Karasids

The Karasids (Ottoman Turkish: قرا صـی; Turkish: Karesioğulları) were a Turkoman dynasty that ruled the region of Mysia in northwestern Anatolia during the first half of the 14th century. While legendary lineages link the family to the Danishmendids, an 11–12th-century dynasty in central Anatolia, the earliest Karasid rulers the eponymous Karasi Bey and his father Kalam Shah are thought to have taken over the region around Balıkesir during the reign of Mesud II (r. 1284–97, 1303–8) of the Sultanate of Rum claiming independence. Following the death of Karasi Bey, the dynasty ended up ruling two separate emirates, headed by Demir Khan and Yakhshi Khan. Demir Khan is known to have harassed the town of Cyzicus and settlements in Thrace through his naval forces and thus signed a truce with the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III (r. 1328–41) in 1328. In 1333, he met with Ibn Battuta, who wrote unfavorably about him. Suleiman Bey, the latest Karasid ruler attested to by Byzantine sources, was married to the daughter of John Vatatzes and meddled with the internal strife within the Byzantine domains. Byzantine sources ceased mentioning the Karasids after that point.

The Ottoman acquisition of the Karasid domains is wrapped in obscurity and was described by sources from the 15th century with incongruent details. Ajlan Bey, "son of Karasi", had two sons, one of whom was named Dursun. Following the death of Ajlan, Dursun fled to the Ottoman domains, while his brother stayed behind with their father, but was unpopular among his subjects. Dursun offered the Ottoman Sultan Orhan (r. 1323–62) control of the Karasid domains, which led to the capture of those lands and the surrender of his other brother. Modern historians vary widely in their efforts to construct the Karasid genealogy merging the details provided by the Byzantine and Ottoman sources.