or Saljūq dynasty
(с 11th–13th centuries) Muslim Turkmen dynasty that ruled Persia, Iraq, Syria, and Anatolia.
Seljūq was the chief of a nomadic Turkish tribe. His grandsons Chaghri Beg and Toghrïl Beg conquered realms in Iran. Under Alp-Arslan and Malik-Shah, the empire came to include all of Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine; Alp-Arslan's victory over the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Crusades . Adherents of Sunnite Islam, the Seljūqs adopted Persian culture, and under them the Persian language partly displaced Arabic as a literary language in Iran. By 1200 Seljūq power remained only in their sultanate of Rūm in Anatolia, which collapsed in a war against the Khwārezm-Shah dynasty in 1230 and was overrun by {{link=Mongol">Mongols in 1243. See also Nizām al-Mulk .