ASIA MINOR UNDER THE SELJUK TURKS c1090

The victory of the Seljuk Turks over the Byzantine army at Manzikert in August 1071 had opened all of Anatolia to the invading nomadic Turks, who quickly occupied most of the hinterland, establishing a capital at Iconium which they renamed Konya. They called the new state 'Rum' which was their version of 'Roman'. This was about 1080 or so. Meanwhile the Greater Seljuk domain, centred at Isfahan, continued to dominate Middle Eastern Islamic affairs.

The victor at Manzikert, Alp Arslan, was killed in battle the year after and his son Malik Shah (whom Casca met in Baghdad and nicknamed 'snake-eyes') assumed the reins of power which he held for twenty years, with help from his father's trusted chief minister Nizam ul-Mulk. Malik Shah saw the establishment of a rival Seljuk state at Konya as a threat and with help from the Byzantines and some of the other Turkoman tribes, he restricted the Rum Seljuks to a small area around Konya.

The Seljuk domains however failed to grow due to inter-Islamic rivalry from the Fatimids of Egypt and the Shia Muslims of Syria, plus the newly created Shia sect of Ismaili Assassins that had been founded by Hasan al-Sabbah at Castle Alamut, south of the Caspian Sea. The assassins spread terror against the political and religious leaders of the Seljuk state which weakened it.

The Seljuk state received mortal wounds in 1092 with the deaths of both Malik Shah and Nizam al-Mulk and the state broke up into petty squabbling Turkoman principalities, just at the time when the crusaders approached.

Source: History of the Ottoman Empire Vol1 by Stanford J Shaw, Cambridge University Press

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