The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; Sälcük; or ; ; Selçuk; ; Saljuqian,) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that culturally became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture.Grousset, Rene, The Empire of the Steppes, (Rutgers University Press, 1991), 161, 164; "renewed the Seljuk attempt to found a great Turko-Persian empire in eastern Iran…", "It is to be noted that the Seljuks, those Turkomans who became sultans of Persia, did not Turkify Persia-no doubt because they did not wish to do so. On the contrary, it was they who voluntarily became Persians and who, in the manner of the great old Sassanid kings, strove to protect the Iranian populations from the plundering of Ghuzz bands and save Iranian culture from the Turkoman menace."Nishapuri, Zahir al-Din Nishapuri (2001), "The History of the Seljuq Turks from the Jami' al-Tawarikh: An Ilkhanid Adaptation of the Saljuq-nama of Zahir al-Din Nishapuri," Partial tr. K.A. Luther, ed. C.E. Bosworth, Richmond, UK. K.A. Luther, p. 9: "[T]he Turks were illiterate and uncultivated when they arrived in Khurasan and had to depend on Iranian scribes, poets, jurists and theologians to man the institution of the Empire")
The founder of the Seljuk dynasty, Seljuk Beg, was a descendant of a royal Khazar chief Tuqaq who served as advisor to the King of the Khazars, in West Asia and Central Asia. The Seljuks established the Seljuk Empire (1037–1194), the Sultanate of Kermân (1041–1186) and the Sultanate of Rum (1074–1308), which stretched from Iran to Anatolia and were the prime targets of the First Crusade.
Early history The Seljuks originated from the Kinik branch of the Oghuz Turks,Concise Britannica Online Seljuq Dynasty articleThe History of the Seljuq Turks: From the Jami Al-Tawarikh (LINK)Shaw, Stanford. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey (LINK)Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic People. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. p. 209 who in the 8th century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world; north of the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea in their Oghuz Yabgu StateWink, Andre, Al Hind: the Making of the Indo-Islamic World Brill Academic Publishers, 1996, p. 9 in the Kazakh Steppe of Turkestan.Islam: An Illustrated History, p. 51 During the 10th century, Oghuz had come into close contact with Muslim cities. When Seljuk, the leader of the Seljuk clan, had a falling out with Yabghu, the supreme chieftain of the Oghuz, he split his clan from the bulk of the Oghuz Turks and set up camp on the west bank of the lower Syr Darya. Around 985, Seljuk and his clan converted to Islam.
In the 11th century, the Seljuks migrated from their ancestral homelands into mainland Persia, in the province of Khurasan, where they encountered the Ghaznavids. The Seljuks defeated the Ghaznavids at the Battle of Nasa in 1035. Seljuk's grandsons, Tughril and Chaghri, received the insignias of governor, grants of land, and were given the title of dehqan.Bosworth, C.E. The Ghaznavids: 994–1040, Edinburgh University Press, 1963, 242. At the Battle of Dandanaqan, they defeated a Ghaznavid army, and after a successful siege of Isfahan by Tughril in 1050/51,Tony Jaques, Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F–O, (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007), 476. established the Great Seljuk Empire. The Seljuks mixed with the local population and adopted the Persian culture and Persian language in the following decades.M.A. Amir-Moezzi, "Shahrbanu", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, (): "... here one might bear in mind that Turco-Persian dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Seljuqs and Ilkhanids were rapidly to adopt the Persian language and have their origins traced back to the ancient kings of Persia rather than to Turkish heroes or Muslim saints ..."F. Daftary, "Sectarian and National Movements in Iran, Khorasan, and Trasoxania during Umayyad and Early Abbasid Times", in History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol 4, pt. 1; edited by M.S. Asimov and C.E. Bosworth; UNESCO Publishing, Institute of Ismaili Studies: "... Not only did the inhabitants of Khurasan not succumb to the language of the nomadic invaders, but they imposed their own tongue on them. The region could even assimilate the Turkic Ghaznavids and Seljuks (eleventh and twelfth centuries), the Timurids (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries), and the Qajars (nineteenth–twentieth centuries) ..."
