Seljuk Armies and Warfare

The Seljuk name covered distinct states, including the Great Seljuk Empire, which ruled much of Iran, Iraq and Central Asia in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the Sultanate of Rum, which governed much of Anatolia from the late eleventh century into the early fourteenth. Their armies joined mobile Oghuz horsemen (Turkic-speaking groups often called Turkmen) to household soldiers, revenue-supported contingents, allies and specialists. A campaign depended on more than a commander’s battlefield plan: rulers had to recruit service, pay and equip troops, keep horses supplied and move food across long distances.

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Mounted followings and a changing army

These mounted groups were central to the Great Seljuk expansion. Their mobility helped them choose where to fight and exploit the needs of a heavier army. At Dandānqān in 1040, Tughril Beg and Chaghri Beg drew the Ghaznavid sultan Masʿud’s force into the Qara Qum desert between Sarakhs and Merv. Water and fodder were scarce there; the Seljuk mounted force defeated an army that included war elephants. Horses and flocks could also damage the cultivated outskirts that fed a walled town, allowing raiders to weaken its supplies and trade without first breaking its walls.

Mobile followers alone could not provide the reliable force later sultans required. Within two generations of the conquest of Iran, the Great Seljuks were also maintaining a standing body of professional soldiers from several backgrounds, including enslaved troops. The sultan’s household guard served close to the court, while other soldiers received cash salaries or revenue assignments. Vizier Nizam al-Mulk urged rulers to pay troops regularly and keep Turkmen supporters involved even as the professional forces grew. These arrangements linked military service to the ruler through different forms of dependence and reward.

Military slavery was one of those relationships. A ghulam was an enslaved soldier attached to a ruler or commander’s household; the term mamluk also described military slaves. In the Sultanate of Rum, slaves brought from the northern Black Sea region entered through ports such as Sinop. Historian A. C. S. Peacock, drawing on the court historian Ibn Bibi, notes that the commanders Husam al-Din Chupan and Sayf al-Din Kizil raised many of the slaves they acquired to high rank and command. The route into the army was coercive, but some enslaved recruits could later become officers with their own authority.

Revenue, command and supplies

An iqta (revenue assignment) helped connect an army’s service to the income needed to maintain it. In the Great Seljuk period, a sultan could assign a commander the right to collect taxes from a district and sometimes delegate governing powers. The grant was a revocable delegation from the sultan, not a transfer of the district into the commander’s private estate. The recipient was expected to join the sultan’s campaigns when summoned and could also be required to provide material support. Revenue from the district helped sustain military service.

Campaigns across Iran posed a particular supply problem: the army and its horses could not carry everything they needed for a long march. During Malik Shah’s reign, some revenue districts were set aside so their produce could supply provisions and fodder at points along military routes. That distribution let an army replenish food, animal feed and immediate expenses as it moved. It also tied campaigning to administrators who could collect revenue and make supplies available at the right place.

A central military bureau handled much of the preparation. Officials kept pay rolls, inspected weapons and mounts, removed substitutes from the ranks, procured horses and draft animals, and arranged provisions. They also organized weapons training and mounted exercises, including polo and lance practice against targets. Commanders then directed contingents through subordinate leaders. Muster lists, regular pay and inspections helped a ruler know which soldiers and mounts were ready to serve.

Mounted combat and siege work

The bow, lance and sword were common weapons, and the composite bow, built from layers of different materials, became increasingly important as steppe peoples entered Iranian armies. Mounted archers could loose arrows from horseback and use their mobility to approach or withdraw; the lance and sword served in close combat. A horse had to carry its rider and equipment while still having strength for movement, so mounts needed fodder, water and rest. The supply system and the fighting style were connected: an underfed horse limited both speed and the rider’s ability to maneuver.

Sieges of Fortified towns demanded other skills. At Ani, an Armenian town, Alp Arslan’s campaign in 1064 included naffatun, troops who hurled burning naphtha, an oil-based incendiary, against wooden barricades. Such specialists gave an army a way to attack timber defenses and barriers during an assault. In Anatolia, Seljuk rulers also invested in walls at major cities: under Ala al-Din Kayqubad I, Konya and Sivas had their walls rebuilt, and a fortress on the Mediterranean coast was captured and strengthened as Alanya.

Rum’s campaigns by land and sea

Rum’s forces operated on an Anatolian plateau bordered by mountain routes and two seas. The port of Sinop on the Black Sea and Antalya on the Mediterranean helped the sultanate reach coastal trade routes. Under Kayqubad, campaigns against Cilician Armenia seized several fortresses. In 1230, he and the Ayyubids joined forces to defeat the Khwarazmshahs at Yasıçimen. An expedition from Sinop also temporarily captured Sudak, a major trading port on the Crimean coast, probably around 1222.

Ibn Bibi’s account describes the expedition’s landing, fighting against a relief force, the capture of the city, and the taking of hostages and booty. The sultan left a garrison, a force stationed to hold the town, in Sudak. Peacock argues that the campaign’s commercial purpose went beyond the court historian’s story of merchants seeking redress: control of northern Black Sea routes and access to the region’s slave trade also mattered. The operation involved a sea crossing from Sinop, a landing at Sudak and a garrison left behind when the main force departed. These ships extended Rum’s reach across the Black Sea, while most Seljuk campaigning still depended on land forces, horses and supply routes.