Abu Bakr (atabeg)

Who he is

Name

Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan

Title

Atabeg of Azerbaijan and Arran

Since

587 AH (1191)

Born

Not pinned

Family

Son of Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan; half-brother of Qutlugh Inanch (killed 591 AH, 1195) and Amir Amiran Umar (dead about 1195-96); brother of Muzaffar al-Din Uzbek, the house's nominal lord at Hamadan. Wife or wives on 1 January 1200 and children: not pinned. His Georgian marriage is later (see the realm record).

Confidence

high

Iranica (Luther), TDV, the Georgian Life of Tamar via Rayfield. Ibn al-Athir's portrait of a drinker who left the frontier to fend for itself is a hostile one, written after the losses of 1199-1210.

Overlord

None in practice; the caliph al-Nasir is named in the prayer and on the coins.

What it holds

• Tabriz (capital) and its plain, with Marand, Shabestar, Sarab and Miyana on the roads east and north
• Khoy, Salmas, Urmia and Ushnu west of Lake Urmia (Urmia and Ushnu go to the Ahmadilis about 1205: later)
• Ardabil and its district, to the edge of the Mughan steppe
• Nakhchivan, Ordubad and Julfa on the Araxes
• Arran: Ganja, Shamkor, Barda, Beylagan and the Kura crossings
• The Mughan steppe below the Araxes (winter pasture of Turkmen; the atabeg's hold is loose)
• Dvin and the Ararat plain (Artashat, Vedi)
• Bjni and the Kotayk castles (Muslim-held until 650 AE, 1201-02, per Vardan; under the atabeg or a local emir: not pinned)
• Getabak (Gadabay) and Charek in the hills between Ganja and Lake Sevan (taken by the Zakarids later)
• The castles of Vayots Dzor and of Syunik (Baghaberd, Geghi, Kakavaberd, Shlorut), with the tribute of their Armenian villages and monasteries
• The castles of the south shore of Lake Sevan (not pinned)
• Nominal overlordship over the Ahmadilis of Maragha, the maliks of Ahar, the Armenian princes of Khachen and Dizak

How it was acquired

Inherited from Eldiguz (Arran, Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, 1130s-1160s), Jahan Pahlavan and Qizil Arslan (Tabriz, 1170s; Syunik's castles, 1151-70); seized on Qizil Arslan's murder in September 1191 and defended against his half-brothers in 1193 and 1195.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: Queen Tamar and her commanders Zakare and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli; the Shirvanshah; Ala al-Din Korpe Arslan of Maragha; the Khwarazmshah Tekish. Kin: his brother Uzbek at Hamadan. The mamluks of Pahlavan who rule Persian Iraq (Kokja) are uneasy partners.

How things stand that morning

Held in full through governors: Tabriz, Marand, Khoy, Salmas, Urmia, Ushnu, Ardabil, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Barda, Beylagan, Dvin. The Syunik and Vayots Dzor castles are garrisoned for the atabeg while the Armenian villages and monasteries keep their own lords and pay. Shamkor, given by the Georgians to Amir Amiran in 1195 as their vassal, is back in the atabeg's hands after Amir Amiran's death; the Zakarid Vahram takes it only about 1214 (Vardan).

The Georgian frontier: Shirak (640 AE, 1191), Amberd (645 AE, 1196-97) and Ani (648 AE, July 1199 to July 1200; 1199 in most accounts) are Zakarid; Bjni (650 AE, 1201-02), Dvin (652 AE, 1203), Kars (1206-07), Charek (1214) and the Syunik castles (1219-20) are still Muslim (Vardan's dated list).

Wealth

The Tabriz market and the caravan roads, the Araxes crossings and the salt of Nakhchivan, the silk and cloth of Arran, the flocks of the winter pastures, the tribute of the Armenian valleys.

Military

Mamluk guards, the emirs' troops from their iqta' grants, Turkmen and Kurds. Citadels at Tabriz, Nakhchivan, Ganja and Dvin; the Syunik castles (Baghaberd, Kakavaberd). Beaten at Shamkor in 1195. No figures.

