Togan Arslan was a Turkish

bey Bey, also spelled as Baig, Bayg, Beigh, Beig, Bek, Baeg, Begh, or Beg, is a Turkic title for a chieftain, and a royal, aristocratic title traditionally applied to people with special lineages to the leaders or rulers of variously sized areas in ...

of the

Beylik of Dilmaç Beylik of Dilmaç (Dimleç or Demleç) was a small principality () in East Anatolia (part of modern Turkey) founded in the 11th century . After the battle of Malazgirt in 1071, the victorious Turkoman tribes led by ghazi warriors began to set ...

Early years

After the death of his father Mehmet in 1104, Togan Arslan became the bey.

Career

After

Alp Arslan Alp Arslan, born Muhammad Alp Arslan bin Dawud Chaghri, was the second List of sultans of the Seljuk Empire, sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk (warlord), Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty and the empire. He g ...

Seljukids The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture. The founder of the S ...

defeated

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

army in the

battle of Manzikert The Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, Iberia (theme), Iberia (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army ...

in 1071, a series of

Turkmen Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to: Peoples Historical ethnonym * Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages Ethnic groups * Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...

beyliks (principalities) were formed in

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(Asiatic part of present

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) before Anatolia was united by the

Sultanate of Rum The 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. ...

. Beylik of Dilmaç was one of these. It was founded as an

iqta An iqta () and occasionally iqtaʿa () was an Islamic practice of farming out tax revenues yielded by land granted temporarily to army officials in place of a regular wage; it became common in the Muslim empire of the Caliphate. Iqta has been defi ...

of the Seljuks. Its capital was

Bitlis Bitlis ( or ; ) is a city in southeastern Turkey. It is the seat of Bitlis District and Bitlis Province.Ahlatshahs The Shah-ArmensClifford Edmund Bosworth "The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual". Article «The Shâh-i Armanids», p. 197. (lit. 'Kings of Armenia', ), also known as Ahlatshahs (lit. 'Rulers of Ahlat', ) or Begtimurids ...

, he switched sides and became a vassal of

Ilghazi Najm al-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq (; died November 8, 1122) was the Turkoman Artukid ruler of Mardin from 1107 to 1122. He was born into the Oghuz tribe of Döğer. Biography His father Artuk Bey was the founder of the Artukid dynasty, and had ...

of the Mardin Artukids.Islamic Encyclopedia
/ref> Together with Ilghazi, Togan Arslan participated in military operations against

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

. The most important was the

Battle of Ager Sanguinis In the Battle of ''Ager Sanguinis'', also known as the Battle of the Field of Blood, the Battle of Sarmada, or the Battle of Balat, Roger of Salerno's Crusader army of the Principality of Antioch was annihilated by the army of Ilghazi of Mard ...

in 1119 where

Roger of Salerno Roger of Salerno (or Roger of the Principate) ( 1080 – June 28, 1119) was regent of the Principality of Antioch from 1112 to 1119. He was the son of Richard of the Principate and the 2nd cousin of Tancred, Prince of Galilee, both participants o ...

lost his life.Prof. Yaşar Yücel-Prof Ali Sevim:''Türkiye tarihi Cilt I'', AKDTYKTTK Yayınları, 1991, pp 160 He had to defend his capital Bitlis three times. In 1124 the bey of Ahlatshah from the north and in 1133 the bey of Hasankey Artukiks from the south laid sieges on Bitlis. In both campaigns Togan Arslan was able to defend Bitlis successfully. In 1134, Imadettin Zengi, from

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

, one of the most powerful commanders of the region tried to capture Bitlis. Togan Arslan paid to save the city.

Death

Togan Arslan died in 1137.

References

{{Anatolian Beys 11th-century births 1137 deaths Anatolian beyliks History of Bitlis Province 12th-century Asian people