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The 'Seljuqs' (also 'Seljuq Turks', 'Seldjuks', 'Seldjuqs', 'Seljuks'; in Turkish ''Selçuklular''; in ''Ṣaljūqīyān''; in Arabic سلجوق ''Saljūq'', or السلاجقة ''al-Salājiqa'') were a Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. They set up an empire known as Great Seljuq Empire that stretched from Anatolia to Punjab and was the target of the First Crusade. The dynasty had its origins in the Turcoman tribal confederations of Central Asia and marked the beginning of Turkic power in the Middle East. Today they are regarded as the cultural ancestors of the Western Turks - the present-day inhabitants of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan - and they are remembered as great patrons of Persian culture, art, literature, and language.^[1][2][3]

Contents

Early history

Origins

Seljuk leaders

Rulers of Seljuk Dynasty 1037-1157

Seljuk sultans of Hamadan 1118-1194

Seljuk rulers of Kerman 1041-1187

Seljuk rulers in Syria 1076-1117

Seljuk sultans of Rüm (Anatolia) 1077-1307

Notes

References

External links

Early history

Origins

Prior to the ninth century, hordes of Turks had crossed the Volga River into the Black Sea steppes.^[4] Originally, the House of Seljuq was a branch of the ''Qinik'' Oghuz Turks^[5][6][7][8] who in the 9th century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world, north of the Caspian and Aral sea in their Yabghu Khaganate of the Oghuz confederacy.^[9] In the 10th century the Seljuqs migrated from their ancestral homelands into mainland Persia, in the province of Khurasan, where they mixed with the local population and adopted the Persian culture and language in the following decades.^123[10][11]

Seljuk leaders

Rulers of Seljuk Dynasty 1037-1157

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

★ Tugrul I (Tugrul Beg) 1037-1063

★ Alp Arslan bin Chaghri 1063-1072

★ Jalal ad-Dawlah Malik Shah I 1072-1092

★ Nasir ad-Din Mahmud I 1092-1093

★ Rukn ad-Din Barkiyaruq 1093-1104

★ Mu'izz ad-Din Malik Shah II 1105

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Muhammad/Mehmed I Tapar 1105-1118
''Muhammad's son Mahmud II succeeded him in western Persia, but Sanjar, the governor of Khurasan from 1097 and the senior member of the family, becomes Great Seljuk sultan

★ Mu'izz ad-Din Ahmed Sanjar 1118-1157
''The Oghuz take control of much of Khurasan, with the remainder in the hands of former Seljuk emirs''

Seljuk sultans of Hamadan 1118-1194

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

★ Mahmud II 1118-1131

★ Da'ud (in Jibal and Iranian Azerbaijan) 1131

★ Tugrul II 1131-1134

★ Mas'ud 1134-1152

★ Malik Shah III 1152-1153

★ Muhammad II 1153-1160

★ Suleiman Shah 1160-1161

★ Arslan Shah 1161-1174

★ Tugrul III 1174-1194
''Tugrul III killed in battle with the Khwarazmshah, who annexes Hamadan''

Seljuk rulers of Kerman 1041-1187

Kerman was a province in southern Persia.

★ Qawurd 1041-1073

★ Kerman Shah 1073-1074

★ Sultan Shah 1074-1075

★ Hussain Omar 1075-1084

★ Turan Shah I 1084-1096

★ Iran Shah 1096-1101

★ Arslan Shah I 1101-1142

★ Mehmed I (Muhammad) 1142-1156

★ Toğrül Shah 1156-1169

★ Bahram Shah 1169-1174

★ Arslan Shah II 1174-1176

★ Turan Shah II 1176-1183

★ Mehmed II (Muhammad) 1183-1187
''Mehmed II overthrown by the Oghuz chief Malik Dinar''

Seljuk rulers in Syria 1076-1117

★ Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I 1085-1086

★ Jalal ad-Dawlah Malik Shah I of Great Seljuk 1086-1087

★ Qasim ad-Dawla Abu Said Aq Sunqur al-Hajib 1087-1094

★ Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I ''(second time)'' 1094-1095

★ Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan 1095-1113

★ Tadj ad-Dawla Alp Arslan al-Akhras 1113-1114

★ Sultan Shah 1114-1123
''To the Artuqids''
'Sultans/Emirs of Damascus':

★ Aziz ibn Abaaq al-Khwarazmi 1076-1079

★ Abu Sa'id Taj ad-Dawla Tutush I 1079-1095

★ Abu Nasr Shams al-Muluk Duqaq 1095-1104

★ Tutush II 1104

★ Muhi ad-Din Baqtash 1104
''Damascus seized by the Burid Toghtekin''

Seljuk sultans of Rüm (Anatolia) 1077-1307

★ Kutalmish 1060-1077

★ Süleyman Ibn Kutalmish (Suleiman) 1077-1086

★ Dawud Kilij Arslan I 1092-1107

★ Malik Shah 1107-1116

★ Rukn ad-Din Mas'ud 1116-1156

★ Izz ad-Din Kilij Arslan II 1156-1192

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Kaykhusraw I 1192-1196

★ Süleyman II (Suleiman) 1196-1204

★ Kilij Arslan III 1204-1205

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Kaykhusraw I ''(second time)'' 1205-1211

★ Izz ad-Din Kaykaus I 1211-1220

★ Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I 1220-1237

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Kaykhusraw II 1237-1246

★ Izz ad-Din Kaykaus II 1246-1260

★ Rukn ad-Din Kilij Arslan IV 1248-1265

★ Ala ad-Din Kayqubad II 1249-1257

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Kaykhusraw III 1265-1282

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Mesud II 1282-1284

★ Ala ad-Din Kayqubad III 1284

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Mesud II ''(second time)'' 1284-1293

★ Ala ad-Din Kayqubad III ''(second time)'' 1293-1294

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Mesud II ''(third time)'' 1294-1301

★ Ala ad-Din Kayqubad III ''(third time)'' 1301-1303

★ Ghiyath ad-Din Mesud II ''(fourth time)'' 1303-1307
''The Seljuk line, already having been deprived of any significant power, effectively ends in the early thirteenth century''

Notes

1. O.Özgündenli, ''"Persian Manuscripts in Ottoman and Modern Turkish Libraries"'', Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, (LINK)
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, ''"Seljuq"'', Online Edition, (LINK): ''"... Because the Turkish Seljuqs had no Islamic tradition or strong literary heritage of their own, they adopted the cultural language of their Persian instructors in Islam. Literary Persian thus spread to the whole of Iran, and the Arabic language disappeared in that country except in works of religious scholarship ..."''
3. M. Ravandi, ''"The Seljuq court at Konya and the Persianisation of Anatolian Cities"'', in Mesogeios (Mediterranean Studies), vol. 25-6 (2005), pp. 157-69
4. Previte-Orton (1971), vol. 1, pg.278
5. Concise Britannica Online Seljuq Dynasty article
6. Merriam-Webster Online - Definition of Seljuk
7. The History of the Seljuq Turks: From the Jami Al-Tawarikh (LINK)
8. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey - Stanford Shaw (LINK)
9. Wink, Andre, ''Al Hind the Making of the Indo Islamic World,'' Brill Academic Publishers, Jan 1, 1996, ISBN 90-04-09249-8 pg.9
10. M.A. Amir-Moezzi, ''"Shahrbanu"'', Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, (LINK): ''"... here one might bear in mind that non-Persian dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Saljuqs and Ilkhanids were rapidly to adopt the Persian language and have their origins traced back to the ancient kings of Persia rather than to Turkish heroes or Muslim saints ..."''
11. F. Daftary, ''Sectarian and National Movements in Iran, Khorasan, and Trasoxania during Umayyad and Early Abbasid Times'', in ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia'', Vol 4, pt. 1; edited by M.S. Asimov and C.E. Bosworth; UNESCO Publishing, Institute of Ismaili Studies: ''"... Not only did the inhabitants of Khurasan not succumb to the language of the nomadic invaders, but they imposed their own tongue on them. The region could even assimilate the Turkic Ghaznavids and Seljuks (eleventh and twelfth centuries), the Timurids (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries), and the Qajars (nineteenth–twentieth centuries) ..."''

References

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

External links

★ All Empires Online History Community: The Seljuk Empire