The Seljuk tribes, originally part of the Confederation of the Turkic Oghuz (Ghuzz) tribes, were prominent in the Oghuz Protectorate, and once jointly sent troops to defeat the Joran Khanate and the Khanate of Khuda. In the 8th century, the Uighur leader Bone Li Peiluo killed the Baimei Khan, and the Turkic forces gradually withdrew from the desert north, and the various tribes fell into strife. Because of the brutal competition and bloody struggle of the internal territorial disputes within the tribe, one of them left the center of Yangjigan and moved west to the middle reaches of the Syr Darya River and the Karatau Mountains, establishing for the first time the powerful Seljuq empire, also known as the Seljuk Dynasty. The political and cultural implications for Asia, Europe and the Arab world are profound.
The situation at the Seljuks in 1094
In the early Seljuks, the tribes were dominated by Oghuz and Turkmens, and after their westward expansion, they strategically temporarily submitted to the Samanid Dynasty established by the Persians at that time, in response to the expansion of the Hara Khan Dynasty. In terms of livelihood, sheep, horses, cattle are herded, and wealth is sheep, cattle, horses, weapons and a small amount of prey. After the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty replaced the Samanid dynasty, the Seljuks had to move south to the middle reaches of the Syr Darya River and near the Aral Sea, recuperating, and after 1025 nominally recognized the Ghaznavid dynasty as the suzerainty, demanding that it be allocated to shepherd land and live by water and grass.
Due to the diversity of literature, the seljuk royal lineage is relatively clear, divided into two major lines of the Great Seljuk Dynasty and the Iraqi Seljuk Dynasty, the former is the era of unification, and the latter is the era of disintegration. The Seljuk Empire was founded in 1037 and collapsed in 1194, lasting more than 150 years, with its capitals in Inner Shabul, Isfahan, Hamadan, and Merv, and at its peak, it covered 4.2 million square kilometers, including today's Possessions of Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, most of Asia Minor, and Syria (including Palestine), which was once a powerful and important regime in Central and Western Asia, and the Arab Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire were also shocked by this Turkic descendants. In 1071, the Seljuks and Turkmens briefly captured the Eastern Roman Emperors through the southwest, shocking Europe.
In terms of population, the Seljuk Empire was dominated by Turks and Persians. The Seljuk emperor was extremely authoritarian, mediating between the caliphs, popes, and local warlord chiefs, conquering small surrounding states, forcing monarchs to pay tribute to the Byzantine Empire, and even occupying the capital of the Byzantine armenian province of Ani in 1064. In order to consolidate its power, it once defeated the Qarakhanid dynasty in Central Asia and the Ghaznavid dynasty on the Indian border, and the country was at its peak. Generations of emperors stretched from the interior of Central Asia and the Hindu Kush Mountains in the east, to Syria and Asia Minor in the west, to the Arabian Sea in the south, and to the border of Kievan Rus'in the north.
Seljuk warriors
The administrative structure of the Seljuk Empire was inherited from the Samanid dynasty and Sassanid Persia. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to the strong nomadic nature of the steppe and the chaos of the imperial succession system, there were many illiterate upper-class figures, rough administration, frequent coups, royal infighting, frequent assassinations, and after Maliksha's death in 1092, the sons were in strife, the empire was torn apart, and the unification of the great empire existed in name only.
At this time, the imperial bureaucracy was corrupt, social control was weak, the taxation was quite heavy, the luxurious aristocratic class was enshrined, and the Tocharian and Oghuz who rose up in a state of bondage rebelled against the harsh government of the Seljuk Empire, and the lord of Khorasan, Sanjar, personally conquered and was captured. The Seljuks disintegrated into small sultanates such as Baghdad, Damascus, Konya, Mosul, and Diyarbak, each ruling independently and constantly conquering each other. Even more deadly, the Eastern Qarakhanid army and the Khitans joined forces in 1141 to defeat the Seljuk forces that had come to block them. The remnants of the Seljuks were difficult to reverse, the people were scattered, the politics of the young lords (known as Fu Shuai in history) prevailed, and the local military power faction dominated, and was eventually replaced by the rising Khwarazm Dynasty.
The Khwarazm Empire
The Seljuk Empire adopted a system of subordination of lords, and although the rulers tried to establish a centralized system, due to the excessive size of local power, the emperor could only have nominal suzerainty, and the localities paid tribute to their subjects on a regular basis. Land distribution was based on the Ekta model (military mining system), with Sultan-Vizier (Prime Minister) -Atabag (Governor, Atabeg)-Proxy forming a large four-tier structure of executive power, with the nobility occupying the core social resources, which is both Persian, Islamic and Turkic, and belongs to a complex.
