The Turkish History Podcast

In the aftermath of the catastrophic Crusader invasion of Anatolia, while the Turks are in crisis, Emperor Alexios Komnenos launches a reconquest.  An army led by John Doukas retakes the Aegean coast and Western Anatolia, an army led by Theodore Gabras retakes the Black Sea coast, and the Emperor himself marches out of Pelakanon and into the center of Anatolia.  But the Turks rebound and begin to...

Following the fall of İznik, Kılıç Arslan regroups his forces, belatedly calling for aid from across Turkish Anatolia.  The Crusaders depart from İznik and begin their march to the Holy Land.  Kılıç Arslan springs an ambush near Eskişehir on the Plains of Dorylaeum, leading to disaster yet again.  In the aftermath of the great defeat, the Sword Lion is unable to oppose the Crusaders head on, but t...

The crusading army marches into a completely undefended Anatolia and right up to the walls of İznik, the capital of the Sultanate of Rum.  Finally waking up to the danger, Kılıç Arslan makes a deal with the Danishmends and begins racing back West.  Kılıç Arslan fights the Crusaders in front of the walls of İznik and the Turks resist.   Meanwhile, as one of the greatest defeats in Turkish history u...

The People's Crusade invades Anatolia, and the chaotic army of undisciplined peasants is easily destroyed by the forces of the Sultanate of Rum under Ilhan Bey as Kılıç Arslan besieges Malatya.  But the chaos and ineptitude of the People's Crusade proves to be a boon to both the Byzantine Emperor and even the now-assembling First Crusade.  In Constantinople, Emperor Alexios uses the chao...

As Turkish power is entrenched across Anatolia and Kılıç Arslan consolidates the power of the Sultanate of Rum, in Constantinople Emperor Alexios Komnenos calls for aid from the West.  The Emperor envisions a relatively large, but still manageable, army of experienced Latin knights of the type that have fought for Byzantium in the past in order to retake Anatolia.  But his call for aid coincides w...

As Kılıç Arslan sits in prison in Esfahan, Emperor Alexios Komnenos attempts to restore imperial authority on the coasts of Anatolia, even if the plateau itself remains lost to him.  Constantinople tangles with the Black Sea beylik of Karategin and the Marmara beylik of İlhan.  In İzmir, the rebel Turkish Roman General Çaka Bey creates the first Turkish navy and establishes an Aegean beylik - beco...

After the death of Sulayman, his sons Kılıç Arslan and Daud are imprisoned in Esfahan by Melik Shah.  In their absence, the Sultanate of Rum is ruled under a quasi-regency by the man Sulayman left in charge of İznik - Ebu'l Kasım.   Ebu'l Kasım fights and negotiates with the Roman Emperor and the Great Seljuk Sultan, maintaining the independence of the Sultanate - until Kılıç Arslan and...

In 1081, Sulayman reigns in İznik as the Sultan of Rum.  But his sultanate is aspirational - really, he is a mere border lord.  A bey among beys.  And so Sulayman begins to lay the foundations for the Sultanate of Rum, expanding his power across Western Anatolia.  Burning with ambition and desire to reclaim the birthright of the line of Kutalmish, Sulayman then invades Antioch and even Aleppo.  An...

Following Manzikert, the civil war in Byzantium and the failure of the Roman Empire to retake Anatolia, the first Turkish beyliks emerge in Anatolia.  In the anarchy caused by the collapse of the Roman military apparatus, bands of Turks begin making alliances with the settled elites of Anatolia, offering them protection for a price.   Soon the Turks are invited into the cities of Anatolia, replaci...

We resume the narrative, and begin by introducing the land that will come to be the homeland of the Turks. In the aftermath of the Battle of Manzikert, the Roman state falls into chaos.  As a result of civil war, invasion and rebellion, Imperial authority collapses over much of Anatolia.  And the Turks begin to enter Anatolia, and the seeds of the coming Beyliks, and even a Sultanate, are sown.  

This is the fifth and last episode in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode we cover the court culture of the Great Seljuk Empire and the greatest cultural achievements of the Empire.  How the Sultan and his court lived, and the life and times of two of the most important cultural figures of the Great Seljuk Empire: Al-Ghazali and Omar Khayyam.  

This a standalone episode on the history of the Ismaili Nizaris and their Order of Assassins.   The minority sect of Ismailism first arises as the Abbasid Caliphs keep the Shi'a Imams in confinement in Samarra - a hidden religion, secretive and rigidly hierarchical, and professing a unique system of beliefs drawing heavily from Greek philosophy and Gnosticism.  The Ismailis ultimately go on t...

