This article is about the specific polity Seljuk Empire and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
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Was a Sunni Mulsim Epire in in Asia, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. At its maximal extent it spanned from central Anatolia to Pakistan. The Seljuks ruled large territories through vassals. In the second half of the XII century the empire quickly fragmented in a multitude of former vassals that gained independence and in successor states.
Establishment
January 1036: The Seljuk Empire or Seljuq Empire was established and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Expansion during the rule of Tughril I in the Seljuk Empire.
January 1038: In 1037, the Seljuqs managed to force the Ghaznavids to cede them Sarakhs, Abivard and Marw.
January 1038: The Seljuk Empire Capture Merv and Nishapur (1037).
May 1040: In 1040 at the Battle of Dandanaqan, the Seljuqs decisively defeated Mas'ud I of the Ghaznavids, forcing him to abandon most of his western territories.
January 1041: Mas'ud was unable to preserve the empire and following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040, he lost all the Ghaznavid lands in Iran and Central Asia to the Seljuks.
January 1043: In 1041/2, Seljuk Sultan Tughril conquered Tabaristan and Gurgan.
January 1044: Ray and Qazvin conquered by Seljuk Empire.
January 1044: In around 1043 the Seljuk sultan Toghril Beg received the submission of the salar of Tarum, who became his vassal and submitted tribute.
January 1044: Seljuk suzerainty was acknowledged by the Justanid ruler of Dailam.
January 1045: Seljuk sultan moved on to the conquest of the Iranian plateau in 1040-1044.
January 1053: Faramurz's reign was cut short by the Seljuks, who after a year-long siege of Isfahan took the city in 1051 or 1052. Despite this, Faramurz was given Yazd and Abarkuh in fief by the Seljuks.
January 1054: Between 1053 and 1154 Oman was part of the Seljuk Empire.
January 1056: The Oghuz Yabgu State was ruled by the Oghuz Turks, with the title of Yabgu being a high-ranking official. In 1055, the territory of Oghuz Yabgu State was conquered by the Great Seljuk Empire.
January 1056: In 1055, Seljuk sultan Tughrul conquered Baghdad, the seat of the Buyid caliphate, and ousted the last of the Buyid rulers.
January 1061: Seljuk Sultan Tughril reconquered Baghdad and personally strangled his foster brother İbrahim Yinal who had defected to th Fatimids.
1.1.Battle of Dandanaqan
Fought in 1040 between the Seljuqs and the Ghaznavid Empire near the city of Merv (present-day Turkmenistan). The battle ended with a Seljuq victory and brought down the Ghaznavid domination in the Khorasan.
Were a series of military conflicts between the Seljuk Empire and its vassals against the Kingdom of Georgia.
August 1068: As soon as Selljuk sultan Alp Arslan left Georgia, Bagrat recovered Kartli in July 1068.
December 1068: On 10 December 1068, Selljuk sultan Alp Arslan, dissatisfied with the act of the last Caucasian monarch that he had not yet submitted, accompanied by the kings of Lorri and Kakheti as well as the emir of Tbilisi marched against Bagrat again. The provinces of Kartli and Argveti were occupied and pillaged.
2.1.Georgian Reconquista
Were a series of military campaigns by the Kingdom of Georgia to reconquer lands controlled by the Seljukids and their vassals.
January 1111: Following the annexation of Kakheti, in 1105, David routed a Seljuk punitive force at the Battle of Ertsukhi, leading to momentum that helped him to secure the key fortresses of Samshvilde, Rustavi, Gishi, and Lori between 1110 and 1118.
January 1117: King David of Georgia attacked the Seljuk Turks in Tao and captured the region of Tao-Klarjeti.
January 1117: Following the annexation of Kakheti, in 1105, David routed a Seljuk punitive force at the Battle of Ertsukhi, leading to momentum that helped him to secure the key fortresses of Samshvilde, Rustavi, Gishi, and Lori between 1110 and 1118.
