The Seljuks, Seljouks or Saljûqides (Turkish:Selçuk, Seltchouk; Arabic:as-Salâjiqa; Persian:Saljûqiyân) are the members of a tribe of Turkish origin who emigrated from Turkestan to the Middle East before reigning over the current Iran and Iraq as well as Asia Minor between the middle of the 11th century and the end of the 13th century.
Origins
A family descended from the Oghuz Turkish tribe of the Kinik originally living north of the Aral Sea, the Seljuks reigned over the kingdom of the Oghuz (Turkish Oğuz) from 990. They bore the title of "Yabgu" and their territory measured about one million km2. This family, which had previously owned the Beylik of the Kınık tribe, provided the hereditary chief of this state, a chief who bore the title of “subaşı”. The subaşı Dukak Bey, killed around 903, had been replaced by Selçuk (Seljuk) Bey, the eponymous head of the dynasty. The Seljuks converted to Sunnism in the 10th century, when they migrated south under a leader named Seljuk, and became a strong military power. They first captured Khorassan, a province in eastern Iran previously ruled by the Ghaznavids, and continued their conquests from there. In 1038, Seljuk's grandson, Tuğrul Bey, proclaimed himself Sultan of Nishapur, then seized Baghdad (1055), freeing the Abbasid Caliph from the Shia pressure of the Buyid dynasty. This confirmed his title of sultan.
Tuğrul Bey's nephew, Alp Arslan (1063-1072) succeeded him, founding and administering the Great Seljuk Empire from its capital, Rayy (now Tehran). It was during his reign and that of his son Malik Shah I (1072-1092) that the Seljuk empire in Iran reached its peak, thanks in part to their Persian minister, Nizam al-Mulk. In 1071, Alp Arslan defeated the Byzantine Emperor Roman IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt) north of Van. In doing so, he gave birth to another branch of the dynasty:that of the Seljuks of Roum, or Anatolia. However, from the end of the reign of Malik Shah, in Iran, civil war took over again. Khorassan escaped Turkish tutelage on the death of Sanjar (1118-1157) in a revolt of the Oghouzes, while the Atabeys (local governors) effectively ruled Iran, Iraq, Syria and Jezirah, and that several ephemeral lineages were created in Syria and Kerman. The last Seljuk sultan of Iran, Tuğrul ibn Arslan (1176-1194), died in the war he had unwisely unleashed against the Shahs of Khwarezm.
The line of the Seljuks of Roum, for its part, lasted until 1307, resisting the crusades and internal dissensions as best they could. However, from 1276 and the arrival of the Il-khanid Abaqa, the Seljuks lost almost all power, although coinage was minted in their name until 1302.
A Christianized branch of the Seljuks reigned over the Georgian kingdom of Imereti in the person of David IV Narin born from the union in 1224 of Mughith ed-din prince of Erzeroum and grandson of Kılıç Arslan II with Queen Rousoudan Ire of Georgia.