The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (1077-1308)

After the victory at Manzikert in 1071, Turkmen tribes poured into Anatolia. The Seljuk prince Suleiman ibn Qutalmish took Nicaea (Iznik) in 1075 and founded a sultanate of his own in 1077. It was called the Sultanate of Rum because Muslims of the time called the Byzantine lands "Rum".

When the Crusaders took Nicaea in 1097, the capital moved to Konya. In 1176 Kilij Arslan II defeated the Byzantine army at Myriokephalon, and Anatolia's future as a Turkish land was no longer in doubt. Under Kayqubad I (1220-1237) the sultanate reached its peak: caravanserais rose along the roads, Konya became a centre of learning and art, and Rumi lived there.

After a defeat by the Mongols at Köse Dağ in 1243, the sultanate became dependent on the Ilkhanate, and its lands were gradually divided among Turkmen beyliks. The last sultan, Mesud II, died in 1308. One of those beyliks, the Ottoman, would go on to build a great empire.