The Eldiguzid atabegs of Azerbaijan

Who rules

Name

Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan

Title

Atabeg of Azerbaijan and Arran (Nusrat al-Din, 'Victory of the Faith'); the house's head in the north-west

Since

587 AH (1191), after the murder of his uncle Qizil Arslan in Sha'ban 587 (September 1191); Abu Bakr seized the treasury and the home lands of the north-west

Born

Not pinned (a grown man by 1191)

Family

Grandson of Shams al-Din Eldiguz (d. 1175), the Kipchak slave-soldier who became atabeg (guardian) of the Seljuk sultan Arslan Shah; son of the atabeg Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan (d. March 1186). His half-brothers Qutlugh Inanch (killed 591 AH, 1195) and Amir Amiran Umar (dead about 1195-96), sons of Inanch Khatun, fought him for the inheritance; his brother Muzaffar al-Din Uzbek (mother Zahida Khatun, per Buniyatov) is the house's nominal lord at Hamadan in Persian Iraq (beyond this sheet). Abu Bakr's marriage to a daughter of the Georgian king is dated before the loss of Dvin (1202-03) by Iranica and to 1210 by the TDV article: either way it is later than 1 January 1200. Children by 1 January 1200: not pinned.

Confidence

high

Iranica (Luther) and TDV agree on the outline: Abu Bakr took the north-western home territories in 1191, beat Qutlugh Inanch and Amir Amiran in 589 AH (1193), was beaten near Ganja (Shamkor, 1195) by Amir Amiran with the Shirvanshah and Queen Tamar's army, fled to Nakhchivan, and recovered Ganja when Amir Amiran died. Ibn al-Athir paints him as a drinker who avoided war.

Overlord

None in practice. The atabegs rule in the name of the Seljuk sultanate of Iraq, which ended when Sultan Toghrul III was killed by the Khwarazmshah Tekish near Rayy in 1194; the coinage and the Friday prayer acknowledge the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah (caliph since 1180).

What the realm holds

• Tabriz, the capital since Qizil Arslan took it from the Ahmadilis in the 1170s, and its plain
• Nakhchivan, the house's first seat, with Ordubad, Julfa and the middle Araxes
• Marand, Khoy, Salmas and Urmia on the roads round Lake Urmia (Urmia and Ushnu are later given to the Ahmadilis, about 1205: later)
• Ardabil, Sarab and Miyana on the road east to the Caspian and to Zanjan
• Arran: Ganja (recovered after the death of Amir Amiran, about 1195-96), Barda, Beylagan, and the castles and river crossings of the Kura and the Araxes
• Dvin and the Ararat plain south of the Zakarid frontier; Bjni and the Kotayk castles, still Muslim until 1201-02 (Vardan), under the atabeg or a local emir (not pinned)
• Getabak (Gadabay) and Charek in the hills between Ganja and Lake Sevan (Zakarid conquests of later years)
• The castles of Syunik (Baghaberd, Geghi, Kakavaberd, Shlorut) and Vayots Dzor, taken in 1151-70
• The overlordship, mostly nominal, of the Ahmadilis of Maragha, the lords of Ahar and the Armenian princes of Khachen and Dizak
• The family's claim to Persian Iraq (Hamadan, Rayy, Isfahan), held only through Uzbek's nominal rule at Hamadan under the mamluk emirs: outside this sheet

How it was acquired

Eldiguz received Arran as an iqta' from Sultan Mas'ud in the 1130s and took Nakhchivan, Ganja and Azerbaijan; his sons took Tabriz from the Ahmadilis in the 1170s and the castles of Syunik from its last king in 1166-70. After Qizil Arslan's murder (1191), Abu Bakr seized the home lands and beat his half-brothers' bid in 1193.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: Queen Tamar of Georgia and her commanders the Mkhargrdzeli brothers, Zakare and Ivane, who back Abu Bakr's enemies; the Shirvanshah, a Georgian ally since Shamkor; the Ahmadili atabeg of Maragha, who plots with Muzaffar al-Din Kokburi of Erbil (their joint attack is dated 602 AH, 1205-06: later); the Khwarazmshah Tekish, master of Rayy since 1194. Uneasy allies: the mamluks of Pahlavan in Iraq (the emir Kokja; Aytoghmish later helps Abu Bakr against Maragha and Erbil) and the caliph al-Nasir, who wants Iraq for himself.

The realm that morning

Abu Bakr holds Tabriz, Nakhchivan, Marand, Khoy, Salmas, Urmia, Ardabil, Dvin and the Arran towns through governors, with Ganja again his after the brief Georgian occupation of 1195. Maragha and Ruin Diz belong to the Ahmadilis, Ahar to the Pishteginids. The frontier with Georgia runs through the Kura valley west of Ganja and through the Ararat plain; Ani on the Akhurian was taken by the Georgians in 1199 (Christian sources) and Dvin is the atabeg's last great town facing them.

Hamadan and Rayy, beyond the sheet, are not in Abu Bakr's hands.

