The Shah-Armens, also called the Kings of Armenia or Rulers of Ahlat, were the 11th- and 12th-century Turcoman rulers of an Anatolian beylik founded after the Battle of Manzikert and centred in Ahlat on the northwestern shore of the Lake Van. This region comprised most of Bitlis and Van provinces and parts of Batman, Muş, Siirt and Diyarbakır. The dynasty is sometimes also called Sökmenli in reference to the founder of the principality, Sökmen el-Kutbî, literally "Sökmen the Slave", one of the commanders of the Great SeljuqAlp Arslan. The Ahlatshah Sökmenli should not be confused with the Artuqid branch of Sökmenli, which ruled in Hasankeyf during approximately the same period. Another title Sökmen and his descendants assumed, as heirs to the localArmenian princes according to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, was the Persian title Shah-i Arman, often rendered as Ermenshahs. This dynastic name, which the Turkmen rulers adopted, was established through the "ethnic make-up and political history" of the region they ruled, which was primarily Armenian. The Beylik was founded by the Turkmen slave commander Sökmen who took over Ahlat in 1100. Ahlatshahs were closely tied to Great Seljuq institutions, although they also followed independent policies like the wars against Georgia in alliance with their neighbours to the north, the Saltukids. They also acquired links with the branch of the Artuqid dynasty based in Meyyafarikin, becoming part of a nexus of Turkmen principalities in Upper Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia. The Ahlatshahs reached their brightest period under the fifty-seven-year reign of Sökmen II. He was married to a female relative of the Saltukid ruler Saltuk II. Since Sökmen II was childless, the beylik was seized by a series of slave commanders after his death. In 1207, the beylik was taken over by the Ayyubids, who had long coveted Ahlat. The Ayyubids had come to the city at the invitation of people of Ahlat after the last Sökmenli ruler was killed by Tuğrulshah, the ruler of Erzurum on behalf of the Sultanate of Rûm and brother of Sultan Kayqubad I. The Ahlatshahs left a large number of historic tombstones in and around the city of Ahlat. Local administrators are currently trying to have the tombstones included in UNESCO's World Heritage List, where they are currently listed tentatively.