This is the fourth episode in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode we cover religion in the Seljuk Empire.  How reality differed from the picture of strident Sunnism presented by pro-Seljuk propaganda, and the relationship between the Seljuk and Abbasid dynasties, the treatment of the Shia, the conflict among the Sunni Madhhabs, Sufism, and the treatment of minority religions...

This is the third episode in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode we cover the economy of the Great Seljuk Empire.  The collision of two different economic systems - that of the nomads and that of the settled world - and how this led to an economic transformation.

This is the second in a short series of non-narrative episodes.  In this episode, we cover the Seljuk Military.  The composition of the armies, how the armies fought, and the armies relationship to the broader political world. 

This is the first in a short series of non-narrative episodes on the nature of the Great Seljuk Empire.  In this episode, we cover the structures of state in the empire - the various power centers, the role of the Seljuk Dynasty, the bureaucrats, the tribes, the Emirs and the ways in which all of these power centers interacted to govern the truly massive Empire.  

Under the rule of Nizam ul-Mulk and Melik Shah, the Great Seljuk Empire reaches the zenith of its power.  But as Al-Dawla Al-Nizamiyya unfolds, tensions roil under the surface.  Tensions between the Seljuk and Abbasid dynasties, between the court and the tribes, between the court and the Emirs and between the state and its vassals.  And when the partnership between Nizam ul-Mulk and Melik Shah bre...

After Melik Shah's ascension to the throne, Nizam ul-Mulk seizes control of the state, inaugurating a period of history termed "Al-Dawla Al-Nizamiyya" or "the State of the Nizam."  The vizierate is now above the sultanate.  Melik Shah finishes his father's work in conquering Transoxiana from the Karakhanids, and then retires to the palaces of Esfahan - as Nizam ul-Mul...

The Heroic Lion rides East after his great victory at Manzikert.  But his sojourn in his capital again proves short-lived as he is drawn into war with the Karakhanid Khanate.  Alp Arslan leads a massive army to cross the Amu Darya and into Central Asia, but the end soon comes for him, tragically soon.  Alp Arslan's chosen heir Melik Shah must ally with the immensely talented Grand Vizier Niza...

As Alp Arslan returns from the campaign in Syria, news reaches him that the Emperor of the Romans, Romanos Diogenes, is on the warpath.  A large Byzantine army marches East to retake Manzikert, as the Heroic Lion races West from Azerbaijan with whatever forces he can get his hands on.  The two armies meet on the plains of Manzikert in August 1071, where the fate of Anatolia is decided and where th...

After Alp Arslan's ascension to the throne, the Heroic Lion is forced to ride East to put down a nascent revolt in Khorasan and to defeat his brother Kavurt (twice).  Alp Arslan also bounces back to the Caucasuses to re-invade Georgia.  At the same time, tensions rise between the increasingly "cooking" court and the tribes, and a new tribal confederation of Turkmen, the Nawakiyya, f...

After the death of Tughrul, the founder of the Great Seljuk Empire, the inevitable succession crisis breaks out.  A son of Chaghri named Alp Arslan manages to quickly win the 4-way civil war and succeeds his uncle Tughrul as the Sultan of what is by now the most powerful state in the world.  To secure the loyalty of his wild Turkmen followers, Alp Arslan then gathers the mighty hordes of the Oghuz...

After conquering Baghdad without a shot being fired, Tughrul sets forth to fulfill the promises made in Baghdad.  He aims to conquer all of Iraq, Syria, the Levant and even Egypt.  To overthrow the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo and truly re-unite the Muslim World. But though his initial campaigns in Iraq are successful, the Oghuz tribes find the climate of Iraq intolerable.  Revolts against the Seljuk c...

Tughrul continues his conquest of Iran and begins truly building the Seljuk state, which is now fast on its way to becoming the Great Seljuk Empire.  He achieves pre-eminence over his brother Chaghri to become the paramount leader of the House of Seljuk and invades Anatolia, attacking a certain well-fortified city that happens to be named Manzikert.  And as Buyid power evaporates in Iraq, Tughrul...

In the aftermath of the Battle of Dandankan, Tughrul expands west into Iran.  But instead of being a traditional barbarian warlord on horseback, Tughrul is committed to ruling in the existing Perso-Islamic tradition.   To become a Khan-Sultan.  And tension quickly arises between his role as Khan and his role as Sultan.   As Tughrul presents himself as the restorer of order and Sunni orthodoxy in h...