Yuluq Arslan

Who he is

Name

Husam al-Din Yuluq (Yavlak) Arslan ibn Il-Ghazi II

Title

lord (malik) of Mardin

Since

1184

Born

not pinned (a child in 1184)

Family

Artuqid

Confidence

high

TDV 'Artuklular', 'Mardin'; Wikipedia 'Artuqids'.

Overlord

Under Nur al-Din of Mosul's protection since August 1199 (coins of 596 AH).

What it holds

• Mardin citadel and lower town
• Dunaysir
• Dara (probable)
• the villages of the plain

How it was acquired

Succeeded his father Il-Ghazi II in 1184.

Allies and rivals

Protected by Mosul; enemy of al-Adil; cousins at Hisn Kayfa and Harput.

How things stand that morning

Restored to Mardin after the siege; his plain devastated.

Wealth

Dunaysir's market and the plain.

Military

Citadel garrison.

Threats

• the Ayyubids

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. 1201 (some lists 1203)Dies; brother Artuq Arslan succeeds. Later.Depends on: - Stopped by: -

Where the sources disagree

• Death given as 1201 (TDV lists, Bosworth) or 1203-1204 (Wikipedia).

Evidence: Siege and coins attested; his own person thinly.

On the map: Tur Abdin hills not pinned.

Primary sources for Mardin

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
• The Cream of the History of Aleppo, Kamal al-Din Ibn al-Adim (about 1240 to 1260). The annals of Aleppo. Read online
• The Anonymous Syriac Chronicle to 1234, Anonymous (a Syrian Orthodox writer, probably of Edessa) (about 1234 to 1240). An Edessene chronicle independent of Michael the Syrian in its later part, with a secular section reaching 1234 that gives the Jazira, Edessa, Harran, Mardin and Melitene about 1200 under al-Adil's sons and the Artuqids, the Seljuks of Rum, the Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks of Antioch, and a church section to 1207 on the Jacobite succession after Michael's death in 1199. Read online
• 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 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
• 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