Aghul-bak

Who he is

Name

Husam al-Din Aghul-bak (written Hisam-ud-din Aghul-bak)

Title

Malik, muqta of Awadh and Benares

Since

not pinned (before Bakhtiyar's grant)

Born

not known

Family

A Turkish officer; his protege Bakhtiyar Khalji holds Bhagwat and Bhiuli of him.

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia (Bakhtiyar): "approached Husamudin Aghul Bek, commander of Benaras, who granted him the iqtas of Bhagwat and Bhilui (Mirzapur)". The campaign board and Minhaj place him at Awadh. The two places may both be his command.

Overlord

Qutb al-Din Aibak (or the sultan directly)

What it holds

• Varanasi (Benares) and its ghats
• Awadh (Ayodhya) and the Ghaghara crossing
• Chunar (holder not recorded)
• The Bhagwat and Bhiuli assignment, given on to Bakhtiyar Khalji

How things stand that morning

In command of the east; the Bihar raid is his lieutenant's.

Threats

• Gahadavala remnant
• Bhar and local risings
• Sena of Bengal beyond

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.

1. 1199 to 1200 or 1203 (disputed)Bakhtiyar Khalji, from Bhagwat and Bhiuli, storms the fortified monastery called Bihar (Odantapuri) and raids on; dates: about 1199 to 1200 by careful modern work, 1203 by others; Wikipedia footnotes Sarkar for 1200.Depends on: Aghul-bak's tolerance; Bakhtiyar's following. Stopped by: The Gahadavala chiefs; the Sena.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment says "commanders of Benares, Kara and Awadh": Wikipedia says Aghul-bak was commander of Benares; the campaign board puts him at Awadh. We give him both and leave Kara to its own record.

Evidence: One line in Minhaj via Wikipedia; location (Benares or Awadh) varies.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Small seeds.

Primary sources for Ghurids

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 Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
• 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
• The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• The Crown of Glorious Deeds, Hasan Nizami (Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan Nizami of Nishapur) (begun about 1205 at Delhi, carried on to about 1217). The earliest history written in Muslim India and the only contemporary account of Qutb al-Din Aibak's campaigns. Read online
• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Tree of Genealogies, and the Manners of War and Bravery, Fakhr-i Mudabbir (Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn Mansur Mubarakshah) (the Shajara about 1206, dedicated to Qutb al-Din Aibak; the Adab al-harb in the 1220s for Iltutmish). The prose introduction to the Shajara, written within six years of 1200, praises Aibak and tells of his rise under Mu'izz al-Din of Ghur, his consecration at Lahore in 1206 and the Ghurid campaigns in Hindustan, with some notice of the Turkish peoples.

3 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.