Alp Arslan, born Muhammad bin Dawud Chaghri, was the second sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. He greatly expanded the Seljuk territory and consolidated his power, defeating rivals to the south and northwest, and his victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, in 1071, ushered in the Turkmen settlement of Anatolia.
Malik-Shah I, was the third sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1072 to 1092, under whom the sultanate reached its zenith of power and influence.
Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi, better known by his honorific title of Nizam al-Mulk was a Persian scholar, jurist, political philosopher and Vizier of the Seljuk Empire. Rising from a lowly position within the empire, he effectively became the de facto ruler of the empire for 20 years after the assassination of Sultan Alp Arslan in 1072, serving as the archetypal "good vizier". Viewed by many historians as "the most important statesman in Islamic history", the policies implemented by Nizam al-Mulk would go on to remain as the basic foundation for administrative state structures in the Muslim world up until the 20th century.
Abu Talib Muhammad Tughril ibn Mika'il, better known as Tughril, was a Turkoman chieftain, who founded the Seljuk Empire, ruling from 1037 to 1063.
Abu Sa'id Taj al-Dawla Tutush or Tutush I, was the Seljuk emir of Damascus from 1078 to 1092, and sultan of Damascus from 1092 to 1094.
Ridwan was a Seljuk emir of Aleppo from 1095 until his death.
Abū'l-Qasim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qa'im better known by his regnal name Al-Muqtadi was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 1075 to 1094. He succeeded his grandfather caliph al-Qa'im in 1075 as the twenty-seventh Abbasid caliph.
Nasir al-Din Mahmud I was the sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1092 to 1094. He succeeded Malik Shah I as Sultan, but he did not gain control of the empire built by Malik Shah and Alp Arslan. The real power was in the hands of his mother Terken Khatun, He was just a figurehead ruler.
Rukn al-Din Abu'l-Muzaffar Berkyaruq ibn Malikshah, better known as Berkyaruq (برکیارق), was the fifth sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1094 to 1105.
Ala al-Din Tekish or Tekesh or Takesh was the Shah of Khwarazmian Empire from 1172 to 1200. He was the son of Il-Arslan. His rule was contested by his brother, Sultan Shah, who held a principality in Khorasan. Tekish inherited Sultan Shah's state after he died in 1193. In Turkic, the name Tekish means he who strikes in battle.
Mu'ayyid al-Din Ai-Aba was the amir of Nishapur from c. 1154 until his death. Although nominally subservient to the Seljuks of Khurasan, he acted as an independent ruler. Due to his control of much of Khurasan, the historian Ibn Funduq called him "Emperor of Khurasan, King of the East."
This article concerns the city of Ray, Iran as a military objective, not the large territory of which it was once capital. Ray, in an area of fertile lowland between the Zagros Mountains, the Elburz Mountains, and the great Dasht-e Kavir desert, commanded vital routes across and around the mountains, and was a key to power over the whole of Persia (Iran). The vast majority of ancient Persian literature has been lost, so little is known about the history of Ray before the arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE.
Toghrul III was the last sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire and the last Seljuk Sultan of Iraq. His great uncle Sultan Ghiyath ad-Din Mas'ud had appointed Shams ad-Din Eldiguz as atabeg of his nephew Arslan-Shah, the son of his brother Toghrul II, and transferred Arran to his nephew's possession as iqta in 1136. Eldiguz eventually married Mu’mina Khatun, the widow of Toghril II, and his sons Nusrat al-Din Muhammad Pahlavan and Qizil Arslan Uthman were thus half-brothers of Arslan Shah, but despite close ties with the Royal Seljuk house, Eldiguz had remain aloof of the royal politics, concentrating on repelling the Georgians and consolidating his power. In 1160, Sultan Suleiman-Shah named Arslan Shah his heir and gave him governorship of Arran and Azerbaijan, fearful of the power of Eldiguz.
The Khwarazmian or Khwarezmian Empire was a culturally Persianate, Sunni Muslim empire of Turkic mamluk origin. Khwarazmians ruled large parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran in the approximate period of 1077 to 1231, first as vassals of the Seljuk Empire and the Qara Khitai, and from circa 1190 as independent rulers, up until the Mongol conquest in 1219–1221.
Terken Khatun was the second/third wife and chief consort of Malik Shah I, Sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1072, until his death in 1092. She was born as a Karakhanid princess, the daughter of Tamghach Khan Ibrahim. She was the mother of Mahmud I, the next ruler of the Seljuk Empire, and regent during his minority in 1092–1094.
Savtegin was a prominent emir of the early Seljuk Empire, during the reigns of Tughril I, Alp Arslan, and Malik-Shah I. His full name in Arabic, as given by Münejjim Bāshī Ahmad Effendi, was 'Imād ad-Dawlah Sarhang Sāw Takīn. He first appears in sources during the reign of Tughril I, when he was sent as an ambassador when rumors arose that Ibrahim Yinal would rebel. He later took part in the campaign against Arslan Besasîrî, a Turkic commander under the Buyids who had captured the Abbasid caliph al-Qa'im. Arslan Besasîrî was killed in battle on 18 January 1060. Later, in April–May 1061, Savtegin was part of the delegation sent to Baghdad to negotiate a marriage between Tughril and al-Qa'im's daughter Sayyida.
The Banū Jahīr, were a family that produced several high-ranking government officials who at various times served both the Abbasids and the Seljuks. Most notably, they dominated the Abbasid vizierate for almost 50 years during the second half of the 11th century and then in the early years of the 12th century. They were also known as the Āl Jahīr, or "the people of Jahir".
Fakhr ad-Dawla Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jahīr, also called Fakhr ad-Dawla, Ibn Jahir, or Fakhr ad-Dawla ibn Jahir, (1007-1090) was an 11th-century government official who served 5 different dynasties, most notably as vizier under the Abbasids and later as a provincial governor under the Seljuk Empire. He was the founder of the Banu Jahir political dynasty.
Sa'd ad-Dawla Gohar-Ā'īn was an 11th-century Turkic eunuch mamluk who served as a government official, diplomat, and military commander for the Seljuk Empire. The name "Gohar-Ā'īn" means "jewel-mirror". Medieval authors had differing opinions about him – Ibn al-Jawzi spoke highly of him, praising "his capability, clear view, and leadership of the army" as well as his "piousness, uprightness and justice". Ibn al-Athir also had a positive opinion of him, saying he "did not take anything for himself from the people of his wilaya". Bundari, on the other hand, spoke negatively of him, calling him "cunning like a dog, something like a beast, a man without penis, a woman without vagina".
Musa Yabghu or Musa Ibn Seljuk was a Turkish ruler from the Seljuk family and one of the four sons of Seljuk Bey. His brother Arslan Yabghu wanted to lead the family when he was captured by the Ghaznavids, but was overshadowed by his nephews Tughril and Chaghri, who took charge of eastern affairs in the family council that met after the Battle of Dandanaqan. His son Hasan Bey was killed by the Georgians in an operation in eastern Anatolia in 1047.
