Büyük Selçuklu İmparatorluğu

CKM 2018-20 / Aziz Yardımlı


 

 

Büyük Selçuklu İmparatorluğu


 

🕑 BÜYÜK SELÇUKLU İMPARATORLUĞU ZAMANÇİZGİSİ (PDF)

 

 




  Seljuq Empire 1037-1194
The Consolidation of Seljuk Power from 1040 to the Death of Malik Shah in 1092
🔎

🗺️ “Historical Atlas of the Islam,” OUP 2004, pp. 44-45 (MAP)

 




The Great Seljuq Empire at its greatest extent.





  Seljuq Empire 1037-1194
Selçuk Türkleri
  • Büyük Selçuklu İmparatorluğu 1037-1194
  • Anadolu Selçuklu Sultanlığı 1077-1308
  Anadolu Selçukluları Malazgirt Savaşından sonra Büyük Selçuklu İmparatorluğundan ayrıldı.
 
  • Türkik kabilelerin Orta Asya’dan Batıya doğru göçleri on birinci yüzyılda başladı ve yaklaşık 400 yıl sürdü.
  • Kırsal göçebe Oğuz Türkleri arasında bir boy olan Selçuklular Sunni İslama döndükten sonra (985) Türkmenler olarak 11’inci yüzyılda Horasan’a yerleştiler ve 1040’ta Gaznelileri yenerek (Dandanakan) Horasan’a egemen oldular.
  • Daha sonra İran’a ilerlediler ve 1055’te Abbasi Halifesinin onayı ile ve herhangi bir direniş görmeksizin Tuğrul Bey altında Bağdad’a girdiler.
  • 1037’de kurulan Selçuklu İmparatorluğu kısa bir süre içinde Persia, Irak ve Levant’ın Arap ve Pers nüfuslarını egemenliği altına alarak 1060’ta Roma İmparatorluğu ile komşu oldu.
  • 1080’de Şii Fatımileri Suriye’den uzaklaştırdılar.
  • Selçuklular için başlıca gözdağı Roma İmparatorluğu değil, Şii Fatımi yönetiminde olan Mısır idi.
 
 
SELÇUKLULAR 1037-1194
Abbasiler 750-1258 / 1261-1517
Eyyübiler 1171-1260
Fatımiler 909-1171
Gazneliler 977-1186
Samanidler 819-999
Karahanlılar 840-1212

 

  • Selçuklular Oğuz kabileleri arasındaki ana gruplardan yalnızca birine önderlik ediyor (yagbu) ve tümünü denetlemiyorlardı.
  • Oğuzlar yalnızca steplerde değil, kentlerde de yaşıyorlardı (Seyhun kıyısındaki kasabalar (Chach, Taraz ya da Talas, Savran, Shignaq ve başkaları).

 

  • Tuğrul yönetimindeki Türkmenlerin yağma dürtüleri ve Roma İmparatorluğunun iç çatışmalardan ötürü güçsüz düşmesi Selçukluları Azerbeycan’dan daha batıya doğru ilerlemeye götürdü.
  • 1071’de Alp Arslan komutasındaki Selçuklu ordusu Malazgirt’te Roma kuvvetlerini yendi.
  • Çok sayıda Türk göçmen Anadolu’ya yerleşmeyi sürdürürken Selçukluların ana kuvvetleri Suriye’de Fatımileri yendi.
  • İslama dönen ve Abbasi ordularına katılan Türkler 11’inci yüzyıl ortalarında Abbasi halifeleri karşısında üstünlük kazanmaya başladılar.
  • Abbasi devletinin son iki yüzyılı boyunca halifeler Türk sultanlar karşısında güçlerini ve önemlerini yitirdiler, simgeselleştiler.
  • Selçuk İmparatorluğu varlığını 150 yıl sürdürdü.
  • Melikşah’ın ölümünden (1092) sonra İmparatorluk beyliklere dağıldı.
  • Selçuklu egemenliği Orta Doğuda Sunni egemenliğini pekiştirdi (İkisi de Şii mezhebine bağlı olan Buyid hanedanlığına ve Fatımi İmparatorluğuna karşı).
  • Moğol İstilasının da baskısı ile Orta Asya ve İran’dan Anadolu’ya sığınan Türkler yerli Roma nüfusuna assimile olmadılar.
  • Türk boylarının göçleri sonucunda Anadolu’nun nüfusu yaklaşık olarak 4 milyon düzeylerine yükseldi.
  • Anadolu’da etnik Yunanlılar ve Ermeniler güvenlik kaygısı ile Türk efendilere bağlanarak kültürel olarak Türkleşirken (elit üstünlüğü), Türklerin kendileri genetik olarak yerli nüfus ile kaynaştılar (Türklerin genetik karışımının ancak %9-15 kadarı Orta Asya’dan türer ve Moğollar ile güçlü bir ilişki yoktur — W).
 

Türklerin (10’uncu yüzyıl) ve Germenlerin (5’inci yüzyıl) Roma topraklarına girişleri —

 

  • Germenler (Vizigotlar ve Odoacer; Lombardlar; Vandallar; Normanlar) Roma toprakları için yıkıcı oldular ve karanlık çağlar, feodalizm, Katolik Kilisesi terimlerinde tanımlanan Orta Çağları başlattılar.
  • “Orta Çağlar” terimi Germanik Avrupa’ya sınırlı bir terimdir.
  • Modern Avrupa Reformasyon ile başlar.
  • Türkler önce Selçuklu İmparatorluğunu, sonra Roma Selçuklu İmpapratorluğunu, Anadolu Beyliklerini ve sonunda Osmanlı İmparatorluğunu kurdular.
  • “Kutsal Roma İmparatorluğu” hiçbir zaman bir devlet karakterini kazanamadı ve feodal anarşi Haçlı Seferlerine, Otuz Yıl Savaşına ve sonuçta Avrupa nüfusunun yaklaşık üçte birinin yok olmasına götürdü.
  • Germenler dinsel hoşgörüden yoksun idiler ve sayısız Haçlı Seferi ve Otuz Yıl Savaşı gibi eylemlerde kitle-kıyımları uyguladılar.
  • Selçuklular ve Osmanlılar duyunç ve inanç özgülüğünü tanıdılar.

Seljuk Empire (W)

Seljuk Empire 1037-1194 (W)


Seljuks and neighbors ca. 1200 CE.


____________.


The seizure of Edessa (1031) by the Romans under George Maniakes and the counterattack by the Seljuk Turks (or Arabs) (from the Chronicle of John Skylitzes).



The Seljuk Empire or Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Turko-Persian {!} Sunni Muslim {!} empire, originating from the Qiniq [Kınık] branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to western Anatolia and the Levant, and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. The Seljuk empire was founded by Tughril Beg (1016-1063) in 1037. From their homelands near the Aral Sea, the Seljuks advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia, before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia. Here the Seljuks won the battle of Manzikert in 1071 and conquered most of Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire, which became one of the reasons for the first crusade (1095-1099). From c. 1150-1250, the Seljuk empire declined, and was around 1260 invaded by the Mongols. The Mongols divided Anatolia into emirates. Eventually one of these, the Ottoman, would conquer the rest.

Seljuk gave his name to both the Seljuk empire and the Seljuk dynasty. The Seljuks united the fractured political landscape of the eastern Islamic world and played a key role in the first and second crusades. Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuks also played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, even exporting Persian culture to Anatolia. The settlement of Turkic tribes in the northwestern peripheral parts of the empire, for the strategic military purpose of fending off invasions from neighboring states, led to the progressive Turkicization of those areas.


Founder of the dynasty

The apical ancestor of the Seljuqs was their beg, Seljuk, who was reputed to have served in the Khazar army, under whom, circa 950, they migrated to Khwarezm, near the city of Jend, where they converted to Islam.

Expansion of the empire


The Seljuqs were allied with the Persian Samanid shahs against the Qarakhanids. The Samanid fell to the Qarakhanids in Transoxania (992–999), however, whereafter the Ghaznavids arose. The Seljuqs became involved in this power struggle in the region before establishing their own independent base.

 

Tughril and Chaghri

Tughril was the grandson of Seljuq and brother of Chaghri, under whom the Seljuks wrested an empire from the Ghaznavids. Initially the Seljuqs were repulsed by Mahmud and retired to Khwarezm, but Tughril and Chaghri led them to capture Merv and Nishapur (1037). Later they repeatedly raided and traded territory with his successors across Khorasan and Balkh and even sacked Ghazni in 1037. In 1040 at the Battle of Dandanaqan, they decisively defeated Mas'ud I of the Ghaznavids, forcing him to abandon most of his western territories to the Seljuqs.

In 1048-9, the Seljuk Turks commanded by Ibrahim Yinal, uterine brother of the sultan Tughril, made their first incursion in Byzantine frontier region of Iberia and clashed with a combined Byzantine-Georgian army of 50,000 at the Battle of Kapetrou on 10 September 1048. The devastation left behind by the Seljuq raid was so fearful that the Byzantine magnate Eustathios Boilas described, in 1051/52, those lands as "foul and unmanageable ... inhabited by snakes, scorpions, and wild beasts." The Arab chronicler Ibn al-Athir reports that Ibrahim brought back 100,000 captives and a vast booty loaded on the backs of ten thousand camels. In 1055, Tughril captured Baghdad from the Shia Buyids under a commission from the Abbasids.

 

Alp Arslan

Alp Arslan, the son of Chaghri Beg, expanded significantly upon Tughril's holdings by adding Armenia and Georgia in 1064 and invading the Byzantine Empire in 1068, from which he annexed almost all of Anatolia. Arslan's decisive victory at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 effectively neutralized the Byzantine resistance to the Turkish invasion of Anatolia. Although the Georgians were able to recover from Alp Arslan's invasion by securing the theme of Iberia. The Byzantine withdrawal from Anatolia brought Georgia in more direct contact with the Seljuqs. In 1073 the Seljuk Amirs of Ganja, Dvin and Dmanisi, invaded Georgia and were defeated by George II of Georgia, who successfully took the fortress of Kars. A retaliatory strike by the Seljuk Amir Ahmad defeated the Georgians at Kvelistsikhe.

Alp Arslan authorized his Turkmen generals to carve their own principalities out of formerly Byzantine Anatolia, as atabegs loyal to him. Within two years the Turkmens had established control as far as the Aegean Sea under numerous beghliks (modern Turkish beyliks): the Saltukids in Northeastern Anatolia, the Shah-Armens and the Mengujekids in Eastern Anatolia, Artuqids in Southeastern Anatolia, Danishmendis in Central Anatolia, Rum Seljuqs (Beghlik of Suleyman, which later moved to Central Anatolia) in Western Anatolia, and the Beylik of Tzachas of Smyrna in İzmir (Smyrna).

 

Malik Shah I

Under Alp Arslan's successor, Malik Shah, and his two Persian viziers, Nizām al-Mulk and Tāj al-Mulk, the Seljuq state expanded in various directions, to the former Iranian border of the days before the Arab invasion, so that it soon bordered China in the east and the Byzantines {!} in the west. Malikshāh moved the capital from Rey to Isfahan and it was during his reign that the Great Seljuk Empire reached its zenith. The Iqta military system and the Nizāmīyyah University at Baghdad were established by Nizām al-Mulk, and the reign of Malikshāh was reckoned the golden age of "Great Seljuq". The Abbasid Caliph titled him "The Sultan of the East and West" in 1087. The Assassins(Hashshashin) of Hassan-i Sabāh started to become a force during his era, however, and they assassinated many leading figures in his administration; according to many sources these victims included Nizām al-Mulk.

In 1076 Malik Shah I surged into Georgia and reduced many settlements to ruins. from 1079/80 onward, Georgia was pressured into submitting to Malik-Shah to ensure a precious degree of peace at the price of an annual tribute.


Governance

The Seljuq power was indeed at its zenith under Malikshāh I, and both the Qarakhanids and Ghaznavids had to acknowledge the overlordship of the Seljuqs. The Seljuq dominion was established over the ancient Sasanian domains, in Iran and Iraq, and included Anatolia, Syria, as well as parts of Central Asia and modern Afghanistan. The Seljuk rule was modelled after the tribal organization common in Turkic and Mongol nomads and resembled a 'family federation' or 'appanage state'. Under this organization, the leading member of the paramount family assigned family members portions of his domains as autonomous appanages.

 


Division of emprie

 

When Malikshāh I died in 1092, the empire split as his brother and four sons quarrelled over the apportioning of the empire among themselves. Malikshāh I was succeeded in Anatolia by Kilij Arslan I, who founded the Sultanate of Rum, and in Syria by his brother Tutush I. In Persia he was succeeded by his son Mahmud I, whose reign was contested by his other three brothers Barkiyaruq in Iraq, Muhammad I in Baghdad, and Ahmad Sanjar in Khorasan. When Tutush I died, his sons Radwan and Duqaq inherited Aleppo and Damascus respectively and contested with each other as well, further dividing Syria amongst emirs antagonistic towards each other.