August 1121: King David routed the enemy army on the fields of Didgori, with fleeing Seljuq Turks being run down by pursuing Georgian cavalry for several days. A huge amount of booty and prisoners were captured by David's army, which had also secured Tbilisi, the last Muslim enclave remaining from the Arab occupation.
January 1125: In 1124, Georgian king David conquered Shirvan and took the Armenian city of Ani from the Muslim emirs.
Were a series of conflicts in the Middle Ages between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire.
January 1072: Romanus IV put himself back at the head of the army and marched towards Manzicerta to reconquer it. On August 26, 1071, Byzantine and Seljuk forces clashed in the second Battle of Manzikert. Romanus IV was defeated and captured by Alp Arslan.
January 1073: In 1072, Byzantine emperor Michael VII sent Ballieul to Asia Minor to bring those territories back under imperial authority. Ballieul liberated large territories of Galatia.
January 1074: Within two years the Turkmens had established control as far as the Aegean Sea under numerous beghliks.
January 1076: In 1075, the Seljuks captured the Byzantine cities of Nicaea (İznik) and Nicomedia (İzmit).
January 1078: Erzurum was occupied by the Byzantine in 1077.
January 1079: While the Seljuks strengthened themselves in Anatolia thanks to Suleyman, general Filareto Bracamio, who remained isolated from Constantinople, led a long resistance that led to the formation of a principality under Byzantine nominal authority but in fact almost autonomous, which controlled Cilicia (including Tarsus, Mamistra and Anazarbe) and Edessa.
January 1080: Erzurum conquered by Seljuk Empire.
January 1085: In 1084 the Seljuks waged war against Bracamio and wrested Antioch from him.
January 1088: In 1087, it was the sultan Malik Shah who attacked the domains of Bracamio, wresting Edessa from him.
January 1100: The Anamur Region was ruled by Sultanate of Rum between 1075 and 1099, when it was reconquered by the Byzantines.
June 1104: When the Principality of Antioch was defeated at the Battle of Harran in 1104, the Byzantine Empire took advantage of their weakness and captured Margat from the Muslims.
June 1119: In the spring of 1119, Byzantine emperor John Comnenus landed with a large army in Attalia and moved against Laodicea, occupied by the Turks: the siege of Laodicea ended with a clear victory for the Byzantines who thus reoccupied the lands of Attalia.
January 1120: Byzantine emperor John Comnenus besieged and recaptured Laodicea in 1119.
January 1121: The Byzantines took Sozopolis by storm in 1120.
January 1122: In 1119-1121 John II Komnenos, the Byzantine Emperor, defeated the Seljuq Turks, establishing his control over southwestern Anatolia.
January 1136: In 1135, the Byzantine Empire, under the rule of John II Komnenos, successfully reconquered their ancestral home of Kastamonu (Kastra Komnenon) from the Turks.
January 1140: The Byzantine Emperor marched for the final time against the Danishmend Turks, his army proceeding along the southern coast of the Black Sea through Bithynia and Paphlagonia. The region of Chaldia brought back under direct imperial control.
January 1140: Territorial change based on available maps.
January 1141: John Komnenos besieged but failed to take the city of Neocaesarea, in 1140.
April 1143: The Asian frontier reached by the Byzantine Empire by the death of John II Komnenos.
3.1.Seljuk invasion of Asia minor
Was the invasion of Asia Minor by the Seljuq Turks.
January 1065: The Seljuks captured Caesarea Mazaca, the capital of Cappadocia.
January 1065: Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan marched into Armenia and Georgia, conquering these regions.
January 1068: The Anatolian Seljuks took Aintab in 1067.
January 1069: In 1068 the Seljuks reached as far as Neocesarea and Amorio.
January 1070: In 1067 the Seljuq Turks invaded Asia Minor attacking Caesarea and in 1069 Iconium.
January 1082: Byzantine gains at the time of the accession of Alexios I Komnenos.
3.1.1.Seljikid conquest of Iconio
Seljukid conquest of Iconio.
January 1070: Seljukid conquest of Iconio.
