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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SCY-SHA |
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SELJOKS, SELJUKS , Or SELJUQS, the name of several Turkish dynasties issued from one family, which reigned over large; parts of Asia in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries of the Christian era. The history of the Seljuks forms the first part of the history of the Turkish empire. Proceeding from the deserts of Turkestan, the Seljuks reached the Hellespont; but this barrier was crossed and a European power founded by the Ottomans (Osmanli). The Seljuks inherited the traditions and at the same time the power of the Arabian caliphate, of which, when they made their appearance, only the shadow remained in the person of the Abbasid caliph of Bagdad. It is their merit from a Mahommedan point of view to have re-established the power of orthodox Islam and delivered the Moslem world from the subversive influence of the ultra-Shiite tenets, which constituted a serious danger to the duration of Islam itself. Neither had civilization anything to fear from them, since they represented a strong neutral power, which made the intimate union of Persian and Arabian elements possible, almost at the expense of the national Turkishliterary monuments in that language being during the whole period of the Seljuk rule exceedingly rare. The first Seljuk rulers were Toghrul Beg, Chakir Beg and Ibrahim Niyal, the son of Mikail, the son of Seljuk, the son of Tukak, or Tuqaq (also styled Timuryalilc, " iron bow "). They belonged to the Turkish tribe of the Ghuzz (Okot of Const. Porphyr. and the Byzantine writers), which traced its_lineage to Oghuz, the famous eponymic hero not only of this but of all Turkish tribes. There arose, however, at some undefined epoch a strife on the part of this tribe and some others with the rest of the Turks, because, as the latter allege, Ghuzz, the son (or grand-son) of Yafeth (Japhet), the son of Nub (Noah), had stolen the genuine rain-stone, which Turk, also a son of Yafeth, had inherited from his father. By this party, as appears from this tradition, the Ghuzz were not considered to be genuine Turks, but to be Turkmans (that according to a popular etymology, resembling Turks.). But the native tradition of the Ghuzz was unquestionably right, as they spoke a pure Turkish dialect. The fact, however, remains that there existed a certain animosity between the Ghuzz and their allies and the rest of the Turks, which in-creased as the former became converted to Islam (in the course of the 4th century of the Flight). The Ghuzz were settled at that time in Transoxiana, especially at Jand, a well-known city on the banks of the Jaxartes, not far from its mouth. Some ofthem served in the armies of the Ghaznavids Sabuktagin (Sebuktegin) and Mahmud (9971030); but the Seljuks, a royal family among them, had various relations with the reigning princes of Transoxiana and Khwarizm, which cannot be narrated here.' But, friends or foes, the Ghuzz became a serious danger to the adjoining Mahommedan provinces from their predatory habits and continual raids, and the more so as they were very numerous. It may suffice to mention that, under the leadership of Pigu Arslan Israil, they crossed the Oxus and spread over the eastern provinces of Persia, everywhere plundering and destroying. The imprisonment of this chieftain by Masud, the son and successor of Mahmud, was of no avail: it only furnished his nephews with a ready pretext to cross the Oxus likewise in arms against the Ghaznavids. We pass over their first conflicts and the unsuccessful agreements that were attempted, to mention the decisive battle near Mery (1040), in which Masud was totally defeated and driven back to Ghazni (Ghazna). Persia now lay open to the victors, who proclaimed themselves independent at Mery (which became from that time the official capital of the principal branch of the Seljuks), and acknowledged Toghrul Beg as chief
Trebizond
