Seljuqs

By the year 1000, the unity of the Islamic world under the pre-eminence of the Arabic Abbasid Caliphate had been lost. Persian speaking Iran had slipped from the Caliphates control in fact, if not in theory. In its place, a number of local dynasties had arisen, fighting between themselves with Turkic soldiers. In the eastern portions of Iran, these soldiers rid themselves of their rulers and became successful dynasts in the own right, even expanding into India. From Central Asia, their Turkic cousins looked on eagerly.

Among these were the Seljuqs, who were drawn into contact with the powerful Ghaznavid Sultanate from the 1020s and, within the decade, began a migration into Ghaznavid territory, which was met with hostility. Their leader Ṭughrīl Bey proved highly successful, carving out a Seljuq domain and taking the title of Sultan (1038-1063), he rapidly brought all Iran under his control, establishing a capital at Rayy. Then he became involved on the Abbasid side in their war with the rival Fatimid Caliphate and extended his power over Iraq and Syria as well. The Seljuqs, thus, moved from a minor tribal group to a world power in the space of about twenty years. This incredibly rapid transition was in many ways their undoing: the spoils of empire were portioned out among the chief men of the family, who continued to expect wide freedom of action, and who all thought themselves to have a right to seek supreme power.

Thus Ṭughrīl's very first successor had to fight to achieve his throne. This was Alp Arslan (1063 - 1072), who led his forces into Byzantine Anatolia, pursuing the jihad or holy war against the infidels that had so long been neglected. At Manzikert (1071), the Byzantine Emperor was captured and subsequently Seljuq power was extended to the Aegean Sea - the greatest extension of Muslim power in the west in over three hundred years. The Turks who settled in Anatolia at this time are the ancestors of the modern inhabitants of Turkey and the source of their nation's name. 

Alp Arslan's son, Malik Shah (1072 - 1092), thus succeeded to one of the most powerful empires in the world. Ruling from Isfahan, he oversaw an age of great prosperity. At his death, however, his second wife, Tarkan, seized power in the name of her six year old son Maḥmūd I (1092 - 1094), outraging his slightly older son by his first wife. The older son, Barkyaruq (1094 - 1104), seized power, but his purges were so severe that he was ejected in favour of another half-brother, Muḥammad I (1104 - 1117). His death sparked another civil war between his young sons and his hyper-competent brother Sanjar (1117 - 1156), who already ruled in Khorasan. 

Sanjar was resolved to do for the eastern edge of the Seljuq empire what Alp Arslan had done for the west. At first he was very successful, vassalising the remnants of the Ghaznavids and the Qarakhans of Tansoxiana. But then he found himself beaten back by the Ghurids and the Qarakhitai, who had rushed into the vacuum he had created by vassalising these two powers. Finally, the rebellion of a Turkic tribal people, the Ghuzz (which bore more than a passing resemblance to the initial Seljuq rebellion against the Ghaznavids), in 1153, saw Sanjar captured. The Ghuzz led him around his domain, razing and plundering his cities in his name. This year can thus be taken as the end of the Seljuq empire in the east.

In the west, the sons of Muḥammad I had retained local control, ruling from Hamadan and were effectively free of Sanjar's overlordship from the 1130s, fighting amongst themselves in a civil war which never really ended. Order was temporarily achieved by Masʿūd (1134 - 1152), but his death marked renewed struggles among the Seljuq line. Now, however, it was chiefly motivated by outsiders, attempting to wrest the still powerful authority of the Seljuq Sultanate to their purposes: to the north, Ildiguz, who had been appointed Atageb of Azerbaijan by Masʿūd; to the east, Inanj who had been appointed mayor of Rayy by Sanjar. Thus, the Seljuq dynasty became split into two figurehead lines: one at Hamadan under Ildiguz and one at Isfahan under Inanj. The latter was defeated in 1168, and Ildiguz confirmed in his superiority - until he died of cholera in 1176. His son, Qizil Arslan proved far less adept at managing his figurehead Sultan, Ṭughrīl III (1176 -1191 & 1192 - 1193) - the two were at war from 1188 and, in his moment of triumph in 1191, Qizil Arslan dropped unexpectedly dead. The complete chaos of the preceding fifty years had left Iran completely worn out, and though Ṭughrīl III assumed the throne once more, it was only a few years before the Khwarezmshahs came down out of Central Asia and snuffed the Seljuqs out.

SOURCES

Rashid ad-Din, Jami' at-Tawarikh written c. 1300 AD (Relevant portion: Kenneth Allin Luther (trans.) The History of the Seljuq Turks, C. Edmund Bosworth (ed.). Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001)