Seljuk Turks

The Seljuk Turks (Arabic: Saljūq; also Seldjuk, Seldjuq, Seljuq) were a major branch of the Oghuz Turks and a dynasty that occupied parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The Seljuks migrated to Persia in the 10th century, fighting and conquering various tribes on their way. They converted to Sunni Islam, zealously defending it and promoting its predominance among the branches of Islam. The lands they eventually accumulated, covering present-day Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, the entire Middle East, and a part of the Arabian peninsula, grew into the Seljuk Empire, also called the Great Seljuk. An Oghuz bey, or chieftain, named Seljuk, founded the dynasty around the year 1000. Seljuk's son led the Seljuks southward; his grandson, Toğrül (Tughril Beg), conquered Persia and occupied Baghdad. He established the Seljuk capital at Nishapur and died in 1063 leaving his holdings to his nephew the great-grandson of Seljuk, Alp Arslan. The latter invaded and conquered Anatolia in 1071 and subsequently conquered Transoxiana.

The Seljuk Turks are regarded as the ancestors of the Western Turks, the present-day inhabitants of Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan). The Seljuk Turks and their descendants, the Ottoman Turks, played a major role in medieval history by creating a barrier to Europe against the Mongol invaders from the East, defending the Islamic world against Crusaders from the West, and conquering the Byzantine Empire.

Under Alp Arslan's successor Malik Shah I and his vizier Nizam al-Mulk the Seljuk state expanded in various directions so that it bordered China in the East and the Byzantine Empire in the West. When Malik Shah died in 1092 the empire split, as his brother and four sons quarrelled over the apportioning of the empire among themselves. In 1118, the third son Ahmed Sanjar, unsatisfied by his portion of the inheritance, took over the empire. His brothers did not recognize his claim to the throne and Mahmud II proclaimed himself Sultan and established a capital in Baghdad. Ahmed Sanjar was captured and held captive by Turkish nomads from 1153 to 1156 and died the following year.

Despite several attempts to reunite the Seljuks in the centuries following Malik Shah's death, the Crusades prevented them from regaining their former empire. For a brief period, Toğrül III, was the Sultan of all Seljuk except for Anatolia. In 1194 Toğrül was defeated by Allah ad-Din Tekish, the Shah of Khwarezm, and the Seljuk finally collapsed. Of the former Great 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 which in turn were later conquered by the Ottoman Turks.