In 1118, the third son Ahmad Sanjar took over the empire. His nephew, the son of Muhammad I, did not recognize his claim to the throne, and Mahmud II proclaimed himself Sultan and established a capital in Baghdad, until 1131 when he was finally officially deposed by Ahmad Sanjar.

Elsewhere in nominal Seljuq territory were the Artuqids in northeastern Syria and northern Mesopotamia; they controlled Jerusalem until 1098. The Dānišmand dynasty founded a state in eastern Anatolia and northern Syria and contested land with the Sultanate of Rum, and Kerbogha exercised independence as the atabeg of Mosul.


First Crusade 1095-1099

 

During the First Crusade, the fractured states of the Seljuqs were generally more concerned with consolidating their own territories and gaining control of their neighbours than with cooperating against the crusaders. The Seljuqs easily defeated the People’s Crusade arriving in 1096, but they could not stop the progress of the army of the subsequent Princes' Crusade, which took important cities such as Nicaea (İznik), Iconium (Konya), Caesarea Mazaca(Kayseri), and Antioch(Antakya) on its march to Jerusalem (Al-Quds). In 1099 the crusaders finally captured the Holy Land and set up the first Crusader states. The Seljuqs had already lost Palestine to the Fatimids, who had recaptured it just before its capture by the crusaders.

After pillaging the County of Edessa, Seljuqid commander Ilghazi made peace with the Crusaders. In 1121 he went north towards Georgia and with supposedly up to 250 000-350 000 troops, including men led by his son-in-law Sadaqah and Sultan Malik of Ganja, he invaded Kingdom of Georgia. David IV of Georgia gathered 40,000 Georgian warriors, including 5,000 monaspa guards, 15,000 Kipchaks, 300 Alans and 100 French Crusaders to fight against Ilghazi's vast army. The Battle of Didgori was fought between the armies of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Seljuk Empire, on August 12, 1121. As a result, the Seljuks were routed and fled from the battlefield, being run down by pursuing Georgian cavalry for several days. The Didgori battle helped the Crusader states, which had been under the pressure of Ilghazi's armies. The weakening of the main enemy of the Latin principalities was beneficial for the Kingdom of Jerusalem under King Baldwin II.


Second Crusade 1147-1149

 

During this time conflict with the Crusader states was also intermittent, and after the First Crusade increasingly independent atabegs would frequently ally with the Crusader states against other atabegs as they vied with each other for territory. At Mosul, Zengi succeeded Kerbogha as atabeg and successfully began the process of consolidating the atabegs of Syria. In 1144 Zengi captured Edessa, as the County of Edessa had allied itself with the Artuqids against him. This event triggered the launch of the Second Crusade. Nur ad-Din, one of Zengi's sons who succeeded him as atabeg of Aleppo, created an alliance in the region to oppose the Second Crusade, which landed in 1147.


Decline

Ahmad Sanjar fought to contain the revolts by the Kara-Khanids in Transoxiana, Ghurids in Afghanistan and Qarluks in modern Kyrghyzstan, as well as the nomadic invasion of the Kara-Khitais in the east. The advancing Kara-Khitais first defeated the Eastern Kara-Khanids, then followed up by crushing the Western Kara-Khanids, who were vassals of the Seljuqs at Khujand. The Kara-Khanids turned to their overlord the Seljuqs for assistance, to which Sanjar responded by personally leading an army against the Kara-Khitai. However, Sanjar's army was decisively defeated by the host of Yelu Dashi at the Battle of Qatwan on September 9, 1141. While Sanjar managed to escape with his life, many of his close kin including his wife were taken captive in the battle's aftermath. As a result of Sanjar's failure to deal with the encroaching threat from the east, the Seljuq Empire lost all its eastern provinces up to the river Syr Darya, and vassalage of the Western Kara-Khanids was usurped by the Kara-Khitai, otherwise known as the Western Liao in Chinese historiography.


Conquest by Khwarezm and the Ayyubids

 

In 1153, the Ghuzz (Oghuz Turks) rebelled and captured Sanjar. He managed to escape after three years but died a year later. The atabegs, such as Zengids and Artuqids, were only nominally under the Seljuk Sultan, and generally controlled Syria independently. When Ahmad Sanjar died in 1157, this fractured the empire even further and rendered the atabegs effectively independent.

  1. Khorasani Seljuqs in Khorasan and Transoxiana. Capital: Merv
  2. Kermani Seljuqs
  3. Sultanate of Rum (or Seljuqs of Turkey). Capital: Iznik (Nicaea), later Konya (Iconium)
  4. Atabeghlik of the Salghurids in Iran
  5. Atabeghlik of Eldiguzids (Atabeg of Azerbaijan) in Iraq and Azerbaijan, Capital: Nakhchivan (1136-1175), Hamadan (1176-1186), Tabriz (1187-1225)
  6. Atabeghlik of Bori in Syria. Capital: Damascus
  7. Atabeghlik of Zangi in Al Jazira (Northern Mesopotamia). Capital: Mosul
  8. Turcoman Beghliks: Danishmendis, Artuqids, Saltuqids and Mengujekids in Asia Minor

 

After the Second Crusade, Nur ad-Din's general Shirkuh, who had established himself in Egypt on Fatimid land, was succeeded by Saladin. In time, Saladin rebelled against Nur ad-Din, and, upon his death, Saladin married his widow and captured most of Syria and created the Ayyubid dynasty.

On other fronts, the Kingdom of Georgia began to become a regional power and extended its borders at the expense of Great Seljuk. The same was true during the revival of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia under Leo II of Armenia in Anatolia. The Abbasid caliph An-Nasir also began to reassert the authority of the caliph and allied himself with the Khwarezmshah Takash.

For a brief period, Togrul III was the Sultan of all Seljuq except for Anatolia. In 1194, however, Togrul was defeated by Takash, the Shah of Khwarezmid Empire, and the Seljuq Empire finally collapsed. Of the former Seljuq Empire, only the Sultanate of Rûm in Anatolia remained.

As the dynasty declined in the middle of the thirteenth century, the Mongols invaded Anatolia in the 1260s and divided it into small emirates called the Anatolian beyliks. Eventually one of these, the Ottoman, would rise to power and conquer the rest.


Legacy

 

The Seljuqs were educated in the service of Muslim courts as slaves or mercenaries. The dynasty brought revival, energy, and reunion to the Islamic civilization hitherto dominated by Arabs and Persians.

The Seljuqs founded universities and were also patrons of art and literature. Their reign is characterized by Persian astronomers such as Omar Khayyám, and the Persian philosopher al-Ghazali. Under the Seljuqs, New Persian became the language for historical recording, while the center of Arabic language culture shifted from Baghdad to Cairo.


 



Turks / Seljuq Turks (B)

Turks / Seljuq Turks (B)


Rūm Seljuq sultanate. Inset: Seljuq empire, c. 1080.


For almost 400 years a succession of Turkic peoples entered eastern Islamdom from Central Asia.
These nearly continuous migrations can be divided into three phases: Seljuqs (1055-92), Mongols (1256-1411), and neo-Mongols (1369–1405). Their long-term impact, more constructive than destructive on balance, can still be felt through the lingering heritage of the great Muslim empires they inspired. The addition of tribally organized warrior Turks to the already widely used Turkic slave soldiery gave a single ethnic group an extensive role in widening the gap between rulers and ruled.

 

Seljuq Turks

The Seljuqs were a family among the Oghuz Turks, a label applied to the migratory pastoralists of the Syr Darya–Oxus basin. Their name has come to stand for the group of Oghuz families led into Ghaznavid Khorāsān after they had been converted to Sunni Islam, probably by Sufi missionaries after the beginning of the 11th century. In 1040 the Seljuqs’ defeat of the Ghaznavid sultan allowed them to proclaim themselves rulers of Khorāsān. Having expanded into western Iran as well, Toghrïl Beg, also using the title “sultan,” was able to occupy Baghdad (1055) after “petitioning” the ʿAbbāsid caliph for permission. The Seljuqs quickly took the remaining Būyid territory and began to occupy Syria, whereupon they encountered Byzantine resistance in the Armenian highlands. In 1071 a Seljuq army under Alp-Arslan defeated the Byzantines at Manzikert north of Lake Van; while the main Seljuq army replaced the Fāṭimids in Syria, large independent tribal bands occupied Anatolia, coming closer to the Byzantine capital than had any other Muslim force.

 

Policies of Niẓām al-Mulk

The Seljuqs derived their legitimacy from investiture by the caliph, and from “helping” him reunite the ummah; yet their governing style prefigured the emergence of true alternatives to the caliphate. Some of their Iranian advisers urged them to restore centralized absolutism as it had existed in pre-Islamic times and in the period of Marwānid-ʿAbbāsid strength. The best-known proponent was Niẓām al-Mulk, chief minister to the second and third Seljuq sultans, Alp-Arslan and Malik-Shāh. Niẓām al-Mulk explained his plans in his Seyāsat-nāmeh (The Book of Government), one of the best-known manuals of Islamicate political theory and administration. He was unable, however, to persuade the Seljuq sultans to assert enough power over other tribal leaders. Eventually the Seljuq sultans, like so many rulers before them, alienated their tribal supporters and resorted to the costly alternative of a Turkic slave core, whose leading members were appointed to tutor and train young princes of the Seljuq family to compete for rule on the death of the reigning sultan. The tutors were known as atabegs; more often than not, they became the actual rulers of the domains assigned to their young charges, cooperating with urban notables (aʿyān) in day-to-day administration.

Although Niẓām al-Mulk was not immediately successful, he did contribute to long-term change. He encouraged the establishment of state-supported schools (madrasas); those he personally patronized were called Niẓāmiyyahs. The most important Niẓāmiyyah was founded in Baghdad in 1067; there Niẓām al-Mulk gave government stipends to teachers and students whom he hoped he could subsequently not only appoint to the position of qāḍī but also recruit for the bureaucracy. Systematic and broad instruction in Jamāʿī-Sunni learning would counteract the disruptive influences of non-Sunni or anti-Sunni thought and activity, particularly the continuing agitation of Ismāʿīlī Muslims. In 1090 a group of Ismāʿīlīs established themselves in a mountain fortress at Alamūt in the mountains of Daylam. From there they began to coordinate revolts all over Seljuq domains. Nominally loyal to the Fāṭimid caliph in Cairo, the eastern Ismāʿīlīs confirmed their growing independence and radicalism by supporting a failed contender for the Fāṭimid caliphate, Nizār. For that act they were known as the Nizārī Ismāʿīlīs. They were led by Ḥasan-e Ṣabbāḥ and were dubbed by their detractors the ḥashīshiyyīn (assassins) because they practiced political murder while they were allegedly under the influence of hashish.

Niẓām al-Mulk’s madrasa system enhanced the prestige and solidarity of the Jamāʿī-Sunni ulama without actually drawing them into the bureaucracy or combating anti-Sunni agitation, but it also undermined their autonomy. It established the connection between state-supported education and office holding, and it subordinated the spiritual power and prestige of the ulama to the indispensable physical force of the military emirs. Niẓām al-Mulk unintentionally encouraged the independence of these emirs by extending the iqṭāʿ system beyond Būyid practice; he regularly assigned land revenues to individual military officers, assuming that he could keep them under bureaucratic control. When that failed, his system increased the emirs’ independence and drained the central treasury.

The madrasa system had other unpredictable results that can be illustrated by al-Ghazālī, who was born in 1058 at Ṭūs and in 1091 was made head of the Baghdad Niẓāmiyyah. For four years, to great admiration, he taught both fiqh and kalām and delivered critiques of falsafah and Ismāʿīlī thought. According to his autobiographical work Al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl (The Deliverer from Error), the more he taught, the more he doubted, until his will and voice became paralyzed. In 1095 he retreated from public life, attempting to arrive at a more satisfying faith. He undertook a radically skeptical reexamination of all of the paths available to the pious Muslim, culminating in an incorporation of the active, immediate, and inspired experience of the Sufis into the Sharīʿah-ordered piety of the public cult. For his accomplishments, al-Ghazālī was viewed as a renewer (mujaddid), , a role expected by many Muslims to be filled by at least one figure at the turn of every Muslim century.

 

Ṭarīqah fellowships

In the 12th century Muslims began to group themselves into ṭarīqah, fellowships organized around and named for the ṭarīqah (“way” or “path”) of given masters. Al-Ghazālī may have had such a following himself. One of the first large-scale orders, the Qādirīyah, formed around the teachings of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī of Baghdad. Though rarely monastic in the European sense, the activities of a ṭarīqah often centred around assembly halls (called khānqāh, zāwiyah, or tekke) that could serve as places of retreat or accommodate special spiritual exercises. {?} The dhikr, for example, is a ceremony in which devotees meditated on the name of God to the accompaniment of breathing exercises, music, or movement, so as to attain a state of consciousness productive of a sense of union with God. {?} Although shortcuts and excesses have often made Sufism vulnerable to criticism, its most serious practitioners have conceived of it as a disciplined extension of Sharīʿah-minded piety, not an escape. In fact, many Sufis have begun their path through supererogatory fulfillment of standard ritual requirements.

