The Seljuqs: Politics, Society and Culture.

• Author: Ozgudenli, Osman G.
• Position: Book review

The Seljuqs: Politics, Society and Culture

Edited by Christian Lange and Songul Mecit

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011, 318 pages, ISBN 9780748668571.

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After the passing of such researchers in Seljuq history as Osman Turan, Ibrahim Kafesoglu, Mehmet Altay Koymen, Faruk Sumer, Sergei G. Agajanov, Claude Cahen, and Ann K. S. Lambton, there was, from the 1970s onwards, a serious dearth of studies in the field, both in Turkey and Europe. However, it is with great pleasure that we state that from the 2000s onwards, Seljuq studies have been revivified by the training of new young researchers in the field and by the organisation of symposia and the publication of new books and articles, among which is the book reviewed here.

The book in question contains 15 papers originally given at the 14-15 September 2008 Edinburgh conference on "The Seljuqs: Islam revitalized?". The book consists of three sections containing these fifteen articles, prefaced with a "List of figures" (p. vii), an "Acknowledgements" (p. ix), a "List of abbreviations" (p. x) and an editors' "Introduction" (pp. 1-9).

As the introduction (pp. 1-9) states, the volume seeks to engage with areas going beyond the traditional scholarly concerns with political and military history, through explorations of such themes as ideology, legal theory, justifications of authority, the politics of ritual, display, spatial organisation, and the relationships between nomads and settled peoples.

The first section of the book deals with the Central Asian origins of the Seljuqs and their concepts of political authority and legitimacy. C. Edmund Bosworth's "The Origins of the Seljuqs" (pp. 13-21) deals with the origin of the Seljuqs in the Turkish tribe of the Oghuz and discusses the portrayal of the Oghuz by travellers and chroniclers of various nationalities, including their negative portrayal by Islamic geographers such as Ibn Fadlan. Finally, it discusses the legendary account of the origin of the Seljuqs in the Malik-nama and the problematic question of the relations between the branch of the Oghuz who were to become the Seljuqs and the senior Yabghu line of the Oghuz who remained pagan until the turn of the millennium.

Carole Hillenbrand (University of Edinburgh) discusses the court life and ceremonies of the Seljuqs and their relations to earlier cultures in "Aspect of the Court of the Great Seljuqs" (pp. 22-38). First, she analyses the presentation of court life...