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Çaka Bey or Çakabey (Tzachas in Byzantine sources) was the Bey of İzmir (Smyrna) during the Beyliks era in Anatolia between 1081 and 1095.
He was taken as a prisoner during a war with the Byzantine Empire by
Emperor Nicephorus III Botaniates. In this war he had fought
independently, without the Seljuk Empire's army. He took the emperor's
interest, and was taken to the palace. He was very appreciated there
and allowed to act on his own. When Alexius I Comnenus became the new
basileus in 1081, Çaka Bey was granted his freedom.
The first Anatolian Turkish naval fleet, which consisted of 33 sail
ships and 17 oar ships, was established at the port of İzmir by Çaka
Bey in 1081, following his conquest of İzmir, Urla, Çeşme, Sığacık,
Foça and the surrounding Aegean coast of Anatolia in that same year.
The ships were built at the naval arsenals of İzmir and Ephesus, which
Çaka Bey had established.
Çaka Bey's fleet conquered Lesbos (1089) and Chios (1090), before
defeating the Byzantine fleet near the Koyun Islands off Chios on May
19, 1090, which marked the first major Anatolian Seljuk naval victory
in a sea war. In 1091 Emir Çaka Bey's fleet conquered the islands of
Samos and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.
The Byzantines prepared a new naval force in order to take back these
islands from Çaka Bey, but they seemed to fear him so much that they
didn't get past Chios.
Çaka Bey's province was famous for its naval force, which was the first in Anatolian Turkish history.
Çaka Bey, furthermore, was the father-in-law of Sultan Kılıç Arslan I of the Anatolian Seljuk Turks.
In 1095, during a campaign against the Byzantine Empire with the
support of Kılıç Arslan, Çaka Bey's fleet conquered the strategic port
city and gulf of Adramyttium (Edremit) on the Aegean coast of Anatolia,
and the city of Abydos on the Dardanelles Strait, during the siege of
which Çaka Bey died.
Byzantine sources say he was killed by Kılıç Arslan; his name however
appears in papers after that period, showing quite the opposite for
those who do not believe this version of the story. Some historians
indicate that it was in fact his son who was appointed to take his post.
After Çaka Bey's death, his beylik (principality) disappeared from
history. The Byzantines would soon recapture the area under the
leadership of Alexius I. On the whole, Çaka Bey was a feared enemy for
Byzantium, and a valiant warrior who expanded the Seljuk territories in
western Anatolia, albeit for a brief time.
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