Second sultan of Great Seljuk Empire (B.
January 20th, 1029 – D. September 25th, 1072). He was the
son of Çağrı Bey, Melik of Khorasan, and was from Çağrı Bey’s last wife. He
ascended to the throne as second sultan of Seljuk Dynasty after his uncle Tuğrul
Bey on 27th of April 1064. The 12th and 13th century
historians had cited the date of his birth as 1032-33; the later sources cited it
as 1029-30. İbnü’l-Esir, who was one of the most reliable historians, cited
the date as 1st Muharrem 420, i.e. January 20th, 1029.
Upon his father’s illness Alpaslan halted the attacks of
Ghaznavids by taking over the rule of the state when he was very young. The
victories he won against Karakhanids (1049) and Ghaznavids (1058) while his
father was still alive, allowed him to gain reputation in the Khorasan Seljuks,
whom he ruled as the heir in the last years of Çağrı Bey, and even in the
entire Seljuk territory. For this reason, he became the Melik of Khorasan upon
the death of Çağrı Bey in 1059.
Alpaslan, refused to accept the sultanate of Süleyman who was
ascended to the throne by Sultan Tuğrul’s will, Since Sultan Tuğrul died
without leaving a son and began to struggle. He
had to go against the emirs of Huttalan and Sâgâniyan and his uncle Inanç
Yabgu, who revolted all upon the death of Tugrul Bey. Alpaslan, who discouraged
Inanç Yabgu by defeating him and left him at his own place, moved to Rey, the
capital of the empire, with a huge army after suppressing the rebels. However, during
the delay caused by these occupations, Kutalmış, who declared his sultanate by
having a khutbah given in his name, moved towards Rey with his army of 50,000
men and put the confronting forces to rout. As for Süleyman, he initially left
Rey then retreated to Shiraz after noticing his weakness compared to his rivals,
who hadn’t accepted his sultanate.
Kavurd, the Melik of Kirman, who came
near Isfahan, upon Alpaslan’s entry to the government, returned to his lands
and had a khutbah given in the name of Alpaslan. After Alpaslan ascended to the
throne and minted coin having a khutbah given in his name, his sultanate was
approved and announced by the Abbasid Caliph Kâim Biemrillâh. During his reign,
Alpaslan gave more weight to the western expansion of the empire; organized
campaigns in the west for conquests and in the east for securing the order. The
main reason was that East Anatolian high plateaus, which were discovered during
the expeditions on Byzantium forty five years ago by his father Çağrı Bey, were
assumed to be the best place for settling Turcoman. These Turcoman, who spread
to all over the Seljuk territory and occasionally caused some social distresses
with the ceaseless ongoing migrations since the beginning of the 11th
century, had to be settled in a country, which fit the conditions they were
accustomed to.
Alpaslan moved from Rey
to Azerbaijan with Malik-Shah, whom he loved the most amongst his children, and
with Nizam’al-Mulk, his former vizier whom he brought from Khorasan. By
continuing the conquests along the path to Eastern Anatolia, he besieged Ani,
the best guarded city of Byzantines in the region. On August 16th,
1064 the city was captured by Seljuks.
When Alpaslan was informed that Kavurd,
the Kirman Melik, had adopted a rebellious attitude, he returned to Rey,
leaving the campaign on Eastern Anatolia incomplete
and then in December 1064 he went to Hamadan. After Kavurd begged his pardon,
Alpaslan went to Merv where he lived while he was the Melik of Khorasan and
spent the winter there. At the beginning of 1067, Kavurd, the Melik of Kirman,
revolted again. Forgiving his elder brother was an indicator of the fact that
he tried to enchain him by showing kindness. But, since Kavurd and others
revolted again, Alpaslan advanced on Caucasia for the second time in the
beginning of 1068. His purpose was to annex Azerbaijan the way it couldn’t be
the source of unrests.