In the embryonic stages of the empire, the tribal chief Saljuq worked hard and painstakingly settled in Bukhara, laying the foundation for the tribal unity, defeating the Hala Khanid Ilik Khan, and further capturing the important town of Felt (Jand), and the Oghuz were also commonly known as the Seljuks. Lenny Groussei wrote in The Prairie Empire:
A hero named after the Seljuks, the Seljuks were the sons of duhes nicknamed the Iron Archers, who were the chiefs or important members of the Kinik tribe of the Gus tribe. Before 985, he and his clan left most of the Gus tribe and placed his tent on the right bank of the lower Syr Darya River, on the felt side near present-day Berusk.
The war was full of blood and tears, and in October 1034, the Seljuks were raided by Shah Malik in the territory of Khwarazm, killing and wounding more than 10,000 people, and had to rest for three years. In 1037, Seljuk's grandson Tughluk Burke conquered the Oghuz Yehushah Malik and unified the Oghuz tribe. The warlord chased after deer, and in order to show political legitimacy, he proclaimed himself "Khorasan Burke".
Seljuk territory
In 1040 AD, Tughluk Burke led an army to occupy Khorasan, the main road of Central Asia, conquered all of Persia by force, converted to Sunni Islam, and vigorously disseminated the theology of the Sunni Ashley School and the shafier school, which was recognized by the Islamic world. At the time of the great march of the army, the local tribes surrendered. Azerbaijan was still a great threat, and the Seljuk forces fought a battle, completed control of Azerbaijan in 1054, and then continued to advance westward. In 1055 he entered Baghdad, remotely controlled by the caliphate, and expelled the Shiite Bweshi dynasty. At this time, the Arab region was mired in sectarian strife, and the religious leader Qayim was forced to make Tugruk Burke the Sultan, known as the "King of the East and the West", and initially established the Dual Rule of the Sultan-Caliphate, which separated the clerical and secular powers.
In 1070 Arslan led an army to capture Aleppo, expanding its power to Jerusalem and Damascus, and recovering the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from the Shiite Fatimid dynasty. After the Christian power became strong, it was ordered to move eastward, and the Seljuk dynasty in Syria prevented the First Crusade. In order to develop the economy, the Seljuk Empire built avenues and opened postal stations to ensure the smooth flow of trade routes between the East and the West, and the speed of exchanges between the East and the West accelerated.
The reign of the famous sultans Alp Arslan and Maliksha in the history of the Seljuk Empire was the period of the empire's most powerful and powerful heyday. With excellence in martial arts, academic culture and art and religion flourishing, and educated people to enter the bureaucracy to work, the Seljuks completed the transition from tribal society to state. Cities with prosperous economies and developed handicrafts include Mov, Nishapur, Bukhara, Samarkand and Isfahan. The reason why we can understand the details of Seljuk governance is that between 1091 and 1092, nizam Mork, the prime minister of the two dynasties of the Seljuk Empire, wrote the famous book "Governing the Country", which analyzed and summarized the political and economic systems of the Seljuk Empire in the central and local areas.
Tibetan Seljuk stone carvings in Turkey
The Seljuks, who started as nomads, took advantage of the chaotic and favorable situation in Central Asia at that time to their advantage and gained a foothold in Central Asia. During the more than 60 years of the reign of the Great Sultan Sanjar, controlling the river region and maintaining the territory, supporting the Qarakhanid dynasty, it was considered the afterglow of the Seljuk empire, and it was undoubtedly the eve of decline.
In fact, in the nearly 300 years between the decline of the Arab Empire in the Middle East and the Western Expedition of the Mongols, tribal rivalries and powerful regimes emerged in Central and Western Asia, such as the Samanid dynasty (874-999), the Ghaznavid dynasty (962-1186), the Qarakhanid dynasty (840-1212), the Seljuk dynasty (1037-1300), the Flower Thorny Mona-Stechin dynasty (1097-1231), the Western Liao dynasty (1124-1211), etc. The Seljuks were undoubtedly the most far-reaching empire, laying the foundation for the rise and strength of Ottoman Turkey. After the rise of the Abbasid dynasty, the Arab world was also gradually freed from the control of the Seljuk Empire. In the 12th century, the Liao dynasty royal family Yelü Dashi led his troops to the west to establish the Western Liao, which promoted the decline of the Seljuk regime.
All in all, the conflict, integration and rise and fall of the rise and fall of empires and the disappearance of small countries constitute a historical period of transformation from classical era to modern times, full of blood and fire cruelty and the transfer of political situations in Central and Western Asia. In fact, after the establishment of the empire by the Seljuks, it was already a common name for a multi-ethnic regime and ruling class, and tribal hegemony and chaos eventually fell within the general trend of world globalization and national convergence. After the Seljuk era passed, the modern Turks were the main branch of their descendants.