Tughril Beg: founder of the Seljuk Empire

In the early 11th century, a band of Turkmen tribes moved south from the plains of Central Asia. It was led by two brothers. One of them was Tughril Beg, who within a few decades established his rule over a large part of Iran and laid the foundation of the Seljuk Empire. According to Britannica, the dynasty ruled Iran, Iraq, Syria and Anatolia from the 11th to the 14th century. Tughril’s reign is generally counted from 1037 to 1063.

Family background

According to Britannica, Tughril was born around 990. He was a grandson of Seljuk, chief of the Oghuz Turkish tribes in the Jand area on the Syr Darya. The dynasty took the name Seljuk from him.

Tughril and his brother Chaghri Beg entered Transoxiana shortly before 1016. According to Britannica, in 1025 the two brothers and their uncle Arslan entered the service of the Qarakhanid Turkish ruler of Bukhara. In the same year, after a defeat by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, the two brothers took refuge in Khwarazm, near the mouth of the Amu Darya.

Khorasan

Tughril and Chaghri then entered Khorasan, where the foundations of their rule were laid. According to Britannica, they built close ties with the respected circles of the major cities, and Merv and Nishapur came under their authority. Britannica dates this to 1028-1029, while other sources place Tughril’s entry into Nishapur in 1037-1038. According to the same sources, in 1037 the Seljuk chiefs recognised Tughril as their sultan and his name began to be read in the Friday sermon.

In 1040, at Dandanqan, the Seljuks defeated the Ghaznavid Sultan Masud. According to Britannica, Khorasan was then made a separate domain of Chaghri Beg, leaving Tughril free to advance towards the Iranian plateau. This division between the two brothers remained a notable feature of Seljuk rule: different members of the family administered separate territories.

An organised ruler

Britannica describes Tughril as a “methodical and organised” ruler who built his empire through careful planning. According to Britannica, his method was to send Turkmen troops into new areas first, under his foster brother Ibrahim Yinal, and then to arrive himself and take over the administration.

In this way, between 1040 and 1044, he took the Caspian-adjoining areas of Khorasan, Rayy and Hamadan, and established his supremacy over Isfahan. Rayy, an ancient city south of present-day Tehran, became his centre, and he died there.

Baghdad and the title of sultan

According to Britannica, in 1055, after subduing the states east and north of Iraq, Tughril entered Baghdad. In Britannica’s words, the Seljuks then established “political supremacy” over the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. His titles included “Rukn al-Dawla” and “Malik al-Mashriq wa al-Maghrib” (King of the East and the West).

He spent the last years of his life subduing the minor rulers of north-western Iran.

Administration

Under Tughril, administrative affairs were in the hands of his vizier, Amid al-Mulk al-Kunduri. According to Britannica, Persian culture gained autonomy and encouragement in the Seljuk period. Because the Turkmen Seljuks had no strong literary tradition of their own, they adopted the cultural language of their Iranian teachers, and literary Persian spread across Iran.

Death

According to Britannica, Tughril Beg died in Rayy in September 1063. Some sources give October 1063. He was succeeded as sultan by his nephew Alp Arslan, the son of Chaghri Beg.

A tall, battlemented brick tower in Rayy is traditionally called the “Tughril Tower” and is attributed to his tomb, although scholars do not agree on this attribution.

Legacy

Tughril turned a group of tribal chiefs into a proper empire. According to Britannica, under his successors Alp Arslan and Malik Shah it spread across Iran, Iraq and Syria, and the vizier Nizam al-Mulk organised its administration. Buildings such as the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan were built in this period, and Persian became established as the literary and official language of the whole region. All of this stood on the foundation laid by Tughril Beg.