Later period After arriving in Persia, the Seljuks adopted the Persian culture and used the Persian language as the official language of the government,Bosworth, C.E.; Hillenbrand, R.; Rogers, J.M.; Blois, F.C. de; Bosworth, C.E.; Darley-Doran, R.E., "Saldjukids," Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2009: "Culturally, the consisting of the Seljuq Empire marked a further step in the dethronement of Arabic from being the sole lingua franca of educated and polite society in the Middle East. Coming as they did through a Transoxania which was still substantially Iranian and into Persia proper, the Seljuqs with no high-level Turkish cultural or literary heritage of their own – took over that of Persia, so that the Persian language became the administration and culture in their land of Persia and Anatolia. The Persian culture of the Rum Seljuqs was particularly splendid, and it was only gradually that Turkish emerged there as a parallel language in the field of government and adab; the Persian imprint in Ottoman civilization was to remain strong until the 19th century.Ehsan Yarshater, "Iran" in Encyclopedia Iranica: "The ascent of the Saljuqids also put an end to a period which Minorsky has called "the Persian intermezzo" (see Minorsky, 1932, p. 21), when Iranian dynasties, consisting mainly of the Saffarids, the Samanids, the Ziyarids, the Buyids, the Kakuyids, and the Bavandids of Tabarestan and Gilan, ruled most of Iran. By all accounts, weary of the miseries and devastations of never-ending conflicts and wars, Persians seemed to have sighed with relief and to have welcomed the stability of the Saljuqid rule, all the more so since the Saljuqids mitigated the effect of their foreignness, quickly adopting the Persian culture and court customs and procedures and leaving the civil administration in the hand of Persian personnel, headed by such capable and learned viziers as 'Amid-al-Molk Kondori and Nezam-al-Molk."C.E. Bosworth, "Turkish expansion towards the west", in UNESCO History of Humanity, Volume IV: From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century, UNESCO Publishing / Routledge, 2000. p. 391: "While the Arabic language retained its primacy in such spheres as law, theology and science, the culture of the Seljuk court and secular literature within the sultanate became largely Persianized; this is seen in the early adoption of Persian epic names by the Seljuk rulers (Qubād, Kay Khusraw and so on) and in the use of Persian as a literary language (Turkish must have been essentially a vehicle for everyday speech at this time). The process of Persianization accelerated in the thirteenth century with the presence in Konya of two of the most distinguished refugees fleeing before the Mongols, Bahā' al-Dīn Walad and his son Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, whose Mathnawī, composed in Konya, constitutes one of the crowning glories of classical Persian literature." and played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition which features "Persian culture patronized by Turkic rulers".Daniel Pipes: "The Event of Our Era: Former Soviet Muslim Republics Change the Middle East" in Michael Mandelbaum, "Central Asia and the World: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkemenistan and the World", Council on Foreign Relations, p. 79. Exact statement: "In Short, the Turko-Persian tradition featured Persian culture patronized by Turcophone rulers." Today, they are remembered as great patrons of Persian culture, art, literature, and language.O. Özgündenli, "Persian Manuscripts in Ottoman and Modern Turkish Libraries", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, ()Encyclopædia Britannica, "Seljuq", Online Edition, (LINK ): "... Because the Turkish Seljuqs had no Islamic tradition or strong literary heritage of their own, they adopted the cultural language of their Persian instructors in Islam. Literary Persian thus spread to the whole of Iran, and the Arabic language disappeared in that country except in works of religious scholarship ..."M. Ravandi, "The Seljuq court at Konya and the Persianisation of Anatolian Cities", in Mesogeios (Mediterranean Studies), vol. 25–26 (2005), pp. 157–169
Seljuk rulers
Rulers of the Seljuk Dynasty
The "Great Seljuks" were heads of the family; in theory their authority extended over all the other Seljuk lines, although in practice this often was not the case. Turkic custom called for the senior member of the family to be the Great Seljuk, although usually the position was associated with the ruler of western Persia.
