Seljuk Sultanate
The Turco-Persian empire of the Oghuz Turks that stretched from Anatolia to the Hindu Kush.
The Great Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian state founded by the Qïnïq branch of the Oghuz Turks. At its height it reached from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to the Hindu Kush in the east, and from Central Asia down to the Persian Gulf. The brothers Tughril and Chaghri established it in 1037, and it lasted in some form until 1308, although Seljuk rule outside the Anatolian peninsula was over by 1194. It played a central part in the First and Second Crusades.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Turco-Persian empire
- Founded
- 1037
- Founders
- Tughril and Chaghri
- Capitals
- Ray, then Isfahan
Facts from the source article.
Background
The dynasty takes its name from Seljuk, a warlord of the Qiniq tribe who led his people to the Syr Darya, where they converted to Islam in 985. His grandsons pushed into Khorasan, took Merv and Nishapur, and crushed the Ghaznavids at the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040. In 1055 Tughril entered Baghdad, ending Buyid influence there. His nephew Alp Arslan added Armenia and Georgia and won the decisive Battle of Manzikert in 1071, which broke Byzantine resistance in Anatolia and opened the region to Turkmen principalities. Under Malik-Shah I and his vizier Nizam al-Mulk the state reached its golden age, and the capital moved from Ray to Isfahan. A heavy defeat at the Battle of Qatwan in 1141 cost the empire its eastern lands, and it was later supplanted by the Khwarazmian Empire in the east and by the Zengids and Ayyubids in the west. The Sultanate of Rum was the last Seljuk branch to fall.
Did You Know?
- The Abbasid caliph gave Malik-Shah I the title "The Sultan of the East and West" in 1087.
- Some chroniclers called Nizam al-Mulk's time the Nizam's state, so great was the vizier's power.
- The empire covered about 3.9 million square kilometres at its greatest extent.
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