Thousands of ṭarīqahs sprang up over the centuries, some associated with particular occupations, locales, or classes. It is possible that by the 18th century most adult Muslim males had some connection with one or more ṭarīqahs. The structure of the ṭarīqah ensued from the charismatic authority of the master, who, though not a prophet, replicated the direct intimacy that the prophets had shared with God. {?} This quality he passed on to his disciples through a hierarchically ordered network that could extend over thousands of miles. The ṭarīqahs thus became powerful centripetal forces among societies in which formal organizations were rare; but the role of the master became controversial because followers often made saints or intercessors of especially powerful Sufi leaders and made shrines or pilgrimage sites of their tombs or birthplaces. {!} Long before these developments could combine to produce stable alternatives to the caliphal system, Seljuq power had begun to decline, only to be replaced for a century and a half with a plethora of small military states. When the Frankish Crusaders arrived in the Holy Land in 1099, no one could prevent them from quickly establishing themselves along the eastern Mediterranean coast.

 





📹📹📹 SELÇUKLULAR (VİDEO)

📹 Rise of Seljuk Turks / Kenneth Harl (VİDEO)

Rise of Seljuk Turks / Kenneth Harl (LINK)

The Seljuk Empire was a medieval Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qiniq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to western Anatolia and the Levant, and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. From their homelands near the Aral Sea, the Seljuks advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia.

 



📹 How was Anatolia colonized by Turks? (VİDEO)

📹 How was Anatolia colonized by Turks? (LINK)

How was Anatolia colonized by Turks?

The Turks were migrants, coming from Asia. They gained control of the Arab-Iranian empire and sacked important centers in the Armenian highlands and eastern Anatolia. The internal problems and the degradation of the Byzantine Empire encouraged this population to advance further without any real resistance, culminating in the famous Battle of Manzikert. Then Turks were free to settle all across the region, dominating it by military might and intermixing with local populations. The decline of the Byzantines led to the grow of Seljuk turks which expanded. And from 11th to 14th century many turkish beyliks existed.

 



📹 The Rise of Seljuk Empire (VİDEO)

📹 The Rise of Seljuk Empire (LINK)

The Rise of Seljuk Empire
The Rise of Seljuk Empire (1037-1091 CE)

In the beginning of 11th century, Abbasid Caliphate fractured into multiple independent feudal emirate (provinces), Eastern Roman Empire and Fatimid encroaching Abbasid territories in Anatolia an Levant. Seljuk Turks led by dual leadership of Toghrïl Beg and Çağrı Beg sought to unite the Abbasid realm from the fringes of the caliphate in Central Asia. in 1040 Seljuk forces able to defeat Ghaznavid Sultanate in the battle of Dandanaqan, pushing Ghaznavid toward Afghanistan and Punjab.

in 1055 Abbasid Caliph Al-Qāʾim bi-Amri'llāh requested aid from the Seljuks and promoted Toghrïl Beg as Sultan.

In 1064 Muhammad Çağrı enthroned as Seljuk Sultan nicknamed Alp Arslan.

Alp arslan appointed ibn Ali Al-Tusi as Seljuk Vizier nicknamed Nizam Al-Mulk.

Dual leadership of Sultan Alp Arslan and Vizier Nizam al-Mulk made Seljuk empire expanded rapidly and greatly administered. in 1071 Outnumbered Seljuk forces under Sultan Alp Arslan manage to defeat main army of Easter Roman Empire led by Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes. Roman emperor was captured by Seljuks as captive.

In 1072 Malik Shah I bcame sultan of the Seljuk Empire, inheriting vast empire stretched from Syria, Anatolia, Persia, Central Asia to Afghanistan.Nizam al Mulk continue to serve as Seljuk Vizier, erecting Nizamiyya university throughout Seljuk Empire.

 




 



📹 The Rise and Fall of the Seljuk Empire (VİDEO)

The Rise and Fall of the Seljuk Empire (LINK)

 



📹 Why did the Byzantine Empire Collapse? (VİDEO)

📹 Why did the Byzantine Empire Collapse? (LINK)

 



 







SİTE İÇİ ARAMA       
 
  Seljuk Dynasty

Seljuk Beg

Seljuk Beg ?-1038 (W)


Seljuk Beig (romanized Seldjuk, Seldjuq, Seljuq; modern Turkish: Selçuk; died c. 1038) was an Oghuz Turkic warlord, eponymous founder of the Seljuk dynasty.

Seljuk was the son of a certain Toqaq surnamed Temür Yalığ (meaning "of the iron bow") and either the chief or an eminent member of the Oghuz Kınık tribe.

In 985, the Seljuq clan split off from the bulk of the Tokuz-Oghuz, a confederacy of nine clans long settled between the Aral and Caspian Seas. They set up camp on the right bank of the lower Syr Darya (Jaxartes), in the direction of Jend, near Kzyl Orda in present-day south-central Kazakhstan. There, in 985, Seljuk converted to Islam.

The names of his four sons — Mikâîl (Michael), Isrâîl (Israel), Mûsâ (Moses), and Yûnus (Jonah) — suggest previous acquaintance with either Khazar Judaism or Nestorian Christianity. According to some sources, Seljuk began his career as an officer in the Khazar army.

Under Mikâîl's sons Tuğrul and Çağrı, the Seljuqs migrated into Khurasan. Ghaznavid attempts to stop Seljuqs raiding the local Muslim populace led to the Battle of Dandanaqan on 23 May 1040. Victorious Seljuqs became masters of Khurasan, expanding their power into Transoxiana and across Iran. By 1055, Tuğrul had expanded his control all the way to Baghdad, setting himself up as the champion of the Abbasid caliph, who honored him with the title sultan. Earlier rulers may have used this title but the Seljuqs seem to have been the first to inscribe it on their coins.

 



Tughril Beg

Tughril Beg 990-1063 (W)

Tughril
Born: 990 Died: 4 September 1063
Regnal titles
New title
Sultan of the Seljuq Empire
1037 - 4 September 1063
Succeeded by
Alp Arslan Begh

Tughril Beg (full name: Rukn al-Dunya wa al-Din Abu Talib Muhammad Toghrul-Beg ibn Mikail) also spelled Toghrul I, Tugril, Toghril, Tugrul or Toghrïl Beg; (990 - September 4, 1063) was the Turkic founder of the Seljuk Empire, ruling from 1037 to 1063. Tughril united the Turkic warriors of the Great Eurasian Steppes into a confederacy of tribes, who traced their ancestry to a single ancestor named Seljuq, and led them in conquest of eastern Iran. He would later establish the Seljuq Sultanate after conquering Persia and retaking the Abbasid capital of Baghdad from the Buyid dynastyin 1055. Tughril relegated the Abbasid Caliphs to state figureheads and took command of the caliphate's armies in military offensives against the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate in an effort to expand his empire's borders and unite the Islamic world.

Early life

Tughril was the son of Mikail ibn Seljuq; on the death of his father, Tughril and his brother Chaghri were raised by their grandfather Seljuk, who had other sons named Musa Yabghu and Arslan Isra'il, whom Tughril would later accompany into the Iranian plateau during his later life. Tughril ascended to power ca. 1016.

In the 1020s, Tughril and his other relatives were serving the Kara-Khanids of Bukhara. In 1026, the Kara-Khanids were driven out of Bukhara by the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. This defeat made Arslan Isra'il flee to a place near Sarakhs, where he asked Mahmud for permission to settle in the area in return for military aid. Mahmud, however, had Arslan Isra'il put in prison, where the latter soon died. Meanwhile, Tughril and Chaghri remained loyal to their Kara-Khanid overlords. Although in 1029 they had some disputes with the Kara-Khanids, they continued to support them, and still continued to participate in the Kara-Khanid wars against the Ghaznavids; in 1032, they were present at the Battle of Dabusiyya.

After the Kara-Khanid ruler Ali-Tegin's death, however, the Seljuqs changed their allegiance to the ruler of Khwarazm, Harun, but were in 1035 repelled by the Oghuz ruler Shah Malik. The Seljuqs then went to the same place which Arslan Isra'il had gone to, and asked the son of Mahmud, Mas'ud I, for asylum. Mas'ud, however, considered the nomadic Turks a dangerous threat and sent an army under commander-in-chief Begtoghdi. The army was shortly defeated by the Seljuqs, who forced Mas'ud to cede Nasa, Farava and Dihistan in return for Seljuq recognition of Ghaznavid authority and protection of the region from other Turkic tribes.

In 1037, the Seljuqs managed to force the Ghaznavids to cede them Sarakhs, Abivard and Marw. The Seljuqs then slowly began subdue the cities of Khorasan, and when they captured Nishapur, Tughril proclaimed himself as the Sultan of Khorasan.


Battle of Dandanaqan (W)

Seljuq Empire at its greatest extent in 1092, upon the death of Malik Shah I

Description

A map showing the Great Seljuk Empire at its height, upon the death of Malik Shah I in 1092.

  • The capital of the Great Seljuk Empire is shown at Ishfahan (Persia/Iran).
    The borders of present-day countries are shown in gray.
    The lighter colour in the top right represents Karakhanids.
  • "In 1089, Malik Shah returned to the charge, occupied Bukhara, captured Sarakand, and imprisoned the Karakhanid Ahmed . . . whom he later reinstated as client-ruler. From that time forward, the Karakhanids who reigned in Bukhara and Samarkand did so as lieutenants of the Seljuk sultans. Transoxiana was now no more than a dependency of the Seljuk Empire." (Grousset p. 147.)
  • Other areas such as the Danishmends are not shown separately.
  • The locations of the Battle of Manzikert (1071) and the Battle of Dandanaqan (1040) are also shown.

 





The Battle of Dandanaqan was fought in 1040 between the Seljuqs and the Ghaznavid Empire. The battle ended with a Seljuq victory and brought down the Ghaznavid domination in the Khorasan.

When the Seljuq leader Tughrul and his brother Chaghri began raising an army, they were seen as a threat to the Ghaznavid territories. Following the looting of border cities by Seljuq raids, Sultan Mas'ud I (son of Mahmud of Ghazni) decided to expel Seljuqs from his territories.

During the march of Sultan Mas'ud's army to Sarakhs the Seljuq raiders harassed the Ghaznavid army with hit-and-run tactics. Seljuq raiders also destroyed the supply lines of Ghaznavids, cutting them off from the nearby water wells. The discipline and morale of the Ghaznavid army dropped seriously. Finally, on May 23, 1040, around 16,000 Seljuk soldiers engaged in battle with an estimated 50,000 Ghaznavid soldiers in Dandanaqan and defeated them, between Merv and Sarakhs.

The Seljuks occupied Khorasan and the cities of the area, encountering little resistance. Tughrul's successful siege of Isfahan in 1050-1051, led to the establishment of the “Great Seljuk Empire.” On Mas'ud's retreat to India, he was overthrown and later murdered in prison.

 



Alp Arslan

Alp Arslan 1030-1072 1063-1072 (W)

Alp Arslan
Born: 20 January 1029 Died: 15 December 1072
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Toghrul-Beg
Sultan of the Seljuq Empire
4 September 1063-15 December 1072
Succeeded by
Malik-Shah I

Alp Arslan (honorific in Turkish meaning “Heroic Lion”; in Persian: آلپ ارسلان‎; full name: Diya ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Adud ad-Dawlah Abu Shuja Muhammad Alp Arslan ibn Dawud; 20 January 1029 – 15 December 1072), real name Muhammad bin Dawud Chaghri, was the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. As Sultan, Alp Arslan greatly expanded Seljuk territory and consolidated power, defeating rivals to his south and northwest. His victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 ushered in the Turkish settlement of Anatolia. For his military prowess and fighting skills he obtained the name Alp Arslan, which means "Heroic Lion" in Turkish.

Family

 

Alp Arslan was the son of Chaghri and nephew of Tughril, the founding sultans of the Seljuk empire. His grandfather was Mikail, who in turn was the son of the warlord Seljuk. He was the father of numerous children, including Malik-Shah Iand Tutush I. It is unclear who the mother or mothers of his children were. Arslan was known to be married at least twice. His wives included the widow of his uncle Tughril, a Kara-Khanid princess known as Aka Khatun, and the daughter or niece of Bagrat IV of Georgia (who would later marry his vizier Nizam al-Mulk). One of Seljuk's other son's was the Turkic chieftain Arslan Isma'il, whose son Kutalmish contested his nephew's succession to the sultanate. Alp Arslan's younger brothers Suleiman ibn Chaghri and Qavurt were his rivals for the sultanate. Suleiman ibn Kutalmish would later become Seljuk sultan of Rûm. The son of Suleiman was his successor Kilij Arslan, a major opponent of the Franks during the First Crusade and the Crusade of 1101.


