Constantine Melik

Constantine Melik (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Μελίκ) (b.1264 - a.1306) was the son of the Sultan of Rûm Kaykaus II. He fled to Constantinople with his father at a young age, stayed there and had an illustrious career as a Byzantine governor.

Early life

Constantine was born in the Sultanate of Rûm, but was forced to flee from his home because his father lost the civil war against his uncle Kilij Arslan IV. Kaykaus took him, his three brothers, sister, mother, aunt, great-grandmother and his two great uncles with him to Constantinople in the summer of 1262, where they were welcomed by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and his court.[1][2] There Constantine “having been baptized, zealously adhered to the Roman customs”.[3]

Soon however tensions grew between the former Sultan and Michael VIII in the midst of the Arsenite Schism, and Kaykaus tried to depose him.[1] After the plot was uncovered, Kaykaus fled to Ainos and then to Crimea in the winter of 1264/1265, while Constantine and the rest of his family were sent to Berroia.[4]

Career in Byzantium

Constantine became a Byzantine bureaucrat and the governor of Berroia in the 1280s. A few years later Isaac Melik, the leader of the Turkish mercenaries from Anatolia who betrayed the Catalan Company, offered to the new Emperor Andronikos II to proclaim Constantine as the new Sultan of Rûm. However Andronikos instead appointed Constantine the governor of Pegai in 1305/1306. Constantine was sent to Pegai with his niece (the daughter of the last Sultan Mesud II), who Andronikos wanted to be married to Isaac Melik, but Isaac was soon executed by the Catalans.[5] At some point, Constantine was promoted and given either the title of Caesar or that of Sebastokrator.[6]

[...] the ancestor’s headgear was decorated with a red stone (λιθάριν κόκκινον), probably a Pamir ruby and, by the emperor’s order, he wore a dark-blue garment (γεραναῖον). [...] precious stones in headgear were an imperial attribute, while blue clothing indicated the dignities of Sebastokrator and Caesar, the top of the Late Byzantine hierarchy of dignities.[7]

The Melikes Family

The Melik (Μελίκ) or Melikes (Μελίκης) was the noble family established by Constantine. It became related to the Raoul, Asan and Palaiologos families in the 14th and 15th centuries.[7] Probable members of the family and places with lands they owned include:

• Ioannes Melikes ('Ιωάννης Μελίκης) ca. 1320, Serres.[8]

• Astrapyres Melikes (Ἀστραπύρης Μελίκης), ca. 1340, Berroia.[9]

• Melik (Μελίκ), ca. 1350, Berroia and Andrianople.[10]

• Rales Melikes (῾Ράλης Μελίκης), ca. 1400.[11]

• Manuel Raul Melikes (Μανουὴλ ῾Ραοὺλ Μελίκης), ca. 1440.[8]

• Mathaios Raul Melikes Asanes Palaiologos (Ματθαῖος ῾Ραοὺλ Μελίκης Ἀσάνης Παλαιολόγος), d. 1497, Peloponnesse.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b Shukurov 2016, p. 99.
  2. ^ Peacock & Yildiz 2013, p. 113.
  3. ^ Shukurov 2016, pp. 116–117.
  4. ^ de Nicola 2017, p. 115.
  5. ^ Shukurov 2016, p. 190.
  6. ^ Shukurov 2016, p. 116-117.
  7. ^ a b Shukurov 2016, pp. 187–189.
  8. ^ a b Trapp 2001, p. 3230.
  9. ^ Trapp 2001, p. 374.
  10. ^ Trapp 2001, p. 3229.
  11. ^ a b Trapp 2001, p. 3231.

Sources

  • Shukurov, Rustam (2016). The Byzantine Turks, 1204-1461. BRILL. ISBN 9789004307759.
  • de Nicola, Bruno (2017). Women in Mongol Iran: the Khātūns, 1206-1335. Edinb: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1474415484.
  • Peacock, A.C.S.; Yildiz, Sara Nur, eds. (2013). The Seljuks of Anatolia: Court and Society in the Medieval Middle East. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0857733467.
  • Trapp, Erich (1986). Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit. Austrian Academy of Sciences. ISBN 978-3700130031.
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