Seljuk Empire

The Seljuk Empire was a Sunni Muslim Turkic empire that rose from the Central Asian steppes to dominate the Middle East and Anatolia. The Seljuks revitalised the weakened Abbasid Caliphate, adopting the title of Sultan while leaving the Caliph as a figurehead. Their victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 opened Anatolia to Turkish settlement and fundamentally altered the region's demographic and cultural character. The empire was never tightly centralised; it fragmented into rival sultanates governing different regions, including the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia. Internal divisions, conflicts with crusaders, and pressure from the rising Khwarazmian Empire led to the collapse of the Great Seljuk Sultanate by the late twelfth century.

• Existed: 1037 CE – 1194 CE
• Type: Empire
• Government: sultanate
• Capital: Isfahan