Early career

 

Alp Arslan accompanied his uncle Tughril on campaigns in the south against the Fatimids while his father Chaghri remained in Khorasan. Upon Alp Arslan's return to Khorasan, he began his work in administration at his father's suggestion. While there, his father introduced him to Nizam al-Mulk, one of the most eminent statesmen in early Muslim history and Alp Arslan’s future vizier.

After the death of his father, Alp Arslan succeeded him as governor of Khorasan in 1059. His uncle Tughril died in 1063 and had designated his successor as Suleiman, Arslan's infant brother. Arslan and his uncle Kutalmish both contested this succession which was resolved at the battle of Damghan in 1063. Arslan defeated Kutalmish for the throne and succeeded on 27 April 1064 as sultan of the Seljuk Empire, thus becoming sole monarch of Persia from the river Oxus to the Tigris.

In consolidating his empire and subduing contending factions, Arslan was ably assisted by Nizam al-Mulk, and the two are credited with helping to stabilize the empire after the death of Tughril. With peace and security established in his dominions, Arslan convoked an assembly of the states and in 1066, he declared his son Malik Shah I his heir and successor. With the hope of capturing Caesarea Mazaca, the capital of Cappadocia, he placed himself at the head of the Turkish cavalry, crossed the Euphrates, and entered and invaded the city. Along with Nizam al-Mulk, he then marched into Armenia and Georgia, which he conquered in 1064. After a siege of 25 days, the Seljuks captured Ani, the capital city of Armenia. An account of the sack and massacres in Ani is given by the historian Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, who quotes an eyewitness saying:

“Putting the Persian sword to work, they spared no one. ... One could see there the grief and calamity of every age of human kind. For children were ravished from the embraces of their mothers and mercilessly hurled against rocks, while the mothers drenched them with tears and blood. ... The city became filled from one end to the other with bodies of the slain and [the bodies of the slain] became a road. [...] The army entered the city, massacred its inhabitants, pillaged and burned it, leaving it in ruins and taking prisoner all those who remained alive. ... The dead bodies were so many that they blocked the streets; one could not go anywhere without stepping over them. And the number of prisoners was not less than 50,000 souls. I was determined to enter city and see the destruction with my own eyes. I tried to find a street in which I would not have to walk over the corpses; but that was impossible.” (Quoted in Norwich, John Julius (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee. New York: Viking. pp. 342-343.)

 


Byzantine struggle

 

En route to fight the Fatimids in Syria in 1068, Alp Arslan invaded the Byzantine Empire. The Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, assuming command in person, met the invaders in Cilicia. In three arduous campaigns, the Turks were defeated in detail and driven across the Euphrates in 1070. The first two campaigns were conducted by the emperor himself, while the third was directed by Manuel Comnenos, great-uncle of Emperor Manuel Comnenos. During this time, Arslan gained the allegiance of Rashid al-Dawla Mahmud, the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo.

In 1071 Romanos again took the field and advanced into Armenia with possibly 30,000 men, including a contingent of Cuman Turks as well as contingents of Franks and Normans, under Ursel de Baieul. Alp Arslan, who had moved his troops south to fight the Fatimids, quickly reversed to meet the Byzantines. At Manzikert, on the Murat River, north of Lake Van, the two forces waged the Battle of Manzikert. The Cuman mercenaries among the Byzantine forces immediately defected to the Turkish side. Seeing this, "the Western mercenaries rode off and took no part in the battle." To be exact, Romanos was betrayed by general Andronikos Doukas, son of the Caesar (Romanos's stepson), who pronounced him dead and rode off with a large part of the Byzantine forces at a critical moment. The Byzantines were totally routed.

Emperor Romanos IV was himself taken prisoner and conducted into the presence of Alp Arslan. After a ritual humiliation, Arslan treated him with generosity. After peace terms were agreed to, Arslan dismissed the Emperor, loaded with presents and respectfully attended by a military guard. The following conversation is said to have taken place after Romanos was brought as a prisoner before the Sultan:

Alp Arslan: “What would you do if I was brought before you as a prisoner?”
Romanos: “Perhaps I'd kill you, or exhibit you in the streets of Constantinople.”
Alp Arslan: “My punishment is far heavier. I forgive you, and set you free.”

Alp Arslan's victories changed the balance in near Asia completely in favour of the Seljuq Turks and Sunni Muslims. While the Byzantine Empire was to continue for nearly four more centuries, and the Crusades would contest the issue for some time, the victory at Manzikert signalled the beginning of Turkish ascendancy in Anatolia. Most historians, including Edward Gibbon, date the defeat at Manzikert as the beginning of the end of the Eastern Roman Empire.


State organization

 

Alp Arslan's strength lay in the military realm. Domestic affairs were handled by his able vizier, Nizam al-Mulk, the founder of the administrative organization that characterized and strengthened the sultanate during the reigns of Alp Arslan and his son, Malik Shah. Military fiefs, governed by Seljuq princes, were established to provide support for the soldiery and to accommodate the nomadic Turks to the established Anatolian agricultural scene. This type of military fiefdom enabled the nomadic Turks to draw on the resources of the sedentary Persians, Turks, and other established cultures within the Seljuq realm, and allowed Alp Arslan to field a huge standing army without depending on tribute from conquest to pay his soldiers. He not only had enough food from his subjects to maintain his military, but the taxes collected from traders and merchants added to his coffers sufficiently to fund his continuous wars.

According to the poet Saadi Shirazi:

“Arslan possessed a fort, which raised at the height of Alwand, from all were those within its walls, for its roads were a labyrinth, like the curls of a bride. From a learned traveler Arslan once inquired: "Didst thou ever, in thy wanderings, see a fort as strong as this?" "Splendid it is," was the traveler's reply, "but methinks not it confers much strength. Before thee, did not other kings possess it for a while, then pass away? After thee, will not other kings assume control, and eat the fruits of the tree of thy hope?"

In the estimation of the wise, the world is a false gem that passes each moment from one hand to another.” (The fort was sacked by the Mongols led by Hulagu.)

Suleiman ibn Kutalmish was the son of the contender for Arslan's throne; he was appointed governor of the north-western provinces and assigned to completing the invasion of Anatolia. An explanation for this choice can only be conjectured from Ibn al-Athir's account of the battle between Alp-Arslan and Kutalmish, in which he writes that Alp-Arslan wept for the latter's death and greatly mourned the loss of his kinsman.


Death

 

After Manzikert, the dominion of Alp Arslan extended over much of western Asia. He soon prepared to march for the conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of his ancestors. With a powerful army he advanced to the banks of the Oxus. Before he could pass the river with safety, however, it was necessary to subdue certain fortresses, one of which was for several days vigorously defended by the governor, Yussuf al-Kharezmi, a Khwarezmian. He was obliged to surrender, however, and was carried as a prisoner before the sultan, who condemned him to death. Yussuf, in desperation, drew his dagger and rushed upon the sultan. Alp Arslan, who took great pride in his reputation as an archer, motioned to his guards not to interfere. He drew his bow, but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received the assassin’s dagger in his chest. Alp Arslan died from this wound four days later, on 25 November 1072, in his 42nd year, and he was taken to Merv to be buried next to his father, Chaghri Beg.

 


Legacy


Alp Arslan is widely regarded as having begun Anatolianism, although unintentionally. His victory at Manzikert is often cited as the beginning of the end of Byzantine power in Anatolia, and the beginning of Turkish identity there.

Alp Arslan's conquest of Anatolia from the Byzantines is also seen as one of the pivotal precursors to the launch of the crusades.

From 2002 to July 2008 under Turkmen calendar reform, the month of August was named after Alp Arslan.

 



Malik-Shah I

Malik-Shah I 1055-1092 1072-1092 (W)

Malik-Shah I
Born: 8 August 1055 Died: 19 November 1092
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Alp Arslan
Sultan of the Seljuq Empire
15 December 1072 – 19 November 1092
Succeeded by
Mahmud I

Family

Family

Consorts

Malik-Shah had three known consorts:

  • Terken Khatun, daughter of Tamghach Khan Ibrahim;
  • Zubaida Khatun, daughter of Yakuti;
  • Taj-ud-din Safariyya Khatun, a concubine.

Sons

Malik-Shah had seven sons:

  • Dawud - with Terken Khatun;
  • Abu al-Qasim - with Terken Khatun;
  • Mahmud I - with Terken Khatun;
  • Barkiyaruq - with Zubaida Khatun;
  • Muhammad I Tapar - with Safariyya Khatun;
  • Ahmad Sanjar - with Safariyya Khatun;
  • A son who died in childhood - with Safariyya Khatun.

Daughters

Malik-Shah had seven daughters:

  • Mah-i-mulk Khatun - with Terken Khatun, married to Caliph al-Muqtadi;
  • Sitara Khatun - with Safariyya Khatun, married to Gharchasp, son of Ali bin Faramarz;
  • Ismah Khatun, married to Caliph Al-Mustazhir;
  • Gawhar Khatun, married to Sultan Mas'ud III;
  • Terken Khatun - with Safariyya Khatun, married to Arslan Khan Muhammad, son of Sulaiman;
  • Another daughter - with Safariyya Khatun, married to Mardavij, son of Ali;
  • Another daughter with Safariyya Khatun, married to Najm al-Daula, son of Shahriyar bin Qaim.

 




Jalāl al-Dawla Mu'izz al-Dunyā Wa'l-Din Abu'l-Fatḥ ibn Alp Arslān (8 August 1055 – 19 November 1092), better known by his regnal name of Malik-Shah I (Persian: ملکشاه‎) (Turkish: Melikşah), was Sultan of the Seljuq Empire from 1072 to 1092.

During his youth, he spent his time participating in the campaigns of his father Alp Arslan, along the latter's vizier Nizam al-Mulk. During one of such campaigns in 1072, Alp Arslan was fatally wounded and died only a few days later. After that, Malik-Shah was crowned as the new sultan of the empire, however, Malik-Shah did not access the throne peacefully, and had to fight his uncle Qavurt, who claimed the throne. Although Malik-Shah was the nominal head of the Seljuq state, the vizier Nizam al-Mulk held near absolute power during his reign. Malik-Shah spent the rest of his reign waging war against the Karakhanids on the eastern side, and establishing order in the Caucasus.

Malik-Shah's death to this day remains under dispute; according to some scholars, he was poisoned by the Caliph, while others say that he was poisoned by the supporters of Nizam al-Mulk.


Etymology

 

Although he was known by several names, he was mostly known as "Malik-Shah", a combination of the Arabic word malik (king) and the Persian word shah (which also means king).


Early life

Malik-Shah was born on 16 August 1055 and spent his youth in Isfahan. According to the 12th-century Persian historian Muhammad bin Ali Rawandi, Malik-Shah had fair skin, was tall and somewhat bulky. In 1064, Malik-Shah, only 9 years old by then, along with Nizam al-Mulk, the Persian vizier of the Empire, took part in Alp Arslan’s campaign in the Caucasus. The same year, Malik-Shah was married to Terken Khatun, the daughter of the Karakhanid khan Ibrahim Tamghach-Khan. In 1066, Alp Arslan arranged a ceremony near Merv, where he appointed Malik-Shah as his heir and also granted him Isfahan as a fief.

In 1071, Malik-Shah took part in the Syrian campaign of his father, and stayed in Aleppo when his father fought the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes at Manzikert. In 1072, Malik-Shah and Nizam al-Mulk accompanied Alp-Arslan during his campaign in Transoxiana against the Karakhanids. However, Alp-Arslan was badly wounded during his expedition, and Malik-Shah shortly took over the army. Alp-Arslan died some days later, and Malik-Shah was declared as the new sultan of the empire.


Reign

However, right after Malik-Shah accession, his uncle Qavurt claimed the throne for himself and sent Malik-Shah a message which said: "I am the eldest brother, and you are a youthful son; I have the greater right to my brother Alp-Arslan's inheritance." Malik-Shah then replied by sending the following message: "A brother does not inherit when there is a son." This message enraged Qavurt, who thereafter occupied Isfahan. In 1073 a battle took place near Hamadan, which lasted three days. Qavurt was accompanied by his seven sons, and his army consisted of Turkmens, while the army of Malik-Shah consisted of ghulams ("military slaves") and contingents of Kurdish and Arab troops.

During the battle, the Turks of Malik-Shah's army mutinied against him, but he nevertheless managed to defeat and capture Qavurt. Qavurt then begged for mercy and in return promised to retire to Oman. However, Nizam al-Mulk declined the offer, claiming that sparing him was an indication of weakness. After some time, Qavurt was strangled to death with a bowstring, while two of his sons were blinded. After having dealt with that problem, Malik-Shah appointed Qutlugh-Tegin as the governor of Fars and Sav-Tegin as the governor of Kerman. Malik-Shah then turned his attention towards the Karakhanids, who had after the death of Alp-Arslan invaded Tukharistan, which was ruled by Malik-Shah's brother Ayaz, who was unable to repel the Karakhanids and was killed by them. Malik-Shah eventually managed to repel the Karakhanids and captured Tirmidh, giving Sav-Tegin the key of the city. Malik-Shah then appointed his other brother Shihab al-Din Tekish as the ruler of Tukharistan and Balkh. During the same period, the Ghaznavid ruler Ibrahim was seizing Seljuq territory in northern Khorasan, but was defeated by Malik-Shah, who then made peace with the latter and gave his daughter Gawhar Khatun in marriage to Ibrahim's son Mas'ud III.

In 1074, Malik-Shah ordered the Turkic warlord Arghar to restore what he had destroyed during his raids in the territory of the Shirvanshah Fariburz I. During the same year, he appointed Qavurt's son Rukn al-Dawla Sultan-Shah as the ruler of Kerman. One year later, Malik-Shah sent an army under Sav-Tegin to Arran, which was ruled by the Shaddadid ruler Fadlun III. Sav-Tegin managed to easily conquer the region, thus ending Shaddadid rule. Malik-Shah then gave Gorgan to Fadlun III as a fief. Throughout Malik's reign new institutions of learning were established and it was during this time that the Jalali calendar was reformed at the Isfahan observatory. In 1089, Malik-Shah captured Samarkand with the support of the local clergy, and imprisoned its Karakhanid ruler Ahmad Khan ibn Khizr, who was the nephew of Terken Khatun. He then marched to Semirechye, and made the Karakhanid Harun Khan ibn Sulayman, who was the ruler of Kashgar and Khotan, acknowledge him as his suzerain.

In 1092 Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated near Sihna, on the road to Baghdad, by a man disguised as a Sufi. As the assassin was immediately cut down by Nizam's bodyguard, it became impossible to establish with certainty who had sent him. One theory had it that he was an Assassin, since these regularly made attempts on the lives of Seljuk officials and rulers during the 11th century. Another theory had it that the attack had been instigated by Malik-Shah, who may have grown tired of his overmighty vizier. After Nizam al-Mulk's death, Malik-Shah appointed another Persian named Taj al-Mulk Abu'l Ghana'im as his vizier. Malik-Shah then went to Baghdad and decided to depose al-Muqtadi and sent him the following message: "You must relinquish Baghdad to me, and depart to any land you choose." This was because Malik-Shah wanted to appoint his grandson (or nephew) Ja'far as the new caliph.


Death and aftermath

Malik-Shah died on 19 November 1092 while he was hunting. He was most likely poisoned by the caliph or the supporters of Nizam al-Mulk. Under the orders of Terken Khatun, Malik-Shah's body was taken back to Isfahan, where it was buried in a madrasa.

Upon his death, the Seljuq Empire fell into chaos, as rival successors and regional governors carved up their empire and waged war against each other. The situation within the Seljuq lands was further complicated by the beginning of the First Crusade, which detached large portions of Syria and Palestine from Muslim control in 1098 and 1099. The success of the First Crusade is at least in part attributable to the political confusion which resulted from Malik-Shah’s death.


Legacy

 

The 18th century English historian Edward Gibbon wrote of him:

“On his father's death the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a brother: they drew their cimeters, and assembled their followers; and the triple victory of Malek Shah established his own reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more especially in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the same passions, and occasioned the same disorders; but, from the long series of civil war, it would not be easy to extract a sentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in the saying of the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the sultan rose from the ground, he asked his vizier Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what had been the object of his secret petition: "That your arms may be crowned with victory," was the prudent, and most probably the sincere, answer of the minister. "For my part," replied the generous Malek, "I implored the Lord of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, if my brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems." The favourable judgment of heaven was ratified by the caliph; and for the first time, the sacred title of Commander of the Faithful was communicated to a Barbarian. But this Barbarian, by his personal merit, and the extent of his empire, was the greatest prince of his age. (Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, New York: The Modern Library, n.d. v. 3, p. 406.)

 

 







 
  House of Seljuq

📹 The Seljuq Dynasts under Tughril / Every Month, 1035-1063 (VİDEO)

The Seljuq Dynasts under Tughril / Every Month, 1035-1063 (LINK)

Why not something more accurate, such as "The History of the Seljuks: Toghril Beg, 1037 - 1061"? Nevertheless, excellent video and very accurate depiction of Toghril Bey's career and conquests! Could you, perhaps, continue with the rest of the Seljuk dynasty, namely the Great Seljuks of Iran until the end of the reign of Toghril III in 1194 and the other branch of the Seljuks of Rum in Anatolia until 1307?

 



📹 Seljuk Sultans Family Tree (VİDEO)

📹 Seljuk Sultans Family Tree (LINK)

 







 
  Roman-Seljuq Wars

Roman-Seljuq wars

Roman-Seljuq Wars (W)

The Byzantine-Seljuq Wars (Turkish: Bizans-Selçuklu Savaşları) were a series of decisive battles that shifted the balance of power in Asia Minor and Syria from the European Byzantine Empire to the Central AsianSeljuq.

Riding from the steppes of Central Asia, the Seljuq replicated tactics practiced by the Huns hundreds of years earlier against a similar Roman opponent but now combining it with new-found Islamic zeal; in many ways, the Seljuq resumed the conquests of the Muslims in the Byzantine–Arab Wars initiated by the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abassid Caliphate in the Levant, North Africa and Asia Minor.

Today, the Battle of Manzikert is widely seen as the moment when the Byzantines lost the war against the Turks; however the Byzantine military was of questionable quality before 1071 with regular Turkish incursions overrunning the failing theme system. Even after Manzikert, Byzantine rule over Asia Minor did not end immediately, nor were any heavy concessions levied by the Turks on their opponents — it took another 20 years before the Turks were in control of the entire Anatolian peninsula and not for long either.

During the course of the war, the Seljuq Turks and their allies attacked the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt, capturing Jerusalem and catalyzing the call for the First Crusade. Crusader assistance to the Byzantine Empire was mixed with treachery and looting, although substantial gains were made in the First Crusade.

Within a hundred years of Manzikert, the Byzantines had (with Crusader assistance) successfully driven back the Turks from the coasts of Asia Minor and extended their influence right down to Palestine and even Egypt. Later, the Byzantines were unable to extract any more assistance, and the Fourth Crusade even led to the sack of Constantinople. Before the conflict petered out, the Seljuqs managed to take more territory from the weakened Empire of Nicaea until the Sultanate itself was taken over by the Mongols, leading to the rise of the ghazis and the conclusive Byzantine-Ottoman wars.

 


Roman Empire, 1025


Aftermath of Manzikert 1071.

 




📹 Roman-Seljuq Wars (VİDEO)

Roman-Seljuq Wars (LINK)

 







 
  Battle of Manzikert, 1071

Battle of Manzikert

Battle of Manzikert 1071


A modern imagination of a captive Romanos in classical Roman garb, led to the victorious Alp Arslan under the large banners with the double eagle symbol of the House of Seljuk.

Date 26 August 1071
Location near Manzikert, Theme of Iberia/Byzantine Armenia (present-day Malazgirt)
Result Decisive Seljuk victory

Byzantine Empire
  • Frankish, English, Norman, Georgian, Armenian, Bulgarian,Turkic Pecheneg and Cumanmercenaries
Seljuk Empire
Commanders and leaders
Romanos IV (POW), Nikephoros Bryennios, Theodore Alyates, Andronikos Doukas Alp Arslan, Afshin Bey, Artuk Bey, Kutalmışoğlu Suleyman
Strength
20,000 (Orig. 40,000; half deserted before battle) (Turkic mercenaries defected to the Seljuk side) 20,000-30,000
Casualties and losses

Killed: 2,000-8,000
Captured: 4,000
Deserted: 20,000

Unknown


The Battle of Manzikert was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, theme of Iberia (modern Malazgirt in Muş Province, Turkey). The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, and allowed for the gradual Turkification of Anatolia. Many of the Turks, who had been, during the 11th century, travelling westward, saw the victory at Manzikert as an entrance to Asia Minor.

 
Roman soldiers humbled by the Turks at the battle of Manzikert, 1071.  

The brunt of the battle was borne by the professional soldiers from the eastern and western tagmata, as large numbers of mercenaries and Anatolian levies fled early and survived the battle. The fallout from Manzikert was disastrous for the Byzantines, resulting in civil conflicts and an economic crisis that severely weakened the Byzantine Empire's ability to adequately defend its borders. This led to the mass movement of Turks into central Anatolia — by 1080, an area of 78,000 square kilometres (30,000 sq mi) had been gained by the Seljuk Turks. It took three decades of internal strife before Alexius I (1081 to 1118) restored stability to Byzantium. Historian Thomas Asbridge says: "In 1071, the Seljuqs crushed an imperial army at the Battle of Manzikert (in eastern Asia Minor), and though historians no longer consider this to have been an utterly cataclysmic reversal for the Greeks, it still was a stinging setback." It was the first time in history a Byzantine Emperor had become the prisoner of a Muslim commander.


Background

 

Although the Byzantine Empire had remained strong and powerful in the Middle Ages, {!} it began to decline under the reign of the militarily incompetent Constantine IX and again under Constantine X — a brief two-year period of reform under Isaac I merely delayed the decay of the Byzantine army.

About 1053 Constantine IX disbanded what the 11th century Greek historian John Skylitzes calls the "Iberian Army", which consisted of 50,000 men. Skylitzes' contemporaries, the former officials Michael Attaleiates and Kekaumenos, agree that by demobilizing these soldiers Constantine did catastrophic harm to the Empire's eastern defenses. Constantine made a truce with the Seljuks that lasted until 1064, but a large Seljuk army under Alp Arslan attacked the theme of Iberia and took Ani; after a siege of 25 days, they captured the city and slaughtered its population.

In 1068 Romanos IV took power, and after some speedy military reforms entrusted Manuel Comnenus (nephew of Isaac I Comnenus) to lead an expedition against the Seljuks. Manuel captured Hierapolis Bambyce in Syria, next thwarted a Turkish attack against Iconium with a counter-attack, but was then defeated and captured by the Seljuks under the sultan Alp Arslan. Despite his success Alp Arslan was quick to seek a peace treaty with the Byzantines, signed in 1069; he saw the Fatimids in Egypt as his main enemy and had no desire to be diverted by unnecessary hostilities.

In February 1071, Romanos sent envoys to Alp Arslan to renew the 1069 treaty, and keen to secure his northern flank against attack, Alp Arslan happily agreed. Abandoning the siege of Edessa, he immediately led his army to attack Fatimid-held Aleppo. However, the peace treaty had been a deliberate distraction: Romanos now led a large army into Armenia to recover the lost fortresses before the Seljuks had time to respond.


Prelude

 

Accompanying Romanos was Andronicus Ducas, son of his rival, John Ducas. The army consisted of about 5,000 professional Byzantine troops from the western provinces and probably about the same number from the eastern provinces. This included 500 Frankish and Norman mercenaries under Roussel de Bailleul, some Turkic (Uz and Pecheneg) and Bulgarian mercenaries, infantry under the duke of Antioch, a contingent of Georgian and Armenian troops and some (but not all) of the Varangian Guard to total around 40,000 men. The quantity of the provincial troops had declined in the years prior to Romanos, as the government diverted funding to mercenaries who were judged less likely to be involved in politics and could be disbanded after use to save money.

The march across Asia Minor was long and difficult and Romanos did not endear himself to his troops by bringing a luxurious baggage train along with him. The local population also suffered some plundering by his Frankish mercenaries, whom he was obliged to dismiss. The expedition rested at Sebasteia on the river Halys, reaching Theodosiopolis in June 1071. There, some of his generals suggested continuing the march into Seljuk territory and catching Alp Arslan before he was ready. Others, including Nicephorus Bryennius, suggested they wait and fortify their position. It was decided to continue the march.

Thinking that Alp Arslan was either further away or not coming at all, Romanos marched towards Lake Van, expecting to retake Manzikert rather quickly and the nearby fortress of Khliat if possible. Alp Arslan was already in the area, however, with allies and 30,000 cavalry from Aleppo and Mosul. Alp Arslan's scouts knew exactly where Romanos was, while Romanos was completely unaware of his opponent's movements.

Romanos ordered his general Joseph Tarchaniotes to take some of the regular troops and the Varangians and accompany the Pechenegs and Franks to Khliat, while Romanos and the rest of the army marched to Manzikert. This split the forces into halves of about 20,000 men each. It is unknown what happened to the army sent off with Tarchaniotes — according to Islamic sources, Alp Arslan smashed this army, yet Roman sources make no mention of any such encounter and Attaliates suggests that Tarchaniotes fled at the sight of the Seljuk Sultan — an unlikely event considering the reputation of the Roman general. Either way, Romanos' army was reduced to less than half his planned 40,000 men.


