The Turkic Muslim empire that dominated the Near East from the mid-eleventh to the late twelfth century, built by the Seljuk clan of the Oghuz Turks — recently converted steppe nomads who overran Iran, Iraq, and Anatolia. In 1055 their leader Tughril Beg took Baghdad and received the title sultan, leaving the Abbasid caliph religious prestige while the sultan held real power. Their victory at Manzikert in 1071 opened Anatolia to Turkic settlement, the foundation of modern Turkey. Under the vizier Nizam al-Mulk they built a Persianized administration and madrasa network, before fracturing after 1092 and falling to the Khwarazmians in 1194.
A nomad chief from the grasslands of Central Asia rode into Baghdad in 1055 and was greeted not as a conqueror but as a rescuer. The caliph, the titular head of Sunni Islam, had been losing control of his own city to a rival Shia dynasty. The newcomer was Tughril Beg, leader of the Seljuk Turks, herders who had only recently become Muslims. The caliph gave him a new title: sultan. From that day a strange bargain held the Islamic east together. The caliph kept the prayers and the prestige; the sultan kept the armies and the taxes. A man whose ancestors had worshipped the sky now defended the heart of Sunni Islam, and the Turks began a long era as a central power of the Middle East.