Great Seljuk Empire

State · 1040–1201 CE · at its largest around 1085 CE

Turkic nomads turned patrons of Persian culture, the Seljuks championed Sunni learning through vizier Nizam al-Mulk's madrasas and backed Omar Khayyam's calendar reform. Their victory at Manzikert in 1071 opened Anatolia to Turkish settlement and helped prompt the Crusades.

On its lands while it lasted

Silk Road (c. 130 BCE – c. 1450 CE): A network of overland caravan routes linking China with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean, along which silk, spices, horses, religions, technologies and diseases travelled for more than 1,500 years.
Palmyra (c. 261–1929 CE): Capital of Palmyrene Empire (261–269).
Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 CE): The Abbasid dynasty, descended from Muhammad's uncle, took the caliphate from the Umayyads and ruled from Iraq, presiding over the Islamic Golden Age.
Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965 CE – 1040 CE): An Arab mathematician, astronomer and physicist in Cairo, often credited as a pioneer of the scientific method through his experimental work on light and vision.
Al-Biruni (c. 973 CE – 1050 CE): Scholar from Khwarazm who wrote on astronomy, mathematics and geography and produced a detailed study of India after travelling with Mahmud of Ghazni.
Nishapur (c. 1040 CE): Capital of Great Seljuk Empire (1040–1194).
Hamadan (c. 1040 CE): Capital of Great Seljuk Empire (1040–1194).
Omar Khayyam (1048 CE – 1131 CE): Persian mathematician, astronomer and poet who solved cubic equations geometrically, helped reform the calendar, and is famed for the quatrains of the Rubaiyat.
East–West Schism (1054 CE): Break in communion between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople, dividing Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Battle of Manzikert (1071 CE): The Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeated and captured the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, opening Anatolia to Turkish settlement.
Khwarazmian Empire (1077–1231 CE): Turko-Persian empire centred on Gurganj in Khwarazm that dominated Central Asia and Iran before its destruction by the Mongols.
Sivas (c. 1094 CE): Capital of Danishmendids (1094–1178).
First Crusade (1096–1099 CE): Answering Pope Urban II’s call, armies of western knights marched to Constantinople, crossed Anatolia, took Antioch after a long siege and captured Jerusalem in July 1099, founding the crusader states.
Knights Templar (c. 1119–1312 CE): Hugues de Payens and fellow knights founded this military order in Jerusalem around 1119 to protect pilgrims, with headquarters on the Temple Mount. It grew rich and powerful until Pope Clement V dissolved it in 1312 under pressure from Philip IV of France.
Saladin (c. 1137 CE – 1193 CE): Kurdish founder of the Ayyubid dynasty who became sultan of Egypt and Syria, defeated the crusaders at Hattin and retook Jerusalem in 1187.