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| 1008 |
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| Death of Badi’ al-Zaman al-Hamadhani, a master of Arabic prose who established the literary genre known as maqamat, dramatic anecdotes narrated in elaborate rhymed prose. Abu Muhammad al-Qasim al-Hariri (d. 1122), a writer from Basra, raised this form to new heights in his maqamat, although his excessive concern with displaying his verbal tricks drove Arabic prose to a certain formalistic extreme. | 1 |
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| c. 1020 |
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| Death of Firdawsi, among the preeminent poets of Iran. His monumental historical epic, Shah-nama (Book of Kings), narrates (in some 60,000 double lines) the legendary history of Iran, describing the exploits of the hero Rustam as well as court histories of the Sassanians. Exquisitely illuminated manuscripts of the work were produced over the centuries. | 2 |
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| 1030 |
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| Death of Abu Ali Miskawayh, author of Tajarib al-umam (The Experiences of the Nations), one of the greatest histories of the region. He served in the Buyid administration, and a strong sense of good government and official responsibility colors his accounts and interpretations of events. | 3 |
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| 1036–51 |
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| RISE OF SELJUK POWER IN IRAN. Chagri Beg and his brother Tughril Beg, chieftains of the Seljuk family, invaded Khurasan at the head of armies of Turkoman nomads. They defeated the Ghaznavids in the Battle of Dandanqan (1040) and won control of Khurasan before moving west to take the regions of Rayy (1042) and Isfahan (1051). | 4 |
| THE SELJUKS were a leading family of the Oghuz Turks from central Asia, a nomadic tribal people who converted to Islam around the end of the 10th century. The Seljuks moved to Transoxania and became involved as mercenaries in the struggles among Muslim dynasties in the region before crossing the Oxus River into Ghaznavid territories in Khurasan around 1025. Their campaigns of conquest formed part of the great migration of nomadic Turks into the Middle East in the 11th century, a period when whole tribes of Turkoman pastoralists in search of booty and grazing land swept through the region, overrunning settled areas on their trek westward. The Seljuks rode this human wave to create a new Islamic empire. | 5 |
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| 1037 |
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| Death of Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great physician, scientist, and philosopher. Born to a Persian official in 980, he studied science and medicine and produced numerous scholarly works that contributed to all natural sciences. His monumental study of medical science, al-Qanun fi al-tibb (Canon of Medicine), became a standard reference work. He also gave a new vitality to philosophic thought, incorporating mystical approaches to the reconciliation of Greek theosophy with the scriptural tradition. | 6 |
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| c. 1050 |
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| Death of Muhammad al-Biruni (b. 973), considered among the most learned scholars of the Islamic world. He wrote more than 100 books, including works on natural science, mathematics, and astronomy, and a remarkable description of India. | 7 |
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| 1055, Dec |
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| SELJUK OCCUPATION OF BAGHDAD, AND THE SELJUK SULTANATE. Tughril Beg entered the Abbasid capital, put an end to Buyid power, and was recognized by the caliph as sultan. By the time of his death in 1063 he had established Seljuk rule throughout Iran and Iraq. Under his successors Alp Arslan (1063–72) and Malikshah (1072–92), the Seljuks extended their domination into parts of Syria and Anatolia, establishing an empire that stretched from the Oxus River to the Mediterranean. But after Malikshah's death, and especially after the rule of his son Muhammad I (1105–18), the empire ceased to exist as a unified state. Members of the Seljuk family divided the provinces among themselves, founding independent dynasties in various parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia. These were largely short-lived provincial regimes that disappeared before the 13th-century Mongol invasion or in its wake. | 8 |
| The Seljuks tried to establish a unified empire by adopting a central administration along Persian lines and creating slave armies that would reduce their dependence on the unruly Turkoman nomads who had conquered the empire. But several of their tribal practices worked to disperse political power and fragment the state. They viewed the right to rule as belonging to various members of the family rather than to a single person, and recognized the right of tribes to receive whole areas for grazing and habitation, along with a great degree of autonomy. They also resorted to the institution of the atabeg, a Turkish commander appointed to serve as tutor to a minor Seljuk prince and to govern in his name. In time, some atabegs won control of their wards' provinces and established their own principalities and dynasties. The most notable was founded by Zangi, who governed Mosul and Aleppo (1127–46). | 9 |
| Another distinct feature of the Seljuk regime was payment of soldiers with iqta’, which granted them the right to collect taxes from the population of assigned lands and keep them in lieu of salary. Due to abuse and the decline of central authority, these grants became hereditary, and the tax-collecting rights were turned by the assignees into private property and became the basis of autonomous political power. The institution of the iqta’ predated the Seljuks, but became under them a central feature of Middle Eastern government. | 10 |
| The Seljuks set in motion the process by which Iran acquired its large Turkish population. The greatest influx of Turks into the region appears to have taken place later on, as a result of the Mongol invasions. | 11 |
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| 1058 |
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| Death of Ali al-Mawardi (b. c. 974), an important Sunni jurist and political theorist whose work al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya (The Principles of Government) was a comprehensive blueprint for the functioning of an Islamic government. His concern was to make a case for the relevance of the caliphate at a time when its actual powers were stripped by the sultanates.1063–92. Nizam al-Mulk (b. 1018) served as chief minister for the Seljuk sultans Alp Arslan and Malikshah. An able statesman, he centralized the empire along Persian bureaucratic lines. His treatise Siyasat-nama (The Book of Government) remains one of the most notable examples of the “mirrors for princes” literature. It defined the rules of good government and gave the sultan practical advice on statecraft. He was assassinated by the Nizari Isma’ilis (the Assassins). | 12 |
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| 1067 |
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| The Madrasa al-Nizamiyya, an important Shafi’i religious college, was founded in Baghdad by the Seljuk chief minister Nizam al-Mulk. He established madrasas in other major cities as well, as part of a state policy of patronizing religious institutions and calming the fierce factional rivalries that raged at the time among the Shafi’i, Hanafi, and Hanbali schools of law. | 13 |
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| 1071, Aug. 26 |
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| BATTLE OF MANZIKERT. The armies of the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeated the Byzantine forces on the Muslim-Byzantine frontier near Lake Van and captured the Byzantine emperor. The battle resulted in the collapse of the Byzantine frontier defenses and the opening of Anatolia to Turkish invasion and settlement. In the following two centuries, Turkoman tribesmen and war bands occupied most of Anatolia, setting in motion the transformation of this Christian land into a Muslim, Turkish-speaking territory. | 14 |
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| 1071–1177 |
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| The Danishmendids of Anatolia. Malik Danishmend, whose origins and exploits remain obscure, founded a principality based in the north and center of Anatolia. It was a rival of the neighboring Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, which finally absorbed its territories. | 15 |
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| 1075–1307 |
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| THE SELJUK SULTANATE OF RUM. A Seljuk prince named Suleyman ibn Kutalmish (d. 1086) launched a campaign of conquests in Anatolia and founded an extensive state that formed one of the leading powers in the region. Its capital, initially in Iznik (Nicaea), was established at Konya (Iconium) in 1097. The Seljuks built up an impressive sedentary Islamic state in the newly conquered lands: they maintained a standing army and developed bureaucracy, promoted agriculture and trade, and lent support to the creation of Sunni religious institutions. They attained the zenith of their power and prosperity in the period from 1200 to 1243, after which they became a Mongol protectorate. The sultanate faded out of history after the death of its last ruler, Mas'ud III, in 1307. | 16 |
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