Kuhram and Samana

Who he is

Name

not known (the brief names Taj al-Din Yildiz; not confirmed)

Title

Commander of the Kuhram and Samana iqta

Since

not pinned (the command was Aibak's from 1192)

Born

not pinned

Family

Taj al-Din Yildiz was a Turkish slave of Muizz al-Din and Aibak's father-in-law (Wikipedia, Aibak); later manumitted and king of Ghazni (1206).

Confidence

low

Wikipedia names Yildiz only as a lieutenant who raided local kingdoms. The Persia map and its brief place him in the Kurram valley ('Karman and Sankuran' in Juzjani), which is a different place from Kuhram (Ghuram) in the Patiala country. The 'Yildiz at Kuhram' of the brief looks like a confusion of the two names. Who holds Kuhram and Samana for Aibak in 1200 is not recorded.

Overlord

Qutb al-Din Aibak

What it holds

• Kuhram (Ghuram) and Samana
• Sunam, a walled village with a garrison post
• Thanesar and the Kurukshetra tank (see the town record)
• Taraori (Tarain), the battlefield village and tank
• Kaithal, Karnal and Pehowa on the plain east of the Ghaggar

How it was acquired

Post-Tarain assignment to Aibak, 1192.

Allies and rivals

Part of Aibak's chain of posts; the hill rajas of the Siwalik foot are not subjects. The Yamuna to the east divides it from the Doab command.

How things stand that morning

Quiet garrison country on the main road. Nothing in the sources we reached records a named commander, a revolt or a campaign in 1199 to 1200.

Wealth

Grain and the road: every army marching from Lahore to Delhi waters at Thanesar (board).

Military

Garrison posts; no figures.

Threats

• Raiding from the Bagar sands to the south-west
• The hill rajas of the Siwalik foot, who pay nobody reliably
• Khokhar raiding along the Punjab road (nothing is recorded for 1200; the Khokhar rising is a later event, in likely_course_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. 1205 to 1206 (recalled, not rechecked)The Khokhars of the Salt Range and the Jhelum rise along the Punjab road; the sultan marches against them and is killed on the way back, at Dhamiak on 15 March 1206 (the Aibak record carries that date)Depends on: The sultan's absence in the west and thin garrisons on the Lahore and Multan road Stopped by: A strong garrison on that road, or a settlement with the Khokhar chiefs

Places of note

• Taraori (Tarain): The plain where Prithviraja beat Muizz al-Din in 1191 and was beaten and killed in 1192

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment and brief put 'Taj al-Din Yildiz at Kuhram'. The Kurram valley is Persia's, with Yildiz in command; the Kuhram of Aibak is Ghuram in Patiala. We record the command as unnamed and flag the brief's reading as unconfirmed.
• The campaign board entry kuhram-ghuram says the exact site is Ghuram in the Patiala country and the position approximate; Wikipedia's Aibak article says only 'based at Kuhram'.

Evidence: One sentence in Nizami (1992) as summarised on Wikipedia; the campaign board's own notes; nothing dated for 1200.

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

On the map: Only Kuhram and Samana are named in the sources; the rest of the block is inference from the road.

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.