Seldschuken

The Seljuks were a medieval Turkic-speaking Sunni Muslim dynasty and empire of Oghuz origin that rose in the 11th century. Their realm stretched from Central Asia and Khorasan across Iran and Mesopotamia to western Anatolia, and they established the Great Seljuk Empire as a major political and military power of the medieval Islamic world. The name derives from the Oghuz tribe of Seljuq.

The dynasty was founded by Tughril Beg (r. 1037–1063), who with his cousin Chaghri Beg built a base in eastern Iran and captured Baghdad in 1055, receiving formal recognition from the Abbasid caliph and thereby asserting the sultanate rather than purely caliphal authority. Alp Arslan (r. 1063–1072) expanded the empire, most famously defeating the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Malik Shah I (r. 1072–1092) presided over a high point in authority, while the vizier Nizam al-Mulk organized a network of madrasas and public works.

Culturally, the Seljuks promoted Persianate governance and culture, using Persian as a lingua franca in administration and letters, and they supported architecture and learning that shaped Islamic and Anatolian art. They also played a key role in the expansion of Islam into Anatolia.

Decline and legacy: Following Malik Shah’s death, central authority weakened and the empire fragmented into rival successor states, including the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia. By the mid-13th century Mongol incursions and internal disintegration ended the classic Seljuk realm, though the name and influence persisted in regional polities. The Seljuks helped bridge Turkic and Persian cultural worlds and laid foundations for later political and cultural developments in the Middle East and Anatolia.