The Seljuks

The Seljuks were a Turkish people who became the principal opponents of the Crusaders in their quest to invade and control the Holy Land. The Seljuks were related to the Oghuz people who later became known as Turkmen or Turcomans. As another tribe, the Kipchaks, were replacing the Pechenegs across Southern Russia, the Seljuks (taking their name from one Seljuk who was an early ruler) split off to begin their conquests, which ultimately took in Transoxiana and Syria, among others. Invited to help the Samanid dynasty in their fight against yet another set of Steppe-based Turks, the Seljuks tok advantage of the opportunity to overthrow the Samanids themselves. Then they defeated the Ghaznavids of eastern Persia and the world, seemingly, became their oyster.

The Seljuks combined the normal Steppe tactics of rapid movement, large-scale co-ordination of different troop formations and massive launching of powerfully shot arrows with the Sarmatian tactic of wearing heavy coats of armour and charging home with the lance. The tactics were on the whole successful – although not nearly so successful against the western Crusaders and their efforts to get to grips with the enemy as quickly as possible as was the case in most confrontations between Steppe people and the western knights. While we remember Saladin and his successors as great heroes and champions, therefore, their example should be set into the context of the much greater successes achieved by the Mongols, the Huns and other Steppe peoples. Nevertheless, the Seljuks were powerful enough to deal to the Byzantine Empire a series of crushing blows from which that great civilization was never really able to recover. While the city, the remnant of the Eastern Roman Empire, held out in one form or another for quite a while longer, decline was evident.

Although the victories of the Crusaders in establishing their Christian states in Palestine and Syria are well-rehearsed in western history and considered to be great triumphs, in reality they were much less relevant to the Seljuk leaders. Indeed, the loss of manpower that would have entailed rapid recovery of those territories meant that leaders preferred to keep their attention in the east of their lands, where much greater events were afoot. The eastern portions were in any case generally richer, benefiting from higher levels of trade, including that from across the Silk Road trails, as well as sophisticated cultural and urban environments. Nevertheless, it was hammer blows from the Steppes that brought an end to the Seljuks who were one of the many states and peoples to be wiped away by the onset of the Mongols.