The advance of the Turks on
Anatolia continued, despite both Caucasian and Eastern Anatolian campaigns of
Alpaslan were left incomplete. Meanwhile Byzantines, who began to notice that
campaigns of Turcoman posed an obvious threat for The Byzantine Empire,
considered Roman Diogenes, who was crowned in 1068, as a savior. While the
events in Anatolia led to the inevitable Roman Diogenes vs. Alpaslan encounter,
Alpaslan was occuppied with Syria and he aimed to pull down the Shiite Fatimid
government in Egypt. Nasırüddevle, Hamdanid ruler, who wanted Syria to join the
Seljuk Empire, asked for help from Alpaslan against Fatimids. Seizing this
opportunity, Alpaslan, who moved with a big army in July, 1070, captured the
castles of Manzikert and Erciş and came near Urfa by moving to the provinces of
Meyyâfârikin (Silvan) and Amid (Diyarbakır)
(October 1070). After capturing the Byzantine castles, he headed towards Aleppo
which was ruled by the Mirdasid dynasty. Meanwhile, while Alpaslan was planning
to advance on Damascus, a Byzantine ambassador informed him that the Emperor
wanted to give Menbic in return for Manzikert and Ahlat. Alpaslan rejected this
offer and relying on the report, which said that there was no serious Byzantine
danger in Anatolia and which was given to him by Emir Afşin who returned to
Ahlat from Western Anatolia, he didn’t make any alterations on his plan. However,
during those days, he got the word that Diogenes moved to Anatolia with a huge
army. Alpaslan moved to Mosul on April 6th, 1071, leaving a
part of his army to ensure the conquest of Damascus. The unprecedented
equipment of Romanos Diogenes’ army of 200,000 men army, which he formed by
gathering reinforcements while he was moving to Anatolia indicated that the Byzantines
came to Anatolia with all of their strength to say their final words. The
pitched battle fought on the plain of Manzikert on August 26th,
1071, on Friday, was indeed the battle of final word. The great victory that
Seljuks achieved opened the gates of Anatolia for Turks and determined the
future of world history.
The Seljuk army, which was formed by
even the forces of Artuk, Mengücük, Saltuk, Danishmend and the other lords of
the Turkmen, yet that estimated had manpower of only one-quarter of the
Byzantine forces, achieved great success in this war, because the army had the high
morale and tactical superiority. The Byzantine forces consisted of the forces of
Frank-Norman, Bulgarian, Slavic, Pecheneg (Kuman), Uz (Oghuz), Georgian and
Armenian, who didn’t have unifying elements such as language, religion or a
common goal and who were constantly fighting each other before. While the
biggest part of the Byzantine army consisted of mixed mercenaries, the Seljuk
army consisted of only Muslim Turks and Muslim Kurds who helped them and these soldiers
didn’t fight for a pay. Likewise, while there was a variety of differences of opinion, personal feelings of hatred and
envy between the Byzantine commanders, the
Seljuk commanders were persons like Sav Tegin, Ay Tegin, Porsuk and Gevherâyin, who were clamped together around
Alpaslan since his enthronement. The fact that the Byzantine army, which was
fighting the battle with its mass, had poor maneuverability and was formed of heavy-equipped
troops and that the Turkish forces were formed of almost entirely light, highly
maneuverable cavalry battalions had a great impact on the course and outcome of
the battle.
The most important
factor that played a role in the defeat of the Byzantines despite their
superior forces was the battle plan that Alpaslan implemented. Alpaslan used a
tactic that had been used by the Turks throughout the history in both the wars
fought on land and on the water; in this tactic, weak but fast-moving forces,
which are placed in the center, supposedly fall back and the enemy, who
attempts to chase these forces, gets flanked between the forces on either side
and the retreating forces quickly turn back to encircle the enemy. Alpaslan
achieved success easily by using this tactic as Byzantine troops could not
maneuver swiftly. Alpaslan treated the defeated Byzantine Emperor like a guest
of honor. A friendship between the two rulers was established, and a peace
treaty was signed of which the text doesn’t exist today. However, the
provisions of the treaty couldn’t have been implemented since Romanos Diogenes was dethroned in his absence and
after a while fraudulently captured, died by his eyes being carved (August 4th,
1072).
