In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks had been Muslim for only a short period. Yet, from their beginnings as typical nomadic ghazi warriors, within a century, the Seljuks would claim rule of the vast lands of Persia, Mesopotamia, and Syria, in the process transforming from raiders to invaders. They created the first unity this region had seen since the heyday of the Abbasid Caliphate, but it was a fragile unity, as even the most able of the Seljuk rulers could never fully secure their control over their subordinates.
Seljuk Conquest of Settled Lands The Seljuks first arrived as major actors in Central Asia in the late tenth century, when the tribesmen enlisted in the service of the Samanids and Ghaznavids as ghazi warriors, primarily attacking non-Muslim Turkish tribes. In return for their successes, the Seljuks were awarded grazing lands for their flocks and horses (the Seljuks were also famous for their expert use of camels), and within a few decades, many other ghazi Turks joined the Seljuks.
The first wave of Seljuk conquests of the settled lands came with the ascension to power of Toghril- beg in the mid-eleventh century. He was a brilliant and charismatic leader, who first directed his tribal armies in coordinated campaigns against the various Islamic principalities and kingdoms of Central Asia. At the very time Toghril-beg succeeded in uniting the Turkish tribes under the Seljuk banner, the Islamic world was suffering through a great deal of disunity, with Persia the scene of near-constant warfare among competing factions.
After securing his Central Asian base, Toghril- beg swung his armies into Korasan in eastern Persia, where he continued to meet with success. However, the Seljuk forces were not under strict centralized direction, and Toghril-beg’s control depended on his continued success in leading his forces on raids of pillage. As much as possible, Toghril-beg placed family members in positions of command, but even their loyalty could not always be counted on. This need to satisfy his subordinates meant that in the early years of the Seljuk attacks on Persia the goal was rarely permanent conquest, and the Seljuks found it extremely difficult to assault cities. Not until the victorious conclusion of the siege of Isfahan revealed the wealth to be obtained from looting cities was Toghril-beg able to convince his men to endure the frustration involved in besieging major population and wealth centers.
Like the earlier Turkish conquerors of China, Toghril-beg learned that utilizing the administrative, tax, and other systems of the settled peoples he ruled was a more secure method of obtaining wealth, as well as serving to enhance his authority as ruler. From 1055, Toghril-beg devoted most of his time to subduing his subordinates and imposing a Persian bureaucratic system on what became known as the Great Seljuk Empire, relying on Persians to run the administrative machinery (Figure 6.3).
The Seljuks of the eleventh century were attested by their enemies to be the best horse-archers of the time. The Persians, Byzantines, and Crusaders remarked in fear at the ability of Seljuk armies to coordinate the loosing of arrow storms while at a gallop (see Chapter 11). To be sure, the Seljuks trained constantly while not in combat, but it is not clear that their battlefield strategy and tactics were notably superior to those of other nomadic warriors, such as the Mongols of a later century (see Chapter 13). While expert in the use of the compound bow, as were nearly all of the Inner Asian nomadic warriors, the Seljuks distinguished themselves from the others in their use of a relatively small, light spear, used much like a lance. After an arrow storm, the Seljuk mounted spearmen wreaked havoc in enemy lines. Most soldiers also carried either a sword or axe, with which they often fought dismounted. As a result of their effectiveness, Turks came to dominate the military forces of the Islamic states of southwest Asia, both as slave soldiers and as provincial levies (see Chapter 8).
The revival of Islamic fortunes the Turks led came at a steep price, however. To deal with the usual problem facing nomadic conquerors—how to remain nomads while ruling a settled, agricultural society—and to maintain the strength of their forces as they moved farther into the Islamic (and, later, Byzantine) world, the Seljuks encouraged the displacement of farming populations and the reversion of agricultural areas to pasture in significant areas, especially in Korasan and Anatolia. The cost in economic vitality is hard to measure but was certainly significant.
Figure 6.3 The Great Seljuk Empire in 1095
The Decline of Seljuk Power Like the earlier Turkish confederations, the Great Seljuk Empire contained tendencies to decentralization from the start. In the Seljuk conception, sovereignty was vested, not in a supreme office or even in one person and his direct descendants, but in the entire family of the ruler. This notion of collective sovereignty meant that Toghrilbeg and his immediate successors felt compelled to grant rule over provinces of the empire to various relatives, who then tended to divide their possessions among their sons. Though technically subordinate to the Seljuk sultan, these regional rulers rapidly came to see themselves as independent and even began fighting among themselves rather than continuing the expansion of the empire. Thus, the unity that Seljuk conquests had temporarily imposed on the Islamic world proved ephemeral. As a result, though the Seljuks inflicted a disastrous defeat on the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071 and subsequently overran much of Asia Minor (see Chapter 8), Alexius Comnenus was able to take advantage of Turkish disunity to revive the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire after 1081. Even more significantly, the fragmentation of Islamic southwest Asia by 1095 made possible the success of the First Crusade (see Chapter 11).