Battle

 

Alp Arslan summoned his army and delivered a speech by appearing in a white robe similar to an Islamic funeral shroud in the morning of the battle. This was an encouraging message that he was ready to die in battle. Romanos was unaware of the loss of Tarchaneiotes and continued to Manzikert, which he easily captured on 23 August; the Seljuks responded with heavy incursions of bowmen. The next day, some foraging parties under Bryennios discovered the Seljuk army and were forced to retreat back to Manzikert. Romanos sent the Armenian general Basilakes and some cavalry, as Romanos did not believe this was Alp Arslan's full army. The cavalry was destroyed and Basilakes taken prisoner. Romanos drew up his troops into formation and sent the left wing out under Bryennios, who was almost surrounded by the quickly approaching Turks and was forced to retreat once more. The Seljuk forces hid among the nearby hills for the night, making it nearly impossible for Romanos to counterattack.

Roman teritory (purple), Roman attacks (red) and Seljuk attacks (green).
 
   

On 25 August, some of Romanos' Turkic mercenaries came into contact with their Seljuk kin and deserted. Romanos then rejected a Seljuk peace embassy. He wanted to settle the eastern question and the persistent Turkic incursions and settlements with a decisive military victory, and he understood that raising another army would be both difficult and expensive. The Emperor attempted to recall Tarchaneiotes, who was no longer in the area. There were no engagements that day, but on 26 August the Byzantine army gathered itself into a proper battle formation and began to march on the Turkish positions, with the left wing under Bryennios, the right wing under Theodore Alyates, and the centre under the emperor. At that moment, a Turkish soldier said to Alp Arslan, "My Sultan, the enemy army is approaching", and Alp Arslan is said to have replied, "Then we are also approaching them". Andronikos Doukas led the reserve forces in the rear — a foolish mistake, considering the loyalties of the Doukids. The Seljuks were organized into a crescent formation about four kilometres away. Seljuk archers attacked the Byzantines as they drew closer; the centre of their crescent continually moved backwards while the wings moved to surround the Byzantine troops.

The Byzantines held off the arrow attacks and captured Alp Arslan's camp by the end of the afternoon. However, the right and left wings, where the arrows did most of their damage, almost broke up when individual units tried to force the Seljuks into a pitched battle; the Seljuk cavalry simply disengaged when challenged, the classic hit and run tactics of steppe warriors. With the Seljuks avoiding battle, Romanos was forced to order a withdrawal by the time night fell. However, the right wing misunderstood the order, and Doukas, as a rival of Romanos, deliberately ignored the emperor and marched back to the camp outside Manzikert, rather than covering the emperor's retreat. With the Byzantines thoroughly confused, the Seljuks seized the opportunity and attacked. The Byzantine right wing was almost immediately routed, thinking they were betrayed either by the Armenians or the army's Turkish auxiliaries. Some authors suppose that Armenians were the first to flee and they all managed to get away, while by contrast the Turkish auxiliaries remained loyal to the end. Other sources suggest that Armenian infantry were stoutly resisting and not turning tail and did not abandon the emperor as many had. When Romanos saw the boldness of the Armenian foot soldiers, he displayed great affection for them and promised them unheard of rewards. In the end, the emperor's personal troops and these Armenian foot soldiers suffered the heaviest casualties in the Byzantine army. The left wing under Bryennios held out a little longer but was also soon routed. The remnants of the Byzantine centre, including the Emperor and the Varangian Guard, were encircled by the Seljuks. Romanos was injured and taken prisoner by the Seljuks. The survivors were the many who fled the field and were pursued throughout the night, but not beyond that; by dawn, the professional core of the Byzantine army had been destroyed whilst many of the peasant troops and levies who had been under the command of Andronikus had fled.

 

Captivity of Romanos Diogenes

When Emperor Romanos IV was conducted into the presence of Alp Arslan, the Sultan refused to believe that the bloodied and tattered man covered in dirt was the mighty Emperor of the Romans. After discovering his identity, Alp Arslan placed his boot on the Emperor's neck and forced him to kiss the ground. A famous conversation is also reported to have taken place:

Alp Arslan: "What would you do if I were brought before you as a prisoner?"
Romanos: "Perhaps I'd kill you, or exhibit you in the streets of Constantinople."
Alp Arslan: "My punishment is far heavier. I forgive you, and set you free."

 

Alp Arslan treated Romanos with considerable kindness and again offered the terms of peace that he had offered prior to the battle.

According to Ibn al-Adim, in the presence of Arslan, Romanos blamed the raids of Rashid al-Dawla Mahmud into Byzantine territory for his interventions in Muslim territories which eventually led to the Battle of Manzikert. Romanos remained a captive of the Sultan for a week. During this time, the Sultan allowed Romanos to eat at his table whilst concessions were agreed upon: Antioch, Edessa, Hierapolis, and Manzikert were to be surrendered. This would have left the vital core of Anatolia untouched. A payment of 10 million gold pieces demanded by the Sultan as a ransom for Romanos was deemed as too high by the latter, so the Sultan reduced its short-term expense by asking for 1.5 million gold pieces as an initial payment instead, followed by an annual sum of 360,000 gold pieces. Plus, a marriage alliance was prepared between Alp Arslan's son and Romanos’ daughter. The Sultan then gave Romanos many presents and an escort of two emirs and one hundred Mamluks on his route to Constantinople.

Shortly after his return to his subjects, Romanos found his rule in serious trouble. Despite attempts to raise loyal troops, he was defeated three times in battle against the Doukas family and was deposed, blinded, and exiled to the island of Proti. He died soon after as a result of an infection caused by an injury during his brutal blinding. Romanos' final foray into the Anatolian heartland, which he had worked so hard to defend, was a public humiliation.


Aftermath

While Manzikert was a long-term strategic catastrophe for Byzantium, it was by no means the massacre that historians earlier presumed. Modern scholars estimate that Byzantine losses were relatively low, considering that many units survived the battle intact and were fighting elsewhere within a few months, and most Byzantine prisoners of war were later released. Certainly, all the commanders on the Byzantine side (Doukas, Tarchaneiotes, Bryennios, de Bailleul, and, above all, the Emperor) survived and took part in later events. The battle did not directly change the balance of power between the Byzantines and the Seljuks, however the ensuing civil war within the Byzantine Empire did, to the advantage of the Seljuks.

Doukas had escaped with no casualties and quickly marched back to Constantinople, where he led a coup against Romanos and proclaimed Michael VII as basileus. Bryennios also lost a few men in the rout of his wing. The Seljuks did not pursue the fleeing Byzantines, nor did they recapture Manzikert itself at this point. The Byzantine army regrouped and marched to Dokeia, where they were joined by Romanos when he was released a week later. The most serious loss materially seems to have been the emperor's extravagant baggage train.

The result of this disastrous defeat was, in simplest terms, the loss of the Eastern Roman Empire's Anatolian heartland. John Julius Norwich says in his trilogy on the Byzantine Empire that the defeat was "its death blow, though centuries remained before the remnant fell. The themes in Anatolia were literally the heart of the empire, and within decades after Manzikert, they were gone." In his smaller book, A Short History of Byzantium, Norwich describes the battle as "the greatest disaster suffered by the Empire in its seven and a half centuries of existence".[33] Sir Steven Runciman, in his "History of the Crusades", noted that "The Battle of Manzikert was the most decisive disaster in Byzantine history. The Byzantines themselves had no illusions about it. Again and again their historians refer to that dreadful day."

Anna Komnene, writing a few decades after the actual battle, wrote:

“... the fortunes of the Roman Empire had sunk to their lowest ebb. For the armies of the East were dispersed in all directions, because the Turks had over-spread, and gained command of, countries between the Euxine Sea [Black Sea] and the Hellespont, and the Aegean Sea and Syrian Seas [Mediterranean Sea], and the various bays, especially those which wash Pamphylia, Cilicia, and empty themselves into the Egyptian Sea [Mediterranean Sea].”

Years and decades later, Manzikert came to be seen as a disaster for the Empire; later sources therefore greatly exaggerate the numbers of troops and the number of casualties. Byzantine historians would often look back and lament the "disaster" of that day, pinpointing it as the moment the decline of the Empire began. It was not an immediate disaster, but the defeat showed the Seljuks that the Byzantines were not invincible. The usurpation of Andronikos Doukas also politically destabilized the empire and it was difficult to organize resistance to the Turkish migrations that followed the battle. Finally, while intrigue and the deposition of Emperors had taken place before, the fate of Romanos was particularly horrific, and the destabilization caused by it also rippled through the empire for centuries.


In this 15th-century French miniature depicting the Battle of Manzikert, the combatants are clad in contemporary Western European armour.
 
   

What followed the battle was a chain of events — of which the battle was the first link — that undermined the Empire in the years to come. They included intrigues for the throne, the fate of Romanos, and Roussel de Bailleul attempting to carve himself an independent kingdom in Galatia with his 3,000 Frankish, Norman, and German mercenaries. He defeated the Emperor's uncle John Doukas, who had come to suppress him, advancing toward the capital to destroy Chrysopolis (Üsküdar) on the Asian coast of the Bosphorus. The Empire finally turned to the spreading Seljuks to crush de Bailleul (which they did). However the Turks ransomed him back to his wife, and it was not before the young general Alexios Komnenos pursued him that he was captured. These events all interacted to create a vacuum that the Turks filled. Their choice in establishing their capital in Nikaea (Iznik) in 1077 could possibly be explained by a desire to see if the Empire's struggles could present new opportunities.

In hindsight, both Byzantine and contemporary historians are unanimous in dating the decline of Byzantine fortunes to this battle. As Paul K. Davis writes, "Byzantine defeat severely limited the power of the Byzantines by denying them control over Anatolia, the major recruiting ground for soldiers. Henceforth, the Muslims controlled the region. The Byzantine Empire was limited to the area immediately around Constantinople, and the Byzantines were never again a serious military force." It is also interpreted as one of the root causes for the later Crusades, in that the First Crusade of 1095 was originally a western response to the Byzantine emperor's call for military assistance after the loss of Anatolia. From another perspective, the West saw Manzikert as a signal that Byzantium was no longer capable of being the protector of Eastern Christianity or of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Places in the Middle East. Delbrück considers the importance of the battle to be exaggerated, but the evidence makes clear that it resulted in the Empire being unable to put an effective army into the field for many years to come.

The Battle of Myriokephalon, also known as the Myriocephalum, has been compared to the Battle of Manzikert as a pivotal point in the decline of the Byzantine Empire. In both battles, separated by over a hundred years, an expansive Byzantine army was ambushed by a more elusive Seljuk opponent. The implications of Myriocephalum were initially limited, however, thanks to Manuel I Komnenos holding on to power. The same could not be said of Romanos, whose enemies "martyred a courageous and upright man", and as a result "the Empire ... would never recover".


“Alp Arslan: “What would you do if I were brought before you as a prisoner?” Romanos: “Perhaps I’d kill you, or exhibit you in the streets of Constantinople.” Alp Arslan: “My punishment is far heavier. I forgive you, and set you free.” (alleged conversation between the two commanders after the battle)

Alp Arslan humiliating Emperor Romanos IV after the Battle of Manzikert. From a 15th-century illustrated French translation of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium.
 
   
Persified as he was, Alp Arslan decided not to treat his imperial prisoner like the Sassanid Shah Shapur did with the captured Roman emperor Valerian in 260 CE however. He sent him home to Constantinople, knowing what Romanos would be getting into. And indeed, after the political turmoil and short civil war that followed the defeat at Manzikert, Romanos was dethroned, blinded and banished to a small island in the Bosphorus where he died in 1072, allegedly while maggots fell from the infected wounds in his face. And while his eventual successor Alexios had to call to the pope for help against the Seljuk Turks, a plea that caused the First Crusade, more and more Turkish lords with their warriors and settlers swept into Anatolia and the Eastern provinces of the Byzantine empire were gone forever. It was the beginning of the end of Roman rule in Asia Minor. (LINK)

 




📹 The Battle of Manzikert / K.W.Harl (VİDEO)

The Battle of Manzikert / K.W.Harl (LINK)

The Battle of Manzikert was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert, theme of Iberia . The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, and allowed for the gradual Turkification of Anatolia. Many of the Turks, who had been, during the 11th century, travelling westward, saw the victory at Manzikert as an entrance to Asia Minor.

 



📹 Battle of Manzikert 1071 / Roman-Seljuq Wars (VİDEO)

Battle of Manzikert 1071 / Roman-Seljuq Wars (LINK)

The Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt, Manavazkert) of 1071 was fought between the Roman Empire and the new nomadic conquerors from Central Asia — the Seljuk Sultanate. This battle was decisive in changing the ethnic and the religious outlook of Anatolia, and probably was the reason Crusades from Western Europe began.

 







 
  Georgian-Seljuk Wars

Georgian–Seljuk wars

Georgian-Seljuk wars 1048-1213 (W)


Caucasus region during 1072–1174.


Political map of the Caucasus region in ca. 1060.

Georgian-Seljuk wars, also known as Georgian Reconquista is a long series of battles and military clashes that took place from c. 048 until 1213, between the Kingdom of Georgia and the different Seljuqid states that occupied most of Transcaucasia. The conflict is preceded by deadly raids in the Caucasus by the Turks in the 11th century, known in Georgian historiography as the Great Turkish Invasion.

