Seljuq dynasty

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The Seljuqs (also Seljuq Turks[1], Seldjuks, Seldjuqs, Seljuks; in Turkish Selçuklular; in Persian: سلجوقيان Ṣaljūqīyān; in Arabic سلجوق Saljūq, or السلاجقة al-Salājiqa) were a Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. They set up an empire known as Great Seljuq Empire that stretched from Anatolia to Punjab and was the target of the First Crusade. The dynasty had its origins in the Turcoman tribal confederations of Central Asia and marked the beginning of Turkic power in the Middle East. After arriving in Persia, the Seljuqs adopted the Persian culture[2][3][4] and language[5][6], and played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition which features "Persian culture patronized by Turkic rulers."[7] Today, they are remembered as great patrons of Persian culture, art, literature, and language[5][6][8] and are regarded by some as the cultural ancestors of the Western Turks[citation needed] - the present-day inhabitants of Azerbaijan[citation needed], Turkey[citation needed], and Turkmenistan[citation needed].

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Head of male royal figure, 12-13th century, from Iran. Carved and drilled stone with Seljuq craftsmanship. Kept at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Head of male royal figure, 12-13th century, from Iran. Carved and drilled stone with Seljuq craftsmanship. Kept at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Prior to the ninth century, hordes of Turks had crossed the Volga River into the Black Sea steppes.[9] Originally, the House of Seljuq was a branch of the Qinik Oghuz Turks[10][11][12][13] who in the 9th century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world, north of the Caspian and Aral sea in their Yabghu Khaganate of the Oghuz confederacy,[14] in the Kyrghyz Steppe of Turkestan.[15] In the 10th century the Seljuqs migrated from their ancestral homelands into mainland Persia, in the province of Khurasan, where they mixed with the local population and adopted the Persian culture and language in the following decades.[5][6][8][16][17]

The "Great Seljuqs" were heads of the family; in theory their authority extended over all the other Seljuq lines, although in practice this often was not the case. Turkish custom called for the senior member of the family to be the Great Seljuq, although usually the position was associated with the ruler of western Persia.

Muhammad's son Mahmud II succeeded him in western Persia, but Sanjar, the governor of Khurasan from 1097 and the senior member of the family, becomes Great Seljuq sultan

The Oghuz take control of much of Khurasan, with the remainder in the hands of former Seljuq emirs

The rulers of western Persia, who maintained a very loose grip on the Abbasids of Baghdad. Several Turkish emirs gained a strong level of influence in the region, such as the Eldiduzids.

Tugrul III killed in battle with the Khwarazmshah, who annexes Hamadan

Kerman was a province in southern Persia.

Mehmed II overthrown by the Oghuz chief Malik Dinar

To the Artuqids

Sultans/Emirs of Damascus:

Damascus seized by the Burid Toghtekin

The Seljuq line, already having been deprived of any significant power, effectively ends in the early thirteenth century

Toghrol Tower, a 12th century monument south of Tehran commemorating Toğrül.

Seljuq era art: Ewer from Iran, dated 1180-1210CE. Brass worked in repousse and inlaid with silver and bitumen. NY Metropolitan Museum.

The Kharāghān twin towers, built in 1053 CE in Iran, is the burial of Seljuq princes.

Shatranj chess set, glazed fritware, 12th century, from Iran. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

