Document Type : .

Authors

• Shahram Yousefifar ¹
• Behzad Asghari ²

¹ Professor History, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies

² Ph.d student of kharazmi university

Abstract

With the rise of Turkmen Seljuqs who primarily served in the armies of previous governments, new circumstances emergedwithin the social, political, and military spheres of Iran. At first, they sought to maintain their tribal system traditions in the military affairs. However, they, in their new position as rulers of a vast territory, had to appoint members of other tribes as their military commanders. This resulted in ethnic mixing inside the army. The incorporation of non-Seljuqs into the Seljuq military and, consequently, political and administrative structures led to their presence in social and economic arenas and brought them socio-political status.
This paper aims to study the impact of these military commanders’ social and political status on their centripetal or centrifugal tendencies. For this purpose, their ethnic affiliation was studied. It was revealed that Turkmen, Turks, Arabs, and Iraniansserved in the Seljuq army asiqtā commanders, royal commanders, and displaced commanders. This brought them not only political but also social status which, consequently, made them show centripetalor centrifugal tendencies that affected the political and social life of the society. Their political status and social bonds with the society led to the formation of independent bases of power and gradual decline of the Seljuq dynasty.

Keywords

• military commanders
• Seljuq
• militarism
• iqtā
• political and social tendencies