Background

In 1048-9, the Seljuk Turks under Ibrahim Yinal made their first incursion in Byzantine frontier region of Iberia. The emperor Constantine IX requested help from the Georgian duke of Liparit IV of Kldekari, whom the Byzantines had aided in his struggle against the Georgian king Bagrat IV. Liparit, who had been fighting on the Byzantine side, was captured at the Battle of Kapetron. Bagrat took advantage of this, and acquired his possessions.

Although the Byzantine Empire and Georgia had centuries-long cultural and religious ties, and the Seljuqs posed a substantial threat to the empire itself, Constantinople’s aggressiveness on the Caucasian political scene contributed to an atmosphere of distrust and recrimination, and prevented the two Christian nations from effective cooperation against the common threat. With assertion of the Georgian Bagratid hegemony in the Caucasus being the cornerstone of Bagrat’s reign, his policy can be understood as the attempt to play the Seljuqs and Byzantines off against one another.


Initial Conflicts: 1060-1080

The second half of the 11th century was marked by the strategically significant invasion of the Seljuq Turks, who by the end of the 1040s had succeeded in building a vast empire including most of Central Asia and Persia. The Seljuqs made their first appearances in Georgia in the 1060s, when the Sultan Alp Arslan laid waste to the south-western provinces of the Georgian kingdom and reduced Kakheti. These intruders were part of the same wave of the Turkish movement which inflicted a crushing defeat on the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071.

 



Great Turkish Invasion

Great Turkish Invasion (W)


Map of the Caucasus c. 1090.

The Great Turkish Invasion, also translated as the Great Turkish Troubles (Georgian: დიდი თურქობა, didi turkoba) is the term by which the Georgian historiography refers to continuous attacks and settlement of the Seljuq-led Turkic tribes in the Georgian lands during the reign of George II in the 1080s. The term has it origin in the 12th-century Georgian chronicle and is accepted in the modern scholarship of Georgia. The Seljuq invasions resulted in a severe crisis in the kingdom of Georgia, leaving several of its provinces depopulated and weakening the royal authority, until the tide was reversed by the military victories of King David IV of Georgia (r. 1089-1125).

Invasion

In 1080, George II was surprised, in the vicinity of Queli, by a large Turkish force led by Aḥmad, probably of the Mamlān dynasty, whom the Georgian chronicle calls "a powerful emir and strong archer". George was put to flight, through Adjara, to Abkhazia. The Turks conquered Kars from the Georgians and returned to their bases laden with wealth. This was soon followed by even larger inroads, led by Yaʿqub and ʿIsā-Böri. On June 24, 1080, the half-nomadic Turks began to arrive en masse in the southern provinces of Georgia, quickly moving deeper into the country and overrunning Asispori, Klarjeti, Shavsheti, Adjara, Samtskhe, Kartli, Argueti, Samokalako, and Chqondidi. The key towns of Kutaisi and Artanuji and the vibrant Christian hermitages of Klarjeti were all burnt down. Those who survived the fighting had to flee to the mountains, where many of them found their death of cold and starvation.

Watching his kingdom being destroyed, George II, in despair, repaired to Isfahan, to Malik Shah, who treated the Georgian monarch with much consideration and promised security from the nomads in exchange of a tribute (kharaj).


Results

George's acceptance of the Seljuq suzerainty did not bring a real peace for Georgia. The Turks continued their seasonal movement into the Georgian territory to make use of the rich herbage of the Kura valley and the Seljuq garrisons occupied the key fortresses in Georgia's south.

These inroads and settlements had a ruinous effect on Georgia’s economic and political order. Cultivated lands were turned into pastures for the nomads and peasant farmers were compelled to seek safety in the mountains. The contemporary Georgian chronicler laments that "in those times there was neither sowing nor harvest. The land was ruined and turned into forest; in place of men beasts and animals of the field made their dwelling there. Insufferable oppression fell on all the inhabitants of the land; it was unparalleled and far worse than all ravages heard of or experienced."

A similar situation was found in neighboring Armenia as related in Aristakes Lastivertsi's chronicle. To make the things worse, a severe earthquake struck the southern provinces of Georgia, devastating Tmogvi and the surrounding area on April 16, 1088.

The great nobles of Georgia capitalized on weakening of the royal power to promote their autonomy. George II attempted to make use of Malik Shah's favor to bend Aghsartan I, the recalcitrant king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia, into submission, but failed to achieve any result due largely to his contradictory actions. Aghsartan was able to outplay him by offering submission to Malik Shah and buy security by converting to Islam.

 







 
  Persianization — Turkification

  • Mezopotamya kültürünün doruğu olarak Persler komşu halklar için toplumsal, politik ve sanatsal modeller sundular.
  • Persler boyun eğme ve yere kapanma kültüründe de örnek oldular.
  • İslam insanın insana boyun eğmesine izin vermez (tüm kullar eşittir).
  • Işık dininin Işığı tüm insanlar üzerine yayılsa da, Elamitler, Akhamenidler, Parthianlar ve Sasanidler insanın insan karşısında alçalmasında ve küçük düşürülmesinde bir sorun görmediler.
 

Different degrees of proskynesis, from a slight bow of the head to full prostration. (W)

Persianization

Persianization (W)


Different degrees of proskynesis, from a slight bow of the head to full prostration.

To the Greeks, giving proskynesis to a mortal seemed to be a barbaric and ludicrous practice.

Persianization is a sociological process of cultural change in which something becomes "Persianate". It is a specific form of cultural assimilation that often includes language assimilation. The term applies not only to cultures but also to individuals, as they acclimate to Persian culture and become "persianized" or "persified".

Historically, the term was commonly applied to changes in the culture of non-Iranian peoples living within the Iranian cultural sphere, especially during the early and the middle Islamic periods such as Arabs, and various Caucasian (such as Georgian, Armenian, and Dagestani) and Turkic peoples including the Seljuqs, Ottomans and Ghaznavids. The term has also been applied to the transmission of aspects of Persian culture, including language, to the non-Persian peoples in area surrounding Persia (modern-day Iran), such as Anatolia and South Asia.


Pre-Islamic Period

Arguably, the first recorded episode of persianization dates back to Alexander the Great, who, after conquering the Persian Empire in the 4th century BCE, adopted Persian dress, customs and court mannerisms; married a Persian princess, Stateira II and made subjects cast themselves on their faces when approaching him, in Persian-style, known to Greeks as the custom of proskynesis, a symbolic kissing of the hand that Persians paid to their social superiors.

 

Laur Chandâ, Woman bowing to touch a man's feet as a mark of respect (as painted by a west-Indian artist, circa 1530).
 

Foot touching is not done despite feet being considered unclean — it’s done because feet are generally considered unclean. It means that the person has walked this earth longer than you and gained such wisdom that you can benefit even from the dust their feet have picked up along the way.


Early Islamic Period to 15th century

After the fall of the Sasanian dynasty in 651, the Umayyad Arabs adopted many of the Persian customs, especially the administrative and the court mannerisms. Arab provincial governors were either persianized Arameans or ethnic Persians; certainly, Persian remained the language of official business of the caliphate until the adoption of Arabic toward the end of the 7th century.


16th to 18th centuries

The Safavids reasserted Persian culture and hegemony over Caucasus, Eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia and other regions. Many khans, begs and other rulers adopted Persian customs and clothing and patronized Persian culture.

At the same time, the Ottomans and their predecessors, the various Beylerbergs and the Sultanate of Rum, patronized so heavily of Persian culture that they became fully [?] Persianate. The Ottomans, for example, adopted Persian names; made Persian an official and prestigious language; adopted Persian titles; adopted Persian cuisine, dances, and literature and added many Persian words to their own language.


Proskynesiss (L)

The first to describe proskynesis ("kissing towards") was the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus,who lived in the fifth century BCE. He writes:

“When the Persians meet one another in the roads, you can see whether those who meet are of equal rank. For instead of greeting by words, they kiss each other on the mouth; but if one of them is inferior to the other, they kiss one another on the cheeks, and if one is of much less noble rank than the other, he falls down before him and worships him.”

What Herodotus describes as a gesture he has seen in the streets, was ritualized at the oriental courts. Depending on his rank, a visitor would have to prostrate himself, kneel in front of, bow for or blow a kiss to the king.

To the Greeks prostrating, bowing or kneeling were unacceptable. In their view, these acts were only allowed in front of a god. Therefore, they thought that the Persians - the only oriental court they knew - venerated their kings as god.

,,,

In the summer of 327, the Macedonian king Alexander the Great provoked great unrest among his courtiers when he introduced proskynesis.

 



Turkification

Turkification (W)

Turkification, or Turkicization (Turkish: Türkleştirme), is a cultural shift whereby populations or states adopted a historical Turkic culture, such as in the Ottoman Empire. As the Turkic states developed and grew, there were many instances of this cultural shift.

Diverse peoples were effected by Turkification including Anatolian, Balkan, Caucasian and Middle Eastern peoples with different ethnic origins, such as Albanians, Armenians, Assyrians, Circassians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, Romani, Slavs, Kurds living in Anatolia, as well as Lazs from all the regions of the Ottoman Empire.

An early form of Turkification occurred in the time of the Seljuk Empire among the local population of Anatolia, involving intermarriages, religious conversion, linguistic shift and interethnic relationships, which today is reflected in the genetic makeup of the modern Turkish people.


Arrival of Turks in Anatolia

Anatolia was home to many different peoples in ancient times who were either natives or settlers and invaders. These different people included the Armenians, Anatolian peoples, Persians, Hurrians, Greeks, Cimmerians, Galatians, Colchians, Iberians, Arameans, Assyrians, Corduenes, and scores of others. The presence of many Greeks, and the process of Hellenization, gradually caused many of these peoples to abandon their own languages in favor of Greek, especially in cities and along the western and southern coasts, a process reinforced by Romanization.

Nevertheless, in the north and east, especially in rural areas, many of the native languages continued to survive, including both many extinct and a few extant languages such as Armenian and Assyrian Aramaic. Byzantine authorities routinely conducted large-scale population transfers in an effort to impose religious uniformity and the Greek language. After the subordination of the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018, for instance, much of its army was resettled in Eastern Anatolia. The Byzantines were particularly keen to assimilate the large Armenian population. To that end, in the eleventh century, the Armenian nobility were removed from their lands and resettled throughout western Anatolia. An unintended consequence of this resettlement was the loss of local military leadership along the eastern frontier, opening the path for the inroads of Turkish invaders. Beginning in the eleventh century, war with Turks led to the deaths of many in the native population, while others were enslaved and removed. As areas became depopulated, Turkic nomads moved in with their herds.


Number of Pastoralists of Turkic origin in Anatolia

The number of nomads of Turkic origin that migrated to Anatolia is a matter of discussion. According to Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, there were 200,000 Turkmen tents in Denizli and its surrounding areas, 30,000 in Bolu and its environment, and about 100,000 in Kastamonu and its environment. According to a Latin source at the end of the 12th century there were 100,000 nomadic tents in the regions of Denizli and Isparta.

According to Ottoman tax archives, in modern-day Anatolia, in Anatolia Eyalet, Karaman Eyalet, Dulkadir Eyalet and Rûm Eyalet provinces there were about 872,610 households in 1520s and 1530s; 160,564 of those households were nomadic, and the remainder were sedentary. Of four provinces, province of Anatolia had the largest nomadic population with 77,268 households. (note: province of Anatolia does not include entire Anatolia, it includes Western Anatolia and some parts of Northwestern Anatolia only) Between 1570 and 1580, 220,217 households of the total 1,360,474 households in the four provinces were nomadic which means, at least 20% of Anatolia was still nomadic in the 16th century. The province of Anatolia, which had the largest nomadic population with 77,268, saw an increase in its nomadic population. 116,219 households in those years in province of Anatolia were nomadic.


Imprecise meaning of Türk

During the 19th century, the word Türk was a derogatory term used to refer to Anatolian villagers; the Ottoman elite identified themselves as Ottomans, not as Turks. In the late 19th century, as European ideas of nationalism were adopted by the Ottoman elite, and as it became clear that the Turkish-speakers of Anatolia were the most loyal supporters of Ottoman rule, the term Türk took on a much more positive connotation.

During Ottoman times, the millet system defined communities on a religious basis, and a residue remains today in that Turkish villagers will commonly consider as Turks only those who profess the Sunni faith, and they consider Turkish-speaking Jews, Christians, or even Alevis to be non-Turks.

The imprecision of the appellation Türk can also be seen with other ethnic names, such as Kürt, which is often applied by western Anatolians to anyone east of Adana, even those who speak only Turkish. On the other hand, Kurdish-speaking or Arabic-speaking Sunnis of eastern Anatolia are often considered to be Turks.

