Büyük Alaeddin Keykubad ve Zamanı (Great Alaeddin Keykubad and His Era)
Good Fit
- Readers seeking a deep, source-based academic approach to Anatolian Seljuk history, especially the reign of Alaeddin Keykubad I
- Readers who want to follow a historian's lifelong scholarly journey on a single subject — its triumphs, obstacles, and personal struggle
- Readers interested in the development of 20th-century Turkish historiography (the Köprülü school, figures like Osman Turan and İbrahim Kafesoğlu)
Not a Fit
- Readers looking for a quick, event-driven summary of Alaeddin Keykubad's reign itself — this chapter is about the book, not the ruler
- Readers who want to avoid academic historiographical discussion — source criticism, correspondence between historians
The chapter opens with Köymen's first indirect mention of this project in 1963, in the preface to his book "Selçuklu Devri Türk Tarihi" — at that point without a concrete title, promising a future "History of the Anatolian Seljuk State." Editor Sinan Tarifci, examining Köymen's handwritten notes, shows that the book's originally planned title and structure changed completely over the years.
A particularly moving passage draws on Köymen's private letters from 1991 — after a 40-year scholarly career, echoing his own teacher Fuad Köprülü's remark that he "only understood history now," Köymen calls all his earlier books mere "apprentice and journeyman" work, and this one his own "masterwork" — a metaphor drawn from the guild tradition of craftsmanship.
The chapter openly documents the obstacles Köymen faced in the academic world: he complains of "incomprehension, even obstruction" and "concealed envy," writes that changes in publishing leadership at the Ministry of Culture forced him to self-publish his own work, and notes that articles he submitted to the Turkish Historical Society sat with an "unknown fate" for years.
The most poignant passage shows how Köymen took on the mission of filling the "scholarly void" left by the deaths of the two great Seljuk historians who preceded him — Osman Turan (d. 1978) and İbrahim Kafesoğlu (d. 1984): "Death... came among our generation... and took the champions of Turkish history and civilization one by one, leaving no one behind to fill their places."
- The editor quotes directly from archival material — private letters, handwritten notes, dated articles — building the book's origin story like a piece of detective work
- Blending academic historiography with personal biography produces a far livelier text than a dry "publication history"
- Every claim is backed by a precise date and source (the date of a letter, the year an article appeared), preserving academic rigor
Also on the site, another study of nomadic Turkic history written with comparable academic rigor
The book's main body (Alaeddin Keykubad's reign, the Seljuk army and state) — this review covers only the introductory chapter
After the introductory chapter, the book moves into its actual subject — the organization of the Anatolian Seljuk state under Alaeddin Keykubad I (r. 1220-1237). As Köymen notes in his own letters, the section devoted to the Seljuk army alone runs to a full volume, with subsections like "Causes of War," "The Decision for War," and "Mobilization." The book also covers the structure of the state, palace life, symbols of sovereignty, and the conquests along the Mediterranean coast.
The book rests mainly on the medieval source Ibn Bibi's "al-Awamir al-Ala'iyya fi'l-Umur al-Ala'iyya" — Köymen had begun cataloguing this source in 1965 and called it the historical source that occupied him the most. The book closes with appendices reproducing the author's handwritten manuscript pages, giving readers a direct look at how the work was assembled.
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