Wealth

The caravan roads from Iraq and Persia to Anatolia, Georgia and the Caspian cross at Tabriz; the silk and cloth of Arran (Barda, Ganja); the rock salt of Nakhchivan; the flocks of the Mughan and Arran winter pastures; the Araxes river trade and crossings (Julfa); taxes on the Armenian valleys of Syunik and the Ararat plain.

Military

Mamluk guards and the emirs' household troops, Turkmen tribesmen who winter in the Mughan and Arran steppes, Kurdish troops; the town citadels of Tabriz, Nakhchivan, Ganja and Dvin and the Syunik castles. Record: beaten at Shamkor (1195) by the Georgians and lost Ganja for a time. No figures in the sources read.

Threats

• Georgia: the Zakarid brothers took Ani in 1199 and threaten Dvin and the Arran towns
• The Shirvanshah, Georgia's ally, on the Kura
• The Ahmadili atabeg of Maragha and Kokburi of Erbil, who later attack together (602 AH, 1205-06)
• The Khwarazmshah Tekish in Persian Iraq
• Abu Bakr's own neglect: Ibn al-Athir says he left defence to others and drank

Officers

The atabeg's vizier and the governors of his towns are not named in the sources read for 1 January 1200 (not pinned). Power rests on the mamluk emirs and on Turkmen and Kurdish troops who hold iqta' grants.

Great families

The mamluks of Pahlavan (the Pahlavaniyya), now mostly in Iraq; the Ahmadilis of Maragha; the Pishteginids of Ahar; the Armenian princely houses of Khachen (the line of Hasan the Great) and the remnants of the Syunik nobility; the Orbelian exiles from Georgia (since 1177) at the atabeg's court are a later story to check.

Heirs and children

Abu Bakr's children on 1 January 1200 are not pinned; when he dies in 607 AH (1210) his brother Uzbek succeeds, so no son of his is known to have mattered.

Kin holding land

Muzaffar al-Din Uzbek, Abu Bakr's brother (son of Zahida Khatun): placed at Hamadan in 1195 as Abu Bakr's subordinate and the Khwarazmshah's vassal (Buniyatov, via Wikipedia), and after Tekish's victory near Hamadan (15 July 1196) one of those who share Persian Iraq with Tekish's son Yunus Khan; the Eldiguzid mamluk Gokcha (Kokja) holds Rayy, Qom, Saveh and Kashan by Khwarazmian grant (Wikipedia 'Ala al-Din Tekish'). All beyond this sheet; their exact holdings on 1 January 1200 are not pinned. No other Eldiguzid kinsman is known to hold land in the frame.

Castles and towns

Tabriz, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Dvin, Ardabil, Urmia, Khoy, Salmas, Marand, Barda, Beylagan, Shamkor, Ordubad; the Syunik castles of Baghaberd, Geghi, Kakavaberd and Shlorut (taken 1151-70; the Zakarids reach them only in 1219-20); Bjni (to 1201-02), Getabak and Charek (to 1214). Maragha and Ruin Diz are Ahmadili; Ahar is Pishteginid.

Mints tolls and markets

Tolls on the caravan roads through Tabriz (to Ahlat and Erzurum by Khoy, to Tbilisi by Nakhchivan and Dvin or by Ganja, to the Caspian by Ardabil); the Araxes crossings at Julfa and Ordubad; the salt of Nakhchivan; the markets of Tabriz and Ganja. Mints in 1199: not pinned.

Relations with neighbours

Georgia

Enemy. No truce is recorded since Shamkor (1195); the Zakarid brothers hold Shirak (1191), Amberd (1196-97) and Ani (1199) and press on Bjni (taken 1201-02) and Dvin (taken 1203); Georgia protects Shirvan.

Shirvan

Enemy: the Shirvanshah fought with the Georgians at Shamkor; Qizil Arslan had seized Shamakhi in 1191.

Derbent

No dealings recorded for 1199-1200.

Ahlat

Neighbour across the roads from Khoy and Salmas to Lake Van; Ahlat is ruled since 594 AH (1198) by al-Malik al-Mansur Muhammad, son of Begtimur (emi sheet). No war recorded.

Saltukids

Distant; the Saltukids once named the Eldiguzids on their coins (585 AH, 1189); no tie pinned for 1200 (emi sheet).

Outside

Persian Iraq (Hamadan, Rayy, Isfahan): the family's old seat, under the Khwarazmshah Tekish's overlordship since 1194 (he came to Rayy again in January 1199 and executed his rebellious governor Mayachuq), shared by his son Yunus Khan, Uzbek and the mamluk Gokcha, and coveted by the caliph al-Nasir, whose army held Isfahan and Hamadan briefly in 1195-96. Erbil: its lord Kokburi later allies with Maragha against Abu Bakr (1205-06). Gilan and the Caspian coast: their own lords.

Coinage

The atabegs strike coins in the caliph's name with their own (D. Kouymjian, Numismatic History of Southeastern Caucasia and Adharbayjan, 1969, is the standard work); which mints were striking in 1199 is not pinned.

