SARUHAN DYNASTY

Turkmen dynasty (c. 13001410) that ruled in the Manisa region of western Anatolia. The dynasty was founded by Saruhan, a tribal chief and frontier prince in the service of the Seljuqs of Anatolia who traced his descent to the Khwarezm-Shahs of Central Asia; after its conquest of Manisa (1313), the dynasty's principality extended its territories to the Aegean Sea. Surrounded by the Turkmen principalities of Aydin, Germiyan, and Karasi, Saruhan became a seafaring state with a large fleet. It was active in the Mediterranean trade and supplied leadership, together with Aydin, to the gazis (warriors for the Islamic faith) in their incursions into Byzantine coastal territories. The loss of Izmir (1344) to Western crusaders by the Aydin principality and the rise of the Ottomans as the dominant power on the Byzantine frontier closed the channels of trade and coastal raids for Saruhan. In 1390 it was annexed by the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I; but its independence was restored by the Central Asian ruler Timur (Tamerlane) in 1402. Finally, c. 1410, the last Saruhan ruler, Hizir, was killed by the Ottoman prince Mehmed elebi (later Sultan Mehmed I), and Saruhan was reincorporated into the Ottoman Empire.