Abu Talib Muhammad Tughril ibn Mika'il, better known as Tughril, was a Turkoman chieftain, who founded the Seljuk Empire, ruling from 1037 to 1063.
12 Facts About Tughril
2.
Tughril united many Turkoman warriors of the Central Asian steppes into a confederacy of tribes and led them in conquest of Khorasan and eastern Persia.
3.
Tughril relegated the Abbasid Caliphs to state figureheads and took command of the caliphate's armies in military offensives against the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimids in an effort to expand his empire's borders and unite the Islamic world.
4.
The Seljuks then slowly began to subdue the cities of Khorasan, and, when they captured Nishapur, Tughril proclaimed himself Sultan of Khorasan.
5.
Tughril's army included 50,000 men and 12 to 60 war elephants.
6.
In 1054, Tughril forced the Rawadid ruler of Azerbaijan, Abu Mansur Wahsudan, to acknowledge his authority.
7.
Tughril's name was placed in the khutba, while a son of Wahsudan, possibly Abu'l-Hayja Manuchihr, was sent as a Seljuk hostage to Khurasan.
8.
Two years later Tughril crushed the rebellion, personally strangling Ibrahim with his bowstring and entered Baghdad.
9.
Tughril then married the daughter of the Abbasid Caliph near the city of Tabriz.
10.
Tughril was a Turkic woman, probably from Khwarazm, and had been married to Khwarazm Shah Shah Malik, with whom she had a son named Anushirvan.
11.
In 1061, Tughril sent the qadi of Ray to Baghdad, to ask her hand in marriage to him.
12.
Tughril's conquests had an impact on the lives of not only the people of annexed states, but the nomads themselves, who participated in the establishment of the new state.