How did the Oghuz Turks become muslims?

[arnewise12]

How did the oghuz turks or Turkmens become Muslims,

I read different theoris, which one is right,

The first is that different sufis converted the turkmens

The second is that the Great Seljuks Sultanate founder Tughrul Beg and his brother David Beg converted the turkmens in massconversations to sunni islam

The third is that the ummayyid and abbassid calips converted the oghuz turks with help of the sword

which one is correct, or are there other way that they become muslims

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

The first known Muslim Oghuz group belonged to the retinue of Seljuk Beg, who converted most probably because of poltical reasons. Later, the sufis active in the Samanid-Oghuz frontier in Northern Transoxiana helped many Oghuz convert to Islam, but these newly converts were barely Muslims, they were not orthodox believers and kept most of their ancient beliefs alive.

[yarabbi]

May 20, 2009 12:54:47 GMT 3 H. İhsan Erkoç said:

but these newly converts were barely Muslims, they were not orthodox believers and kept most of their ancient beliefs alive.

The faithful were always the faithful.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

No they were not. Nomadic Turks were Muslims only in the name and they practiced very little of orthodox Islam. Most of their ancient beliefs and traditions survived and they can still be observed even today. It was the sedentary Turks living in villages, towns and cities who practiced Islam in a more orthodox and religious way. The nomads did not and still do not.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

You can read some of Ahmet Yaşar Ocak's books related with this topic.

[Turan]

In Nihal Atsiz book(s) its being stated that the Asian Turk/Turkic tribes fought as mercenaries for the Abbasid Caliphate.

And because most Turk/Turkic people wanted to fight as mercenaries they became muslim so they would be chosen rather then other Turkic tribes.