List of battles involving the Seljuk Empire

This is an incomplete list of battles fought by the Seljuk Empire.

Azerbaijan

Turkmenistan

Turkey

Afghanistan

Iran

Iraq

Uzbekistan

Syria

Georgia

( Color legend for the location of the battle )

Year	Name	Location	Seljuk commander	Opponent	Victor
1032	Battle of Dabusiyya		Ali-Tegin & Seljuk allies	Altun Tash (Ghaznavid general)	Indecisive [1]
1035	Battle of Nasa	Tabaristan	Chaghri Beg	Begtoghdi (Ghaznavid chamberlain)	Seljuq Turks [2]
1038	Battle of Sarakhs	Sarakhs	Tughril	Abu'l-Fadl Suri (Ghaznavid governor of Khurasan)	Seljuq Turks [3]
1040	Battle of Dandanaqan	near Merv	Chaghri Beg, Tughril	Mas'ud I of Ghazni (Ghaznavid Sultan)	Seljuq Turks [4]
November 1040	Siege of Zaranj	Zaranj	Ertash (Seljuq Turks)	Abu l-Fadl (Ghaznavid commander)	Abu l-Fadl joined Seljuq Turks and Zaranj was occupied. [5]
1043-44		Tokharistan	Alp Arslan	Mawdud (Ghaznavid Sultan)	Seljuq Turks [6]
1045-6		near Zaranj	Ertash (Seljuq Turks)		Ghaznavids [7]
1046	Battle of Ganja	near Ganja	Qutalmish	Byzantine army	Seljuk Turks [8]
1048	Battle of Kapetrou	near Erzurum	İbrahim Yinal Qutalmish	Katakalon Kekaumenos (Byzantine general)	Seljuk Turks [9]
1051	Battle of Hupyan	Hupyan	Alp Arslan	Toghrul of Ghazna (Ghaznavid general)	Ghaznavids [10]
1063	Battle of Damghan	Damghan	Alp Arslan	Qutalmish	Alp Arslan [11]
1064	Siege of Akhalkalaki	Akhalkalaki	Alp Arslan	Bagrat IV of Georgia	Alp Arslan [12]
1064	Siege of Ani (1064)	Ani	Alp Arslan	Byzantine Empire	Alp Arslan [13]
1071	Battle of Manzikert	Malazgirt	Alp Arslan	Emperor Romanos IV	Alp Arslan [14]
1074	Battle of Partskhisi	Partskhisi	Savtegin	George II of Georgia	George II [15]
1086	Battle of Aleppo	near Aleppo, Syria	Suleiman ibn Qutalmish	Tutush I	Tutush I [16]
1095	Battle of Rey	near Rey, Iran	Tutush I Emir of Damascus	Barkiyaruq Sultan Seljuk Empire	Barkiyaruq [17]
1097	Battle of Dorylaeum	Dorylaeum	Kilij Arslan I, Gazi Gümüshtigin	Crusaders: Bohemond of Taranto Robert Curthose Godfrey of Bouillon Adhemar of Le Puy	Crusader victory [18]
1107	Battle of Khabur river	near Mosul, Iraq	Kilij Arslan I	Muhammad I Tapar	Muhammad I Tapar [19]
1115	Battle of Sarmin	Sarmin, Syria	Bursuq bin Bursuq of Hamadan	Roger of Salerno Regent of Antioch	Roger of Salerno [20]
1117	2nd Battle of Ghazni	plain of Shahrabad, near Ghazni [21]	Ahmad Sanjar Bahram-Shah	Arslan Shah (Sultan of Ghaznavid Empire)	Ahmad Sanjar (Sultan of the Great Seljuq Empire) [21]
1119	Battle of Saveh	Saveh, Iran	Mahmud II of Great Seljuq	Ahmad Sanjar	Ahmad Sanjar [22]
1121	Battle of Didgori	Didgori Valley	Ilghazi	David IV of Georgia	David IV [23]
1141	Battle of Qatwan	north Samarkand	Ahmad Sanjar, Sultan of the Seljuk Empire	Yelü Dashi, Emperor of the Qara Khitai	Qara Khitai [24]
1152	Battle of Nab	Near Herat	Ala al-Din Husayn(Ghurid)	Ahmad Sanjar, Sultan of the Seljuk Empire	Ahmad Sanjar [25]
1176	Battle of Myriokephalon	Near Lake Beyşehir	Kilij Arslan II Sultan of Rum	Manuel I Komnenos Byzantine Emperor	Sultanate of Rum [26]
1243	Battle of Kose Dag	between Erzincan and Gümüşhane	Kaykhusraw II Sultan of Rum	Baiju Mongol general	Mongols [27]

