FROM THE NEW GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
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SELJUKS

{sel'-juhks}

The Seljuks were a group of nomadic Turkish warrior leaders from CentralAsia who established themselves in the Middle East during the 11th centuryas guardians of the declining ABBASID caliphate, and after 1055 foundedthe Great Seljuk sultanate, an empire centered in Baghdad and includingIran, Iraq, and Syria. They helped to prevent the FATIMIDS of Egypt frommaking Shiite Islam dominant throughout the Middle East and, in the 12thcentury, blocked inland expansion by the Crusader states on the Syriancoast. Their defeat of the Byzantines at the Battle of MANZIKERT (1071)opened the way for the Turkish occupation of Anatolia.

Seljuk power was at its zenith during the reigns of sultans ALP-ARSLAN(1063-72) and MALIK SHAH (1072-92), who with their vizier NIZAM AL-MULK,revived Sunnite Islamic administrative and religious institutions. Theydeveloped armies of slaves (MAMELUKES) to replace the nomad warriors, aswell as an elaborate bureaucratic hierarchy that provided the foundationfor governmental administration in the Middle East until modern times.The Seljuks revived and reinvigorated the classical Islamic educationalsystem, developing universities (madrasahs) to train bureaucrats and religiousofficials.

After Malik Shah's death, a decline in the quality of dynastic leadershipand division of their rule among military commanders and provincial regents(atabegs) weakened the power of the Great Seljuks. The last of the linedied in battle against the KHWARIZM-SHAHS in 1194.

A branch of the Seljuks established their own state in Anatolia (thesultanate of Konya or Rum, survived until it was conquered by the Mongolsin 1243.

Stanford J. Shaw

Bibliography: Boyle, J. A., ed., Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 5:The Saljuq and Mongol Periods (1968); Cahen, Claude, Pre-Ottoman Turkey,trans. by J. Jones-Williams (1968); Grousset, Rene, Empire of the Steppes,trans. by Naomi Walford (1970); Klausner, Carla L., The Seljuk Vezirate:A Study of Civil Administration, 1055-1194 (1973); Leiser, Gary, ed. andtr., A History of the Seljuks (1988); Setton, Kenneth, ed., History ofthe Crusades, vol. 1, 2d ed. (1969).