Siege of Baghdad (1055)

In 1055, Tughril Beg marched toward Baghdad with a Seljuk army.^[8] Facing internal instability and unable to resist the Seljuks effectively, the Buyid ruler Al-Malik al-Rahim failed to organize a successful defense of the city.^[9]

Seljuk forces entered Baghdad in December 1055.^[10] Tughril Beg arrested al-Malik al-Rahim, effectively ending Buyid rule.^[11] Unlike earlier conflicts in the region, the city itself was not significantly destroyed during the takeover.^[12]

Following the Seljuk entry into Baghdad, Caliph Al-Qa'im formally recognized Tughril Beg and granted him the title of sultan.^[13] This arrangement created a political system in which the Abbasid caliph remained the symbolic and religious leader of the Islamic world while the Seljuk sultans exercised military and administrative power.^[14]

Seljuk control of Baghdad marked the beginning of Seljuk political dominance in the central Islamic lands and reinforced Sunni authority in the Abbasid capital.^[15]

• Bosworth, C. E. (1968). The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World. In: Frye, R. N. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. Cambridge University Press.
• Kennedy, Hugh (2004). The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century. 2nd ed. Pearson Education.
• Peacock, A. C. S. (2015). The Great Seljuk Empire. Edinburgh University Press.
• Sourdel, Dominique (1970). The Abbasid Caliphate. In: Holt, P. M.; Lambton, A. K. S.; Lewis, B. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. 1A. Cambridge University Press.