Uzbek

Who he is

Name

Uzbek ibn Muhammad Pahlavan (later the atabeg Muzaffar al-Din Uzbek, 1210-1225)

Title

Eldiguzid prince (malik), son of the atabeg Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

Brother of the atabeg Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr of Azerbaijan (Anatolia map); half-brother of Qutlugh Inanj, killed after 1196 in an ambush laid by the wife of Tekish's son Yunus Khan (Wikipedia).

Confidence

low

Ibn al-Athir places him at Hamadan in Safar 593 (December 1196 to January 1197); Wikipedia (unsourced) makes him Tekish's co-governor of Persian Iraq after July 1196.

Overlord

not pinned: his brother the atabeg, or the Khwarazmshah as co-governor

What it holds

• The house's claim to Hamadan, Persian Iraq and the old sultanate
• No town or castle in the Jibal securely his on 1 January 1200

How it was acquired

Birth: the Eldiguzids held Hamadan from the 1160s until Tughril III's last years.

Allies and rivals

His brother Abu Bakr; the Pahlavanid emirs (his father's men); courted by the caliph's Diwan (robe of honour, 593); rivals: Kokche, the Khwarazmian governors.

How things stand that morning

A claimant without ground that can be shown that morning; perhaps at Hamadan among the Pahlavanid emirs, perhaps with his brother in Azerbaijan (not pinned).

Military

Not pinned; he depends on the Pahlavanid emirs.

Threats

• Kokche's mamluks
• The Khwarazmshah

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. 600 (1203-04), later than 1200Aytoghmish kills Kokche and reads the khutba in Uzbek's name as sultanDepends on: Kokche's fall Stopped by: Kokche surviving

Later, on the likely course

1. not pinned (after 595)Abu Bakr gives Hamadan to Uzbek (Duhok study)Depends on: the end of Khwarazmian rule in the Jibal Stopped by: Kokche's mamluks refusing him

Where the sources disagree

• The Anatolia map calls Uzbek a figurehead at Hamadan in 1200; no source read places him there after Safar 593 (January 1197).

Evidence: One dated appearance (Ibn al-Athir, Safar 593) and an unsourced statement in Wikipedia.

On the map: Claim only.

Primary sources for Eldiguzids

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 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
• The Historical Compilation of Vardan Areveltsi, Vardan Areveltsi (about 1267 to 1271). A short universal history that for the 12th and 13th centuries follows Samuel of Ani, Michael the Syrian (which Vardan helped translate into Armenian in 1248) and Kirakos. 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
• 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