Baha al-Din Sam of Bamiyan

Who he is

Name

Baha al-Din Sam ibn Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Fakhr al-Din Mas'ud

Title

Malik (styled sultan on his coins) of Bamiyan and Tukharistan

Since

588 AH (1192), installed by his uncles Ghiyath al-Din and Mu'izz al-Din after they deposed his half-brother Abbas

Born

not pinned

Family

Shansabani, Bamiyan branch; his mother was a sister of Ghiyath al-Din and Mu'izz al-Din

Confidence

high

Juzjani (Raverty, vol. 1, pp. 485-500 on the Bamiyan kings); Ibn al-Athir for Balkh; Iranica 'Ghurids'; coins (Wakhsh mint). He dies in 602 AH (1206), a few days after Mu'izz al-Din's murder (Wikipedia's infobox date of 24 February 1206 does not fit that order).

Overlord

His uncles the sultans; the khutba in his towns names Ghiyath al-Din (Balkh from 594 AH).

What it holds

• Bamiyan with its citadel (Shahr-i Ghulghula) and the Hindu Kush valleys round it
• Tukharistan: Khulm, Samangan, Baghlan, Qunduz (Walwalij), Taliqan of Tukharistan and Andarab with its silver mines
• Balkh and its oasis, since 594 AH (1198); governor not pinned (in 1206 it is Imad al-Din Umar ibn al-Husayn al-Ghuri)
• Badakhshan with Jurm, its rubies and lapis, over local rulers (Juzjani says Badakhshan and the hill tracts of Shighnan came under his father's rule)
• Wakhsh beyond the Panj, where he strikes coins
• Chaghaniyan north of the Oxus: under the Bamiyan branch since 570-571 AH (1174-75) according to TDV and Juzjani; nothing found shows it lost before 1200, but its position on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (low confidence)
• Khuttal (Khuttalan, the Kulob country between Wakhsh and Badakhshan): Raverty's Juzjani names it (as Haytal, 'also called Khutlan', a dependency of Badakhshan) among the lands Fakhr al-Din Mas'ud brought under his rule; nothing found pins it for 1200 (low confidence)
• Not held: Tirmidh, which the Ghurids take only in 601 AH (1204-05)

How it was acquired

Bamiyan granted to his grandfather Fakhr al-Din Mas'ud by Ala al-Din Husayn (1150s); Tukharistan, Chaghaniyan, Wakhsh, Badakhshan and Shighnan won by Fakhr al-Din and Shams al-Din Muhammad (1150s-1192); Balkh by Baha al-Din Sam himself in 594 AH (1198).

Allies and rivals

Allies: his uncles; the Ghurid commanders of Guzganan. Rivals: the Qara Khitai and their vassals across the Oxus (Tirmidh, Samarkand); Khwarazm. The local lord of Wakhsh (Juzjani names a Malik Shah of Wakhsh, whose daughter married into the Bamiyan house) is a subordinate ally.

How things stand that morning

He holds Bamiyan, Tukharistan, Balkh, Badakhshan and Wakhsh; Chaghaniyan and Khuttal are drawn as his with low confidence. Across the Oxus at Tirmidh and in Qubadiyan and Khuttal the ground is held by the Qara Khitai's vassals or by lords not pinned (see the Transoxiana researcher, tra). There is no fighting on the Oxus recorded for the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Caravan tolls on the Balkh-Bamiyan-Kabul road (the main road from Central Asia to India); the Balkh oasis; the silver of Andarab; the rubies (la'l) and lapis of Badakhshan; the horses and slaves of the Oxus trade.

Military

The Bamiyan citadel and the castles of the Hindu Kush; Balkh's walls; troops from Wakhsh and Badakhshan (Juzjani). No numbers.

Threats

• Qara Khitai revenge for Balkh (the Ghurid army is routed at Andkhud in 1204).
• Khwarazm after 1200.

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. Late 1200 to 1201Bamiyan troops likely serve in the Ghurid conquest of Khurasan (not pinned).Depends on: Tekish's death. Stopped by: Danger on the Oxus.

Places of note

• Shahr-i Ghulghula: The citadel of Bamiyan on its hill above the valley, facing the great Buddhas.

Where the sources disagree

• GM dossier gives him Tirmidh: not supported for 1200 (taken 601 AH). Wakhsh and Badakhshan: supported. Chaghaniyan and Khuttal: probable from Juzjani and TDV for the 1150s-1190s, low confidence for 1200.

Evidence: Juzjani's account of the Bamiyan kings and the coins are good for the extent of the branch; the position north of the Oxus in 1200 rests on Juzjani's statement for the 1170s-1190s, the TDV dating of Chaghaniyan and the Wakhsh mint.

On the map: Tirmidh and the Oxus crossing below it are not his; Qubadiyan is left undrawn; the Wakhsh, Khuttal and Chaghaniyan parts are the least certain.

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.