The Rum Seljuqs

Evolution of a Dynasty

Songul Mecit

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134509065
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'Europe médiévale

Charting the expansion of the Rum Seljuqs from rulers of a small principality to a fully- fledged sultanate ruling over almost the whole of Anatolia, this book demonstrates how ideology, rather than military success, was crucial in this development.

The Rum Seljuqs examines four distinct phases of development, beginning with the rule of Sulaym?n (473-478/1081-1086) and ending with the rule of Kay Khusraw II (634-644/ 1237-1246). Firstly, Songül Mecit examines the Great Seljuq ideology as a pre-cursor to the ideology of the Rum Seljuqs. Continuing to explore the foundation of the Seljuq principality in Nicaea, the book then examines the third phase and the period of decline for the Great Seljuqs. Finally, the book turns to the apogee of the Rum Seljuq state and questions whether these sultans can, at this stage, be considered truly Perso-Islamic rulers?

Employing the few available Rum Seljuq primary sources in Arabic and Persian, and drawing on the evidence of coins and monumental inscriptions, this book will be of use to scholars and students of History and Middle East Studies.

1 From nomadic chieftains to Muslim rulers

The Seljuq tradition of origin

The tradition of origin is the base of the self-image of a dynasty and Schmid rightly points out that it is the very element which produces the dynasty. Schmid suggests that the medieval tradition reveals a process which shows that the tradition of origin gradually developed into the self-image of the Welfs.¹

At the time when the Seljuqs entered the Muslim world we find two trends of linking new dynasties to the past: on the one hand, the linking to the Arab past and the family of the Prophet which seemed to promise the best legitimation and prestige and on the other, the attachment to the Persian epic past. Here a comparison between the Ghaznavids and the Seljuqs, both of Turkish nomadic descent, makes sense. Sebüktegin, the founder of the former, was a military slave of the Sāmānids for whom, after he had overthrown his old masters, a genealogy was created which linked the Ghaznavid house to the Persian heroic past.² The Ghaznavids searched for attachment to the Persian past, whereas the Qarakhanids and Seljuqs did not, because they had not spent a formative period under a Persian dynasty. ‘Hence it was only natural that they should seek to derive their charisma of rule from the heroic Turkish past, and not from the indigenous traditions of their newly-acquired Iranian territories, where they for a long time felt aliens, as indeed they were.’³ According to Bosworth, the reason for this was that the Seljuqs, in contrast to the Ghaznavids with their professional standing army, were dependent on their nomadic Turkish followers. This argument is convincing but needs further study because the Ghaznavids were not as much assimilated to Persian rulership and culture as is often claimed. Bosworth himself states: ‘On the other hand, Mahmūd of Ghazna was praised for his Turkish lineage; some oft-quoted verses of Badī’ az-Zamān al-Hamadhānī say that “The house of Bahrām [sc. the Sāmānids] has become subject to the son of the Khāqān [sc. Maḥmūd]”, but it is true that this emphasis on the Sultan’s Turkishness comes from the early years of the dynasty.’⁴

It is, however, difficult to trace from the sources the Turkish elements still alive in the Ghaznavid and Seljuq empires and modern scholars take the view of the Persian sources and state that the Seljuqs were also soon Persianized. The information about the origin of the Seljuqs is more or less identical and goes back to one and the same source, the lost Maliknāma. The account of the Akhbār reads as follows:

[The name] Yuqaq in Turkish means an iron bow. Yuqaq was a perspicacious man who was endowed with good judgement and competence. The king of the Turks had placed the reins of his government in his hands and he was illuminated by the light of his judgement and resourcefulness. The name of the king of the Turks was Yabghu. It happened one day that he (Yabghu) mobilised his soldiers in order to set out towards the countries of Islam. Amīr Yuqaq stopped him from doing this but the king of the Turks would not listen. So Yuqaq behaved very arrogantly and slapped the king of the Turks on the face.⁵

Ibn al-Athīr gives a similar report and writes:

Duqaq, the meaning of which is ‘iron bow’, a brave man and a man of good sense and organisational skill, was leader of the Oghuz Turks. They turned to him for guidance, accepted his every word and never went beyond his orders. It happened one day that the ruler of the Turks, who was called Yabghu, assembled his troops, intending to attack Islamic territory. Duqaq forbade him to do so, and a long argument ensued between them. The ruler of the Turks used rough language to Duqaq who struck him and split his head open.⁶

The report of Bar Hebraeus resembles the reports above. Starting Seljuq history with Duqaq, he writes that Seljuq left the land of Turan for the land of Persia because the wife of the King of the Khazars incited him against Seljuq, whose behaviour became too overbearing.⁷

Abū’l-‘Alā Ibn Hassūl, who wrote a short composition for Tuǧrul glorifying his ancestors, connects the Seljuqs to the Khazars and writes that Seljuq b. Duqaq attacked the King of the Khazars with the sword. He concludes the episode emphasizing that only a free powerful person would have been able to do that and that therefore the Seljuq state started with Seljuq.⁸ Ibn Hassūl also links the Seljuqs to Afrasiyab and thus the Persian epic tradition⁹ but it is not clear if the Seljuqs regarded themselves as ‘Al-i Afrasiyab’.

All these accounts about the origin of the Seljuqs emphasize three elements, noble lineage, ruler qualities and religion, and they describe the Seljuqs as the ‘House of Seljuq’. Our authors start their narrative with Duqaq, not a historical figure; in order to stress the nobility of the Seljuqs they portray the historical ancestor Seljuq as an important personality who dared to oppose the leader of the Turks. According to Mīrkhwānd, Bar Hebraeus and Ibn Hassūl, this leader was the King of the Khazars, but the historical events later on prove the important position of Seljuq wrong. It was not until the time of his grandsons that the Seljuqs gained power. Even then they were no more than leaders of nomadic bands and did not have characteristics of a ruler, which our authors already attribute to Seljuq. A connection between the Seljuqs and the Khazars did not exist either and is used to link the Seljuqs, who were ‘at a particularly low social and cultural level, with a powerful and well-known group like the Khazars of South Russia’.¹⁰

Our authors try to present the Seljuqs as good Muslims. According to the Akhbār, Duqaq (Tukak) opposed the Yabghu because he wanted to raid Muslim territory, ‘but this is clearly a later touch designed to show that the Seljuq family were already moved by the divine light before their formal adhesion to Islam’.¹¹ According to Barthold ‘the moral ideas of nomads are dependent to a greater degree than those of civilized peoples on religion. It is quite natural that the first Saljüqids and Qarā-Khānids were better Muslims than Maḥmūd and Mas‘ūd, just as Saint Vladimir was a better Christian than the Byzantine Emperors.’ Hence the Islam of the Seljuqs was rather nominal than reasoned and strengthened. The sources do not provide the real motives of the Seljuqs in assuming the new religion and their understanding of it, giving only the common phrases of the time.

Nevertheless, the idea of a noble lineage must have been not totally alien to the Seljuqs, though they probably were not that noble. The leaders in nomadic societies also had an aura of nobility around them, and were members of a noble family. Our sources describe the Seljuqs as the ‘House of Seljuq’ and it seems that this was also their own view, at least at the time when the Maliknāma was composed. It is not clear whether their tribe was important to them or whether they saw themselves within the tribe. According to Kashghāri, the Seljuqs belonged to the noble Qiniq tribe:

oyuz A tribe of the Turks; the Turkmän. They consist of twenty-two branches, each o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Comments on transliteration and translations
• List of abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Sources
• 1. From nomadic chieftains to Muslim rulers
• 2. The first Seljuqs in Anatolia: rebels or sultans?
• 3. The foundation of the Rum Seljuq sultanate
• 4. The apogee of the Rum Seljuq sultanate
• 5. The Rum Seljuqs and Byzantium
• Conclusion
• Select bibliography
• Index