References

1. Bosworth 1968, p. 19.
2. Ibn al-Athir 2002, p. 35.
3. Safi 2006, p. 24.
4. Grousset 1991, p. 147.
5. Bosworth 1977, p. 28.
6. Bosworth 1977, p. 26.
7. Bosworth 1977, p. 29.
8. Sicker 2000, p. 54.
9. Beihammer 2011, p. 606-607.
10. Bosworth 1977, p. 43.
11. Basan 2010, p. 72.
12. Rayfield 2012, p. 81.
13. Peacock 2005, p. 214.
14. Tucker 2011, p. 108.
15. Theotokis & Meško 2020, p. 233.
16. Grousset 1991, p. 154.
17. Bosworth 1968, p. 38.
18. Runciman 1969, p. 292-294.
19. Turan 1970, p. 239.
20. Smail 1995, p. 29.
21. Bosworth 1977, p. 96.
22. Bosworth 1968, p. 120.
23. Coene 2009, p. 113.
24. Biran 2005, p. 41.
25. Bosworth 1968, p. 161.
26. Magdalino 1993, p. 98.
27. Wolper 1995, p. 40.

Sources

• Ibn al-Athir, 'Izz al-Din (2002). Hillenbrand, Carole (ed.). The Annals of the Saljuq Turks. Translated by Richards, D.S. Routledge.
• Basan, Osman Aziz (2010). The Great Seljuqs: A History. Routledge.
• Beihammer, Alexander D. (2011). "Defection across the Border of Islam and Christianity: Apostasy and Cross-Cultural Interaction in Byzantine-Seljuk Relations". Speculum. 86, No. 3 July.
• Biran, Michal (2005). The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press.
• Bosworth, C.E. (1968). "The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (A.D. 1000-1217)". In Boyle, J.A. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran: The Saljuq and Mongol Period. Vol. 5. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–202.
• Bosworth, C.E. (1977). The Later Ghaznavids:Splendour and Decay. Columbia University Press.
• Coene, Frederik (2009). The Caucasus - An Introduction. Routledge.
• Grousset, Rene (1991). The Empire of the Steppes: a History of Central Asia. Translated by Walford, Naomi. Rutgers University Press.
• Magdalino, Paul (1993). The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180. Cambridge University Press.
• Peacock, Andrew (2005). "Nomadic Society and the Seljūq Campaigns in Caucasia". Iran and the Caucasus. Brill: 205–230.
• Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia. Reaktion books.
• Runciman, Steven (1969). "The First Crusade: Antioch to Ascalon". In Setton, Kenneth M.; Baldwin, Marshall W. (eds.). A History of the Crusade. pp. 280–307.
• Safi, Omid (2006). The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam: Negotiating Ideology and Religious Inquiry. University of North Carolina Press.
• Sicker, Martin (2000). The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna. Greenwood Publishers.
• Smail, R. C. (1995). Crusading Warfare, 1097-1193. Cambridge University Press.
• Theotokis, Georgios; Meško, Marek, eds. (2020). War in Eleventh-Century Byzantium. Routledge.
• Tucker, Spencer (2011). Battles that Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO.
• Turan, Osman (1970). "Anatolia in the Period of the Seljuks and the Beyliks". In Holt, Peter Malcolm; Lambton, Ann K. S.; Lewis, Bernard (eds.). The Cambridge History of Islam. Cambridge University Press.
• Wolper, Ethel Sara (1995). Necipoğlu, Gülru (ed.). "The Politics of Patronage:Political Change and the Construction of Dervish Lodges in Sivas". Muqarnas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. XII. Brill.