At this time the power of Qaim, the Abbasid caliph of Bagdad (see CALIPHATE, section C, 26), was reduced to a mere shadow, as the Shiite dynasty of the Buyids and afterwards his more formidable Fatimite rivals had left him almost wholly destitute of authority. The real ruler at Bagdad was a Turk named Basasiri, lieutenant of the last Buyid, Malik-ar-Rahim. Nothing could, therefore, be more acceptable to the caliph than the protection of the orthodox Toghrul Beg, whose name was read in the official prayer (khotba) as early as 1050. At the end of the same year (1055) the Seljuk entered the city and after a tumult seized the person of Malik-ar-Rahim. Basasiri had the good fortune to be out of his reach; after acknowledging the right of the Fatimites, he gathered fresh troops and incited Ibrahim Niyal to rebel again, and he succeeded so far that he re-entered Bagdad at the close of 1o58. The next year, however, Toghrul Beg got rid of both his antagonists, Ibrahim being taken prisoner and strangled with the bowstring, while Basasiri fell in battle. Toghrul Beg now re-entered Bagdad, re-established the caliph, and was betrothed to his daughter, but died before the con-summation of the nuptials (September 1663). Alp Arslan, the son of Chakir Beg, succeeded his uncle and extended the rule of his family beyond the former frontiers. He made himself master, e.g. of the important city of Aleppo; and during his reign a Turkish amir, Atsiz, wrested Palestine and Syria from the hands of the Fatimites. He made successful expeditions against the Greeks, especially that of 1071, in which the Greek emperor Romanus Diogenes was taken prisoner and forced to ransom himself for a large sum (see ROMAN EMPIRE, LATER). The foundation of the Seljuk empire of Rum (q.v.) was the immediate result of this great victory. Alp Arslan afterwards undertook an expedition against Turkestan, and met with his death at the hands of a captured chief
Malik Shah, the son and successor of Alp Arslan, had to encounter his uncle Kavurd, founder of the Seljukian empire of Kerman (see below), who claimed to succeed Alp Arslan in accordance with the Turkish laws, and led his troops towards Hamadan. However, he lost the battle that ensued, and the Comp. Sachau, " Zur Geschichte and Chronologie von Khw .-rizm," in Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Acad., lxxiv. 304 seq. bowstring put an end to his life (1o73). Malik Shah regulated also the affairs of Asia Minor and Syria, conceding the latter province as an hereditary fief to his brother Tutush, who established himself at Damascus and killed Atsiz. He, however; like his father Alp Arslan, was indebted for his greatest fame to wise and salutary measures of their vizier, Nizam ul-Mulk. This extraordinary man, associated by tradition with Omar Khayyam (q.v.), the well-known mathematician and free-thinking poet, and with Hassan (ibn) Sabbah, afterwards the founder of the sect of the Assassins (q.v.), was a renowned author and statesman of the first rank, and immortalized his name by the foundation of several universities (the Nizamiyah at Bagdad), observatories, mosques, hospitals and other institutions of public utility. At his instigation the calendar was revised, and a new era, dating from the reign of Malik Shah and known as the Jelalian, was introduced. Not quite forty days before the death of his master this great man was murdered by the Assassins. He had fallen into 'disfavour because of his unwillingness to join in the intrigues of the princess Turkan Khatun, who wished to secure the succession to the throne for her infant son Mahmud at the expense of the elder sons of Malik Shah. Constitution and Government of the Seljuk Empire.It has been already observed that the Seljuks considered themselves the de-fenders of the orthodox faith and of the Abbasid caliphate, while they on their side represented the temporal power which received its titles and sanction from the successor of the Prophet. All the members of the Seljuk house had the same obligations in this respect, but they had not the same rights, as one of them occupied relatively to the others a place almost analogous to that of the great khan of the Mongols in later times. This position was inherited from father to son, though the old Turkish idea of the rights of the elder brother often caused rebellions and violent family disputes. After the death of Malik Shah the head of the family was not strong enough to enforce obedience, and consequently the central government broke up into several independent dynasties. Within the limits of these minor dynasties the same rules were observed, and the same may be said of the hereditary fiefs of Turkish amirs not belonging to the royal family, who bore ordinarily the title of atabeg or atabek (properly " father bey "), e.g. the atabegs of Fars, of Azerbaijan, of Syria, &c. The title was first given to Nizam ul-Mulk and expressed the relation in which he stood to the prince,as lala, " tutor." The affairs of state were managed by the divan under the presidency of the vizier; but in the empire of Rum its authority was inferior to that of the pervaneh, whom we may name " lord chancellor." In Rum the feudal system was extended to Christian princes, who were acknowledged by the sultan on condition of paying tribute and serving in the armies. The court dignitaries and their titles were manifold; not less manifold were the royal prerogatives, in which