Halil Inalcik. "The Question of the Emergence of
the Ottoman State"
in International Journal of Turkish Studies, vol. II,
1980, pp. 71-79
n 1256 the Mongol general Bayju asked the Seljukid sultan, Izzeddin
Kaykawus II, to assign him summer and winter quarters in Anatolia for his
army tribes to settle in. This was after Hulagu Khan had ordered the evacuation
of Arran and Mughan plains to make way for the Mongol imperial army. The
sultan rejected Bayju's demand. The ensuing battle ended with the defeat
of the Seljukid army and their evacuation of the best pasture lands in
the Tokat-Amasya area, including the lush Kazova plain. This event brought
a new flow of Turcoman immigrants into the western border areas. Kaykawus
eventually fled to Byzantium (1261), but the Turcomans continued their
support for him and his sons against the Mongols. The following thirty
years were an era of struggle in Anatolia -- a struggle that brought still
more immigration. The figures provided by the Arab geographer Ibn Said
(d. 1274 or 1286) give at least a general idea of the relative distribution
of the Turcomans on these frontiers: 200,000 tents in the Tonguzlu (or
Ladik, ancient Laodicaea) region, 100,000 tents in the Kastamoni (Paphlagonia),
and 30,000 tents in the Kutahya (Cotyaeum).
The next period of massive population movement in Asia Minor began in
1277 when the native Seljukid aristocracy and their Turcoman supporters
allied themselves with the Mamluks of Egypt and rose up to fight a Holy
War against the ''impious" domination of the Mongols. Now the aggressive
spirit of jihad, resuscitated by the victor over the Mongols, Sultan Baybars
of Egypt, appeared to generate within Anatolia intense enthusiasm for the
battle against the Mongols, especially among the frontier Turcomans Hard
pressed by the Mongol forces, the most warlike and mobile elements of the
frontier Turcomans moved further west and south and directed their energies
for Holy War in raids (ghaza) against the inadequately protected territories
of Byzantium in western Anatolia and in Lesser Armenia in Cilicia. In order
to establish direct Mongol control in Seljukid Anatolia, fresh Mongol forces,
actually whole tribes, were sent to settle there after 1277, again mostly
in the Amasya-Tokat region. By the end of the thirteenth century these
forces amounted to five tumen's (50,000 men) and several ming's (one ming
was 1,000 men).
In about 1330, Al-'Umari's two sources estimated that the sixteen Turcoman
principalities established by that time could mobilize over half-a-million
cavalrymen -- the figure given by Balaban the Genoes -- or over a quarter-of-a-million
-- according to Haydar al-Uryan.'' In addition, they mentioned an unspecified
number of infantry. The figures were obviously greatly exaggerated. However,
if we remember that the majority of these forces consisted of Turcoman
tribesmen, the figure given for each individual principality can be interpreted
as the relative number of fighting tribesmen dependent upon a particular
lord or ruler. It is noteworthy that the highest figures in these accounts
were given for the Mentese-oghlu (100,000 in Caria), the Aydin-oghlu (70,000
in lonia), the Osman-oghlu (Ottomans -- 40,000 in Bythinia), the Karasi-oghlu
(over 40,000 in Mysia), and the Sarukhan-oghlu (18,000 in Lydia) -- all
of whom were operating in the area captured from the Byzantines in western
Anatolia between 1260 and 1330.
To sum up, a new Turkey with great demographic potential and a heightened
Holy War ideology, was emerging in the old Seljukid frontier zone east
of a line from the mouth of the Dalaman (Indos) River to that of the Sakarya
(Sangarius). A thrust by this explosive frontier society against the neighboring
Byzantine territory in western Anatolia and in the Balkans was almost inevitable.
The expansion was accomplished in the following stages: (I) it began with
the seasonal movements of Turcoman nomadic groups into the Byzantine coastal
plains; (2) it was intensified by the organization of small raiding groups
under ghazi leaders, mostly of tribal ongin, for booty raids or for employment
as mercenaries; (3) it continued with the emergence of successful leaders
capable of bringing together under their clientship local chiefs to conguer
and then establish beyliks (principalities) in conquered lands on the model
of the principalities founded in the old Seljukid frontier zone; and finally
(4) with the involvement of these ghazi-beyliks, with their definite political
and economic aims, in the regional struggle for supremacy in the Aegean
and in the Balkans, the previously undirected thrusts of the war bands
became focused on new goals.
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