Seljuk Sultanate of Rum Established at Nicaea

1080

Suleiman ibn Qutalmish, a Seljuk prince who had carved out a domain in the chaos following Manzikert, established his capital at Nicaea - within sight of Constantinople's Asian suburbs. The Sultanate of Rum gave Anatolia its first stable Turkic administration, layering Islamic governance onto a landscape still dotted with Greek churches and Byzantine ruins. The sultanate would endure for two centuries, its very name - Rum, 'Rome' - a claim on the land's imperial past.