Seljuk Empire Reaches Its Territorial Apex Under Alp Arslan

1061

The new sultan Alp Arslan inherited from his uncle Tughril Beg a domain stretching from Khorasan to Iraq, and immediately began extending it. His campaigns pressed into the Caucasus, Armenia, and the Byzantine frontier, while his vizier Nizam al-Mulk professionalized the bureaucracy behind him. The Seljuk state was becoming what the Abbasid caliphate had once been - the political center of gravity for the entire Islamic east.