the sultans followed the example set by their predecessors, the Buyids. Notwithstanding the intrigues of Turkan Khatun, Malik Shah was succeeded by his elder son Barkiyaroq (1092-1104), whose short reign was a series of rebellions and strange adventures such as one may imagine in the story of a youth who is by turns a powerful prince and a miserable fugitive). Like his brother Mahommed (1104-1118), who successfully rebelled against him, his most dangerous enemies were the Isma`ilites, who had succeeded in taking the fortress of Alamut (north of Kazvin) and become a formidable political power by the organization of bands of fedais, who were always ready, even at the sacrifice of their own lives, to murder any one whom they were commanded to slay. Mahommed had been successful by the aid of his brother Sinjar, who from the year 1097 held the province of Khorasan with the capital Merv. After the death of Mahommed, Sinjar became the real head of the family, though Irak acknowledged Mahmud, the son of Mahommed. Thus there originated a separate dynasty of Irak with its capital at Hamadan (Ecbatana) ; but Sinjar during his long reign often interfered in the affairs of the new dynasty, and every occupant of the throne had to acknowledge his supremacy. In 1117 he led an expedition against Ghazni and bestowed the throne upon Bahr-am Shah, who was also obliged to mention Sinjar's name first in the official prayer at the Ghaznavid capitala prerogative that neither Alp Arslan nor Malik Shah had attained. In 1134 Bahrain Shah failed in this obligation and brought on himselfSee Defremery, Journ. asiatique (1853), i. 425 seq., ii. 217 seq. XXIV. 20 a fresh invasion by Sinjar in the midst of winter; a third one took place in 1152, caused by the doings of the Ghorids (Hosain Jihansuz, or " world-burner "). Other expeditions were under-taken by him against Khwarizm and Turkestan; the government of the former had been given by Barkiyaroq to Mahommed b. Anushtagin, who was succeeded in 1128 by his son Atsiz, and against him Sinjar marched in 1'38. Though victorious in this war, Sinjar could not hinder Atsiz from afterwards joining the gurkhan (great khan) of the then rapidly rising empire of the Karakitai, at whose hands the Seljuk suffered a terrible defeat at Samarkand in 1141. By the invasion of these hordes several Turkish tribes, the Ghuzz and others, were driven beyond the Oxus, where they killed the Seljuk governor of Balkh, though they professed to be loyal to Sinjar. Sinjar resolved to punish this crime; but his troops deserted and he himself was taken prisoner by the Ghuzz, who kept him in strict confinement during two years (1153-1155), though treating him with all outward marks of respect. In the meantime they plundered and destroyed the flourishing cities of Mery and Nishapur; and when Sinjar, after his escape from captivity, revisited the site of his capital he fell sick of sorrow and grief and died soon afterwards (1157). His empire fell to the Karakitai and afterwards to the shah Khwarizm. The successors of Mahommed in Irak were:Mahmnd (d. 1131); Toghrul, son of Mahommed, proclaimed by Sinjar (d. 1134); Masud (d. 1152); Malik Shah and Mahommed (d. 1159), sons of Mahmud; Suleiman Shah, their brother (d. 1161); Arslan, son of Toghrul (d. 1x75); and Toghrul, son of Arslan, killed in 1194 by Inanej, son of his atabeg, Mahommed, who was in confederation with the Khwarizm shah of the epoch, Takash. This chief inherited his possessions; Toghrul was the last representative of the Seljuks of Irak. The province of Kerman was one of the first conquests of the Seljuks, and became the hereditary fief of Kavurd, the son of Chakir Beg. Mention has been made of his war with Malik Shah and of his ensuing death (1073). Nevertheless his descend-ants were left in possession of their ancestor's dominions; and till 1170 Kerman, to which belonged also the opposite coast of Oman, enjoyed a well-ordered government, except for a short interruption caused by the deposition of Iran
The Seljukian dynasty of Syria came to an end after three generations, and its later history is interwoven with that of the crusaders. The first prince was Tutush, mentioned above, who perished, after a reign of continuous fighting, in battle against Barkiyaroq near Rai (Rhagae) in 1095. Of his two sons, the elder, Ridwan, established himself at Aleppo (d. 1113); the younger, Duqaq, took possession of Damascus, and died in 1103. The sons of the former, Alp Arslan and Sultan Shah, reigned a short time nominally, though the real power was exercised by Lulu till x n7. After the great victory of Alp Arslan in which the Greek emperor was taken prisoner (1071), Asia Minor lay open to the inroads of the Turks. Hence it was easy for Suleiman, the son of Kutulmish,3 the son of Arslan Pigu (Israil), to penetrate as far as the Hellespont, the more so as after the captivity of Romanus two rivals, Nicephorus Bryennius in Asia and Nicephorus Botaneiates in Europe, disputed the throne with one another. The former appealed to Suleiman for assistance, and was by his aid brought to Constantinople and seated on the imperial throne. But the possession of Asia Minor was insecure to the Seljuks 2 An outline of the history of this branch of the Seljuks is given in Z.D.M.G. (1885), pp. 362-401. 