate the line of defense set up by the Crusader knights, and the main body under Bohemond arrived to capture the Turkish camp on 1 July. In this battle, Kilij Arslan and his troops won the respect of their enemy, as the Gesta Francorum states: "had the Turks been Christian, they would be the finest of all races."

Kilij Arslan was defeated and settled for harassing the Crusader army with guerilla warfare and hit-and-run tactics. He also destroyed crops and water sources along their route in order to hinder the Crusader Army from collecting supplies, ultimately with little success.

Crusade of 1101

In August 1100, the Danishmendid ruler Gazi Gümüshtigin captured Bohemond resulting in a new force of Lombards attempting to rescue him. In their march they took Ankara from Arslan upon the Danishmends. In alliance with Radwan the Atabeg of Aleppo he ambushed this force at the Battle of Mersivan. In 1101 he defeated another Crusader army at Heraclea Cybistra, which had come to assist the fledgling Crusader states in Syria. This was an important victory for the Turks, as it proved that an army of Crusader knights was not invincible. After this victory he moved his capital to Konya and defeated a force led by William II of Nevers who attempted to march upon it as well as the subsequent force a week later.

In 1104 he resumed his war with the Danishmends who were now weakened after the death of Malik Ghazi, demanding half the ransom gained for Bohemond. As a result, Bohemond allied with the Danishmends against Rum and the Byzantines.

War of Mosul and Death

After the crusades he moved towards the east, taking Harran and Diyarbakr. In 1107 Ghazaghli, the castellan of Mosul's citidel, sent a message asking Kilij Arslan for help and support against Jawali Saqawa, the new Atabeg of Mosul appointed by Muhammad I Tapar, Kilij Arslan answered the call and headed towards Mosul, and after taking the oaths of obedience from its population he entered the city and was welcomed by its ruler Zengi ibn Jikirmish and his regents, after appointing his son Malik Shah as ruler, he sat out to fight Jawali. Jawali and Sulayman clashed near Khabur River, despite the strength in numbers, Jawali's forces were more experienced and fierce, while Jawali was busy attacking and nearly killing Jawali, his army was destroyed by the enemy, and he ran away. Believing that he would not be forgiven for trying to challenge Sultan Muhammad I, he entered the river with his horse and kept shooting with his bow at those who pursued him until the horse plunged into the depths, and with the horse, Kilij Arslan drowned.

Discovery of his burial

In January 2021, archaeologists led by professor Ahmet Tanyıldız from the Dicle University discovered his and his daughter Saide Hatun's grave in Silvan, Diyarbakır. Researchers dug two metres deep across a 35-square-metre area and focused their works on two gravesites in Orta Çeşme Park.