Seljuk Turks in Anatolia: History of the Seljuk Empire

The Seljuk Turks in Anatolia

The Seljuk Turks were nomadic peoples who originated in the Central Asian steppes and entered into Anatolia in the 11^th century. From here, until around 1300, they would rule an empire and smaller sultanates, leaving behind a rich historical legacy. Bringing Turkic culture and Islam into Anatolia, they would transform the area into one of the heartlands of the future Ottoman state.

This article explores the history of the Seljuk dynasty in Anatolia. It focuses on the rise of the great Seljuk Empire in Central Asia and consolidation of power in Anatolia against the Byzantines and Western European crusaders before they met their despise at the hands of the Mongols. The article is intended as background reading for Odyssey Traveller’s Ancient Turkey escorted small group history tour for mature and senior travellers, both couples and solo travellers. This 22 day tour travels from Istanbul to Cappadocia, exploring and learning with our tour leader and tour guide about the ancient world through to the Ottoman empire

Much of the information used in this article is extracted from Kenneth W. Harl’s audio book The Ottoman Empire.

Rise of the Seljuk Turks

The Seljuks, like other Turkic peoples, migrated into Central Asia from their original homeland in the Altai mountains, located in the western region of modern-day Mongolia. This particular Turkish tribe took its name from their ancestor, a tribal chief called Seljuk.

Seljuk’s grandfather had led an earlier group of Turks, known as the Oghuz, to the Jaxartes valley. There, the Oghuz Turks established an important merchant community known as Yangi-Kent. But some years later when Seljuk had an altercation with the supreme Oghuz Turk chieftain, he and his followers split from the bulk of the Oghuz Turks. They would settle on the west bank of the lower Syr Darya, in an area east of the Caspian Sea near the Aral Sea.

Around this time Seljuk and his tribe converted from Shamanism to Sunnite Islam. Their reputation also grew for being fierce and spectacular warriors. Few cavalry forces could stand up to the classic nomadic horse archer, and the Seljuk Turks were among the best. Once they had converted to Islam, they began to ally with, and serve as mercenaries to, the competing Islamic states in what are now Iran and central Asia.

The two leading states at the time – the Ghaznavid Sultanate and the Karakhanids – were fighting for control of caravan cities, profitable trade routes, and right to impose authority over the Abbasid caliph, the head of Sunni Islam. The Seljukk Turks and other tribes, with their impressive calvary, were extremely useful allies during this war.

Seljuk’s two grandsons, Tughril Beg and Chaghri Beg, now leaders of the Seljuk Turks, changed allegiances frequently in the wars between the Ghaznavids and the Karakhanids. Eventually they decided to establish their own territories, settling down in Khorasan, a vital section of north-eastern Iran.

In 1029, they then seized the important city of Nishapur, on a caravan route home to various merchant communities. In Nishapur, they were seen as barbarians from the Steppes, but nevertheless the fact that they were Muslim allowed them to by accepted the civilized elites of eastern Iran. These elites would in turn provide the administrative staff of their territories.

Over the 1040s and 50s, one by one the Seljuk Turks took the cities of Iran and Central Asia. The Iranian ruling class in turn continued to be won over by the strict discipline imposed on tribal regiments, leading to a symbiosis that would persist through the whole of the Ottoman Turks period. Although the Seljuk empire would remain ethnically Turkish, the Iranian elites would administer the empire while the Muslim Arab subjects also provided religious legitimacy.

In 1055, the Seljuk Turks entered and took the city of Baghdad: the capital of Sunni Islam and second great capital outside of Arabia. Here they removed the influence of the Buyid dynasty, after which they were awarded the title of Sultan (protector of all Muslims) by the Abassid caliph.

By entering Baghdad, they now found themselves burdened with a dangerous rival to the west. In Cairo, the rulers of Egypt were the Fatimids, a rival caliphate that had been established in 969 counter to the caliph in Baghdad. The Fatimids also held the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. By taking Baghdad, the Seljuks had committed themselves to fight the Fatimids for control of the Fertile Crescent. Having entered the region in many ways as barbarians, they know found themselves entering a new major period in their history, this time as the defenders of Islamic order.

Attacks on the Byzantines

In the late 10^th century, as the Seljuk Turks prepared to embark on a campaign against the Shiite Fatimid caliphate in Egypt, they found themselves burdened by one major obstacle: the Byzantine Empire.  The Byzantine emperors of Constantinople were allied to the Fatimid caliphs, and so would have to be distracted from assisting their allies.

