The Great Seljuq Empire is a medieval Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks.

The Seljuq Empire controls a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf.

From their homelands near the Aral sea, the Seljuqs advance first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia before eventually conquering eastern Anatolia.The Seljuq empire is founded by Tughril Beg in 1037 after the efforts by the founder of the Seljuq dynasty, Seljuq Beg, in the first quarter of the 11th century.

Seljuq Beg's father is in a higher position in the Oghuz Yabgu State, and he gives his name to both the state and the dynasty.

The Seljuqs unite the fractured political scene of the Eastern Islamic world and play a key role in the first and second crusades.

Highly Persianized in culture and language, the Seljuqs also playe an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition, even exporting Persian culture to Anatolia.The settlement of Turkic tribes in the northwestern peripheral parts of the empire, for the strategic military purpose of fending off invasions from neighboring states, leads to the progressive turkicization of those areas.