Bekir SARIYILDIZ

The conquest of Anatolia, which started with the eastern expedition of Çağrı Bey in 1018, covers the period until 1081, when the Byzantine Empire recognized the Turkish Seljuks. One of the important stations of the Seljuk armies advancing to the west from the beginning of the process is Şebinkarahisar Castle. Şebinkarahisar is in a location that will provide control of an important junction that opens to the north of Anatolia and the Black Sea coast. With this feature, besides being an important stage in the struggle between east and west, it is also a strategic member of the defense line established by the Byzantine Empire to fight its enemies in the east. Şebinkarahisar, which was attacked by the Abbasids many times before the Seljuks, was kept alive by fortification as it took a route to the capital of the empire. As a result of the progress that continued for about sixty-three years from the first expedition of the Seljuks to Anatolia, many castles and cities were besieged, captured and opened to settlement and became a Turkish homeland. Şebinkarahisar and its castle, one of these cities, also witnessed important political events during the conquest of Anatolia. As a matter of fact, Byzantine-Seljuk conflicts continued for a while in Şebinkarahisar Castle, which was the first place conquered by the Seljuks in Anatolia after the Byzantine defense was broken and the first place conquered in the Eastern Black Sea Region.

In this article, the role of Şebinkarahisar Castle in the defense of Byzantine Anatolia and the situation that the Seljuks faced when they came to the region, general and mixed information about the castle, many important events in the Seljuk-Byzantine struggle, were tried to be organized in detail.

Keywords: Şebinkarahisar, Koloneia, Kekaumenos, Sevli Bey, Mengüceklü Ahmed Gazi.