When Artuk Bey was getting ready to
invade Anatolia, Sultan Alpaslan moved to Transoxiana with an army of 200,000 men. The fact that Alpaslan went on
an expedition for the first time with this many men can be explained by his
intention to completely wipe out the Karakhanids this time. However, the
assassination of Alpaslan rendered the expedition inconclusive and that
reversed the situation and attacking Karahanlılar by taking Tirmiz and passing
over Amu darya, he came to Balkh. When Alpaslan, without a major resistance,
proceeded through the territory of the Karahanlılar, he was severely wounded
with a small dagger kept in the boot by Yusuf Al-Khwarizmi (Barzemî) the
commander of Fort Barzan, who surrendered after a short resistance and he died
as a martyr four days later (November 24th, 1072).
Alpaslan, who is
considered as the ancestor of the Western Turks, had a grandeur, bold, brave
and mighty personality as clearly shown by the given title, the epithets, and descriptions
and as stated by the consensus of opinion among Arab and Byzantine historians.
Besides his monumental physique he was renowned for being just, as can be seen
from his attitude towards his elder brother Kavurd and Romanos Diogenes, whom he
showed that he was forgiving and tolerant. He was a quite a devout Muslim and
was known as a faithful practitioner of religious provisions. This aspect of
him raised him to the degree of a velî (T. N. Muslim Saint) in the heart of the public, led him to be
attributed to many miracles. It was recorded in ancient history that in his palace
there was an imaret where fifty sheep
were slaughtered every day and that he gave some spending money to the poor whose
names were organized in lists. Almost every city in the countries, which Islam
had not influenced yet, he built mosques; it was known that he managed the
reconstruction works, for which he could not find enough time to deal with due
to military works, and social activities such as gathering the artists,
scientists and intellectuals and putting them under the protection of the
government through his vizier Nizam’al-Mulk. The large number of gold coins he minted
shows the economic growth and prosperity of the era.
Poet Ömer Öztürkmen summed up the victory
of Manzikert very nicely:
“On a
Friday when the dawn arches,
In
Manzikert fifty-four thousand warriors,
Composed
the best march
Allah-u ekber, Allah-u
ekber...”
Turkish:
“Bir Cuma gecesi sabaha karşı,
Malazgirt’te elli dört bin er,
Bestelediler en güzel marşı;
Allah-u ekber, Allah-u ekber...”
REFERENCE:
Mükrimin Halil Yinanç / Selçuklular Devri:
Anadolu’nun Fethi (1944, s.
57-85), Ebü'l-Ferec / Târih (Çev.
Ömer Rıza Doğrul, 1945), Fahrettin
Kırzıoğlu / Kars Tarihi (1953, s. 337-354), Osman Turan / Selçuklular Tarihi ve Türk İslâm Medeniyeti
(s. 97-140, 1965) - Selçukluların Ani’yi Fethi ve Buradaki Selçuklu
Eserleri (Selçuklu Araştırmaları
Dergisi, 1970, s. 111-139) - Selçuklular
Zamanında Türkiye Tarihi (1971, s. 19-37), Ali Sevim / Biyografilerle Selçuklular Tarihi
(1982), Mehmet Altay Köymen / Alp
Arslan ve Zamanı (c. I-II, 1983), TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (1989, c. 2), Ali Çimen /
Tarihi Değiştiren Askerler (İst.2007, s. 84), Prof. Dr. Faruk Sümer - Prof. Dr. Ali Sevim / Malazgirt Savaşı (TTK
yay., 1988, s.38), Abdurrahim Tufantöz.Ortaçağda Diyarbekir (Akçağ Yay., Ank.,
2005, s.110), İhsan Işık / Diyarbakır
Ansiklopedisi (2013) - Ünlü Devlet Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C.
1, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013).