3.1.2.Seljukid invasion of Cappadocia
Seljukid invasion of Cappadocia.
January 1070: Seljukid invasion of Cappadocia.
3.2.Seljukid invasion of Pontus
Seljukid invasion of Pontus.
January 1069: Seljukid invasion of Pontus.
3.3.Byzantine conquest of Ephesos
Byzantine conquest of Ephesos from the Seljuks.
January 1099: Byzantine conquest of Ephesos.
3.4.Byzantine conquest of Philadelphia
Byzantine conquest of Philadelphia from the Seljuks.
January 1099: Byzantine conquest of Philadelphia.
3.5.Byzantine conquest of Sardis
Byzantine conquest of Sardis from the Seljuks.
January 1099: Byzantine conquest of Sardis.
Expansion during the rule of Malik Shah I in the Seljuk Empire.
January 1073: Territorial change based on available maps.
April 1073: Malik-Shah managed to repel the Karakhanids and captured Tirmidh.
January 1074: In 1073, the Seljuk Turks captured Jerusalem.
January 1080: The great sultan of the Seljuk Empire, Malik Shah I, occupied Syria, removing it from the control of the local Arab princes and Turkish lords who had already settled there.
January 1086: After Nasr al-Dawla's death, the Marwanids' power declined. Henceforth, the Diyar Bakr fell almost entirely under the direct rule of the Seljuqs.
January 1087: Syrian Seljuks occupied the areas of Kyrrhos and Gaziantep (Ayntab) in 1086.
January 1089: The Beylik of Smirna was a Turkish polity established in 1088.
January 1090: Seljuk Malik-Shah marched to Semirechye, and made the Karakhanid Harun Khan ibn Sulayman, who was the ruler of Kashgar and Khotan, acknowledge him as his suzerain.
January 1090: In 1089, Seljuk Malik-Shah captured Samarkand with the support of the local clergy, and imprisoned its Karakhanid ruler.
Norman mercenaries, led by Roussel de Bailleul, rebelled against the Byzantines, crushed an imperial army, and attempted to establish an independent kingdom in Anatolia. .
January 1074: In 1073 following the disastrous Battle of Manzikert, Frankish mercenaries under Roussel de Bailleul seized control of Ankara and governed the region for several months.
January 1075: Byzantine emperor Michael VII resorted to the Turks against the usurper: he convinced the Seljuk warlord Tutush I to dismiss Ballieul and the Norman was forced to take refuge in Amasya, where he was later (1074) taken prisoner by Alexius I Comnenus, then only general.
Expansion during the rule of Suleiman I in the Sultanate of Rum.
January 1078: Suleyman I was appointed as a governor in Seljuk possessions in Anatolia. However he acted independently and established an independent state.
January 1085: Suleyman ibn Qutalmish, the founder of the Sultanate of Rum, began to expand eastward taking Antioch and the whole of Cilicia.
January 1087: Edessa conquered by Sultanate of Rum.
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the Medieval period. The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291.
7.1.First Crusade
Was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule.
September 1097: Tancred puts a garrison in Mamistra before leaving Cilicia through the Belen Pass and joins the main crusader army.
October 1097: An English fleet in Byzantine service seizes Latakia.
February 1098: The Crusaders captured the ports of Latakia and Port Saint Symeon.
February 1098: The crusaders capture Harim.
June 1098: After the Siege of Antioch the Principality of Antioch is founded.
September 1098: Raymond IV takes Albara.
January 1099: Siege of Ma'arra.
January 1099: Kyrrhos and Gaziantep (Ayntab) were captured by the Crusaders and united to the Maras Seigneurship in the County of Edessa in 1098.
January 1099: The Fatimids recover Jerusalem in 1098.
March 1099: In January 1099 on the journey to Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the company of Raymond IV of Toulouse came under attack from the garrison of Hisn al-Akrad, the forerunner of the Krak, who harried Raymond's foragers. The following day Raymond marched on the castle and found it deserted. The crusaders briefly occupied the castle in February of the same year but abandoned it when they continued their march towards Jerusalem. Permanent occupation began in 1110.
May 1099: The Crusaders turned inland at Jaffa.
June 1099: The Crusaders reached Ramlah, which had been abandoned by its inhabitants.
June 1099: During the First Crusade Tancred of Hauteville and Gaston IV of Béarn captured Bethlehem.
August 1099: Battle of Ascalon.
7.2.Crusade of 1101
Campaigns that followed the capture of Jerusalem in 1099.
June 1101: The Crusaders (Crusade of 1101) captured Ancyra on June 23, 1101.
August 1101: Battle of Mersivan: massive defeat for the crusaders.
7.3.Battle of Harran
After the great Crusader defeat at the Battle of Harran in 1104, all of Antioch's strongholds east of the Orontes River were abandoned.
May 1104: After the great Crusader defeat at the Battle of Harran in 1104, all of Antioch's strongholds east of the Orontes River were abandoned.
7.4.Battle of Artah
The Battle of Artah was fought in 1105 between Crusader forces and the Seljuk Turks at the town of Artah near Antioch.
May 1105: In mid-spring 1105, the inhabitants of Artah, which is located 40 km east-northeast of Antioch, expelled Antioch's garrison from the fortress and allied with Ridwan of Aleppo or surrendered to the latter upon his approach to the fortress.
7.5.Siege of Tripoli
Tripoli was captured by the Crusaders, becoming the capital of the County of Tripoli.
July 1109: Rafaniya was conquered by the Seljukids.
July 1109: When the Frankish Crusaders - mostly southern French forces - captured Tripoli in 1109, Bertrand of Toulouse became the first Count of Tripoli as a vassal of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.
July 1109: Tripoli is captured by the Crusaders and becomes the capital of the County of Tripoli.
7.6.Norwegian Crusade
Led by Norwegian King Sigurd I, was a crusade that lasted from 1107 to 1111, in the aftermath of the First Crusade.
October 1110: Sidon is besieged by the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
7.7.Battle of Ager Sanguinis
Roger of Salerno's Crusader army of the Principality of Antioch was annihilated by the army of Ilghazi of Mardin, the Artuqid ruler of Aleppo.
June 1119: Roger of Salerno's Crusader army of the Principality of Antioch was annihilated by the army of Ilghazi of Mardin, the Artuqid ruler of Aleppo.
7.8.Venetian Crusade
Was an expedition to the Holy Land launched by the Republic of Venice that succeeded in capturing Tyre.
February 1124: On 15 February 1124, the Venetians and the Franks began the siege of Tyre.
June 1124: Tyre surrendered on 29 June 1124.
7.9.Siege of Aleppo (1124)
The siege of Aleppo by Baldwin II of Jerusalem and his allies lasted from 6 October 1124 to 25 January 1125.
January 1125: The siege of Aleppo by Baldwin II of Jerusalem and his allies lasted from 6 October 1124 to 25 January 1125.
Expansion during the rule of Thoros I in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.
January 1113: Cyzistra conquered by Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.
January 1130: Expansion of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia by 1129.
Expansion during the rule of Bohemond II in the Principality of Antioch.
January 1118: Yaruqtash, the actual ruler of Aleppo, ceded the fortress at al-Qubba to Roger of Salerno, a Norman nobleman who served as the regent of the Principality of Antioch.
January 1118: Antiochene troops seized Saone, Balatanos and Marqab.
June 1119: Antiochene troops take Bizaah.
August 1122: Baldwin II of Antioch occupies al-Bab and Albara.
9.1.Battle of Hab
In the Battle of Hab on August 14, 1119, a Crusader army commanded by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem won a disputed victory over a Muslim army led by Ilghazi of Mardin.
January 1041: Ghaznavid ruler Mas'ud, after having returned to Khorasan, expelled the Seljuqs from Herat and Nishapur.
January 1056: Territorial change based on available maps.
January 1059: A revolt by Turcoman forces in Baghdad against the Seljuqs, led to the loss of the city to the Fatimids Caliph in 1058.
