Fragmentation of the Seljuk Sultanate

Timeline

1. 1141–1142Near Samarkand · TransoxianaSultan Sanjar led a coalition army to a crushing defeat at the hands of the Western Liao and was briefly captured; the Great Seljuk military prestige suffered a fatal blow, and centrifugal tendencies in Khwarazm and Central Asia intensified.
2. 1143–1147Mesopotamia · MesopotamiaThe Abbasid caliph in Baghdad nominally persisted, but the Iraqi Seljuk sultan's power was hollow; local atabegs and strongmen like the Zengids actually controlled Mosul and Damascus, and central commands could not be carried out.
3. 1145–1150Anatolia · AnatoliaThe Sultanate of Rum maintained independent rule in Anatolia alongside the Byzantines, Crusader states, and Cilician Armenia; the Great Seljuks were no longer able to integrate Anatolian affairs.