Shuja al-Din Qutlugh

Who he is

Name

Shuja al-Din Qutlugh

Title

Atabeg (guardian and regent) of Ahlat; formerly chief secretary (dawatdar)

Since

594 AH (1198)

Born

not pinned

Family

Kipchak mamluk of the Shah-Armen household

Confidence

medium

TDV 'Ahlatsahlar' (Sumer). Not to be confused with the Sasun-born mamluk Qutlugh who held power for seven days in 1198.

Overlord

The boy ruler Muhammad son of Begtimur, in name.

What it holds

• The government of Ahlat as atabeg

How it was acquired

Chosen by the emirs in 594 AH (1198).

Allies and rivals

Rival in time: Muhammad himself.

How things stand that morning

Governs Ahlat.

Military

Commands the household in the boy's name.

Threats

• Muhammad's coming of age.

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. Not pinnedImprisoned and killed by Muhammad.Depends on: Muhammad's growing up. Stopped by: Removing Muhammad first.

Where the sources disagree

• Wikipedia lists him (as 'Sucauddin Kutlug, 1198') as a ruler, not an atabeg.

Evidence: Sumer's summary of Ibn al-Athir; Ibn al-Athir's own account of the regency (Recueil, Historiens orientaux II, p. 114) is undated in the extract seen.

On the map: An office without land of its own; no map part.

Primary sources for Ahlat

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 Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. 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
• History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
• The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
• Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online