Kokche

Who he is

Name

Nur al-Din Kokche (Kukja, Gokche; a modern Arabic study adds the name Ali)

Title

Commander (amir, sipahsalar) of the mamluks of the late atabeg Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan

Since

raised as their commander by Pahlavan's mamluks and emirs in 591/1195 (Ibn al-Athir)

Born

not pinned

Family

A former mamluk of Pahlavan. His son-in-law Jamal al-Din Ay Aba later holds Isfahan; his own former mamluk Shams al-Din Aytoghmish later kills him (600/1203-04).

Confidence

medium

Ibn al-Athir (Richards, year 591) for the rise and the Diwan's grant; TDV for 592; the Duhok study for his rule after 595.

What it holds

• No town securely his on 1 January 1200 (not pinned)
• The Diwan's diploma of 591/1195 for Rayy, Khuwar of Rayy, Saveh, Qum and Kashan to Mazdaqan, overtaken by the caliph's settlement with Tekish in Rabi I 595
• The loyalty of the Pahlavanid mamluks and emirs of the Jibal

How it was acquired

Election by Pahlavan's mamluks (591/1195) and the Diwan's diploma.

Allies and rivals

Patron of convenience: the caliph al-Nasir. Rivals: the Khwarazmian governors; the Eldiguzid atabeg Abu Bakr and his brother Uzbek, who want their family's Iraq back; his own comrades, among them Aytoghmish.

How things stand that morning

Leader of the strongest body of soldiers in the Jibal without a secure town that can be shown: realm drawn as khwarazm only because the ground he claims lies under the Khwarazmian order that morning. He holds the caliph's old grant and waits on events.

Wealth

Not pinned for 1200; his men live on revenue grants (iqta') in the Jibal.

Military

The Pahlavanid mamluks, Turkish slave horsemen of the old atabeg's household, and the emirs who follow them. No figures in the sources.

Threats

• Tekish's garrisons while Tekish lives
• Aytoghmish and his other comrades
• An Eldiguzid return

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 (after July 1200), month not pinnedKokche takes Rayy and the Jibal from the leaderless Khwarazmian garrisons, holds Rayy, Hamadan and, through his son-in-law Ay Aba, Isfahan, and is accepted by the caliphDepends on: Tekish's death and Muhammad's turning east against the Ghurids Stopped by: a Khwarazmian army in the Jibal; the atabeg Abu Bakr winning the mamluks over
2. 600 (1203-04), later than 1200Aytoghmish, Kokche's former mamluk, rises against him, kills him in battle and takes Rayy, Hamadan and the rest of the Jibal, reading the khutba for Uzbek as sultanDepends on: Kokche's rule first Stopped by: Kokche dealing with Aytoghmish in time

Later, on the likely course

1. not pinned (after 595)The atabeg Abu Bakr comes from Azerbaijan, gives Hamadan to his brother Uzbek and goes to Isfahan, but most of his army goes over to Kokche and he returns to Azerbaijan (Duhok study)Depends on: the mamluks' rise and Abu Bakr's will to recover Iraq Stopped by: Abu Bakr staying at home (the Georgian threat)

Places of note

• Rayy: Kokche's later base

Where the sources disagree

• Kokche's takeover is dated 595 by the Duhok study and after Tekish's death (July 1200) by the reading of Ibn al-Athir and Bosworth followed here; the campaign should rule which to use. The irq researcher's record of the caliphate follows the same post-July 1200 dating.

Evidence: His rise (591) is well told by Ibn al-Athir; his position between 592 and 596 rests on TDV, Wikipedia (unsourced) and a modern study.

On the map: No ground drawn: nothing can be shown in his hands on 1 January 1200.

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.