So, from the early 1060s, the Seljuks sent a number of tribal regiments to raid Byzantine settlements in eastern Anatolia. What they found was a hopelessly confused Byzantine state. The successors of emperor Basil II, who died in 1025, had proven to be extremely incapable. This had left the empire torn between a civil and bureaucratic aristocracy, and in approximately 1056 the Byzantine dynasty had ended. The Turkish tribes entering Anatolia, therefore, encountered very little resistance, raiding at ease across Armenia and central Asia. They were also able to learn the routes in and out of Anatolia, which would assist with future campaigns.

Upon the death of Tughril in 1063, his nephew Alp-Arslan succeeded him as the Sultan of the Seljuk Empire. Alp-Arslan ramped up the intensity of the attacks on the Byzantines, launching a major expedition westward, occupying territory as he advanced, including the seizure of the major cities of Ani and Kars in 1064. Here, in central Anatolia, the Seljuks discovered a landscape very similar to their ancestral homeland on the Eurasian Steppes. It was an area the Turks knew they could colonize and exploit, and so regiments continued to advance on Byzantine settlements.

By 1068 the Byzantine ruling classes had lost their patience with the ineffective government, and so installed a general named Romanus IV Diogenes on the throne. His mandate was to stop the Turkish attacks and restore the Byzantine imperial position in Anatolia. However, despite waging several campaigns, his efforts proved to be inconclusive.

The conflict culminated in 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert, the location of a strategic fortress is what is now eastern Turkey. For this, Romanus raised an immense mercenary army, which vastly outnumbered the irregular Turkish horsemen. Initially Alp Arslan tried to negotiate, but the Byzantine Empire refused to do so. This proved to be a disastrous decision.

A great battle ensued on 19^th August, which would see the Byzantine army be decimated. From the start, Romanus IV had enormous problems in keeping his army in line, betrayed by treacherous generals. The venue for battle also greatly favoured the light-riding Turks. Over the course of the day, they were able to wear down the much larger Byzantine army with classic skirmish attacks, winning a stunning victory.

As part of their victory, the Seljuks captured the Byzantine emperor himself. Alp Arslan, however, somewhat embarrassed by the extent of his victory, soon released the emperor on the promise of tribute. He had achieved his objective of crushing the Byzantine army and the road to Cairo was now clear.

Seljuk States in Anatolia

In the ten years following the Battle of Manzikert, the Byzantine state descended even further into chaos, engulfed by a series of civil wars. Some Byzantines, appreciating the martial qualities of the Seljuk Turks, even hired bands of Turkish mercenaries to fight for them. Some of these mercenaries, however, began to go into the business for themselves, seizing control of Byzantine cities.

They settled in these areas, establishing a new homeland for themselves. With them they brought the pastoral life of the Eurasian steppes, finding a profitable livelihood as sedentary farmers and livestock breeders.

By 1081, a number of Turkish states had emerged in Anatolia, with most of the Anatolian plateau under their control. The states were ruled by men with only vague loyalties to the Seljuk sultan in Baghdad, creating their own independent sultanates and emirates. The most important of these emerged around the city of Konya. Here a man named Suleiman seized power and created the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum.

Rum, with its first capital in Nicaea and then Iconium, covered basically all of Anatolia except the coast. Its population included Christians, Greeks, Syrians, Amreminians, and Iranian Muslims, but it was considered to be a Turkish state and today is regarded as the root of the present region of Turkey. The tolerance of different races and religions in the kingdom promoted an air of order and stability, in which commerce, agriculture and art all thrived.

The Sultanate of Rum would even survive the Seljuk Empire’s fall in the 12th century, attaining a position of dominance over the other Turkish states. It reached its heights in the late 12^th and early 13^th century, successfully taking key Byzantine ports on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts.

Crusades

From the late 11^th century, the Byzantine emperors turned to western Europeans to advocate for a crusade against the Muslim Turks in Anatolia. Emperor Alexius I launched the earliest initiative for the First Crusade in 1095, requesting military support from the Council of Piacenza in the empire’s conflict with the Seljuk Turks.

Alexius’s reason for doing so was more economic than religious though. The constant fighting among the Seljuks, Fatimids, and Byzantines had disrupted pilgrimage trade in Anatolia and Syria along the routes western Europeans used to travel to the Holy Land. Many pilgrims were being forced to turn back without ever reaching Jerusalem.

