Anatolia

Alp Arslan (c. 1029-1072) was the second Seljuk sultan, whose victory over the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV at Manzikert in 1071 broke Byzantine defences in Asia Minor and opened Anatolia to Turkish settlement. He was killed the following year on campaign in Transoxiana.

Bayezid I (r. 1389-1402), known as Yildirim, the Thunderbolt, expanded the Ottoman state across the Balkans and Anatolia before his defeat and capture by Timur at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. His reign marks both the zenith of early Ottoman expansion and its fragility.

Ertuğrul Ghazi was leader of the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks and father of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire. Operating on the Seljuk-Byzantine frontier in thirteenth-century Anatolia, his modest gains at Söğüt laid the groundwork for an enduring Islamic empire.

The Seljuk Empire (1037-1194 CE) was a powerful Turkish-Sunni dynasty that dominated the Middle East and Anatolia, defeated the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert, established Turkish power in Anatolia, and patronized the famous Nizamiyya schools.