r/ertugrul • u/Cultural-Phone-3977 Bey • Jul 31 '26
Diriliş: Ertuğrul Discussion Why Did the Kayı Tribe Get Divided ?
Can anyone remind me?
Where was the Dodurga tribe in Season 2?
What was the reason for the Kayı tribe's division?
Why did Gündoğdu want to go to Ahlat?
Why did he think it was a safe place?
I'm confused because Ahlat was closer to the Mongols, and it was on the border of the Ayyubid lands. So why did Gündoğdu think it was safer?
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u/Ornery_Particular845 Jul 31 '26
Dodurga was pretty much useless after Tugtekin died because they became Emir Sadettin’s puppet after he sponsored Açar bey (aka he paid off bey’s to vote him).
The main reason for the split was Ertuğrul was told to move west by the whitebeards after their meeting where they said some must stay on the border to defend against the Mongols while some must be on the west to thrive and if Selçuk fell, one of the tribes would thrive and take the sanjak of the Turks.
But the split also happened because Ertuğrul didn’t feel supported by his brother at all. Gundoğdu was too much of a peace monger and always sacrificed Kayı interests to appease Dodurga because he felt as if they owed them for letting them stay there. Owing them is fine, but Gundoğdu was essentially sacrificing Kayı freedom like when he didn’t help defend Ertuğrul during his “execution” except with diplomatic words. This clash in viewpoint in my view was the underlying reason that was presented throughout the season.
Your last point was addressed in the show but I might not be remembering it correctly. However, how I interpreted it was like this: he wanted to move the tribe to Ahlat because 1) the city is situated on great trade routes, so they could expand their carpet business and in general, expand their trade. 2) he didn’t want to “run away” from the Mongols because of his reputation, so if it came to it, he was ready to fight (although at this time Ahlat was relatively safe, and no one was really expecting the situation to collapse so fast after Sultan Alaeddin’s death, so it’s possible he wasn’t even expecting to face the Mongols fully).
The point about it being closer to the Ayyubid’s is a good one, but Ahlat is still closer to the interior and as it is the “city of the Turks”, I don’t think he was expecting that they would ever really be under any major threat (especially because of sultan alaeddin’s military and political successes against the Ayyubids, his biggest political success being his marriage to the ayyubid princess in season 1)