Pope Urban II announced his support for military assistance later in 1095 at the Council of Clemont. Conjuring up images of Turkish atrocities and racist tropes, he urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

However, whereas Alexius and his successors wanted to use western Europeans as mercenaries to reconquer Anatolia, the huge western armies had an independent aim of their own – to take Jerusalem. As such, the early crusades only offered some help to the Byzantine emperors as they battled their way across Anatolia toward the Holy Land.

Still, their assistance led to some reversals. An initial crusader victory took place at the siege of Nicaea, the first major battle of the First Crusade in June 1097. Then in July, at the Battle of Dorylaeum, the Seljuk sultan Konya suffered an embarrassing defeat.  The crusaders occupied Konya, and the Turks fled east to bide their time until the crusaders continued their journey toward Jerusalem. They made a difficult march through Anatolia, before going in to siege and capture the strategic Seljuk city of Antioch in 1097-98 and taking Jerusalem from the Fatimids in July 1099.

In all, between 1097 and 1176 a series of constant frontier wars were fought between the Seljuk Turks on one hand and the Byzantines and Western Crusaders on the other. As a result, the Byzantine Empire was able to occupy the western third and coastal areas of Anatolia, but the Turks always maintained control of the interior.

The wars led to increasing devastation throughout the region. Cisterns broke down, roads and bridges were not repaired, and urban life deteriorated. As the structures and institutions of Anatolia were destroyed, the landscape turned into a terrain more favourable to the Turkish pastoralist and decentralised lifestyle than the bureaucratic state of Constantinople.

Churches and monasteries were also repeatedly sacked as a result of the frontier wars. This played a huge role in the eventual religious transformation of Anatolia. By 1200, those Christians under Turkish rule really had no clergy to assist them in maintaining their faith, leading many to convert to Islam. The Byzantines hoped the Seljuk Turks would eventually convert to Christianity as had other steppe nomads previously, most notably the Bulgars in the Balkans. However, the Seljuks continued to maintain their Islamic identity.

After 1176 the Byzantine state was in a very weak position to defend its possessions in Anatolia. It had exhausted its fragile resources and was only able to maintain one substantial field army. Then in 1204, members of the Fourth Crusade, who had pledged to restore Jerusalem, instead stormed and sacked Constantinople. Byzantine power was now finished, and all of a sudden the situation of the Turks in Anatolia changed drastically. They were now able to build an effective Turkish state.

Demise of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia

The Seljuk empire fell around the 1200s due to infighting and clashes with competing dynasties, but the Sultanate of Rūm remained in place in Anatolia, conquering Byzantine ports and the territories of rival Turkic dynasties. A war against the Khwārezm-Shah dynasty of Iran instigated in 1230 by the Rūm sultan Ala al-Dīn Kay-Qubādh (Kaikobad) I, however, would ultimately lead the sultanate’s own disintegration of power. The war led to the loss of the  Khorezmian buffer state, meaning when the invading Mongols reached Turkey’s eastern frontiers some time later, the Seljuks were unable to fend them off.

On June 26, 1243, the Seljuks faced a Mongol army led by Genghis Khan’s grandson, Hulegu Khan, at the Battle of Köse Dağ (north-eastern Turkey).  The Mongol army emerged victorious, and it was the beginning of the end of Seljuk rule in Anatolia. The remaining Seljuk Turkish clans fled westwards, but eventually they were all obliterated by the Mongols, losing their autonomy. For the remainder of the 13^th century, the Anatolian Seljuks would act as the vassals of the Mongols’ Middle Eastern empire, the Ilkhanate.

After the Seljuk defeat at Köse Dağ, the other Turkish clans moved west and established minor states called beylik on former Seljuk and Byzantine territories. One beylik was the small state of Söğüt in northwest Anatolia. This state, led by a Turkish chief named Osman, would eventually conquer and reunite the rest of Anatolia, growing to become the Ottoman Empire.

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Odyssey Traveller has been serving global travellers since 1983 with educational tours of the history, culture, and architecture of our destinations designed for mature and senior travellers. We specialise in offering small group tours partnering with a local tour guide at each destination to provide a relaxed and comfortable pace and atmosphere that sets us apart from larger tour groups. Tours consist of small groups of between 6 and 12 people and are cost inclusive of all entrances, tipping and majority of meals. For more information, click here, and head to this page to make a booking.