History glossary
Seljuk Turks
a Turkic Muslim dynasty and military power that ruled parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia before and during the early Crusades.
- Category
- Dynasty and people
- Region
- Anatolia and the Islamic Near East
- Date range
- 11th-13th centuries
What it means
The Seljuk Turks were a Turkic Muslim ruling dynasty and military elite that rose in the eleventh century. Seljuk power spread across Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia, where victory over the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071 opened much of the region to Turkish control. Their advance helped prompt Byzantine appeals for western military help, one of the pressures behind the First Crusade. By the crusading period, Seljuk power was also fragmented into rival branches and successor states.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Crusades
From Pope Urban II's call at Clermont to the fall of Acre, the Crusades reshaped the medieval world through religious war, cross-cultural encounter, and lasting consequences for Europe and the Middle East.
The Ottoman Empire
From a small frontier principality in Anatolia, the Ottomans built a multiethnic empire across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa before reform, nationalism, and world war ended imperial rule.
