Derbent

Who rules

Name

Abd al-Malik ibn Bek-Bars (the modern lists put his rule about 1180 to about 1222)

Title

Emir (malik) of Derbent

Since

About 1180 (not pinned)

Born

Not pinned

Family

Son of the emir Bek-Bars ibn Muzaffar (in power about 1173), grandson of Muzaffar ibn Muhammad (about 1154-64), who married a daughter of King Demetrius I of Georgia. The dynasty is the line that took over after the Hashimids lost Derbent in 1075 (called the Aghlabid line in modern lists).

Confidence

low

The ruler list rests on Minorsky's History of Sharvan and Darband (1958), coins and scattered mentions; the dates of Abd al-Malik are approximations, and he is not attested in a dated text of 1199-1200 among the sources read.

Overlord

None effective. The Shirvanshahs claim Derbent and Akhsitan held it briefly; Georgia is the great Christian power of the region; the Kipchaks of the steppe are the emirs' neighbours.

What the realm holds

• The walled city of Derbent and its citadel (Naryn-Kala)
• The coastal strip from the Samur river north towards the Kaitag country, with the villages under the walls
• The customs of the Caspian passage and the slave, fur and horse trade from the steppe

How it was acquired

The emirate grew out of the Arab frontier command of the 8th-10th centuries; the Hashimid emirs lost the city to the Shirvanshah in 1075; after Seljuk intervention a new line took power and held it into the 13th century.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the Shirvanshahs, who claim the city; the mountain powers (Sarir, Tabasaran). Neighbours: the Kipchaks of the steppe north of the Caucasus (no alliance recorded for 1199-1200). Georgia: kin by marriage through Muzaffar's Georgian wife, but Georgia stood with Shirvan against Bek-Bars in 1173-74.

The realm that morning

The emir holds Derbent and its coastal strip. Shirvan holds the coast south of the Samur (Shabran, the Mushkur district). The hills to the west are under the mountain peoples' own chiefs (Tabasaran, the Lakz) and the steppe and coast north of the Kaitag country are Kipchak grazing (Rus' sheet).

Wealth

The customs of the passage on the only easy road between the steppe and the Caucasus lands; the slave, fur and horse trade from the north (slaves and mules went south through Derbent in the geographers' time: Le Strange); fisheries; the Caspian ships.

Military

The walls and citadel are among the strongest works in the region (built under the Sasanians in the 6th century); the town militia and the emir's guards. No figures.

Threats

• The Shirvanshahs' claim (they take Derbent in the early 13th century: later, not pinned)
• The Kipchaks if the steppe turns hostile
• The mountain peoples of Tabasaran and Sarir

Relations with neighbours

Shirvan

Rival: the Shirvanshahs claim the city and beat Bek-Bars with Georgian help in 1173-74.

Georgia

Distant; an old marriage tie (Muzaffar's Georgian wife) and the memory of George III's help to Shirvan against Bek-Bars.

Cumans

The Kipchaks of the steppe to the north: the emirate's trading partners on the steppe road (no treaty or war recorded for 1199-1200).

Alans

The Dagestani highlanders (Tabasaran, the Lakz, the Kaitag, Sarir) on the emirate's inland side, under their own chiefs (drawn with the north Caucasus peoples).

Churches

A Muslim city with an old Armenian community (lasting into the early 13th century, per the sources of the Wikipedia article) and a Jewish community mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela.

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. Early 13th century (not pinned)The Shirvanshahs take Derbent and end its emirs (Bosworth); other lists keep an emir Rashid until about 1225.Depends on: A strong Shirvanshah and a weak emir Stopped by: Kipchak or Georgian support for the emir

Where the sources disagree

• The English Wikipedia 'Shirvanshah' page (after Bosworth) says the Shirvanshahs conquered Derbent at the start of the 13th century, while the 'Emirate of Derbent' page keeps a line of emirs (Abd al-Malik to about 1222, Rashid about 1222-25). Not settled; neither touches 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Derbent after 1075 is known from coins, a few inscriptions and incidental mentions; the ruler list is a modern reconstruction.

Primary sources for this realm

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 History of Derbent and Shirvan, as preserved in Munejjim-bashi's Jami al-duwal, Anonymous (an 11th-century author of Derbent, excerpted by Munejjim-bashi, died 1702) (about 1075; preserved in an Ottoman compilation of the 1670s). The only local history of the Shirvanshahs and the emirs of Derbent, surviving as extracts in a 17th-century Ottoman compilation.
• 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