The Seljuks
After the Seljuks under Alparslan inflicted a crushing defeat on the Byzantines in 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert near Lake Van in eastern Anatolia, the land lay open for their occupation, and wave after wave of Turkish immigrants moved in.
The Seljuks established a capital at Nicea (modern Iznik) in 1078, but after the armies of the First Crusade had forced them back to the centre and east of Anatolia they set up a new capital in Konya.Seljuk dominance in Anatolia lasted for two centuries, a period that witnessed religious developments whose consequences were felt throughout subsequent Turkish history and still have an influence upon events today. The Seljuk rulers’ control was by no means uniformly effective throughout the whole of the areas newly occupied by Turks. Sectarian divisions tended to accentuate economic, social and political differences. Then, as always in Turkish history, the Islam of the rulers was very different from the Islam of many of their subjects. The Seljuk elite acquired land, privileges and a preference for city life. They attracted scholars and established theological colleges to train the ulema, the body of learned men in the Islamic establishment with the dual role of interpreting and implementing the Shari* a (the sacred law of Islam). They lent authority to the sultan’s claim to rule but they circumscribed that power by making sure he did not deviate from the $eriat ( = Shari* a). Sufis of the more refined variety also came to the cities. The most notable example is Celaleddin Rumi who was to become the patron saint of the Mevlevi or Whirling Dervishes, a Sunni tarikat in close touch with the established political rulers. A very different type of dervish was to be found in the rural areas. The tarikat practices there often owed rather more to other religions and ceremonies than they did to Islam.
Influences of customs the Turks had followed in Central Asia and those they had found in Anatolia as well as Shi* a teachings and esoteric interpretations of the Qur’an were all to be found in some of the dervish groups that held sway outside the towns. Numerous communities and tarikats preferred the Shi‘a to the Sunni expression of Islam. In Turkey these have commonly gone under a variety of names such as Alevi and Kizilba^, which are often used inconsistently and imprecisely. Most of these groups were characterised by strong community loyalty, endogamy and secrecy. They customarily rejected four of the five ‘pillars’ of Islam, almsgiving being the only exception. Common to many of them was the belief that a Mahdi or divine deliverer would come to end oppression and impose a reign of justice.Rebellions occurred periodically throughout Turkish history when particularly adverse economic conditions and oppressive rule combined to make rural communities receptive to reports that the eagerly awaited Mahdi had appeared. One of the first such uprisings, the Babai Rebellion in 1240, nearly overthrew the Seljuks. It happened in response to the misrule of Giyasuddin Keyhusrev II who seized the sultanate in 1237. At a time when the Turkoman tribesmen were already suffering from land shortage caused by the flood of new immigrants pouring into Anatolia to escape the Mongol hordes, the sultan’s demands for higher land-taxes brought resentment to the boil. A dervish leader, Baba Ilyas, then declared himself to be a prophet and the rightful ruler, and his follower, Baba Ishak, called upon the Turkoman tribes to rebel. Followers flocked to his banner in characteristically unswerving obedience to their tarikat leaders, and encouraged by the Baba’s promise that all would receive equal shares of the spoils of victory. In a series of major confrontations they inflicted heavy losses on the Seljuk armies sent to crush them but were eventually beaten in a critical pitched battle in Central Anatolia when Christian mercenaries played a crucial part in the Seljuk success. Although the Seljuks won the day, the rebellion had revealed their weakness and three years later the Mongols came and temporarily made the Turks of Anatolia tributaries of the Ilhan dynasty. The rural Turkoman tradition of opposition to the central authority persisted and flared up periodically throughout Turkish history, receiving support from tarikats such as the Bektashis that inherited the mantle of these first rebellious babas.