Titular name(s) Personal name ReignBey Tughril I 1037–1063 Suleiman1063Sultan Alp Arslan (Arslan I) 1063–1072SultanJalāl al-Dawlah Malik Shah I1072–1092SultanNasir al-Duniya wa al-Din Mahmud I1092–1094SultanAbul Muzaffar Rukn al-Duniya wa al-Din Barkiyaruq 1094–1105SultanMuizz al-Din Malik Shah II1104–1105SultanGhiyath al-Duniya wa al-Din Muhammad I Tapar1105–1118SultanMuizz al-Din *Ahmad Sanjar1118–1153 Khwarazmian dynasty replaces the Seljuk dynasty. From 1157, the Oghuz took control of much of Khurasan, with the remainder in the hands of former Seljuk emirs. Muhammad's son Mahmud II succeeded him in western Persia, but Ahmad Sanjar, who was the governor of Khurasan at the time being the senior member of the family, became the Great Seljuk Sultan.
Seljuk sultans of Hamadan
The rulers of western Persia, who maintained a very loose grip on the Abbasids of Baghdad. Several Turkic emirs gained a strong level of influence in the region, such as the Eldiguzids. Mahmud II 1118–1131 1131–1133 disputed between: Dawud 1131–1132 Mas'ud (in Jibal and Iranian Azerbaijan) 1132 Toghrul II, 1132–1133 Mas'ud 1133–1152 Malik Shah III 1152–1153 Muhammad II 1153–1159 Suleiman-Shah 1159–1161 Arslan-Shah 1161–1177 Toghrul III 1177–1194
In 1194, Toghrul III was killed in battle with the Khwarezm Shah, who annexed Hamadan.
Seljuk rulers of Kerman
Kerman was a province in southern Persia. Between 1053 and 1154, the territory also included Umman. Qavurt 1041–1073 (great-grandson of Seljuq, brother of Alp Arslan) Kerman Shah 1073–1074 Sultan Shah 1074–1075 or 1074–1085 Hussain Omar 1075–1084 or 1074 (before Sultan Shah) Turan Shah I 1084–1096 or 1085–1097 Iranshah ibn Turanshah 1096–1101 or 1097–1101 Arslan Shah I 1101–1142 Muhammad I 1142–1156 Tuğrul Shah 1156–1169 or 1156–1170 Bahram-Shah 1169–1174 or 1170–1175 Arslan Shah II 1174–1176 or 1175–1176 Turan Shah II 1176–1183 Muhammad II Shah 1183–1187 or 1183–1186 Muhammad abandoned Kerman, which fell into the hands of the Oghuz chief Malik Dinar. Kerman was eventually annexed by the Khwarazmian Empire in 1196.
Seljuk rulers in Syria The Seljuks exercised rule over parts of Syria for about thirty years, though their nominal suzerainty remained unstable.
Sultans/Emirs of Aleppo: After the Battle of Ain Salm in 1086, Tutush I besieged and captured Aleppo from its chief Hassan ibn Hibat Allah al-Hutayti, declaring himself the Emir of Aleppo. Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I 1085–1086 However, with the intervention of Malik Shah I, Aq Sunqur al-Hajib, a Non-Seljuqid, was installed as the governor of Aleppo. Aq Sunqur al-Hajib continuously switched alliegances, after finally being beheaded by Tutush I in 1094. Jalal ad-Dawlah Malik Shah I 1086–1086 (During occupation of Aleppo, abandoned by Tutush I) Jalal ad-Dawlah Malik Shah I 1086–1092 (As overlord of Aq Sunqur al-Hajib) Nasir al-Din Mahmud I 1092–1093 (As overlord of Aq Sunqur al-Hajib)