New Configurations (1050-1150) - The Seljuks and the Almoravids - From Mercenaries to Imperialists: The Seljuk Turks
16 important questions on New Configurations (1050-1150) - The Seljuks and the Almoravids - From Mercenaries to Imperialists: The Seljuk Turks
Who are the Seljuk Turks?
- The Seljuk Turks were herders and mercenaries from the Kazakh steppe - the extensive Eurasian grasslands of Kazakhstan.
- Some of them entered the region around the Caspian and Aral Seas at the end of the tenth century, hired by rival Muslim rulers.
- During the first of the eleventh century, they began conquests of their own.
Who dominated the Middle East from 1000 to 1900?
What two states did the Seljuks form?
- The Great Seljuk sultanate (c.1040-1194) dominated the east, from the Aral Sea to the Persian Gulf, encompassing a region now occupied by Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, and Iran.
- The Seljuk sultanate of Rum (c.1081-1308) was formed to the west, looking a bit like a thumb stuck into what had been Byzantine Anatolia. It took its name from those whom it vanquished: Rum means Rome.
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What were Westerners shocked by regarding the Seljuks?
- Westerners were shocked by the Seljuk army's humiliating defeat of the Byzantine emperor at Manzikert (today Malazgirt, in Turkey) in 1071, which seemed to mark the conquest of Anatolia.
- They were outraged by the Seljuk occupation of Jerusalem (c.1075), which inspired the First Crusade.
What religion did the Seljuks abide by?
How was Shi'ism described by Nizam al-Mulk (d.1092)? What did he do to counter it?
- He described Shi'ism as a fraud concocted out of pseudo-philosophy and mumbo-jumbo.
- To counter its influence, he sponsored the foundation of numerous madrassas - a whole "chain" of them named (after him) Nizamiya.
What happened in the madrasas?
- The madrasas served as centers of advanced scholarship. There young men attended lessons in religion, law, and literature.
- Sometimes visiting scholars arrived to debate in lively public displays of intellectual brilliance. More regularly, teachers and students carried on a quiet regimen of classes on the Qur'an and other texts.
Where did the Seljuks shift the cultural and political centers to?
What did Great Seljuk do to assert their adherence to Sunni Islam? How did it differ from Fatimids?
How did Nizam al-Mulk change mosques? Describe what he did on the Friday Mosque.
- The Friday Mosque at Isfahan in Iran was first built in the tenth century and received a major face-lift under Nizam al-Mulk, who focused his patronage on its courtyard, the heart of the complex.
- Nizam added four iwans - vaulted halls opening on the courtyard - one at each wall. The most important was the south iwan, for that was in the qibla wall - the wall facing Mecca.
- That iwan led in turn to a large square room housing the mihrab (the niche of the qibla), which was topped by a lofty dome built by Nizam al-Mulk.
How did Nizam al-Mulk cement his position?
How did the Anatolian branch of the dynasty do?
- It prospered. It benefited from the region's silver, copper, iron, and lapis lazuli mines and from the pastureland that supported animal products such cashmere, highly prized as an export as far away as France.
- Even so, their Seljuk Sultanate of Rum was a sort of "wild west": most houses were made of mud, and the elites did not support the madrasas or the arts and literature as generously as did the rulers of most of the other centers of the Islamic world.
How diverse was the population of the Sultanate of Rum?
What did the Seljuks do in Jerusalem?
How did the Seljuks handle the eclectic religious population they had?
Why were Muslim children in Rum baptized?
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