Seljuqs: Politics, Society and Culture

Christian Lange

Jul 2011 · Edinburgh University Press

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Despite the many important developments and innovations traceable to the Seljuq period (5th-7th/11th-13th centuries), the Seljuqs remain one of the understudied Muslim dynasties. This unique collaborative exploration of the Seljuqs' achievement contributes to the growing interest in this pivotal dynasty. The various chapters in this volume cover a representative geographical spectrum, from Central Asia and Persia to Iraq, Syria and Anatolia, and address novel questions such as the ideological foundations and ritual expressions of Seljuq power, the mutual attitudes of the learned classes and the Seljuq state, the organization of space, and the relationship between nomads and the settled peoples.The book is divided into three parts: the origins of the Seljuqs, their gradual transformation into a powerful dynasty, and their concepts of political legitimation (part one); the social history of the Seljuq period, particularly with regard to the 'ulam?' and the urban populations (part two); developments in religious thought, jurisprudence, belles-lettres and architecture under the Seljuqs (part three).

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Christian Lange is Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He is author of Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination (2008) and co-editor (with Maribel Fierro) of Public Violence in Islamic Societies: Power, Discipline and the Construction of the Public Sphere, 7th-19th Centuries (EUP, 2009). Songül Mecit is a Part-time Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh.