The Seljuqs were, for much of history, remarkably successful in propagating the view of themselves as Sunni heroes: generous supporters of Sunni religious scholarship, staunch champions of the Abbasid caliphs, and indefatigable defenders of Islam against heresy, heretics and Infidels. Their success in projecting this image is reflected in the medieval historiography; the Tārīkh-i guzīda, for instance, after enumerating the flaws of every Muslim dynasty from the Umayyads through the Khwarazmshahs, asseverates: ‘But the Seljuqs were free of these defects: they were Sunni, and of pure religion and good beliefs …’

Similarly fulsome praise of the Seljuqs as the saviours and renewers of Sunni Islam can be found in, for instance, the Saljūqnāma, which states: