High Middle Ages · Central Asia · War
1036
Seljuk Turks take Nishapur
1036
Tughril Beg entered the eastern Persian metropolis without a fight after the city's notables deposed their Ghaznavid governor. Nishapur became the first great Seljuk capital. The shift opened Khorasan to the Turkmen and alarmed the Ghaznavid court at Ghazni to send an army that would meet disaster. Nishapur's scholars and merchants, pragmatic as ever, simply transferred their loyalty to whichever power could guarantee order.