Great Seljuk Empire: A Visual History

The Great Seljuk Empire was founded by the Oghuz Turkish brothers Tughril and Chaghri, who defeated the Ghaznavids at Dandanaqan in 1040 and took Persia. Tughril entered Baghdad in 1055 as protector of the Abbasid caliph and was made sultan. Alp Arslan destroyed the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071, and Malik Shah and his vizier Nizam al-Mulk ruled an empire from the Aegean to Central Asia at its peak. Succession wars, the Assassins and the Crusades broke it up after 1092; the last Great Seljuk sultan died in 1194, though a Seljuk state survived in Anatolia until 1308.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Great Seljuk Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Great Seljuk territory

Timeline of the Great Seljuk Empire

1. 1040
   DandanaqanThe Ghaznavids defeated; Khorasan taken.
2. 1055
   Tughril enters BaghdadMade sultan by the caliph.
3. 1071
   ManzikertByzantine army destroyed; Anatolia opened.
4. 1072
   Malik ShahThe peak under Nizam al-Mulk.
5. 1092
   Nizam al-Mulk and Malik Shah dieSuccession wars.
6. 1099
   Crusaders take Jerusalem
7. 1141
   Battle of QatwanSanjar defeated by the Qara Khitai.
8. 1194
   Last Great Seljuk sultan killed

Rise

The Seljuks were an Oghuz clan who entered Islam around 985 and moved into Khorasan as mercenaries. At Dandanaqan in 1040 they routed the Ghaznavids and took Persia. Tughril was invited to Baghdad by the caliph to displace the Shia Buyids in 1055 and was proclaimed sultan, the first to hold the title, making the Seljuks the sword of Sunni Islam.

Manzikert and the peak

Alp Arslan (1063-1072) took Armenia and Georgia and, in August 1071, destroyed the army of Emperor Romanos IV at Manzikert, capturing the emperor. Turkmen tribes poured into Anatolia, and by 1080 the Seljuks of Rum held most of it. Malik Shah, with the great Persian vizier Nizam al-Mulk, ruled from Syria to Samarkand, founded the Nizamiyya madrasas, and reformed the calendar with the help of Omar Khayyam.

Fragmentation

Nizam al-Mulk was murdered by an Assassin in 1092 and Malik Shah died weeks later. His sons and nephews fought over the empire, and the Crusaders took advantage to seize Antioch and Jerusalem. Sanjar ruled the east from Merv until his defeat by the Qara Khitai in 1141 and capture by rebellious Turkmen in 1153; the last western sultan, Tughril III, was killed by the Khwarazmians in 1194. Provincial atabegs like Zengi and Nur al-Din carried on the fight against the Crusaders.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Ghaznavid Empire (977 to 1186)
• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)
• Buyid dynasty (934 to 1062)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)
• Khwarazmian Empire (1077 to 1231)
• Qara Khitai (Western Liao) (1124 to 1218)
• Fatimid Caliphate (909 to 1171)
• Ayyubid dynasty (1171 to 1260)

Wars of the same era and region

• Crusades (1096 to 1291)
• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)

8 surprising things about the Great Seljuk Empire

1. Alp Arslan reportedly put his foot on the neck of the captured Byzantine emperor, then treated him well and released him for a ransom.
2. Nizam al-Mulk's Book of Government is one of the great political manuals of the Islamic world.
3. The Jalali calendar devised for Malik Shah by Omar Khayyam and others was more accurate than the Gregorian.
4. The Seljuks were the first rulers to use the title sultan in an official sense.
5. The name 'Turkey' derives from the Turks whom the Seljuks let into Anatolia after 1071.
6. Sanjar was held prisoner for three years by his own Oghuz tribesmen, who nonetheless treated him as sultan.
7. The Assassins' first famous victim was the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk in 1092.
8. The Seljuk madrasa system spread across the Islamic world and shaped the later Ottoman education system.

Sources

• Seljuq Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Seljuk Empire Wikipedia
• Seljuk Empire World History Encyclopedia
• A. C. S. Peacock, The Great Seljuk Empire (2015) Edinburgh University Press

Back to all empires and wars