[3] Rûm was the old Seljuk Turkish designation for Anatolia, referring to the Eastern Roman Empire, and in European texts as late as the 19th-century the word Rûm (or Roum) was used to denote the whole of central Anatolia, not just the smaller area comprising the Ottoman province (see Sultanate of Rum).

[citation needed] In the 14th century several autonomous towns (Amasya, Tokat, Sivas) were established, despite the continued Seljukid-Mongol rule in central Asia Minor.

[4] When the Ilkhanid ruler Ebu Said died in 1335, administration of Asia Minor was entrusted to his former governor Eretna Bey, a Uyghur.

[4] He captured the area around Sivas-Kayseri, eventually establishing an emirate of Eretna, which grew stronger during the rule of his son, Mehmed Bey.

[4] His principality managed to resist interference in central Anatolia from both the Akkoyunlus and the Ottomans until it collapsed with his death in 1398.