Tughril

Founder of the Great Seljuk Empire · 990–1063

Tughril

Tughril Bey — also Toğrül, Tuğril, Toghrïl Beg, Tughril I (full name: Rukn al-Din Abu Talib Muhammad Tughril-Bey ibn Mika'il ibn Seljuk) (written in the Arabic alphabet as طغرل بك; in the Persian alphabet as طغرل بیک) (b. 995, Khurasan – d. 4 September 1063, Rey) — was the founder and first sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire.

Life

He was a grandson of Seljuk Bey, of the Kınık tribe of the Oghuz. When his father Mika'il fell as a martyr in a ghaza raid, he was raised in the care of his grandfather Seljuk Bey. His childhood was spent in the town of Jand along the banks of the Syr Darya (Seyhun). After the Ghaznavids took Seljuk Bey's son Arslan Yabgu captive, he became head of the Seljuks in 1025. He married Altun Jan Khatun.

The Oghuz under Tughril Bey's command, seeking a new homeland for themselves, migrated to Khurasan. Between 1028 and 1029, together with his brother Chagri Bey, he captured the cities of Merv and Nishapur. He launched campaigns against the cities of Bukhara and Balkh. In 1038 he proclaimed himself sultan at Nishapur. In 1040 he won the Battle of Dandanaqan against the Ghaznavids, establishing Seljuk superiority over the Ghaznavid state. Appointing his brother Chagri Bey governor of Khurasan, Tughril Bey seized a large part of Iran and extended Seljuk territory as far as Anatolia.

In 1055 the Abbasid caliph al-Qa'im, in order to free himself from dependence on the Shi'a Buyids who held Baghdad, sent the famous Baghdadi scholar, jurist and qadi al-Mawardi to Tughril Bey to request the aid of the Seljuk ruler Tughril Bey. Basasiri — the commander of the caliphate's guard forces, the real power in Baghdad, of Turkic origin but of the Shi'a persuasion — at first agreed to receive support. But later Basasiri departed from this position and fell out with the Buyids. Caliph al-Qa'im, taking advantage of this rift, invited Tughril Bey to Baghdad.

In the campaign he made to Baghdad in 1055 to save the Abbasid caliph from the Shi'a, Tughril Bey fought the Buyids and inflicted a heavy defeat on them. Taking captive al-Malik al-Rahim, the last Buyid ruler in Iraq, Tughril Bey put an end to that state. Tughril Bey entered Baghdad and assumed the protectorship of the Abbasid caliphate.

His viziers

Abu'l-Qasim Buzgani (Juvayni, Kevbani, Salar-i Buzgan)

Ra'is al-ru'asa Mika'il (Sahib Abu Abdullah Husayn ibn Ali ibn Mika'il)

Amid al-Mulk Abu Nasr al-Kunduri

In popular culture

He was portrayed by Barış Bağcı in the television series Alparslan: Büyük Selçuklu, which began airing on TRT 1 in 2021.

Sources

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