Now there is no doubt that the Mongol conquerors had a direct relation to the emergence of the Moscow centralized state. However, it is less known that the Mongols had a hand in the creation of another empire — the Ottoman Empire. This fact Turkish ur-patriots — as well as their Russian «colleagues» — do not advertise it, but the historical truth is that the Mongols participated in the genesis of this empire.
We can start with the fact that the Seljuk tribes, who came from the southern outskirts of Desht-i Kipchak through northern Iran to Anatolia and conquered almost all of Asia Minor from Byzantium, in the XI century founded their empire, which by the end of the XII century disintegrated because of the struggle between various pretenders to the throne and external blows.
One of the large state formations that emerged from its wreckage was the Koni or Rum Sultanate. Sultans of Rum alternately fought with the Crusaders and Byzantium. And if against the Crusaders the struggle was conducted with varying success, the Byzantines they were able to defeat several times, and at the expense of their former possessions to significantly expand the territory of the sultanate, occupying almost the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea, including the now popular among tourists in the city of Antalya. This was greatly facilitated by the defeat of Byzantium by the Crusaders and their capture of Constantinople in 1204.
In 1231 the Rum sultanate experienced the invasion of Mongolian troops, and in 1236 after an unsuccessful struggle with them Rum sultan Kei-Kubad I recognized himself as a vassal of the Khan of Mongols Ugedei and obliged to pay him tribute.
Ugedei Khan (c. 1186 — December 11, 1241) — the third son of Genghis Khan and Borte and the successor of his father as Khan (Great Khan) of the Mongol Empire (1229-1241). Portrait of the Yuan Dynasty, 14th century.
Already under the next sultan Key-Khosrow, the sultanate was subjected to a new invasion and devastation. The Mongols captured central Anatolia, and Kei-Khosrow recognized himself as a vassal of Batu Khan, who issued him a label for rule similar to those he issued to Russian princes.
Mongol invasions of Anatolia 1231-1232, 1242-1243.
After the death of Key-Khosrow the struggle for power began between his children: Ala ad-Din Key-Kubad, Iza ad-Din Key-Kavus and Rukn ad-Din Kılıç-Arslan. With the support of the vizier Shams ad-Din Isfahani, Iza ad-Din succeeded in becoming sultan. However, soon Kylych-Arslan established himself on the throne — he went to Karakorum, where he took part in the khural of 1246, at which the new Mongolian khan was elected Guyuk, from whose hands he received a label for the management of the sultanate. And Shams-ad-Din was executed. Later between Key-Kavus and Kylych-Arslan the struggle for power again broke out.
Kylych-Arslan was supported by Hulagu, the brother of Mongol Khan Munkhe, who ruled in the Iranian-Anatolian region at that time. Kei-Kavus, having secured the support of the Byzantines, tried to oppose the Mongols, but was defeated by them. After that he was forced to flee to the court of the Byzantine emperor Michael Paleologos.
After the death of Kylych-Arslan in 1264, the Rum sultanate was actually ruled by Mongol viceroys. And in 1307, when the sultanate broke up into small beyliks, the power in one of them was taken by the legendary Osman — the founder of the dynasty of the same name of the rulers of the future empire.
It is worth noting that the Osmans in the future never forgot that their status, according to the laws and customs of the Steppe, is always lower than that of the Genghisids. This is what largely explains their ambiguous policy towards the khanates that emerged on the ruins of the Golden Horde, to which they did not provide significant assistance in the wars with the Moscow state.
The Ottomans’ war with Timur, which began under the pretext of restoring their power over the territories in Anatolia allegedly seized by the Ottomans, did not add sympathy to the Genghisids either.
In any case, the Ottomans did not try to regain the lands of southern Desht-i Kipchak that once belonged to their Seljuk ancestors. They chose to move westward, and the first goal along the way was the Byzantine Empire. But that is another story.