The Turkish History Podcast

The Turkish History Podcast

A biweekly podcast telling the story of the Turks, from the Göktürk Khanate through the Turkish Republic. turkishhistorypodcast.com

Episodes

October 22, 2025 43 mins

After being driven from Konya, Keyhüsrev flees to Constantinople.  The once and future Roman Sultan bides his time in the New Rome, marrying and fathering a child, while a great fleet sets sail in the West bound for the Queen of Cities...

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The first reign of Keyhüsrev begins. But while the young Sultan struggles to hold Western Anatolia, his half-brother Sulayman II seizes the initiative in the East, driving Keyhüsrev from Konya. Sulayman then sets out to invade Georgia and reunify Anatolia... Ambitions whose rewards others will ultimately reap.

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August 11, 2025 43 mins

In the aftermath of the disaster of the march of the Third Crusade across Anatolia, the Sultanate of Rum falls apart.  The elderly Sultan of Rum is forced to wander across Anatolia seeking aid to return to the throne.  And we say goodbye to the Limping Lion, and bring to the throne the next Roman Sultan - the Sultan who will come to inaugurate the golden age of the Seljuks of Rum. 

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July 7, 2025 51 mins

The Holy Roman Emperor crosses the Dardanelles into Anatolia expecting to find a friend on the throne in Konya.  But while Sultan Kılıç Arslan II desires peace and alliance, the wild tribes and certain of his sons have other ideas...

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June 18, 2025 52 mins

Saladin consolidates power throughout Syria and northern Iraq, becoming the greatest power in the Muslim world and strangling Outremer.  After a crusader provocation, he assembles a great army and marches it into the Levant, ultimately crushing the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin.  Jerusalem itself soon falls to the Ayyubid Sultan.  And the shocking news of the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem causes fear and guilt to spread acro...

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May 31, 2025 48 mins

After the battle of Myriokephalon, Kılıç Arslan II consolidates Seljuk rule of Anatolia.  The Sultan of Rum negotiates with the rising power of Saladin, and conquers further in the West after the death of Manuel Komnenos.  But as the elderly Sultan continues to cling to life, and as great invasion is summoned from the West, the future claimants to the throne in Konya start sharpening their knives...  

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May 10, 2025 66 mins

With Kılıç Arslan II consolidating his power over Anatolia, Emperor Manuel Komnenos sets out to reverse the verdict of Manzikert.  The Imperial Armies move on to the plateau to rebuild Dorylaeum, and expeditionary forces are sent off to northern Anatolia.  And a great Roman army is assembled and set on the road to Konya - a road that will, along the way to Konya, take them to an abandoned fortress guarding a steep mountain pass.  A...

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April 21, 2025 60 mins

As the Danishmend Beylik falls into crisis, Kılıç Arslan II sets out to conquer Anatolia.  But fearful of the growing power of the Sultan of Rum, Nüreddin Zengi, the greatest force in the Muslim world, sets out to oppose him.  An alliance is constructed against Konya - an alliance that will stand for so long as Nüreddin lives...  And in Constantinople, Emperor Manuel Komnenos watches the events in Anatolia with growing trepidation,...

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April 10, 2025 58 mins

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...

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March 24, 2025 59 mins

Kılıç Arslan II finds him surrounded by enemies on all sides, as the Sultanate of Rum faces an existential war against enemies in the West, the East, the North, and the South.  To end the war, the Limping Lion is forced to come to terms with Emperor Manuel Komnenos.  And thus, the Sultan of Rum makes a visit to Constantinople.

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March 4, 2025 63 mins

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...

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February 17, 2025 55 mins

The aging Mesud organizes his new conquests on the southern marches of Anatolia into a new satrapy run from Elbistan, and sets up his son and favored successor, Kılıç Arslan II, as its ruler.  A new power arises in nearby Cilicia as Thoros the Great lays the foundations of the coming Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, prompting the Sultan of Rum and the Roman Emperor to organize joint military campaigns to topple this potential threat.  ...

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February 2, 2025 56 mins

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 ...

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January 19, 2025 61 mins

After destroying the German crusading army of King Conrad III, Mesud turns his forces against the French crusaders led by King Louis VII.  After an initial loss to the French in the Meander valley, Mesud regroups his forces and faces the French again on the passes of a mountain named Mount Cadmus.   There Mesud hopes to avenge his father and earn a place of honor among the Sultans of Rum and the Muslim heroes of the Crusades...

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January 1, 2025 63 mins

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 Crusade...

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December 18, 2024 56 mins

Following the death of the Danishmend King Muhammad, Mesud is finally the pre-eminent Turkish potentate in Anatolia.  With the Sultanate of Rum rejuvenated, he now sets out to conquer.  Meanwhile, a new Emperor dons the purple in Constantinople, and goes to war with the new master of Turkish Anatolia.  And yet again, an army of invasion begins mustering in the West...

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November 25, 2024 40 mins

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 Sult...

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November 13, 2024 58 mins

With Mesud installed on the throne of the Sultanate of Rum in Konya, his father-in-law, the Danishmend Bey Emir Ghazi rises to become the overlord of Turkish Anatolia.  Emir Ghazi brings the Danishmend beylik to the zenith of its power, but in doing so clears the board of potential rivals to Mesud and provides stability and security to his vassal in Konya.  And as imperial authority in the Western half of the Great Seljuk Empire me...

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October 28, 2024 44 mins

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.

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October 7, 2024 70 mins

Following the death of Kılıç Arslan, the Sultanate of Rum falls into disorder and becomes eclipsed by the other beyliks, in particular the Danishmend Beylik to the east ruled by Emir Ghazi.  The Sultanate becomes divided between the sons of the dead Sword Lion - the brothers Mesud and Melik Arap in central Anatolia, the young Tuğrul Arslan in Malatya as a puppet of his mother and new stepfather, and Şahinşah in captivity in Iran.  ...

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