Great Seljuq Empire Totally Explained

Everything about Seljuk Empire totally explained

The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Sunni Muslim empire established by the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks that once controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. From their homelands near the Aral sea, the Seljuqs advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia. Their advance marked the beginning of Turkic power in the Middle East.
The Seljuq empire was founded by Tugrul Beg in 1037 after the efforts by the founder of the Seljuq dynasty, Seljuq Beg, back in the first quarter of the 11th century. Seljuq Beg's father was in a higher position in the Oghuz Yabgu State, and gave his name both to the state and the dynasty. The Seljuqs united the fractured political scene of the Eastern Islamic world and played a key role in the first and second crusades. Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuqs also played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition.

Founder of the Dynasty

The apical ancestor of the Seljuqs was their Beg, Seljuq, who was reputed to have served in the Khazar army, under whom, circa 950 they migrated to Khwarezm, near the city of Jend also called Khujand, where they converted to Islam.

Great Seljuk

The Seljuqs were allied with the Persian Samanid Shahs against the Qarakhanids. The Samanids however fell to the Qarakhanids and the emergence of the Ghaznavids and were involved in the power struggle in the region before establishing their own independent base.

Tugrul and Chagri Beg

Togrul Beg was the grandson of Seljuk and Çagrı (Chagri) was his brother, under whom the Seljuks wrested an empire from the Ghaznavids. Initially the Seljuks were repulsed by Mahmud and retired to Khwarezm but Togrül and Çagrı led them to capture Merv and Nishapur (1028-1029). Later they repeatedly raided and traded territory with his successors across Khorasan and Balkh and even sacked Ghazni in 1037. In 1039 at the Battle of Dandanaqan, they decisively defeated Mas'ud I of the Ghaznavids resulting in him abandoning most of his western territories to the Seljuks. In 1055, Togrül captured Baghdad from the Shi'a Buyids under a commission from the Abbassids.

Alp Arslan

Alp Arslan was the son of Chagri Beg and expanded significantly upon Togrül's holdings by adding Armenia and Georgia in 1064 and invading the Byzantine Empire in 1068, from which he annexed almost all of Anatolia; Arslan's decisive victory at the Battle of Manzikert (in 1071) effectively neutralized the Byzantine threat. He authorized his Turcoman generals to carve their own principalities out of formerly Byzantine Anatolia, as atabegs loyal to him. Within two years the Turcomans had established control as far as the Aegean Sea under numerous "beghliks" (modern Turkish beyliks): the Saltuqis in Northeastern Anatolia, Mengujeqs in Eastern Anatolia, Artuqids in Southeastern Anatolia, Danishmendis in Central Anatolia, Rum Seljuks (Beghlik of Suleyman, which later moved to Central Anatolia) in Western Anatolia and the Beghlik of Çaka Beg in İzmir (Smyrna).

Malik Shah I

Under Alp Arslan's successor Malik Shah and his two Persian viziers Nizām al-Mulk and Tāj al-Mulk, the Seljuk state expanded in various directions, to former Iranian border before Arab invasion, so that it bordered China in the East and the Byzantines in the West. He moved the capital from Rayy to Isfahan. The Iqta military system and the Nizāmīyyah University at Baghdad were established by Nizām al-Mulk, and the reign of Malikshāh was reckoned the golden age of "Great Seljuk". The Abbasid Caliph titled him "The Sultan of the East and West" in 1087. The Assassins (Hashshashin) of Hassan-e Sabāh however started to become a force during his era and assassinated many leading figures in his administration.

Governance

The Seljuk power was at its zenith under Malikshāh I, and both the Qarakhanids and Ghaznavids had to acknowledge the overlordship of the Seljuks.. The Seljuk dominion was established over the ancient Sassanid domains, in Iran and Iraq, and included Anatolia as well as parts of Central Asia and modern Afghanistan.
The Seljuks were also patrons of art and literature. Under the Seljuks universities were founded. Their reign is characterized by astronomers such as Omar Khayyám, and the philosipher al-Ghazali. Image:Borj-toghrul.jpg|Toghrol Tower, a 12th century monument south of Tehran commemorating Togrul. Image:Seljuq Ewer.jpg|Seljuq era art: Ewer from Iran, dated 1180-1210CE. Brass worked in repousse and inlaid with silver and bitumen. NY Metropolitan Museum. Image:Kharaghan.jpg|The Kharāghān twin towers, built in 1053 CE in Iran, is the burial of Seljuq princes. Image:Shatranj.jpg|Shatranj chess set, glazed fritware, 12th century, from Iran. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

List of Emperors of the Great Seljuq Empire

Seljuk Beg (named after)

Tuğrul Beg (1037 - 1063) (the founder)

Alp Arslan (1063 - 1072)

Melik Şah I (1072 - 1092)

Mahmud (1092 - 1094)

Barkiyaruq (1094 - 1105)

Melik Şah II (1105)

Mehmed (1105 - 1118)

Ahmed Sanjar (1118 - 1153)

Conquest by Khwarezm and the Ayyubids

� See also:Saladin, Ayyubid, Khwarezmid Empire

In 1153, the Oghuz Turks rebelled and captured Sanjar. He managed to escape three years later but died a year later. Despite several attempts to reunite the Seljuks by his successors, the Crusades prevented them from regaining their former empire. The atabegs, such as Zengids and Artuqids, were only nominally under the Seljuk Sultan, and generally controlled Syria independently. When Ahmed Sanjar died in 1156, it fractured the empire even further and rendered the atabegs effectively independent.

Khorasani Seljuks in Khorasan and Transoxiana. Capital: Merv

Kermani Seljuks

Sultanate of Rum. Capital: Iznik (Nicaea), later Konya (Iconium)

Atabeghlik of Salgur in Iran

Atabeghlik of Ildeniz in Iraq and Azerbaijan. Capital Hamadan

Atabeghlik of Bori in Syria. Capital: Damascus

Atabeghlik of Zangi in Al Jazira (Northern Mesopotamia). Capital: Mosul

Turcoman Beghliks: Danishmendis, Artuqids, Saltuqis and Mengujegs in Asia Minor

Khwarezmshahs in Transoxiana, Khwarezm. Capital: Urganch After the Second Crusade, Nur ad-Din's general Shirkuh, who had established himself in Egypt on Fatimid land, was succeeded by Saladin. In time, Saladin rebelled against Nur ad-Din, and, upon his death, Saladin married his widow and captured most of Syria and created the Ayyubid dynasty.
On other fronts, the Kingdom of Georgia began to become a regional power and extended its borders at the expense of Great Seljuk. The same was true during the revival of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia under Leo II of Armenia in Anatolia. The Abbassid caliph An-Nasir also began to reassert the authority of the caliph and allied himself with the Khwarezmshah Ala ad-Din Tekish.
For a brief period, Togrul III was the Sultan of all Seljuk except for Anatolia. In 1194, however, Togrul was defeated by Ala ad-Din Tekish, the Shah of Khwarezmid Empire, and the Seljuk finally collapsed. Of the former Seljuk Empire, only the Sultanate of Rüm in Anatolia remained. As the dynasty declined in the middle of the 13th century, the Mongols invaded Anatolia in the 1260s and divided it into small emirates called the Anatolian beyliks. Eventually one of these, the Ottoman, would rise to power and conquer the rest.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Seljuk Empire'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://great_seljuq_empire.totallyexplained.com">Great Seljuq Empire Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.