Khalji kin and captains

Who he is

Name

Muhammad Shiran Khalji; Ahmad Shiran; Husam al-Din Iwaz Khalji; Ali Mardan Khalji

Title

Followers and kinsmen of Bakhtiyar Khalji

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

Khalaj Turks of the Helmand valley who joined Bakhtiyar after his early raids (English Wikipedia: "many Khaljis joined his service"). Later: Muhammad Shiran is chosen by the amirs after 1206 and flees to Dinajpur; Ali Mardan murders Bakhtiyar, flees to Delhi and returns as governor; Husam al-Din Iwaz rules from 1208 as Ghiyath al-Din.

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia names Muhammad Shiran, Ali Mardan and Ghiyath al-Din Iwaz in the aftermath of 1206; Minhaj, by our memory, names Muhammad Shiran and Ahmad Shiran as brothers. None holds an assignment of his own that we can show for 1200.

Overlord

Bakhtiyar Khalji.

What it holds

• No assignment shown for 1200

How it was acquired

By service.

Allies and rivals

Bakhtiyar; later each other.

How things stand that morning

Horsemen in the raiding band.

Wealth

Plunder.

Military

Mounted raiders.

Threats

• Each other (the murder of 1206)

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. 1206 to 1212Bakhtiyar is murdered by Ali Mardan; Muhammad Shiran is chosen and flees; Iwaz governs from 1208 and yields to Ali Mardan about 1210; Iwaz returns after Ali Mardan's murder in 1212 (English Wikipedia).Depends on: Bakhtiyar's death. Stopped by: A different successor.

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment asks for Shiran and Muhammad as his brothers: English Wikipedia names only Muhammad Shiran; we record Ahmad Shiran from memory of Minhaj.

Evidence: Names from Minhaj through later summaries.

On the map: Not drawn.

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.