Threats

• Georgian raids and the Zakarid advance on Dvin
• The Shirvanshah on the Kura
• Maragha and Erbil (their joint attack comes in 1205-06: later)
• The Khwarazmshah in Iraq

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 596-597 AH (1200-01) if Iranica's dating holdsAbu Bakr backs an attempt by Tamar's divorced husband George (Yuri Bogolyubsky) to come back to Georgia, then attacks Shirvan and is beaten; Shamkor and Ganja must acknowledge Georgian overlordship. (Rayfield dates Yuri's last attempt to 1193 and the defeat to Shamkor, 1195: if so, none of this lies ahead.)Depends on: Abu Bakr choosing war; Yuri alive and at large; Georgia free to act Stopped by: Peace with Georgia, Yuri's death or captivity, Abu Bakr staying at home

Later, on the likely course

1. 599 AH (1202-03)Zakare and Ivane take Dvin.Depends on: The Zakarid advance continuing after Ani; no relief from Tabriz Stopped by: A relief army or a Georgian war elsewhere
2. 604-605 AH (1207-09)Abu Bakr takes Maragha after Ala al-Din's death leaves it to a child.Depends on: Ala al-Din's death (Dhu al-Qa'da 604, May-June 1208) Stopped by: A strong Ahmadili heir or Erbil's help
3. 606-607 AH (1210)The Georgians sack Ardabil and raid through Tabriz; Abu Bakr dies in 607 (1210) and Uzbek succeeds.Depends on: The Georgian advance Stopped by: Not applicable to 1200

Places of note

• Tabriz citadel and palace: The atabeg's capital since Qizil Arslan (1170s)
• Nakhchivan: tomb of Mu'mine Khatun (1186): Tomb tower built at Jahan Pahlavan's order for Eldiguz's wife Mu'mine Khatun, finished 582 AH (1186); the family's first seat
• Dvin: The atabeg's fortress-town facing the Zakarids; lost in 1202-03 (later)
• Tatev monastery: The great Armenian monastery and bishop's seat of Syunik, under the atabeg's castellans
• Noravank: Armenian monastery of Vayots Dzor

Where the sources disagree

• Iranica dates Abu Bakr's help to Yuri Bogolyubsky to 596-597 AH (1200) from Christian sources; the Georgian chronology followed by Rayfield puts Yuri's two revolts in 1191 and 1193 and the great defeat at Shamkor in 1195. Both are given; neither changes the position on 1 January 1200 except whether a Shirvan war lies ahead.

Evidence: The atabeg and his towns are firm; the names of his governors and the exact limits of his hold in Mughan, the Sevan basin and the Ararat plain are not.

On the map: The blocks follow the towns and castles the atabeg held; between them lie Kurdish and Turkmen grazing and Armenian villages under their own headmen. The Mughan part is a claim more than a hold.

Primary sources for Eldiguzids

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
• The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
• The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. Read online
• Comfort of Hearts and Sign of Joy: a History of the Seljuks, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rawandi (Ravandi) (1203 to 1204, dedicated to Kaykhusraw I of Rum). A history of the Great Seljuks from their origins to the death of the last sultan Toghril III in 1194, begun at Hamadan and finished for Kaykhusraw of Rum when the author moved to Anatolia. Read online
• History of Tabaristan, Ibn Isfandiyar (Baha al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan) (begun 1206, extended about 1216; continued anonymously to 1349). The local history of the Caspian province and the only account of the Bavandid kings of Tabaristan: Husam al-Dawla Ardashir (reigned 1173 to 1206) at Sari and Amul, his dealings with the Khwarazmshahs Tekish and Ala al-Din Muhammad, the Nizaris of Alamut, the Eldiguzids and the caliph, and the marriages, feuds and raids of the Daylamite and Gilaki lords. Read online
• Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online