The Battle of Dandanaqan (1040)

In the 1030s Tughril and Chaghri, grandsons of Seljuk Beg, came into Khorasan with the Oghuz tribes. The Ghaznavid sultan Mas'ud gathered a great army to drive them out. The Seljuks avoided open battle and wore the Ghaznavids down in the desert, keeping hold of the wells and roads.

In May 1040 the armies met before the fort of Dandanaqan near Merv. The exhausted and thirsty Ghaznavid army broke up, and Sultan Mas'ud fled the field and went to India.

After the battle the Seljuks held an assembly on the field and chose Tughril Beg as ruler. They wrote to the caliph in Baghdad asking him to recognise the new state. Dandanaqan marked the beginning of the Great Seljuk state, which would stretch from Central Asia to Anatolia.