Gazi Gümüshtigin

Gazi Gümüshtigin (died 1104), also known as Melikgazi Gümüshtigin, was the second ruler of the Danishmendids which his father Danishmend Gazi had founded in central-eastern Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert.

Biography

He succeeded his father when the father died in 1084. Gümüshtigin used deliberately Byzantine imagery in his coins with one side showing a nimbused Christ and the other a Greek inscription which entitled him as "the great amir" to assert his authority. and the city of Melitene from its Armenian ruler Gabriel in 1101. The Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos offered Gümüshtigin 260,000 bezants, but the offer fell flat because the Seljuk sultan of Rum was denied a share, starting a conflict between the Danishmendids and the Seljuks of Rum. Bohemond then convinced Gümüshtigin to accept 100,000 bezants which was then raised by his allies so that he was released in May 1103.

In popular culture appears as a character called "Gümüştekin Bey" in the Turkish TV series Diriliş: Ertuğrul, which is based on Gazi Gümüshtigin.