ABSTRACT
This chapter will survey the political and administrative history of Anatolia under Mongol and Seljuq rule in the 13th and early 14th centuries. It first discusses briefly the context in which the Seljuqs of Rum dominated the peninsula in the early 13th century. Secondly, it will focus our attention on the advantages and challenges brought to Anatolia by the Mongol victory in the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243, and the subsequent Mongol invasion of the peninsula. Further, the chapter will use this historical context to address the migration of Muslim literati from Khurasan, Central Asia and the Levant in the 13th century, connecting it with the spread of different conceptions of Islam and the role of the Persian language in Anatolia. Finally, a section will offer some basic characteristics of the region of Kastamonu in medieval times, which serves as a bridge between this chapter and the following.
