[852-1055 A.D.]
While Mahmud’s troops were swarming over India, Mawarannahar fell into the power of the tribes of Turkestan. The sultan committed the error of allowing these enemies to remain, and himself introduced into his dominions the Seljuk Turks, who had recently been converted to Islam, and demanded grants of land in Khorasan. Masud, who succeeded his father in 1028, tried to rid himself of these formidable neighbours, but was defeated and could do no more thereafter than remain on the defensive. Toghril Beg, grandson of Seljuk, soon gained a second victory more decisive than the first over the Ghaznevids and drove them back towards India. Turning westward he invaded Khawarizm, Jorjan, Irak-Djeni, and then invaded the dominions of the Buyid princes.
The greatest disorder reigned at Baghdad. To escape the troubles by which he was beset, the caliph Kaim had placed himself under the protection of Toghril Beg, and relinquished the temporal power over all the states of Islam to that prince, who had made great display of piety by erecting temples to Mohammed in all the conquered cities. The ceremony of the investiture took place in Baghdad. After kissing the dust before the caliph, who was clothed in the black garments of the Abbasids, Toghril Beg ascended the throne that had been especially prepared for him and received upon his head the two crowns which signified his sovereignty over the double realm of Persia and Arabia. To further cement this union of the East with the West, the sister of Toghril Beg was given to the caliph in marriage, and the title of sultan was introduced in the khotba, or official prayer.
No sooner had the Turks withdrawn, however, than a general uprising took place at Baghdad, and Abu Temim Mustansir, the Fatimite ruler of Egypt, was proclaimed caliph in place of Kaim. True to his conciliatory policy the sultan came to the rescue of the imprisoned Abbasid prince and replaced him on the throne.
While the Arab predominance was being destroyed little by little, the Greeks were making renewed efforts to regain some of the colonies they had lost. As early as 852 their fleets had carried destruction to the town of Damietta, and a century later they had penetrated as far as Aleppo and had pillaged the treasures of Saif ad-Daula, the Hamdanite prince. Two of their emperors, Nicephorus and Zimisces (963-976), had crossed the Euphrates and made Jezireh swarm with their troops, while a great many strongholds had been reconquered as well as the country Cilicia and the island of Cyprus.
Incapable as they were of resisting the incursions of the Greeks, how were the Baghdad caliphs to check the advance of the warrior hordes of Turkestan, whom the Seljuks had gathered under their banner by the promise of spoils to be gained in the lands they were to conquer? The scattered tribes which the Samanids had easily repulsed in 893 were now united under one chief and formed a mighty force that, sweeping down all obstacles, was to subjugate the whole of western Asia and maintain its supremacy there for centuries to come.
THE SELJUK TURKS
A Turkish Priest