Tughril Beg, The founder of the Great Seljuk Empire

Tughril Beg was the founder of the great Seljuk Empire, sultan from 1037 to 1063. Tughril united the Turkic warriors of the Great Eurasian Steppes to form an alliance, which succeeded their common ancestor Seljuq and led them to victory in eastern Iran. He relegated the Abbasid Caliphs to state figureheads and took command of the caliphate's armies in military offensives against the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate to Enlarge his empire's borders.

Tughril Beg was born on 909, and was the son of Mikail of Kınık. He was a Sunni Muslim, and the brother of Chagri Beg. Tughril Beg was the grandson of Seljuk, the leader of the Oghuz Confederation, who formed an opportunistic and loose alliance united by Islam.

Tughril and Chagri began their first attack on the northern border of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 1030s in the name of Islam, even though the Ghaznavids were Muslim Turks. In 1040, his army of 20,000 conquered a larger army of 50,000 Ghaznavids under Musud I of Ghazni, and the armies of brothers Tughril and Chagri united the Turkestan tribes under the name of their ancestor Seljuk, forming the Great Seljuk Empire.

Tughril Beg captured Baghdad in 1055 and took al-Qa'im Abbasid cleric under his protection. The Sultan of Seljuk will rule in partnership with the caliphs from this point forward, and the empire was devoted to the principles of Sunni Islam. Tughril Beg was Sultan of the Seljuk Empire until his death in 1063 when his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded him as Sultan.