Qutb al-Din Muhammad

Who he is

Name

Qutb al-Din Muhammad ibn Tekish (from August 1200 Ala al-Din Muhammad)

Title

Malik; heir apparent; governor of Khurasan

Since

1197: sent to take charge of Khurasan after his elder brother Malikshah died (1 March 1197) and in charge by 2 Dhu l-Hijja 593 (16 October 1197)

Born

about 1169 by one account (Wikipedia infobox); not pinned

Family

second son of Tekish and Terken Khatun; his sons' births are not pinned (Jalal al-Din is usually thought born in the late 1190s)

Confidence

high

Juvaini (Boyle) vol. I; Ibn al-Athir 595; TDV 'Muhammed b. Tekis'.

Overlord

His father Tekish.

What it holds

• Nishapur (Shadyakh) and its quarter: Bayhaq, Juvain, Isfarayin, Jajarm, Khabushan, Zawa
• General charge of Khurasan: Tus, Sarakhs, Nasa, Abivard, Merv, Amul (local governors not pinned)

How it was acquired

By his father's appointment in 1197.

Allies and rivals

His nephew Hindu Khan, Malikshah's son, whom Tekish removed from Khurasan in his favour, is his rival for the succession; the Nizaris of Quhistan and Turshiz on his southern flank; the Ghurids beyond the Hari Rud and the Murghab.

How things stand that morning

Governor of Khurasan on 1 January 1200. Whether he is at Shadyakh that morning or with his father in the field is not pinned; in the spring he leads the siege of Turshiz.

Wealth

The revenues of Khurasan: Nishapur's turquoise, cloth and markets, the Tus shrine trade, the roads from Iraq to Transoxiana.

Military

His own household troops and the garrisons of the Khurasan towns.

Threats

• The Nizaris of Turshiz and Quhistan
• Hindu Khan's claim
• The Ghurids if his father dies

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. spring to July 1200Sent by his father to avenge the vizier, starting with Quhistan, he besieges Turshiz for four months and has nearly taken it when news of his father's death comes; he hides it, takes the Ismailis' submission and tribute and leaves by Shahristana (Juvaini).Depends on: the Nizari war Stopped by: peace with Alamut
2. 3 August 1200 (20 Shawwal 596)Enthroned at Gurganj as Ala al-Din Muhammad, Khwarazmshah; his brother Ali Shah takes over Nishapur by 1201.Depends on: Tekish's death Stopped by: a rival claim succeeding

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia says he was made wali of Merv in December 1193; Juvaini has Malikshah asking to exchange Nishapur for Merv, then being given Nishapur back after falling ill in Merv's climate, while Muhammad received a fief in Khurasan. The two agree that by 1197 Muhammad governed Khurasan.

Evidence: Juvaini gives the appointment with dates; the winter's movements are not recorded.

On the map: Khurasan's southern edge against Turshiz and Herat's districts is approximate; Jam, Bakharz and Khwaf are drawn as his, which the sources do not settle for 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.