The Great Seljuk Empire

394 Pages·2015·5.395 MB·English

by  Peacock, Andrew C. S

The Great Seljuk Empire
THE EDINBURGH HISTORY OF THE ISLAMIC EMPIRES
Series Editor: Ian Richard Netton
Editorial Advisory Board
Professor C. E. Bosworth
Professor John L. Esposito
Professor Carole Hillenbrand
Professor David Morgan
Professor Andrew Rippin
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www.euppublishing.com/series/ehie
The Great Seljuk Empire
A. C. S. Peacock
© A. C. S. Peacock, 2015
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 11/13pt Adobe Garamond Pro by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
and printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 3825 3 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 3826 0 (paperback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 3827 7 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 0 7486 9807 3 (epub)
The right of A. C. S. Peacock to be identified as author
of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright
and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Published with the support of the Edinburgh University
Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund.
Contents
List of Box Text vi
List of Illustrations vii
List of Abbreviations x
Note on Transliteration, Conventions and Geographical
Terminology xii
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 The Rise of the Seljuks: From the Eurasian Steppe to the Gates of
Cairo, c. 965–1092 20
2 Crisis, Consolidation and Collapse: The Great Seljuk Empire and
the Sultanate of Iraq, 1092–1194 72
3 Sovereignty, Legitimacy and the Contest with the Caliphate 124
4 The Dargāh: Courts and Court Life 156
5 The Kuttāb: Bureaucrats and Administration 189
6 The ‘Askar: The Seljuk Military 216
7 Religion and the Seljuk Empire 246
8 The Economic and Social Organisation of the Seljuk Lands 286
Conclusion: The Seljuk Legacy 315
Appendix I Regnal Dates of Seljuk Sultans, ‘Abbasid Caliphs,
Khwarazmshahs and Principal Atabegs 323
Appendix II Genealogical Chart of the Seljuk Sultans 326
Appendix III Chronological Outline 327
Glossary 332
Bibliography 338
Index 361
List of Box Text
Box Text
Chapter 1
The Oghuz, the Türkmen and their Social Organisation 27
Nizam al- Mulk and his Siyasatnama 66
Chapter 2
The Iq†ā‘ System and Amirs as Local Rulers 79
Atabegs and Maliks 93
Chapter 3
Turkish Titles in the Seljuk Empire 136
Chapter 4
A Seljuk Coronation: Tughrıl becomes ‘King of East and West’ 164
Chapter 5
The Bureaucrat- Littérateur: ‘Imad al- Din al- Isfahani and the
Nusrat al- Fatra 205
Chapter 6
The Culture of the Amirs 231
Chapter 7
The Law Schools and Factionalism 266
Illustrations
Figures
(Author photographs except where indicated.)
1.1 Mount Balkhan, western Turkmenistan 29
1.2 Chaghrı’s first fief, the desert city of Dihistan, Turkmenistan 35
1.3 The ruins of the Seljuk city of Abiward, Turkmenistan 36
1.4 Summer pastures (yayla) in eastern Anatolia (Çayıryolu, Bayburt
Province, Turkey) 47
1.5 Genealogical tree of the first generations of the Seljuk family 53
1.6 Seljuk Turks fighting Byzantines, as depicted in the twelfth-
century manuscript of the Byzantine Chronicle of John Skylitzes.
© Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. MS Graecus Vitr 26-2 , fol. 234 56
1.7 (a) Malikshah’s ‘victory monument’ at Amid (Diyarbakır):
Tower 40; (b) Tower 40, detail 60
2.1 The walls of Sultankala, the Seljuk city of Merv 107
2.2 The mausoleum of Sanjar, Sultankala, Merv 110
2.3 Mausoleum of Mu’mina Khatun, Seljuk wife of Ildegüz,
Nakhchivan 119
3.1 Dinar of Tughrıl, showing the bow and arrow device above the
central inscription on both sides of the coin CM BMC OR 3
No. 58; CM 1906 12-4 39. © Trustees of the British Museum 127
4.1 Sanjar’s palace complex in the Shahriyar Arg at Merv 167
4.2 Ruined Kūshk by the mausoleum of Muhammad b. Ziyad, Merv 170
4.3 A prince on horseback, depicted on a bowl of the twelfth or
thirteenth century (Iran). Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Accession No 51.53. © Metropolitan Museum of Art 173
4.4 Statue of a figure holding a drinking bowl, probably twelfth-
century Iran. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Accession No 68.67. © Metropolitan Museum of Art 175
5.1 The dome over the northeast end of the Friday mosque in
Isfahan by Taj al- Mulk 198
viii | the great seljuk empire
5.2 General view of the Friday mosque at Isfahan 198
5.3 A rare folio from a surviving Seljuk Qur’an, copied by
Muhammad al- Zanjani in 531/1137. Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, Accession No. 1996.294.2. © Metropolitan
Museum of Art 212
6.1 The Kharraqan mausoleums, northern Iran, presumed
monuments to nomadic chiefs (Photograph: Bernard O’Kane) 222
6.2 Model statue of an amir. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore,
Accession No. 24.1. © Walters Art Museum 229
6.3 The possessions of the hajib Abu Shuja‘, including his drinking
cup, uncovered at Nihawand in the 1930s. British Museum,
ME OA 1938.11- 12.1 (bowl); ME OA 1939.3- 13.1- 39.
© Trustees of the British Museum 231
6.4 Detail of amirs going into battle. Freer battle plate F1943.3.
© Freer Gallery of Art 233
6.5 The quhandiz (citadel) of Nishapur 239
6.6 Walls of Amid (modern Diyarbakır), Turkey, restored in the
Seljuk period 242
6.7 The mountain-t op Ismaili citadel of Alamut, Iran 243
6.8 Amirs besiege a fortress, Khalkhal, Azerbaijan. Freer
battle plate F1943.3. © Freer Gallery of Art 244
7.1 The minaret of Khusrawjird, Khurasan, Iran, a typical
example of the Seljuk pencil- thin minaret, dated to
505/1111–12 248
7.2 (a) The Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) at Diyarbakır, Turkey,
restored by order of Malikshah: exterior view; (b) interior
view; (c) part of the inscription commemorating Malikshah’s
contribution of funds to the restoration of the mosque 253–4
7.3 The shrine of Abu Sa‘id at Mayhana, Turkmenistan, closely
associated with the Seljuks and largely rebuilt under the
Timurids 255
7.4 The minaret of Tutush attached to the Great Mosque of Aleppo,
Syria, destroyed in fighting in 2013. Image © Bryn Mawr
College 261
7.5 The Gunbad-i ‘Alawiyan, Hamadhan, Iran, twelfth century:
(a) exterior; (b) interior, mihrab (Photograph: Raya Shani,
previously published in A Monumental Manifestation of the
Shi‘ite Faith, figs 5 and 95, reproduced by kind permission of
the author) 262
7.6 Amadia, Iraqi Kurdistan, the base of David Alroy’s Messianic
revolt against the Seljuks 276