INTRODUCTION TO OTTOMAN HISTORY PART 2

 

 

THE GREAT SELJUK STATE

The Seljuk Empire has more and more importance than the Turkish states, which we have briefly reviewed before. 

 

The Seljuk Empire is one of the empires that had a great impact on world history. Then the Seljuks are definitely worth examining in terms of leading to the establishment of the Ottoman state.

 

If the Great Seljuk Empire had not been established, Anatolia would not have been Turkified and the Ottoman state would not have been established among a number of large and small Turkish states on this second homeland.

 

In the history of the world, there is no other tribe that founded as many states as the Turks.

 

Some of the Turkish states were established in the homeland of Central Asia, and some of them were established abroad. Among the many Turkish states that have come and gone, the importance and influence of the Huns, Gok Turks, Seljuks and Ottomans in Asia is superior to that of other Turkish states, both in terms of national and general history.

 

These Turkish states, which have been influential on the currents of world history, also attract attention with their greatness among the world empires that have come and gone.

The Turks, who overflowed the homeland and migrated to the west, followed the north and south of the Caspian Sea.

 

Since the Sassanid state in Iran had closed the southern road to the Caspian for centuries, the Turks always followed the northern road of the Caspian until the Sassanid state collapsed, and advanced to Southern Russia, the Balkans and Central Europe.

 

Since those who followed this path could not establish a population density among the Christian elements by spreading over the wide lands, they lost their nationality over time and dissolved among them.

 

However, the fate of those who followed the south road was not like this, and it enabled the establishment of new homelands for the Turkish people.

In this respect, the Seljuks, who led the great progress on the way to the south and gave Turkishness a new homeland, and led to the establishment of the longest-lived and glorious Turkish state outside of Central Asia, should definitely be examined in this respect.

 

It can be said that the national history phase for Turkishness abroad was opened with the Seljuks.

 

By the way, it should be noted that both the Seljuks, the Ottomans, and even the founders of the Gok Turk empire in Inner Asia are from the " Oghuz " branch of the Turks. 

 

In that case, the superiority of the Oghuzes over other Turkish branches in the provision and establishment of continuity in Turkish history is obvious.

 

While nomadism was the main feature in various Turkish states established until the Seljuks came, this feature remained behind the settled life feature in the Seljuks.

 

In the Anatolian Seljuks and the Ottomans who came after him, the nomadic character was erased throughout the state and left its place to the sedentary character.

 

The Oghuzes, who founded the Seljuk state, spent the preparatory phases that preceded the establishment phase of this great state in Transoxiana.

 

With the victory in the Dandanakan field battle (1040), when the Seljuk state suddenly emerged and showed itself, the central weight of the state was concentrated in Iran.

 

After the victory of Manzikert against the Byzantines in 1071, the destiny of Turkishness was lost to Anatolia, and these lands were adhered to for centuries.

 

The Beginning Period of the history of the Seljuk empire begins when Seljuk's father Dukak, who gave his name to the dynasty and the state, was in the court of Yabgu, a Turkish ruler outside the Islamic countries, and ends with the battle of Dandanakan.

 

This period continued for almost a century, and this community, which was around the Seljuk family and was organized and developed over time, had a semi-detached identity at the time that coincided with the establishment phase of the state.

 

When the Seljuk forces under the rule of Tugrul Bey defeated the army of Sultan Mesud, the ruler of the Ghaznavids, in Dandanakan in 1040, the Seljuk state not only emerged with its independent identity, but also opened new horizons for the Turks.

 

When the Seljuk empire was formed, Muslim Oghuz began to migrate from the newly conquered countries to Iran and Azerbaijan.

 

Since Alp Aslan, one of the great rulers of the Seljuks, defeated the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogones in the Battle of Manzikert (26 August 1071), opened the way to Anatolia for the Turks, the Turks flowed into Anatolia in large masses.

 

As the Anatolian lands were conquered up to the Aegean and Marmara Seas, the Turks came and settled in Anatolia in endless waves. Thus, Anatolia quickly became a Turkish homeland.

 

The time of his son Melikşah (1072-1092), who succeeded the Great Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan after his death, was the most brilliant period of the Seljuk empire. 

 

During the reign of Melikşah, the lands of the Seljuk empire stretched from the Seyhun tribes to the Aegean Sea, from the Hejaz lands to the Caucasus. This great empire;

 

a- Rulers from the Seljuk dynasty,
b- Turkish rulers who are not from the Seljuk dynasty,
c- By the rulers of other ancestry,

 

It was governed by the great Seljuk sultan. There were even subordinate rulers to the great sultan, that is, even second or even third degree rulers.

 

This gradual system of domination caused the great Seljuk empire to be shaken and collapsed quickly by the sultanate fights.

 

However, the turmoil and survival of the Anatolian, Iraqi and Kirman Seljuk states are also a result of the aforementioned gradual domination system.

 

During the period when the Seljuk empire preserved its largest state, it was severely shaken by the semi-independent rulers and princes who attempted to fight for the throne. 

 

The efforts of Sultan Sancar (1117-1157), who was considered the last ruler, did not suffice to completely eliminate the separation tendencies that emerged after the death of Melikşah. Finally, with his death in 1157, the empire fell apart.

 

 

 

 

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