The Seljuqs: Politics, Society and Culture * Edited by CHRISTIAN LANGE and SONGUL MECIT

Abstract

This volume collects the fruits of a conference titled ‘The Seljuqs: Islam Revitalized?’ and held in Edinburgh in 2008. By ‘Seljuqs’ are meant the Great Seljuqs, although three contributions are devoted to the branch known as the Seljuqs of Rūm or Anatolia. Thus, the sweep of the conference was primarily across the region between Transoxania and Iraq, that is, the lands of Persia, in the fifth–seventh/eleventh–thirteenth centuries. Because the Seljuq period was the time in which the Turks first entered Southwest Asia, or the heartlands of the Middle East, in large numbers, with myriad consequences for Islamic history and civilization, not to mention for the Turks themselves, the theme of the conference was easily justified. The book is divided into three parts. The first, on politics, begins with C. Edmund Bosworth, ‘The Origins of the Seljuqs’. Synthesizing the existing primary sources, Bosworth gives a clear and concise account of the tribe of the Oghuz, especially in the fourth–fifth/tenth–eleventh centuries, from which the Seljuqs traced their origin. Carole Hillenbrand, in ‘Aspects of the Court of the Great Seljuqs’, describes three features of the Seljuq court: 1) the nawba, or musical band, which was a symbol of sovereignty; 2) the presence of men of letters who also served as boon companions; and 3) the royal hunt. The first two were new to the Seljuqs while the last, although familiar, took on new symbolism. The adoption of all three was an indication of the assimilation of the nomadic Turks into Perso–Islamic culture. D. G. Tor, in ‘ “Sovereign and Pious”: The Religious Life of the Great Seljuq Sultans’, demonstrates that the public acts of Sunni religious piety by the Seljuq rulers were not simply ritualistic or politically expedient, for these rulers were, in fact, sincere Sunnis; and this in turn was a factor in characterizing the Seljuq period as one of the revival of Sunnism. Did it matter, however, if the Seljuq sultans were sincere Sunnis? For them the maintenance and projection of power overrode religious piety or rectitude. It was what they did that was important and not necessarily what they believed. Songül Mecit, in ‘Kingship and Ideology under the Rum Seljuqs’, analyses inscriptions, including those on coins, to show how an official ideology of kingship for the Seljuqs of Rūm first appeared in the reign of Kılıç Arslan II (r. 551–88/1156–92) and evolved to its final formulation in the reign of Kay Qubādh I (r. 616–34/1220–37). This ideology defined the sultans’ mission, so to speak, and helped legitimize their rule. It was also a defensive mechanism against rivals at home and abroad. Its key elements were jihād, the claim of imperial rule, and a noble lineage that exemplified the ideal Perso–Islamic ruler. A. C. S. Peacock, in ‘Seljuq Legitimacy in Islamic History’, recounts the many dynasties, large and small, in Anatolia that claimed descent, legitimately or falsely, from the Seljuqs of Rūm after the Mongols ended their sultanate. As Peacock notes, it is rather astonishing how powerfully the Seljuq name continued to resonate well into the Ottoman period. Indeed, even today it is a thread that links modern Turkey to Central Asia and constitutes an element in the Turkish national identity.