A recent article announced the undertaking of a project aimed at gathering the corpus of the monumental inscriptions commissioned by the Islamic dynasties of Central Asian Turkic origin, over the fourth/tenth to seventh/thirteenth centuries. During this period, on both monuments and artefacts, commissioners and artisans are known to have focused increasing attention on the inscriptions, as testified by the evident and significant changes in the structures of texts, explications of hierarchies of power, protocols of authorities, and in the choices of language and styles of writing. Over the years, many of these inscriptions have received significant scholarly attention. Others, however, especially those found in archaeological contexts and in incomplete or fragmentary state, still require indepth analysis, aimed at detecting clues that can serve in dating and contextualisation. While engaged in studying those inscriptions of the rich Ghaznavid epigraphic corpus dating from the fifth/eleventh century, the author viewed it as necessary to organise systematically the contemporary Seljuq production, in the conviction that comparative analysis of these two corpora and their distinctive features would reveal useful aspects, gradually improving knowledge and opening to still further exploration. This short contribution presents the oldest group of royal inscriptions of the Great Seljuqs, and the most substantial as currently known: those bearing the names of the brothers Malikshāh (r. 465–85/1073–92) and Tutush (r. 471–88/1078–95). These amount to about twenty inscriptions, many of them intact and in good condition, made in just over ten years (475/1082–3 to 488/1095) and coming from different parts of the territories they once controlled. Our first aim has been to review the published data and organise them in chronological order of the inscriptions – regardless of the territorial origin – focusing mainly on the protocols of the two rulers and the most important palaeographical aspects.

Four inscriptions from the Umayyad Great Mosque in Damascus, dating to 475/1082–3, are the earliest recognised for the Seljuq rulers. Carried out ten years after Malikshāh's rise to power, these constitute an epigraphic programme aimed at celebrating a project of restoration and reconstruction of the building. They are executed on four rectangular marble slabs (nos. 1–4), originally placed on the pillars supporting the dome at the centre of the prayer hall transept.