Seljuk Seljuk (960-1021) was the leader of the Oghuz Confederation and a great Turkic warlord. He converted to Islam after being inspired by the teachings of Muslim missionaries, and was responsible for spreading Islam to Central Asia and the Turkic peoples.
Biography[]
Seljuk was born in 960 to Toqaq, an Oghuz Confederation ruler. Seljuk was a charismatic warlord, starting out as the leader of the Kinik clan. He set himself up at the head of the Oghuz Confederation towards the end of the 10th century, bringing together a large number of nomadic communities who until then had been living in the Syr basin, an area of open grassland to the north and east of the Aral Sea. It was a loose and opportunistic alliance, formed for the purposes of conquest and plunder. It was big and powerful, however: Seljuk attracted hundreds of aherents. Impressed and inspired by the teachings of Muslim missionaries, Seljuk united his warriors under Islam. All of his followers embraced Islam, and he created a strong tribe by the time of his death in 1021. His grandsons Chagri Beg and Tughril Beg carried on his conquests.