Awakening: The Great Seljuk Empire (Uyanış: Büyük Selçuklu) (translated)

TRT 1 began the Turkish historical drama Uyanış: Büyük Selçuklu (Awakening: Great Seljuk) on September 28, 2020. It ran for one season and ended with its 34th episode on May 31, 2021. The series drew strong interest in Turkey, helped by its well-known cast, and found fans in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan. It won an Anatolia Media Award in 2020.

The story follows the 11th-century Great Seljuk Empire, covering its state structure, political events and wars through the lives of Sultan Melikşah and his son Sencer. The empire struggles against outside enemies such as Byzantium and the Crusaders as well as internal rebellions. Buğra Gülsoy plays Melikşah and Ekin Koç plays Sencer, with Hatice Şendil, Gürkan Uygun, Sezin Akbaşoğulları, Sevda Erginci and Mehmet Özgür in leading roles. The follow-up series Alparslan: Büyük Selçuklu goes further back in time, to the princely and ruling years of Melikşah's father Alparslan.

Sedat İnci directed, Akli Film produced and Serdar Özönalan wrote the series. Filming took place in Sakarya, Istanbul and Kocaeli after roughly 13 months of preparation. Gökhan Kırdar composed the opening theme, while Kazakh musicians recorded the other music on instruments from the Turkic world. It was also dubbed into Azerbaijani for Xəzər TV.