Crossword clues for seljuk
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Turkish dynasty of 11c.-13c., c.1600 (Selzuccian), from Turkish seljuq, name of reputed ancestor of the dynasty.
Wikipedia
Seljuk ( Saljūq; also Seldjuk, Seldjuq, Seljuq; died 1038) was the eponymous hero of the Seljuq Turks. He was the son of a certain Toqaq surnamed Temür Yalığ (meaning "of the iron bow") and either the chief or an eminent member from the Kınık tribe of the Oghuz Turks. In 985, the Seljuq clan split off from the bulk of the Tokuz-Oghuz, a confederacy of nine clans long settled between the Aral and Caspian Seas. They set up camp on the right bank of the lower Syr Darya ( Jaxartes), in the direction of Jend, near Kzyl Orda in present-day south-central Kazakhstan. There, in 985, Seljuk converted to Islam.
The biblical names of his four sons — Mikail, (Michael), Isrâîl ( Israel), Mûsâ (Moses), and Yûnus (Jonah) — suggest previous acquaintance with either Khazar Judaism or Nestorian Christianity. According to some sources, Seljuk began his career as an officer in the Khazar army.
Under Mikâîl's sons Tuğrul and Çağrı, the Seljuqs migrated into Khurasan. Ghaznavid attempts to stop Seljuqs raiding the local Muslim populace led to the Battle of Dandanaqan on 23 May 1040. Victorious Seljuqs became masters of Khurasan, expanding their power into Transoxiana and across Iran. By 1055, Tuğrul had expanded his control all the way to Baghdad, setting himself up as the champion of the Abbasid caliph, who honored him with the title sultan. Earlier rulers may have used this title but the Seljuqs seem to have been the first to inscribe it on their coins.
Seljuk was the founder of the Turko-Persian Seljuk dynasty in the Middle East and central Asia.
Seljuk may also mean:
- Seljuk dynasty, the dynasty founded by Seljuk
- Seljuq Empire, the medieval empire founded and ruled by the dynasty
- Seljuq Sultanate of Rum, the medieval empire founded by later members of the dynasty
- Seljuk Tower, the 11th tallest building in Turkey
Usage examples of "seljuk".
Syria was conquered by the Fatimites, who were succeeded by the Seljuks, who captured Damascus about A.
Mongols began to pour in from the east, sacking Samarkand and overrunning most of the expanse of the old Parthia before a Moslem army of Seljuks, Swarizmi, Kurds, Ortuquids, Zangids, Abbasids, and Azerbaijans met them on the banks of the Tigris and were soundly trounced.
Although the Mongol conquest was brief, it was terrible, and it broke the power of the Islamic Arabs, paving the way for the rise of the Turkish empires, first of the Seljuks and later of the Ottomans, who would rule Iraq for nearly four hundred years, until the First World War.
The chief from whom the dynasty of Seljuks derived its appellation, was by birth a Turkoman, of Turkistan, on the north-eastern side of the river Sihon or Jaxartes, but in the service of a prince of Khozar, on the Wolga, from which he fled and pursued his fortune in Transoxiana.