Churches

A Muslim ruler of a mixed land: Persian and Turkish townsmen, Armenian Christian villages and monasteries in Syunik, Vayots Dzor, Khachen and the Ararat plain (Tatev, Noravank, Dadivank), the Albanian (Armenian-rite) catholicosate in Arran. The Armenian catholicos sits at Hromkla in Cilicia (Cilicia sheet). Nizami of Ganja, the age's great Persian poet, lives in Ganja.

Treaties and wars

No treaty with Georgia is recorded for 1199. The last recorded open war is the Georgian victory at Shamkor (1195) and the Georgian taking of Ani (1199). Peace, at least formal, with the caliph.

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. Ramadan 596 AH (3 July 1200)Death of the Khwarazmshah Tekish (ill since his campaign of 1199), while planning a last war on the caliph; his son Qutb al-Din Muhammad, named heir in 1199, succeeds and turns east, which leaves Persian Iraq to the mamluk emirs.Depends on: Natural death Stopped by: Nothing in this sheet
2. 596-597 AH (1200) by Iranica's dating, which rests on Christian sources; the Georgian chronology puts these events in 1193-95Abu Bakr helps Tamar's divorced first husband George (Yuri Bogolyubsky) to try to return, then moves against Shirvan and is heavily defeated (Georgian and Armenian sources); Shamkor and Ganja must acknowledge Georgian overlordship. If Rayfield's dates are right (Yuri's revolts in 1191 and 1193, Shamkor in 1195), all of this is already past on 1 January 1200 and nothing of it lies ahead.Depends on: Abu Bakr choosing war with Shirvan; Yuri alive and free; the Georgian army free to help Shirvan Stopped by: A settlement with Georgia, Yuri's captivity, or Abu Bakr staying at home

Later, on the likely course

1. 599 AH (1202-03)The Georgians under the Zakarid brothers take Dvin.Depends on: Georgia free of other wars and Dvin left without relief Stopped by: A strong garrison and relief from Tabriz, or a Georgian war in the west
2. Before 1203 (Iranica) or 1210 (TDV)Abu Bakr marries a daughter of the Georgian king to buy peace.Depends on: Georgian pressure Stopped by: A victory over Georgia
3. 602 AH (1205-06)Ala al-Din of Maragha and Kokburi of Erbil attack Abu Bakr; the mamluk Aytoghmish, ruler of Persian Iraq, turns them back.Depends on: Kokja's fall and Aytoghmish's rise in Iraq (600 AH) Stopped by: A settlement with Maragha

Where the sources disagree

• Battle of Shamkor: dated 1 June 1195 by the Georgian tradition (Wikipedia after Rayfield); the English Wikipedia 'Eldiguzids' page also gives 1194; Iranica places Amir Amiran's victory near Ganja after 1193 without a year. This file uses 1195.
• Iranica (Luther) says Abu Bakr helped Giorgi Bogolyubskii 'in 596-597/1200 (Christian sources)' and then lost a war in Shirvan, after which Shamkor and Ganja acknowledged Georgian overlordship, and places all this after the fall of Ani (1199). Rayfield (followed by the Wikipedia pages and the geo sheet) dates Yuri's two attempts to 1191 and 1193 and the Georgian victory to Shamkor, 1 June 1195. On Rayfield's dates the Shirvan defeat is the Shamkor campaign and is past on 1 January 1200; on Iranica's it is ahead. This file keeps Ganja in Abu Bakr's hands that morning on either reading, because Amir Amiran's death returned it to him, and lists the Iranica sequence only as a possibility.
• Bjni: the geo sheet makes Ivane Mkhargrdzeli lord of Bjni and anchors it to Georgia; Vardan Areweltsi's dated list of the Zakarid conquests puts Bjni in 650 AE (July 1201 to July 1202), after Ani (648 AE) and before Dvin (652 AE). On Vardan's date Bjni is still Muslim-held on 1 January 1200, and this file draws it with the atabeg's ground (holder not pinned). The GM should rule which to follow.
• Ani: Vardan dates its fall to 648 AE, which runs from 11 July 1199 to 10 July 1200; most modern accounts (and Iranica's 595-596 AH) say 1199. If the fall were in the first half of 1200 it would be a likely-course event, not a fact on 1 January (geo sheet's ground).
• The geo sheet calls the Arran and Araxes frontier 'a state of war waged by raids' after Shamkor. No raid of the winter 1199-1200 in Arran is recorded in the sources read here, so no raiding belt is drawn on this sheet's side; the last recorded fighting in Arran is Shamkor (1195).
• The English Wikipedia 'Eldiguzids' page says the Georgians took Abu Bakr's capital Tabriz in 1195 through a protege; no other source read says so, and Iranica and TDV speak only of Ganja. Not followed.

Evidence: The dynasty's outline is well established (Ibn al-Athir, the Persian Seljuk chronicles, the Georgian Life of Tamar); the governors of the towns in 1199-1200, the vizier and the exact limits in Arran and the Ararat plain are thin.

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 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