The Turkish History Podcast

In Anatolia, Kılıç Arslan II rides East to confront Yağıbasan and begin the reconquest of Anatolia. He makes an alliance with the Saltukid Bey İzzeddin, whose beylik has been raiding Georgia since Manzikert. And in Syria, Nureddin Zengi dispatches to Egypt two obscure Kurdish commanders...

After the death of Mesud, his son Kılıç Arslan II succeeds him as the next Sultan of Rum. However, the succession of the second Sword Lion to the throne is not bloodless. A series of murders in Konya ultimately kick off a chain of escalating events that spiral further and further out of Kılıç Arslan's control. And the falling dominoes ultimately end with the new sultan facing a truly existential war on all sides...

Mesud returns to Konya triumphant after mauling the Second Crusade, and a new power arises in Syria as Nüreddin Zengi succeeds his father to take over the Zengid Emirate. After the broken Second Crusade meets its ignoble end in front of the walls of Damascus, Mesud and Nüreddin rip apart the remnants of the County of Edessa. And Mesud abandons the quixotic dreams of his father and grandfather to conquer the center of the Muslim world, and instead completes his consolidation of po...

The fall of Edessa to Imad al-Din Zengi sparks the Second Crusade. Two great crusading armies assemble in Western Europe - a German army led by King Conrad III and a French army led by King Louis VII. As the crusading armies converge on Anatolia, seeking passage to the Holy Land, the Emperor of the Romans and the Sultan of Rum join forces to oppose them. The German army decides to march along the route taken by the First Crusaders, and Sultan Mesud seeks redemption on the pl...

The messengers from the Caliph in Baghdad and Sanjar, the Great Sultan of the East, arrive in Kastamonu to find that Emir Ghazi has died before they could proclaim him as King. Instead, his son Muhammad is granted the title - inevitably leading to conflict between this new King of the North and the Sultan of Rum in Konya. War erupts between and among a shifting web of alliances of Turks, Greeks, Crusaders and Armenians. And Sultan Mesud ultimately emerges as the leading powe...

Following the peace treaty signed with Emperor Alexios Komnenos, the Sultan of Rum Şahinşah begins marching back to Konya. But he does not make it far before being confronted by his half brother Mesud, who rides West with Danishmend support. A new Sultan comes to the throne in Konya, but one who owes his throne and his loyalty to the Danishmend Bey Emir Ghazi - just as a new Emperor dons the purple in Constantinople.

As the western half of the Great Seljuk Empire continues to collapse, a string of fortuitous events dramatically improves Kılıç Arslan's position. Like his father before him, the Sword Lion decides to take the ultimate gamble, and sets out to the East. And, also like his father before him, he takes with him his young son...

The Sultanate of Rum lies in ruins following the destruction of the First Crusade and the loss of Western Anatolia to the Byzantine Empire. The Danishmend Beylik led by Gümüştegin Ghazi takes up the mantle of the leading Turkish state in Anatolia, and scores a key victory against the Norman Crusaders in Outremer. And yet more crusaders arrive from the West - both threatening the Sword Lion and providing him with an opportunity to restore his reputation and renew his leadership...