January 1065: Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan marched into Armenia and Georgia, conquering these regions.
January 1065: The Seljuks captured Caesarea Mazaca, the capital of Cappadocia.
January 1069: The Nasrid Dynasty, an Iranian Sunni dynasty, took control of Sistan in 1068 after the collapse of the Ghaznavid Empire.
January 1072: In 1071, when Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan returned from his campaign against the Byzantine Empire, he deposed the Rawadid dynasty.
January 1072: The Georgians were able to recover from Alp Arslan's invasion by securing the theme of Iberia.
January 1073: The Karakhanids, after the death of Alp-Arslan, invaded Tukharistan.
January 1073: In 1072, the Seljuks sold Ani to the Shaddadid emir of Manuchihr.
January 1075: Under Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Abu'l-Hussin b. Abu Sinan, the Uyunid's territory stretched from Najd to the Syrian desert. The country was mainly Bahrain (historical region) in the east of the Arabian Peninsula. It stretched from the south of Basra along the Persian Gulf coast and included the regions of Kuwait, al-Hasa, Qatif, Qatar, and the Awal Islands, now known as Bahrain, UAE and to the edges of Oman.
January 1084: The Zurayids were a Yamite Hamdani dynasty based in Yemen in the time between 1083 and 1174.
January 1091: The Nizari Ismaili, a branch of Shia Islam, created a state of unconnected fortresses across Persia, Syria, and the Fertile Crescent, surrounded by huge swathes of hostile territory.
January 1091: Seljukid conquest of Nicaea.
January 1091: The Nizari Ismaili State Shia Nizari Ismaili state founded by Hassan-i Sabbah after he took control of the Alamut Castle in 1090 AD.
January 1096: Around 1094, the Seljuk emir of Damascus, Tutush I, captured Edessa and installed Thoros (Armenian T‘oros = Theodore), an old lieutenant of Philaretus, as governor. In 1095, Theodore eliminated the Turkish garrison of the citadel and made himself master of the city.
January 1096: In 1089 the Seljuks defeated the Qarakhanids from the western kingdom under the reign of Ahmad I (1081-1095) and occupied Bukhara and Samarkand. Ahmad I could only maintain his power with the support of the Seljuks and the recognition of their sovereignty.
January 1097: The siege of Mosul was a siege carried out by the Seljuks on the city of Mosul, the capital of the Uqaylid dynasty and the seat of its rule. They were able to storm the city in October 1096 AD after the intensification of the 9-months siege. The result was the collapse of the Uqaylid dynasty, after a rule that lasted more than 100 years.
August 1100: Tancred's crusader troops and the Venetians capture Haifa.
January 1101: The castle of Gibelet was built by the Crusaders in the 12th century from indigenous limestone and the remains of Roman structures. The finished structure was surrounded by a moat. It belonged to the Genoese Embriaco family, whose members were the Lords of Gibelet from 1100.
January 1101: The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia occupies Cilicia, taking most of it from the decaying Sultanate of Rum.
January 1101: The Marash Area was captured by the Danishmends.
January 1101: From 1100 to 1207 the Shah-Armens commanded an East Anatolian-Armenian principality (Beylik) with the important and prosperous center Ahlat.
January 1102: Conquests of the County of Edessa by 1101.
January 1103: In 1102, Raymond IV, Count of Tripoli, occupied Tortosa (now Tartus) in present-day Syria.
January 1104: Marash Area conquered by Seljuk Empire.
January 1105: The Burid dynasty was a dynasty of Turkish origin which ruled over the Emirate of Damascus in the early 12th century.
May 1105: Baldwin I of Jerusalem captures Acre with the assistance of Genoese and Pisan fleets.
January 1106: Tancred of Hauteville, regent of the Principality of Antioch, occupied most fortresses near Aleppo.
January 1107: A certain Qarinvand ruler named Amir Mahdi is mentioned in 1106 as one of the vassals of the Bavandid ruler Shahriyar IV.
January 1108: In 1107, Crusaders led by Tancred retook the Marash Area.
