Suleyman Shah (1167-1227) was Bey of the Kayi tribe from 1214 to 1227, succeeding Kaya Alp and preceding Ertugrul.
Biography[]
Suleyman Shah was the son of Kaya Alp and the brother of Kurdoglu, and they belonged to the Turkic Kayi tribe of Central Asia. Suleyman succeeded his father as Bey of the Kayi in 1214, and he decided to lead the 50,000-strong tribe west in the face of Mongol expansion. After migrating through the North Caucasus, thousands of Kayis settled in Erzincan and Ahlat in 1214, and some of the other Kayi tribes dispersed in Diyarbakir, Mardin, and Urfa. Suleyman's own 2,000-strong tribe migrated into Syria in 1225, and Suleyman accidentally drowned in the Euphrates River near Aleppo in 1227. He was buried at the Tomb of Suleyman Shah in northern Syria. Suleyman had four children by his wife Hayme Hatun, including Ertugrul and Gundogdu Bey.
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