Seljuk Turks of Rum 657seals and sigillography The wax seal was commonly
used from the ninth to the 15th century as a means of
validating documents in northwestern Europe. Use of
metal BULLS, bullae or seals, usually of lead but some-
times of GOLD, became confined to BYZANTIUMand the
PAPACYas well as Italian MERCHANT COMMUNESfor espe-
cially important and prestigious documents. Seals in wax
were still emblems of the privileges of the ruler, as a sign
of validation and a symbol of power, between the 10th
and 12th centuries. Images in wax, which became indi-
vidualized and recognizable, if not unique, validated a
document as if it were signed by the participants. It was a
testimony that they were there either actors in or wit-
nesses to a document.
Some seals can tell us about the people to whom they
belonged. They usually gave the name of the person, his
or her dignity or status, as well as some justification for
the authority to act. Seal images could reflect power and
connection, even linking a person with an institution or
suggesting some kind of divine approval. They were used
privately to seal confidential correspondence and offer
various kinds of guarantee, including the quality and
quantity of merchandise or the authenticity of RELICS.
Various types of material, including gold, silver, lead,
wax, and clay, could be employed. Those in wax were
fragile and those in metal always ran the risk of being
melted down and used again in other ways.
See alsoARCHIVES AND ARCHIVAL INSTITUTIONS; CHAR-
TERS; HERALDRY AND HERALDS.
Further reading:Brigitte Bedos Rezak, “Seals and
Sigillography, Western European,” DMA, 11.123–131;
Brigitte Bedos Rezak, Form and Order in Medieval France:
Studies in Social and Quantitative Sigillography(Aldershot:
Variorum, 1993); Daniel M. Friedenberg, Medieval Jewish
Seals from Europe(Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1987); P. D. A. Harvey and Andrew McGuinness, A Guide
to British Medieval Seals(Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1996); Ludvik Kalus, Catalogue of Islamic Seals and
Talismans (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996); Ludvik
Kalus, Catalogue of Islamic Seals and Talismans(Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1986); Nicolas Oikonomides, ed., Stud-
ies in Byzantine Sigillography,2 vols. (Washington, D.C.:
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection,
1987–1990).
sea routes SeeNAVIGATION.
sects See HERESY AND HERESIES; ISMAILIS; KHARIJITES;
SHIA; SHITISM AND SHIITES.
Seljuk Turks of Rum (Saljuqs, Saldjukids) The
Seljuks were TURKSof the Oghuz tribe who converted to
ISLAMin the late 10th century. They then conquered IRAN
from the GHAZNAWIDSin the first half of the 11th century.
In 1055 TUGHRULBEGentered BAGHDAD, where he was
well received by the ABBASIDpuppet caliph then freed
from the BUYIDS. In 1058 he acquired the title of sultan.
His nephew, ALP ARSLAN, extended Seljuk territory
toward ARMENIAand Georgia. In 1071 he defeated the
Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (r. 1067–71) at
the BATTLE OFMANZIKERTand opened the way to the
Seljuks into ANATOLIA. This expansion was facilitated by
Byzantine internal divisions and the discontent of Mono-
physite Christians within Anatolia. The Seljuks also
undertook the conquest of SYRIAand PALESTINEbetween
1071 and 1086. The Seljuks now ruled autonomously,
challenged in Anatolia only by another Turkish family,
the Danishmenddids. In Syria, Palestine, IRAQ, and Iran,
the Seljuks promptly contended among themselves for
power. These divisions partially explain Christians in the
First CRUSADEestablished themselves in the East from
1098.
Within their loosely connected states, the Seljuks
showed themselves defenders of the Sunni version of
Islam. At Baghdad they restored the prestige of the Sunni
CALIPH, and in Syria and Palestine they took possession of
a great number of territories that were under the control
of the SHIITEFATIMIDSof EGYPT. To promote Sunni reli-
gious practices and ideas, they favored the construction
of schools for teaching Sunni LAWand religious science.
Such a religious policy, however, did not lead to a perse-
cution of non-Muslim communities, the DHIMMI.
In institutional matters, the Seljuks maintain admin-
istrative traditions system already in and introduced only
a few Turkish customs. The local power of certain lead-
ers in the army was strengthened by the development of
a system of rewards permitting him to collect the taxes
of his district for his own coffers. None of this promoted
much unity among the various Seljuk states. In the
12th century, Syria and Palestine broke free of the
Seljuks; in Iran and Iraq, they were eliminated in the last
years of the century by another Turkish dynasty, the
KHWARIZMSHAHS. An Anatolian branch survived and con-
tinued to oppose the passage of the crusaders across
their territory. After losing a Battle at Kosedagh on June
26, 1243, they accepted MONGOL domination, which
deprived them of autonomy. Seljuks disappeared as a rul-
ing dynasty in 1307.
See alsoALEXIOSI KOMNENOS.
Further reading:John Andrew Boyle, ed., The Cam-
bridge History of Iran.Vol. 5, The Saljuk and Mongol Peri-
ods (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968);
Claude Cahen, The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sul-
tanate of Ru ̄m, Eleventh to Fourteenth Century,trans. P. M.
Holt (1988; reprint, New York: Longman, 2001);
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, The Seljuks of Anatolia: Their His-
tory and Culture according to Local Muslim Sources,trans.
and ed. Gary Leiser (Salt Lake City: University of Utah
Press, 1992); Tamara Talbot Rice, The Seljuks in Asia
Minor(New York: Praeger, 1961); Alexes G. K. Savvides,