Sultanate of Rum
former sultanate in Anatolia
The Sultanate of Rum, or Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, was a culturally Turco-Persian, Sunni Muslim state established over conquered Byzantine territories and peoples (Rum) of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks following their entry into Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The name Rum was a synonym for the medieval Roman Empire and its peoples, as it remains in modern Turkish. The name is derived from the Aramaic (romī) and Parthian (frwm) names for ancient Rome, which had reached these languages via the Greek Ῥωμαῖοι (Romaioi). The Seljuk Turks used the name to refer to Anatolia. The Sultanate of Rum is considered to be the beginning of Turkish history in Anatolia.
The Sultanate of Rum seceded from the Seljuk Empire under Suleiman ibn Qutalmish in 1077. It had its capital first at Nicaea and then at Iconium. It reached the height of its power during the late 12th and early 13th century, when it succeeded in taking key Byzantine ports on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts. In the east, the sultanate reached Lake Van. Trade through Anatolia from Iran and Central Asia was developed by a system of caravanserai.
The public source identifies “Sultanate of Rum” as former sultanate in Anatolia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Sultanate, former and sultanate.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q975405. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1071 and 1077.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sultanate of Rum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.