Birth: طغرل بك

All stops in this story

1. Birth: طغرل بك — c. 993 CE · c. 383 AH†

   Tughril Beg, first Saljuq king, of the tent-folk of the Bukhara marches; he took Iraq, suppressed the Rafida and removed their slogan, ruled justly, fasted Mondays and Thursdays and built mosques; in 455 the caliph al-Qa'im's daughter was escorted to him in a gold-draped procession — he kissed the ground before her unseen, sent her jewels and a crown-set robe, then carried her unwilling to al-Rayy — and died there childless at over seventy, buried by his brother Da'ud .

2. The Seljuk takeover of Khurasan and the defeat of Mas'ud the Ghaznavid — c. February 1039 CE · Jumada II 430 AH

   In Jumada II 430 the Seljuks took Khurasan and Jibal, Mas'ud ibn Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin fled, and they took the inkwell. Tughril Beg Abu Talib Muhammad, his brother Dawud, Bahram? and Nayruz, sons of Mika'il, seized the lands and divided the outlying provinces among themselves. By 432 Mas'ud had gone back to Ghazna and Tughril to Nishapur, and the Ghuzz seized all of Khurasan. Their breaches of awe, their casting off of decorum and their killing of people went beyond all bounds: they targeted many scribes and others, killing some and coming to terms with others .

3. Battle of Dandanqan (1040) — 1040 CE · 431 AH†

   Tughril Beg and his brother Chaghri Beg broke Sultan Masʿud of Ghazna's army at Dandanqan near Merv in 1040 — the victory that won the Seljuks Khurasan and founded their state .

4. Tughril Beg takes Isfahan and finds its buried treasures — c. 1051 CE · 443 AH

   In 443 came the news that Tughril Beg had taken and entered Isfahan — he who had rebuilt Rayy handsomely — and in demolishing a house he found gem-set vessels, buried hoards of dinars, two Chinese jars filled with precious jewels, a great treasure, and a green jar containing twenty thousand dinars in a split-open hoard .

5. Tughril Beg's Entry into Baghdad — 1055 CE · 447 AH

   Tughril Beg's entry into Baghdad (1055): the Buyid grip broken, the caliph al-Qa'im's grand reception, the title Sultan Rukn al-Din on coinage and minbars, and the double marriage alliance that sealed Seljuk-Abbasid ties .

6. The marriage of al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah to Tughril Beg's sister — c. 1056 CE · 448 AH

   In 448 the caliph al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah married Tughril Beg's sister; al-Qa'im's position was secured and the caliphate magnified by Tughril's sultanate .

7. Restoration of the Sunni Adhan in Karkh and Restrictions on the Shi'a — 1056 CE · 448 AH

   After Tughril Beg's takeover, the Sunni adhan 'al-salatu khayrun min al-nawm' was imposed on the shrines of the Quraysh cemetery, the 'Atiqa mashhad and the mosques of Karkh, 'hayya ila khayr al-amal' was stripped, the door-inscriptions torn down, and Sunni chanters entered from Bab al-Basra praising the Companions; the Bazzazin shaykh Ibn al-Jallab was executed and crucified over his shop, and the Shi'i theologian Abu Ja'far al-Tusi fled — his house stormed in Safar 449, his books, teaching chair and the pilgrims' three white mangonels burned in Karkh .

8. The battle of al-Basasiri and the sermon for the Ubaydi al-Mustansir in Baghdad — c. 1058 CE · 450 AH

   Arslan al-Basasiri grew so mighty he was preached on the minbars and the caliph decided nothing without him; when his ill creed proved out and his plan to sack the palace surfaced, al-Qa'im wrote secretly to Tughrul Beg at Rayy. Tughrul came in 447; al-Basasiri fell back to Rahba, took the Egyptian al-Mustansir's money and the treacherous brother Inal's distraction. In 450 he entered Baghdad under Egyptian banners — the khutba went to al-Mustansir at the Mansur mosque, 'hayya ala khayr al-amal' entered the adhan — and seized the caliph in Dhu'l-Hijja, jailing him at Ana; the caliph's letter to God was hung on the Ka'ba. Tughrul killed Inal, had the caliph returned in honour on 25 Dhu'l-Qa'da 451, and al-Basasiri's head reached Baghdad .

9. Investiture of Tughril as King of the East and West by Caliph al-Qa'im — January 1058 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 449 AH

   In Dhu'l-Qa'da 449, the full investiture of Sultan Tughril by the caliph al-Qa'im: the caliph seated on a seven-cubit silk couch with the Prophet's mantle on his shoulder and the staff in his hand, Tughril kissing the ground at each approach, mounted on a lower couch, addressed 'O Ali' through the ra'is al-ru'asa' — 'Amir al-Mu'minin has invested you with all the lands God gave him: fear God, spread justice, restrain wrong.' Seven robes in one rite, a sword girded by the caliph's own hand, the style 'king of East and West', three standards with the liwa' al-hamd bound by the caliph himself, the investiture-patent read over him — and Tughril twice kissing the outstretched hand and laying it on his eyes .

10. Battle of Ray (1059) — 1059 CE · 451 AH†

    Draft card for Battle of Ray (1059); its sources are not yet checked on the page.

11. The return of al-Qa'im from Haditha to Baghdad — January 1060 CE · 25 Dhu al-Qa'da 451 AH

    The caliph al-Qa'im's restoration after a full year of al-Basasiri's rule: Mihrash the 'Uqaylid of Haditha refused to surrender him, Tughril sent Amid al-Mulk with three hundred ghilman, fourteen Bactrian camels of tents and furnishings and a gold-plated litter; at the Nahrwan pavilion the sultan dismounted, walked, and kissed the ground seven times, while the caliph brought out the Buyid mountain of red yaqut and twelve large pearls. Tughril begged pardon for his delay — 'my jealous brother Ibrahim; I strangled him with his own bowstring' — and the caliph girded on him the only sword saved from his flight. The caliph entered Monday 25 Dhu'l-Qa'da 451, Tughril seated on the gatekeeper's bench at Bab al-Nubi until the procession passed; only the chief qadi and three witnesses were left in Baghdad to receive him .

12. Marriage of the caliph's daughter to Tughrul Beg — c. 1062 CE · 454 AH

    In 454 al-Qa'im gave his daughter to Tughrul Beg after resisting every way, shaken and begging release — an honour no Buyid king ever won for all their coercion. Tughrul came in 455, entered with the caliph's daughter, restored the inheritances and the makus, farmed Baghdad for a hundred and fifty thousand dinars, and died at Rayy in Ramadan .

13. Death: طغرل بك — c. 1063 CE · c. 455 AH

    Tughril Beg, first Saljuq king, of the tent-folk of the Bukhara marches; he took Iraq, suppressed the Rafida and removed their slogan, ruled justly, fasted Mondays and Thursdays and built mosques; in 455 the caliph al-Qa'im's daughter was escorted to him in a gold-draped procession — he kissed the ground before her unseen, sent her jewels and a crown-set robe, then carried her unwilling to al-Rayy — and died there childless at over seventy, buried by his brother Da'ud .