3 This prince rebelled against Alp Arslan in 1064, and was found dead after a battle. I1 as long as the important city of Antioch belonged to the Greeks, so that we may date the real foundation of this Seljuk empire from the taking of that city by the treason of its commander
The history of the dynasty of the Danishmand is still very obscure, notwithstanding the efforts of Mordtmann, Schlumberger, Karabacek, Sallet and others to fix some chronological details, and it is almost impossible to harmonize the different statements of the Armenian, Syriac, Greek and Western chronicles with those of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The coins are few in number, very difficult to decipher, and often without date. The founder of the dynasty was a certain Tailu, who is said to have been a schoolmaster (danishmand), probably because he understood Arabic and Persian. His descendants, therefore, took the style of " Ibn Danishmand," often without their own name. They took possession of Sivas, Tokat, Niksar, Ablastan, Malatia, probably after the death of Suleiman, though they may have established themselves in one or more of these cities much earlier, perhaps in 1071, after the defeat of Romanus Diogenes. During the first crusade the reigning prince was Kumushtegin (Ahmed Ghazi), who defeated the Franks and took prisoner the prince of Antioch, Bohemund, afterwards ransomed. He died probably in 1 io6, and was succeeded by his son Mahommed (d. 1143), after whom reigned Jaghi Basan; but it is very probable that other members of the same dynasty reigned at the same time in the cities already named, and in some others, e.g. Kastamuni. Afterwards there arose a natural rivalry between the Seljuks and the Danishmand, which ended with the extinction of the latter about 1175. Kilij Arslan took possession of Mosul in 1107, and declared himself independent of the Seljuks of Irak; but in the same year he was drowned in the Khaboras through the treachery of his own amirs, and the dynasty seemed again destined to decay, as his sons were in the power of his enemies. The sultan Mahommed, however, set at liberty his eldest son Malik Shah, who reigned for some time, until he was treacherously murdered (it is not quite certain by whom), being succeeded by his brother Masud, who established himself at Konia (Iconium), from that time the residence of the Seljuks of Rum. During his reignhe died in 1155the Greek emperors undertook various expeditions in Asia Minor and Armenia; but the Seljuk was cunning enough to profess himself their ally and to direct them against his own enemies. Nevertheless the Seljukian dominion was petty and unimportant and did not rise to significance till his son and successor, Kilij Arslan II., had subdued the Danishmands and appropriated their possessions, though he thereby risked the wrath of the powerful atabeg of Syria, Nureddin, and after-wards that of Saladin. But as the sultan grew old his numerous sons, who held each the command o a city of the empire, embittered his old age by their mutu rivalry, and the eldest, I~utb ed-din, tyrannized over his father in his own capital, exactly at the time that Frederick I. (Barbarossa) entered his 1 The Turkmans who dwelt in these western parts of Asia Minor, which were never regained by the Seljuks, were called Utch (Outsiders).dominions on his way to the Holy Sepulchre (I too). Konia itself was taken and the sultan forced to provide guides and provisions for the crusaders. Kilij Arslan lived two years longer, Finally under the protection of his youngest son, Kaikhosrau, who held the capital after him (till 1199) until his elder brother, Rukneddin Suleiman, after having vanquished his other brothers, ascended the throne and obliged Kaikhosrau to seek refuge
