Hamadan (Khwarazmian)

Who he is

Title

Governor for the Khwarazmshah

Since

Hamadan fell to Tekish after his victory beside it in mid-Sha'ban 592 (15 July 1196; the city surrendered on 18 July by Wikipedia's account); taken from him by his rebel governor Mayajuq with the caliph's encouragement (TDV) and recovered when Mayajuq fell in Rabi I 595 (January 1199)

Born

not pinned

Family

The Eldiguzid prince Uzbek ibn Pahlavan was at Hamadan with the Pahlavanid emirs in Safar 593 (Ibn al-Athir) and by Wikipedia's account shared the government of Persian Iraq for Tekish after 1196; his place on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (record Uzbek).

Confidence

low

No source read names the master of Hamadan in 1199-1200. The Khwarazmian attribution rests on Tekish's recovery of the province in January 1199 and the caliph's confirmation of his lands.

Overlord

Ala al-Din Tekish, Khwarazmshah

What it holds

• Hamadan and its plain under Mount Alvand
• Asadabad and its pass on the Khurasan road
• Bahar, the old seat of the Seljuk province of Kurdistan
• Kabudarahang, Razan and Famenin to the north
• Tuyserkan and Malayer to the south (holders not pinned)

How it was acquired

By Tekish's victory of 592/1196 and his recovery of the province from Mayajuq in 595/1199.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the Pahlavanid emirs and Kokche; the Eldiguzid house, which ruled from Hamadan until 1194; the caliph, who encouraged Mayajuq's revolt before making peace with Tekish in Rabi I 595.

How things stand that morning

Probably held for Tekish under the settlement of Rabi I 595, the khutba presumably for al-Nasir and for Tekish. Not pinned: the governor's name, Uzbek's role, and how far the Pahlavanid emirs share the district.

Wealth

A great station of the Khurasan road; horse and mule markets, wool and cloth; grain and fruit from the Alvand slopes and the Hamadan plain.

Military

A garrison (not described); the town walls. No figures in the sources.

Threats

• The Pahlavanid mamluks under Kokche
• An Eldiguzid return from Azerbaijan
• Tekish's death

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. 19 or 20 Ramadan 596 (3 or 4 July 1200)Tekish dies near Nasa, at Shahristana, on the road from Khwarazm into Khurasan, and his son Qutb al-Din Muhammad succeeds as Ala al-Din MuhammadDepends on: Tekish's illness (a throat abscess); natural death (khw researcher's record decides) Stopped by: play that keeps Tekish alive or keeps him from travelling
2. after July 1200, not pinnedKokche's mamluks take Hamadan; the atabeg Abu Bakr later comes from Azerbaijan and gives Hamadan to his brother Uzbek (Duhok study, date not pinned)Depends on: Tekish's death and the collapse of the Khwarazmian garrisons Stopped by: a Khwarazmian army in the Jibal; a caliphal army entering Hamadan

Places of note

• Asadabad pass: The pass west of Hamadan on the Khurasan road, where Tekish's men met the caliph's vizier in 1194 (Wikipedia)

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia names Qaragoz as Tekish's first governor of Hamadan in 1194 and dates Mayajuq's move on Hamadan to 8 June 1196, before the July battle, which is out of order; Ibn al-Athir's order of events is followed here.
• The Anatolia map places Uzbek at Hamadan as a figurehead in 1200; no source read places him there later than Safar 593 (January 1197).

Evidence: Ibn al-Athir is clear to 593; for 594-596 only TDV and the summaries of al-Durar were reachable, and none names Hamadan's master in 1199-1200.

On the map: Drawn as the Hamadan district; the holder is a low-confidence attribution.

Primary sources for Khwarazm

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
• 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
• 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
• Compendium of Chronicles, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani (1300 to 1311, at Tabriz). The official Ilkhanid history, compiled from Mongol oral tradition and the lost Altan Debter. Read online

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