How did the Turks convert to Islam? When did the Turks converted to Islam?
The Abbasids’ attitudes led vast number of Turks convert to Islam. The Karakhanid state that ruled over Turkestan was the first Turkish state that embraced Islam. Their ruler was Abdulkarim Satuk Bughra Khan. At this century, a large number of Turks accepted Islam in masses. The Oghuz Turks, founders of big empires accepted Islam in the 10th century. And the Bulgars of Idil (Volga) converted to Islam in the 10th century. In the 15th century, almost all Turks from East to West, in other words Turks living from China up to the Balkans had already accepted Islam. Turks’ conversion to Islam and their active role among the Islamic states after the 11th century constituted an important phase in Islamic history. The Karakhanids (840–1212) and the Ghaznevids, who were both Muslim – Turkish states reigned over Aral-Khazar and Basra in the West, over east-Turkestan in the East and down to the Indian Ocean in the South.
The Seljuqs, who started to gain political power in the first half of the 11th century, eventually started rule over a region that included Khorasan, Middle East, and Anatolia. They established one of the most important states of this period. They enabled the spread of the Islamic civilization in the East up to India and in the West up to the inner regions of Europe. In the Muslim world, important developments in the field of educational institutions took place during the era of the Seljuqs. During the period of Alparslan, the Seljuq Sultan, it was attached importance to the development and spread of educational and training activities. The first madrasah in the Muslim world was established in Bagdad by Alparslan’s vizier Nizam ul-Mulk in 1066. The Nizamiyah Madrasa got its name from its founder and later became a model for the madrasahs founded in the following periods.
At the beginning of the 11th century, the Seljuqs rose as a Muslim Turkish state in Khorasan. In a short span of time, the Seljuqs established a great state over a territory from the Syr Darya River to the Mediterranean and from Caucasia to Yemen. In the early 10th century, the Abbasids gradually lost their power. A political fragmentation began in the Muslim world. The only place where the Abbasid caliphs retained their authority was Bagdad. In 945, the Buyids occupied Bagdad and suppressed the Abbasid caliph. After Tughril rescued the caliph from the Buyids’ oppression, the duty of defending the Islamic world passed to the Seljuqs.
The gates of Anatolia were opened to Muslims during the period of Alp Arslan, the Seljuq Sultan. The battle on the plains of Manzikert (1071) ended up with the defeat of the Byzantines. The Byzantine emperor was captured in this battle. After this war, the Anatolian Seljuq state, the capital of which was Iznik, defended the Muslim world against the attacks of the crusader armies for a long time.
With the foundation of the Ottoman state in 1299, the Muslims reemerged in the stages of the world. Islam spread over three continents. The caliphate also passed to the Ottomans, so the unity of the Muslim world was ensured again for the next 600 years.
The Conversion of Turks to Islam and their Contributions to the Islamic State: The Battle of Talas (751) (Arabs – Chinese): The Chinese proceeded from east to west and fought at the shores of the Talas River against the Arabs who came from Asia Minor to the East. The Yaghma and Karluk Turks who didn’t want Central Asia to fall under the rule of the Chinese, fought together with the Arabs against the Chinese and ensured the victory of the Arabs.