exile . He ascended the throne the same year in which the Latin empire was established in Constantinople, a circumstance highly favourable to the Turks, who were the natural allies of the Greeks (Theodore Lascaris) and the enemies of the crusaders and their allies, the Armenians. Kaikhosrau, therefore, took in 1207 from the Italian Aldobrandini the important harbour of Attalia (Adalia); but his conquests in this direction were put an end to by his attack upon Lascaris, for in the battle that ensued he perished in single combat with his royal antagonist (1211). His son and successor, Kaikaus, made peace with Lascaris and extended his frontiers to the Black Sea by the conquest of Sinope (1214). On this occasion he was fortunate enough to take prisoner the Comnenian prince (Alexius) who ruled the independent empire of Trebizond, and he compelled him to purchase his liberty by acknowledging the supremacy of the Seljuks, by paying tribute, and by serving in the armies of the sultan. Elated by this great success and by his victories over the Armenians, Kaikaus was induced to attempt the capture of the important city of Aleppo, at this time governed by the descendants of Saladin; but the affair miscarried. Soon afterwards the sultan died (1219) and was succeeded by his brother, Ala ud-din Kaikobad I., the most powerful and illustrious prince of this branch of the Seljuks, renowned not only for his successful wars but also for his magnificent structures at Konia, Alaja, Sivas and elsewhere, which belong to the best specimens of Saracenic architecture. The town of Alaja was the creation of this sultan, as previously there existed on that site only the fortress of Candelor, at that epoch in the possession of an Armenian chief, who was expelled by Kaikobad, and shared the fate of the Armenian and Frankish knights who possessed the fortresses along the coast of the Mediterranean as far as Selefke (Seleucia). Kaikobad extended his rule as far as this city, and desisted from further conquest only on condition that the Armenian princes would enter into the same kind of relation to the Seljuks as had been imposed on the Comnenians of Trebizond. But his greatest military fame was won by a war which, however glorious, was to prove fatal to the Seljuk empire in the future: in conjunction with his ally, the Ayyubite prince Ashraf, he defeated the Khwarizm shah Jalal ud-din near Erzingan (1230). This victory removed the only barrier that checked the progress of the Mongols. During this war Kaikobad put an end to the collateral dynasty of the Seljuks of Erzerum and annexed ifs possessions. He also gained the city of Khelat with dependencies that in former times had belonged to the Shah-i-Armen, but shortly before had been taken by Jalal ud-din; this aggression was the cause of the war just mentioned. The acquisition of Khelat led, however, to a new war, as Kaikobad's ally, the Ayyubite prince, envied him this conquest. Sixteen Mahommedan princes, mostly Ayyubite, of Syria and Mesopotamia, under the leadership of Malik al-Kamil, prince of Egypt, marched with considerable forces into Asia Minor against him. Happily for Kaikobad, the princes mistrusted the power of theEgyptian, and it proved a difficult task to penetrate through the mountainous, well-fortified accesses to the interior of Asia Minor, so that the advantage rested with Kaikobad, who took Kharput, and for some time even held Harran, Ar-Roha and Rakka (1232). The latter conquests were, however, soon lost, and Kaikobad himself died in 1234 of poison administered to him by his son and successor, Ghiyass ed-din Kaikhosrau II. This unworthy son inherited from his father an empire embracing almost the whole of Asia Minor, with the exception of the countries governed by Vatatzes (Vataces) and the Christian princes of Trebizond and Lesser Armenia, who, however, were bound to pay tribute and to serve in the armiesan empire celebrated by contemporary reports for its wealth.l But the Turkish soldiers were of little use in a regular battle, and the sultan relied mainly on his Christian troops, so much so that an insurrection of dervishes which occurred at this period could only be put down by their assistance. It was at this epoch also that there flourished at Konia the founder of the order of the Mevlevis or Mawlawis, Jelal ed-din Rumi (see RUMi), and that the dervish fraternities spread throughout the whole country and became powerful bodies, often discontented with the liberal principles of the sultans, who granted privileges to the Christian merchants and held frequent intercourse with them. Notwithstanding all this, the strength and reputation of the empire were so great that the Mongols hesitated to invade it, although standing
1 See the details in Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, bk. xxx. chaps. 143, 144.till 1300, others till 1315. With him ended the dynasty of the Seljuks; but the Turkish empire founded by them continued to exist under the rising dynasty of the Ottomans. (See End of Article: SELJOKS, SELJUKS If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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