Sutash (Khwarazmian emir)

Who he is

Name

Sutash

Title

Khwarazmian emir commanding on the Tabaristan front (his exact office in 1200 not pinned)

Since

Active on this front from 590 AH (1194) to 595 AH (1199)

Born

not pinned

Family

not pinned

Confidence

low

Ibn Isfandiyar via Madelung: after Tekish's victory of 590 AH Sutash sacked and burned Sari and set a shihna east of Tamisha; in 595 AH he marched on Sari during the plot for Rustam. That he still commands there on 1 January 1200 is likely but not pinned; the governor of Gurgan city in 1200 is not named.

Overlord

Tekish, Khwarazmshah.

What it holds

• Astarabad and the land between the Tamisha wall and Gurgan, under a Khwarazmian shihna since 1194
• Gurgan (Jurjan) city and the Gurgan river plain (the governor in 1200 not named)
• The port of Abaskun at the mouth of the Gurgan river (not pinned)
• The steppe north of the Gurgan river towards the Atrek, with its Turkmen herdsmen (loose)

How it was acquired

Gurgan ceded by Ardashir about 578 AH (1182-83); Astarabad and the land east of Tamisha taken about 1191 and put under a shihna in 1194.

Allies and rivals

Rival: the Bavandid Ardashir across the Tamisha wall.

How things stand that morning

Khwarazmian. The province answers to Tekish; the khutba and coinage are his.

Wealth

Silk (Gurgan's raw silk and silk cloth were famous), grain and fruit of the Gurgan plain, the Caspian trade through Abaskun, horses and flocks of the steppe.

Military

Khwarazmian troops and the Turkish and Turkmen horsemen of the Gurgan steppe; no numbers in the sources.

Threats

• A Bavandid counter-attack if Khwarazm weakens

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. After July 1200With Khwarazmian power in the west collapsing after Tekish's death, Ardashir recovers ground, but whether he retakes Astarabad and Gurgan is not pinned.Depends on: Tekish's death and Muhammad's war with the Ghurids Stopped by: A strong Khwarazmian garrison

Later, on the likely course

1. 597 AH (1201)Mu'izz al-Din's Ghurid army, pushing west from Nishapur towards Rayy, gets as far as Gurgan and turns back.Depends on: Tekish's death and the Ghurid conquest of Khurasan Stopped by: Tekish surviving

Places of note

• Gurgan (Jurjan): The medieval city lay beside the tower of Qabus at modern Gonbad-e Kavus
• Astarabad: Modern Gorgan

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The Khwarazmian possession of Gurgan and the land east of Tamisha is clear; the governor's name for 1200 is not.

On the map: The northern limit in the steppe is a guess at where farming ends.

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.