ABSTRACT
Like any family which has emerged from nothing, the first steps of the Seljuqids are hidden from us in darkness alleviated by only a very few hints, lacking coherence and often of semi-legendary allure. The same parallelism, with intercalation of several other elements, is evident in Ibn al-Athir who, at the same date of 430, corresponding to the definitive seizure of Khurasan by the Seljuqids, interrupts his ordinary narrative to insert a comprehensive account of Seljuqid origins. The documentation derives in part from information received in Baghdad in the first years of the Seljuqid conquest in the East, then from accounts of the Turks themselves after their arrival in Iraq in 447/1055. The Seljuqids, in 321/1040, were far from being unanimously recognised by the Turcoman people to whom they owed their conquests.
