Table of Contents

List of box texts; Illustrations and maps; Abbreviations; A note on transliteration, conventions and geographical terminology; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter 1. The Rise of the Seljuk Empire: from the Eurasian Steppe to the Gates of Cairo, c. 965 1092; Chapter 2. Crisis, Consolidation and Collapse: the Great Seljuk Empire and the Sultanate of Iraq, 1092 1194; Chapter 3. Sovereignty, Legitimacy and the Contest with the Caliphate; Chapter 4. The Dargah: Courts and Court Life; Chapter 5. The Kuttab: Bureaucrats and Administration; Chapter 6. The 'Askar: The Seljuk military; Chapter 7. Religion and the Seljuk Empire; Chapter 8. The Economic and Social Organisation of the Seljuk Empire; Conclusion: The Seljuk Legacy; Appendices: Regnal Dates of Seljuk Sultans; 'Abbasid Caliphs, Khwarazmshahs and principal Atabegs; Genealogical chart of the Seljuk Sultans; Chronological Outline; Glossary; Bibliography.

About the Author

A. C. S. Peacock is Lecturer in Middle Eastern History at the University of St Andrews.

Reviews

'The Great Seljuk Empire is a truly impressive piece of scholarship that provides arguably the first full-length overview of Seljuk history in English and demonstrates Peacock's considerable experience in this area. It will also appeal to a broad audience. I am sure that students and non-specialists will find Peacock's engaging manner accessible, whilst appreciating the trouble he takes explaining key terms and concepts. For specialists, interested in the key thematic debates on this subject, this work provides new insights, but it also acts as a much-needed benchmark, drawing together the various studies produced thus far and reflecting upon their implications when considered as a corpus. In general, I am fully in agreement with Deborah Tor that this will rapidly become "a standard work in the field".'--Nicholas Morton, Nottingham Trent University "Al-Masāq, Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean "

'Andrew Peacock is to be commended on the challenge undertaken. He has produced 'the first serious overall study of the Great Seljuk Empire which has ever existed'. Our reviewer was impressed by the fact that the book is 'very well and clearly organised' and written in a 'pleasing style which renders it remarkably accessible to the reader'. The book 'places strong emphasis on the nomadic background of the Seljuks, and on the continued importance of their relations with the nomadic Turks who they led as well as were often in conflict with. This is something which the sources, the majority of which were written by bureaucrats or clerics - and certainly not by the Seljuks themselves or other Turks - has tended to obscure'. In short, Andrew Peacock has produced 'a most remarkable book'.'--British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize