Turks and Turkomans 703troops and had recently converted to SUNNIISLAM. In
1037 he began the conquest of Persia and the ABBASID
caliphate. After defeating the GHAZNAWIDS, he captured
Khorasan in 1040 and established his capital at Nishapur
in eastern IRAN. In 1051 he conquered Isfahan and the
western part of Iran and invaded IRAQ, where he defeated
several Arab armies. In 1055 he took BAGHDAD. Tughrul
now exercised military and political control but allowed a
BUYIDcaliph to continue as an Islamic spiritual leader,
albeit Shia, and the formal sovereign of the city. Tughrul
emphasized Sunni orthodoxy. Tughrul’s new status was
eventually confirmed in 1058 proclaiming him the king
of the East and West. His government was based on a
Persian bureaucracy and a Turkish controlled military. It
dominated the region for several decades but quickly was
troubled by the formation of squabbling petty kingdoms.
Tughrul himself died in 1063.
See alsoALPARSLAN;SELJUKTURKS OFRUM.
Further reading: Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The
Islamic Dynasties(Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh
Press, 1967); John Andrew Boyle, ed., The Cambridge His-
tory of Iran.Vol. 5, The Saljuk and Mongol Periods(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968); R. N. Frye,
ed., The Cambridge History of Iran.Vol. 4, The Period from
the Arab Invasion to the Saljuks(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1975); Mehmet Fuat Koprulu, The
Seljuks of Anatolia: Their History and Culture According to
Local Muslim Sources,trans. and ed. Gary Leiser (Salt
Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992).
Tulunids The Tulunids were a dynasty who ruled
EGYPT and SYRIAbetween 868 and 905, founded by
Ahmad ibn Tulun (r. 868–884), the governor of Egypt.
Of Turkish origin and the son of a freed slave Ahmad
served as a soldier the ABBASID CALIPHin BAGHDAD.In
868 he was appointed vice-governor for Egypt where he
deposed the civil governor and seized power. Revolting
against the caliphate, he moved to conquer parts of
PALESTINEand Syria. He raised an excellent military
force based on a slave army of Turks, Greeks, and
Nubians. Though formally recognizing the caliph’s
sovereignty, he created an independent state in Egypt
and in the coastal region of Palestine up to Syria. A suc-
cessful ruler, he encouraged economic and fiscal reform,
built markets, and repaired important harbors such as
the one at ACRE. From this base he founded the short-
lived dynasty of the Tulunids.
The Tulunids introduced local rule to Egypt and left
important monuments behind, such as the MOSQUEof
Ibn Tulun at AL-FUSTAT, near the future city of CAIRO. His
son, Khumarawayh (r. 884–896), successful and hugely
extravagant in his spending habits received recognition of
his position from the caliph in return for a tribute of
300,000 dinars. They were replaced by direct Abbasid
rule in 905.
Further reading: Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The
Islamic Dynasties (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1967), 43–44; K. A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim
Architecture, 2 vols. (1932–1940; reprint, New York:
Hacher Art Books, 1979); Oleg Grabar, The Coinage of the
Tulunids (New York: American Numismatic Society,
1957).Tunis (Tunus, Tunis) A city in North AFRICATunis
was founded by the ARABSnear the site of Carthage and
was dependent on the rulers of AL-QAYRAWANfrom the
eighth to the 12th century. It was an important harbor of
the AGHLABIDSwho built the Great Mosque, the Jami al-
Zaituna, in the ninth century. In 1150 ROGERII, captured
the city and the Norman Sicilian government dominated
the town until the middle of the 13th century. In
1217–20 Tunis became the frequent scene of early mis-
sionary activities by the Franciscans. After his conquest
of SICILY in the 1260s, CHARLES I OFANJOU tried to
restore Sicilian rule over Tunis. His brother, LOUISIX of
France, launched a CRUSADEagainst the city, but that pro-
ject failed miserably at Louis’s death there in 1270. The
wars for control of southern ITA LY and the western
Mediterranean for the next several decades diverted
Christian attention from Tunis. In the meantime the HAF-
SIDShad secured control of the city and much of the
region. The MARINIDSdislodged them with grew difficulty
in the mid-14th century.
Further reading:Markus Hattstein and Peter Delius,
eds., Islam: Art and Architecture,trans. George Ansell et
al. (Cologne: Könemann, 2000); Graham Petrie, Tunis,
Kairouan & Carthage: Described and Illustrated with Forty-
Eight Paintings(London: Darf, 1985).Tunisia See AGHLABIDS;ALMOHADS;ALMORAVIDS;
FATIMIDS;HAFSIDS;AL-QAYRAWAN;TUNIS;ZIRIDS.Turks and Turkomans The Turks and Turkomans
were a group of peoples and tribes, recognizable from the
fourth century, who spoke dialects of the Ural-Altaic lan-
guage called Turkic. Their probable original home was in
the Altai Mountains in Central Asia, from which they
spread all over Eurasia while practicing a shamanic reli-
gion. Between about 840 and 1240, they formed several
kingdoms between Mongolia and eastern Turkistan,
absorbing the culture and religion of their neighbors such
as Buddhism from China or Manichaeism and NESTORI-
ANISMfrom IRAN. By the ninth century many had con-
verted to ISLAMand become a major source of military
manpower, both slave and free, of the Muslim dynasties
in IRANand IRAQ. From the 11th century onward, they
divided themselves into several independent dynasties
and military aristocracies who dominated the Islamic
world. Another group, the Uighurs, merged with the