Religious understanding of Sultans of Anatolian Seljuk State and its political reflections

Anatolian Seljuk Empire and its Sultans played a big role in the Islamisation of Anatolia and making Anatolia Turks' Muslim homeland. To comprehend the manifestation of Islam in Anatolia, it is crucial to know the religious understandings of Sultans of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire, and the reflections of these religious understandings. What's more, the Sultans of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire pioneered Islamisation Movement in Anatolia, which means they took form in Anatolia as well. It should be clearly understood that the religious understanding was not standardized in the course of Islamisation, and it changed during Sultans' reign. That's why we have discussed every Sultan one by one considering the incidents they handled. By doing so, we investigated the correctness of general assumptions about these religious understandings in detail. As a result, we presented the changes in Sultans' religious understandings in time, and the reasons for these changes, and the political reflections of them. According to the study, Sultans of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire were always Hanafi; on the other hand, in terms of faith, they approached various sects in time. Moreover, those sects affected every Sultan differently.