Seljuk
The Seljuks Enter Baghdad
A Sunni sultanate restores the caliph, 447 AH
Ramadan 447 AH / 1055 CE
Educational historical reconstructionWhere
Baghdad, a gate on the Tigris
33.3400, 44.4000 · View on OpenStreetMap
Background
In Ramadan 447 AH (December 1055 CE) the Seljuk leader Tughril Beg entered Baghdad and ended the long domination of the Abbasid caliphate by the Shi'i Buyids. The Seljuks were a Sunni Turkic dynasty, risen from the Oghuz Turks of the Central Asian steppe, who had overrun Khurasan and Iran and now arrived in the caliph's capital as champions of Sunni Islam. The Abbasid caliph al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah had himself invited Tughril against the last Buyid amir, al-Malik al-Rahim, and against the rebellious Turkic commander al-Basasiri, who was backed by the Fatimids of Cairo. Tughril came not as a conqueror to abolish the caliphate but as a protector to restore it: he entered the city without storming it, the Buyid amir was arrested and the Buyid line in Iraq was ended, and the caliph, who for over a century had been a revered but powerless figurehead under Shi'i soldiers, was restored to honour. Ibn al-Athir in al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, Ibn al-Jawzi in al-Muntazam, and Sibt ibn al-Jawzi in Mir'at al-Zaman record the entry, with the sources placing the proclamation of Tughril's name in the khutba on 22 Ramadan and his formal entry a few days later. Tughril was granted the title of sultan, and from this point the political order of the Sunni east took the shape it would keep for centuries: the Abbasid caliph as the spiritual head of the community, the source of legitimacy whose name was read in the sermon, and the Seljuk sultan as the temporal power who actually governed and defended the realm. The change is often called the Sunni revival, for it restored Sunni primacy at the centre of the Islamic world and ushered in the age of the great Seljuk viziers, the Nizamiyya colleges, and the consolidation of Sunni learning. This scene depicts the entry itself: a fortified gate of Baghdad on the bank of the Tigris, Seljuk horsemen of the Turkic steppe riding in column into the city, deep blue-green war banners hung across the gateway, a robed dignitary set up beside it to receive the arriving party, and the riverside markets trading on through a change of power that came without a sack. The framing is careful and non-partisan: a Sunni temporal power and the Sunni caliphate joined in a single order, the caliph's office upheld rather than seized.
What you see
A great river runs along the right of the scene, crowded with sailing boats and lined with palms, and a low city stretches along the far bank. This is the Tigris at Baghdad, the river that carried the trade and the grain of the Abbasid capital.
A massive crenellated wall of fired brick and sandstone, pierced by a tall pointed-arch gateway and flanked by square towers, dominates the centre. It is a fortified river gate of medieval Baghdad, not an Ottoman or later citadel; the low city beyond carries a ribbed melon dome, but none of the bulbous domes or pencil minarets of later centuries.
Mounted men ride in column out through the gateway into the open square. They come without fighting through a city that has not been stormed: this is a ceremonial entry into Baghdad, an arrival by invitation rather than the storming of a wall.
The horsemen carry the dress and arms of the Turkic steppe, with composite bows, lances, and conical helms. They are the Sunni Turkic soldiery of the eastern Islamic world, distinct in look from the Daylamite Iranian troops who had garrisoned the city before them.
Tall banners hang from the gateway, deep blue-green cloth marked with a pale geometric star. War standards are honoured again at the moment a Sunni protector enters the caliph's city, after more than a century in which Shi'i amirs had held the caliph as a powerless figurehead, the turn often called the Sunni revival.
Beside the gate a knot of robed officials stands at a long wooden table under a hung cloth, turning to receive the arriving riders. The reception, not a battle line, is the heart of the scene: the new power is being welcomed and acknowledged.
Beside the riverside market, with its baskets of produce and bales of goods, the prosperous everyday life of the city goes on uninterrupted. The change of overlord happens without a sack; the markets of Baghdad keep trading as the cavalry rides in.
Within days of such an entry the caliph would grant the newcomer's leader the title of sultan and his name would be joined to the caliph's in the Friday sermon, the formal birth of a partnership in which the caliph holds the sacred office and the sultan wields the temporal power.
Primary sources
Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (early 13th c.): Sunni historical synthesis. A principal narrative source for Tughril Beg's entry into Baghdad in 447 AH, the end of Buyid rule, and the grant of the sultanate. Confidence high.
Further reading & cross-references
Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam (12th c.): Sunni chronicle with close attention to Baghdad. Used for the reception of the Seljuks by the caliph al-Qa'im, the proclamation in the khutba, and the restoration of caliphal dignity. Confidence high.
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, Mir'at al-Zaman (13th c.): Sunni universal chronicle. Cross-reference for the events of 447 AH at Baghdad, the peaceful nature of the entry, and the fate of al-Malik al-Rahim. Confidence medium-high.
al-Husayni, Akhbar al-Dawla al-Saljuqiyya (12th-13th c.): History of the Seljuk state. Used for the Seljuk side of the entry into Baghdad and the relationship of sultan and caliph. Confidence medium-high.
A. C. S. Peacock, The Great Seljuk Empire (modern): Modern non-confessional academic study. Used for the meaning of 1055, the precise dating of the entry and khutba, the caliph-sultan relationship, and the Sunni revival. Confidence high.
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