  1. ^ "Seljuq Turks" in various scholastic sources
  2. ^ Ram Rahul. "March of Central Asia", Indus Publishing, pg 124:"The Seljuk conquest of Persia marked the triumph of the Sunni over Shii but without a decline in Persian culture. The Seljuks eventually adopted the Persian culture.
  3. ^ 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, 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 Seljuq Rulers (Qubad, Kay Khusraw and so on) and in the use of Persian as a literary language (Turkish must have been essentially a vehicle for every days 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, Baha al-din Walad and his son Mawlana Jalal al-din Rumi, whose Mathnawi, composed in Konya, constitutes one of the crowning glories of classical Persian literature."
  4. ^ Mehmed Fuad Koprulu, "Early Mystics in Turkish Literature", Translated by Gary Leiser and Robert Dankoff, Routledge, 2006, pg 149: "If we wish to sketch, in broad outline, the civilization created by the Seljuks of Anatolia, we must recognize that the local, i.e. non-Muslim, element was fairly insignificant compared to the Turkish and Arab-Persian elements, and that the Persian element was paramount/The Seljuk rulers, to be sure, who were in contact with not only Muslim Persian civilization, but also with the Arab civiliza­tions in al-jazlra and Syria - indeed, with all Muslim peoples as far as India — also had connections with {various} Byzantine courts. Some of these rulers, like the great 'Ala' al-Dln Kai-Qubad I himself, who married Byzantine princesses and thus strengthened relations with their neighbors to the west, lived for many years in Byzantium and became very familiar with the customs and ceremonial at the Byzantine court. Still, this close contact with the ancient Greco-Roman and Christian traditions only resulted in their adoption of a policy of tolerance toward art, aesthetic life, painting, music, independent thought - in short, toward those things that were frowned upon by the narrow and piously ascetic views [of their subjects]. The contact of the common people with the Greeks and Armenians had basically the same result. [Before coming to Anatolia], the Turks had been in contact with many nations and had long shown their ability to synthesize the artistic elements that thev had adopted from these nations. When they settled in Anatolia, they encountered peoples with whom they had not yet been in contact and immediately established relations with them as well. Ala al-Din Kai-Qubad I established ties with the Genoese and, especially, the Venetians at the ports of Sinop and Antalya, which belonged to him, and granted them commercial and legal concessions. Mean­while, the Mongol invasion, which caused a great number of scholars and artisans to flee from Turkistan, Iran, and Khwarazm and settle within the Empire of the Seljuqs of Anatolia, resulted in a reinforcing of Persian influence on the Anatolian Turks. Indeed, despite all claims to the contrary, there is no question that Persian influence was paramount among the Seljuqs of Anatolia. This is clearly revealed by the fact that the sultans who ascended the throne after Ghiyath al-Din Kai-Khusraw I assumed titles taken from ancient Persian mythology, like Kai-Khusraw, Kai-Ka us, and Kai-Qubad; and that. Ala' al-Din Kai-Qubad I had some passages from the Shahname inscribed on the walls of Konya and Sivas. When we take into consideration domestic life in the Konya courts and the sincerity of the favor and attachment of the rulers to Persian poets and Persian literature, then this fact [i.e. the importance of Persian influence] is undeniable. With- regard to the private lives of the rulers, their amusements, and palace ceremonial, the most definite influence was also that of Iran, mixed with the early Turkish traditions, and not that of Byzantium."
  5. ^ a b c O.Özgündenli, "Persian Manuscripts in Ottoman and Modern Turkish Libraries", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, (LINK)
  6. ^ a b c Encyclopaedia 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 ..."
  7. ^ 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, pg 79. Exact statement: "In Short, the Turko-Persian tradition featured Persian culture patronized by Turcophone rulers."
  8. ^ a b M. Ravandi, "The Seljuq court at Konya and the Persianisation of Anatolian Cities", in Mesogeios (Mediterranean Studies), vol. 25-6 (2005), pp. 157-69
  9. ^ Previte-Orton (1971), vol. 1, pg.278
  10. ^ Concise Britannica Online Seljuq Dynasty article
  11. ^ Merriam-Webster Online - Definition of Seljuk
  12. ^ The History of the Seljuq Turks: From the Jami Al-Tawarikh (LINK)
  13. ^ History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey - Stanford Shaw (LINK)
  14. ^ Wink, Andre, Al Hind the Making of the Indo Islamic World, Brill Academic Publishers, Jan 1, 1996, ISBN 90-04-09249-8 pg.9
  15. ^ Islam: An Illustrated History, p. 51
  16. ^ M.A. Amir-Moezzi, "Shahrbanu", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, (LINK): "... here one might bear in mind that non-Persian dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Saljuqs 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 ..."
  17. ^ 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) ..."

  • Previte-Orton, C. W (1971). The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


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