June 1109: Tancred of Antioch captures Baniyas and Jabala (Jableh).
May 1110: Baldwin I of Jerusalem and a Genoese fleet capture Beirut.
December 1110: Baldwin I, Sigurd I of Norway and a Venetian fleet capture Sidon.
January 1111: Conquests of the County of Edessa by 1110.
August 1111: Tyre was never conquered during all the military passages in the region.
January 1117: The Annazids are annexed by the seljuk empire.
January 1121: Numayrid emirs continued to hold isolated fortresses in Upper Mesopotamia, such as Qal'at an-Najm and Sinn Ibn Utayr near Samosata until the early 12th century, but nothing is heard of them after 1120.
June 1123: The Seljuks capture Albara.
January 1125: Conquests of the County of Edessa by 1124.
March 1126: The united crusader troops from Jerusalem, Tripoli and Antioch laid siege to Rafaniya on 13 March 1126. Rafaniya fell to the crusaders on 31 March.
January 1128: Zengi, son of Aq Sunqur al-Hajib, became the Seljuk atabeg of Mosul in 1127.
January 1129: The Zengids quickly became the chief Turkic potentate in Northern Syria and Iraq, taking Aleppo from the squabbling Artuqids in 1128.
December 1129: The Franks seized Banias.
January 1132: Conquests of the County of Edessa by 1131.
January 1136: Expansion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by ca. 1140 AD:
January 1137: With the decline of the Seljuks from around the middle of the 12th century, the caliphs al-Muqtafi (1136-1160) and an-Nasir (1180-1225) were able to shed foreign patronage and restore their secular power and authority in what is now Iraq.
January 1137: In 1135, the Danishmends besieged Germanikeia unsuccessfully, but captured it the next year.
January 1138: The Khitans defeated the Western Kara-Khanid Khanate at Khujand in 1137, eventually leading to their control over the Fergana Valley.
January 1138: The Crusaders retook the are of Marash in 1137.
September 1141: The Qara Khitai won the Battle of Qatwan against the Western Kara-Khanids and the Seljuk Empire, which allowed the Khitans to gain control over Transoxiana.
January 1142: In 1141, the Seljuq Sultan Ahmed Sanjar was defeated by the Qara Khitai at the battle of Qatwan, and Anush Tigin's grandson Ala ad-Din Atsiz became a vassal to Yelü Dashi of the Qara Khitan.
January 1150: Sultan Mesud I of the Sultanate of Rum took the area of Marash in 1149.
January 1152: Marash was captured by the Zengids in 1151.
January 1153: The Marash area was recaptured by the Seljuks in 1152.
January 1155: The Seljuks were expelled from Oman in 1154, when the Nabhani dynasty came to power.
January 1155: Between 1053 and 1154 Oman was part of the Seljuk Empire.
Disestablishment
January 1158: When Sultan Ahmad Sanjar died in 1157, the atabegs (governos) of the Seljuk Empire became effectively independent.
January 1158: In 1136, Seljuk Sultan Ghiyath ad-Din Mas'ud (c.1134-1152) appointed Shams ad-Din Eldiguz (c.1135/36-1175) to be an atabeg of Azerbaijan to his possession as iqta. He made himself virtually independent ruler of Azerbaijan by 1146.
Selected Sources
SUBAŞI, Ö (2013): XI. YÜZYILDA TAO-KLARCETİ BÖLGESİNDE TÜRK HÂKİMİYETİ, Turkish Studies - International Periodical For The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, Volume 8/5 Spring 2013, p. 705-731, ANKARA-TURKEY
Shephard, W. R. (1923): Historical Atlas, New York, Henry Holt and Company, p. 68
The Barony of Cilician Armenia, 1080-1099. Armenica.org. Retrieved on 7 April 2024 on https://www.armenica.org/history/en/overview/cilicia1080.html
Tucker, S.C. (2011) Battles that changed History - An Encyclopedia of World Conflict, ABC-CLIO, pp.108-110
Seljuk Empire