Thus, the category Türk, like other ethnic categories popularly used in Turkey, does not have a uniform usage. In recent years, centrist Turkish politicians have attempted to redefine this category in a more multicultural way, emphasizing that a Türk is anyone who is a citizen of the Republic of Turkey. Now, article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a “Turk” as anyone who is “bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship.”

 



📜 “Iranian Turks”

“Iranian Turks” (W)

The term "Iranian Turks" typically applies to the Iranian Azerbaijanis, the largest Turkic group found in Iran. It can technically apply to any other Turkic group in Iran (or to these groups considered together), including:

Turkic peoples of Iran Language Religion and Sub-ethnic groups
Iranian Azerbaijanis Azerbaijani language (and its dialects) Muslim (Shia)
Khorasani Turks Khorasani Turkic language Muslim (Shia)
Iranian Turkmen Turkmen language Muslim (Sunni)
Afshar people Afshar language Muslim (Shia)
Khalaj people Khalaj language Muslim (Shia)
Qashqai people Qashqai language Muslim (Shia)
  • Aghajari tribe
Turks in Iran Turkish language Muslim (Sunni)

 







 
  Nizam al-Mulk

Nizam al-Mulk

Nizam al-Mulk 1018-1092 (W)

Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi (April 10, 1018 – October 14, 1092), better known by his honorific title of Nizam al-Mulk (Persian: نظام‌الملک‎, "Order of the Realm") was a Persian scholar and vizier of the Seljuq Empire. Rising from a lowly position, he was the de facto ruler of the empire for 20 years after the assassination of Alp Arslan in 1072, with a apotheosis as the Islamic history's archetypal good vizier.

One of his most important legacies was founding schools in cities throughout the Seljuk Empire. These were called “nezamiyehs” after him. He wrote Siyasatnama ("Book of Government"), a political treatise that uses historical examples to discuss justice, effective rule, and the role of government in Islamic society.

 



Policies of Niẓām al-Mulk

Policies of Niẓām al-Mulk

The Seljuqs derived their legitimacy from investiture by the caliph, and from “helping” him reunite the ummah; yet their governing style prefigured the emergence of true alternatives to the caliphate. Some of their Iranian advisers urged them to restore centralized absolutism as it had existed in pre-Islamic times and in the period of Marwānid-ʿAbbāsid strength. The best-known proponent was Niẓām al-Mulk, chief minister to the second and third Seljuq sultans, Alp-Arslan and Malik-Shāh. Niẓām al-Mulk explained his plans in his Seyāsat-nāmeh (The Book of Government), one of the best-known manuals of Islamicate political theory and administration. He was unable, however, to persuade the Seljuq sultans to assert enough power over other tribal leaders. Eventually the Seljuq sultans, like so many rulers before them, alienated their tribal supporters and resorted to the costly alternative of a Turkic slave core, whose leading members were appointed to tutor and train young princes of the Seljuq family to compete for rule on the death of the reigning sultan. The tutors were known as atabegs; more often than not, they became the actual rulers of the domains assigned to their young charges, cooperating with urban notables (aʿyān) in day-to-day administration.

Although Niẓām al-Mulk was not immediately successful, he did contribute to long-term change. He encouraged the establishment of state-supported schools (madrasas); those he personally patronized were called Niẓāmiyyahs. The most important Niẓāmiyyah was founded in Baghdad in 1067; there Niẓām al-Mulk gave government stipends to teachers and students whom he hoped he could subsequently not only appoint to the position of qāḍī but also recruit for the bureaucracy.

Systematic and broad instruction in Jamāʿī-Sunni learning would counteract the disruptive influences of non-Sunni or anti-Sunni thought and activity, particularly the continuing agitation of Ismāʿīlī Muslims. In 1090 a group of Ismāʿīlīs established themselves in a mountain fortress at Alamūt in the mountains of Daylam. From there they began to coordinate revolts all over Seljuq domains. Nominally loyal to the Fāṭimid caliph in Cairo, the eastern Ismāʿīlīs confirmed their growing independence and radicalism by supporting a failed contender for the Fāṭimid caliphate, Nizār. For that act they were known as the Nizārī Ismāʿīlīs. They were led by Ḥasan-e Ṣabbāḥ and were dubbed by their detractors the ḥashīshiyyīn ( assassins) because they practiced political murder while they were allegedly under the influence of hashish.

Niẓām al-Mulk’s madrasa system enhanced the prestige and solidarity of the Jamāʿī-Sunni ulama without actually drawing them into the bureaucracy or combating anti-Sunni agitation, but it also undermined their autonomy. It established the connection between state-supported education and office holding, and it subordinated the spiritual power and prestige of the ulama to the indispensable physical force of the military emirs. Niẓām al-Mulk unintentionally encouraged the independence of these emirs by extending the iqṭāʿ system beyond Būyid practice; he regularly assigned land revenues to individual military officers, assuming that he could keep them under bureaucratic control. When that failed, his system increased the emirs’ independence and drained the central treasury.

The madrasa system had other unpredictable results that can be illustrated by al-Ghazālī, who was born in 1058 at Ṭūs and in 1091 was made head of the Baghdad Niẓāmiyyah. For four years, to great admiration, he taught both fiqh and kalām and delivered critiques of falsafah and Ismāʿīlī thought. According to his autobiographical work Al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl (The Deliverer from Error), the more he taught, the more he doubted, until his will and voice became paralyzed. In 1095 he retreated from public life, attempting to arrive at a more satisfying faith. He undertook a radically skeptical reexamination of all of the paths available to the pious Muslim, culminating in an incorporation of the active, immediate, and inspired experience of the Sufis into the Sharīʿah-ordered piety of the public cult. For his accomplishments, al-Ghazālī was viewed as a renewer (mujaddid), a role expected by many Muslims to be filled by at least one figure at the turn of every Muslim century.

Ṭarīqah fellowships


In the 12th century Muslims began to group themselves into ṭarīqah, fellowships organized around and named for the ṭarīqah (“way” or “path”) of given masters. Al-Ghazālī may have had such a following himself. One of the first large-scale orders, the Qādirīyah, formed around the teachings of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī of Baghdad. Though rarely monastic in the European sense, the activities of a ṭarīqah often centred around assembly halls (called khānqāh, zāwiyah, or tekke) that could serve as places of retreat or accommodate special spiritual exercises. The dhikr, for example, is a ceremony in which devotees meditated on the name of God to the accompaniment of breathing exercises, music, or movement, so as to attain a state of consciousness productive of a sense of union with God. Although shortcuts and excesses have often made Sufism vulnerable to criticism, its most serious practitioners have conceived of it as a disciplined extension of Sharīʿah-minded piety, not an escape. In fact, many Sufis have begun their path through supererogatory fulfillment of standard ritual requirements.

Thousands of ṭarīqahs sprang up over the centuries, some associated with particular occupations, locales, or classes. It is possible that by the 18th century most adult Muslim males had some connection with one or more ṭarīqahs. The structure of the ṭarīqah ensued from the charismatic authority of the master, who, though not a prophet, replicated the direct intimacy that the prophets had shared with God. This quality he passed on to his disciples through a hierarchically ordered network that could extend over thousands of miles. The ṭarīqahs thus became powerful centripetal forces among societies in which formal organizations were rare; but the role of the master became controversial because followers often made saints or intercessors of especially powerful Sufi leaders and made shrines or pilgrimage sites of their tombs or birthplaces. Long before these developments could combine to produce stable alternatives to the caliphal system, Seljuq power had begun to decline, only to be replaced for a century and a half with a plethora of small military states. When the Frankish Crusaders arrived in the Holy Land in 1099, no one could prevent them from quickly establishing themselves along the eastern Mediterranean coast.

 

Siyasatnama

Siyasatnama (W)

Link: The book of government; or, Rules for kings / Niẓām al-Mulk, 1018-1092. (Original from University of Michigan)

Siyāsatnāmeh
(Persian: سياست نامه, "Book of Government"), also known as Siyar al-mulûk (Arabic:سیرالملوك, i.e.: The Lives of Kings), is the most famous work by Nizam al-Mulk, the founder of Nizamiyyah schools in medieval Persia and vazier to the Seljuq sultans Alp Arslan and Malik Shah. Al-Mulk possessed "immense power" as the head administration for the Seljuq empire over a period of 30 years and was responsible for establishing distinctly Persian forms of government and administration which would last for centuries. A great deal of his approach to governing is contained within the Siyasatnameh which is in a tradition of Persian-Islamic writing known as the "Mirrors for Princes".

Written in Persian and composed in the eleventh century, the Siyasatnameh was created following the request by Malik Shah that his ministers produce books on government, administration and the troubles facing the nation. However, the treatise compiled by al-Mulk was the only one to receive approval and was consequently accepted as forming “the law of the constitution of the nation.” In all it consists of 50 chapters concerning religion, politics, and various other issues of the day with the final 11 chapters — written shortly prior to Nizam's assassination — dealing mostly with dangers facing the empire and particularly the ascendant threat of the Ismailis. The treatise is concerned with guiding the ruler with regard to the realities of government and how it should be run. It covers "the proper role of soldiers, police, spies, and finance officials" and provides ethical advice emphasizing the need for justice and religious piety in the ruler. Al-Mulk defines in detail what he views as justice; that all classes be “given their dueand that the weak be protected. Where possible justice is defined by both custom and Muslim law and the ruler is held responsible to God.

Anecdotes rooted in Islamic, and occasionally pre-Islamic Persian, culture and history with popular heroes — for example, Mahmud of Ghazna and the pre-Islamic Shah Khosrow Anushirvan — who were considered as exemplars of good and virtue frequently appearing. The Siyasatnameh is considered to provide insight into the attitude of the Persian elite of the 12th century towards the past of their civilization as well as evidence for methods of the bureaucracy and the extent it was influenced by the pre-Islamic traditions.

The earliest remaining copy is located in the National Library of Tabriz, in Iran. It was first translated into French in 1891.


 







 
  Video

📹 The First Crusade / Eamonn Gearon (VİDEO)

The First Crusade / Eamonn Gearon (LINK)

The First Crusade (1095-1099) was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to recapture the Holy Land, called for by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Urban called for a military expedition to aid the Byzantine Empire, which had recently lost most of Anatolia to the Seljuq Turks. The resulting military expedition of primarily Frankish nobles, known as the Princes' Crusade not only re-captured Anatolia but went on to conquer the Holy Land (the Levant), which had fallen to Islamic expansion as early as in the 7th century, and culminated in July 1099 in the re-conquest of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

 



📹 Tutush, Kerbogha & the fall of the Great Seljuk Empire (VİDEO)

Tutush, Kerbogha & the fall of the Great Seljuk Empire (LINK)

 







 
  Arslan Isra’il ?-1032

Arslan Isra’il

Arslan Isra’il ?-1032 (W)

Arslan Isra’il, also known as Arslan Yabgu (died 1032) was Turkic chieftain, who was from the Kınık tribe, which would later establish the Seljuk Empire. His name Arslan means "the lion".

Biography

 

Background

Kınık tribe was one of the Oghuz Turkic tribes. They emerged in the area north of the Seyhun (Syr Darya River). According to some historians, they might be the former vassals of the Khazars. They settled around the city of Jend, which was close to the territory of the Karakhanids, who controlled most of Transoxiana. However they were unruly neighbors. During the Karakhanid-Samanid wars (992) they supported the Samanids instead of the Karakhanids. (Samanids were a Persian state to the south of Amu Darya.) Seljuk, the leader of the tribe was old and Arslan, one of his sons, distinguished himself during the battles against Karakhanids. Seljuk, died in 1009 and Arslan became the leader of the tribe. Arslan's brother Mikail was father to sultans Tughril and Chaghri, founders of the Seljuk Empire.

 

Political life

Karakhanids were several times defeated by Aslan's forces. Arslan also supported Ali Tigin during the Karakhanid civil war. Finally in 1025, Karakhanid sultan Yusuf Kadir met with Mahmud of Ghazni to form a coalition against Kınık. (Ghaznavids were a Turkic clan which had founded and empire in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.) The threat was too big for the tribe and Arslan relocated his tribe in the deserts. However, Arslan and his son Qutalmish were taken prisoner by Mahmud. There are two alternative stories of his surrender. According to Jean Paul Roux he was captured in a battle. But according to Islam Encyclopaedia, Mahmud arrested Arslan by a plot. He invited Arslan for peace talks. During the dinner following the talks, Arslan as well as his son Qutalmish were arrested and the soldiers accompanying them were killed. Mahmud sent Arslan and Qutalmish to Kalinjar Fort (which is now in India).

 

Later years

Arslan spent the rest of his life in prison. After Mahmud's death Tughril, Arslan's nephew and Mas'ud I of Ghazni, Mahmud's successor tried to reach an agreement. But the talks failed and Arslan died in prison in 1032.

 

Aftermath

Tughril and Chaghri, Arslan’s nephews, founded the Seljuk Empire. Qutalmish who had escaped from the prison also participated in the battles. But in later years he competed unsuccessfully for the throne. It was Arslan's grandson Suleyman who founded the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm.

 







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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