Greater Lur: the Hazaraspid atabegs

Who rules

Name

Abu Tahir ibn Muhammad (Iranica's Hazaraspid entry gives Abu Tahir Ali ibn Muhammad)

Title

Atabeg of Greater Lur (Lur-i Buzurg)

Since

about 550/1155 as an independent lord (Iranica); before that governor of Kuhgiluya for the Salghurid Sunqur (1148-1161)

Born

not pinned; he was campaigning in the 1150s, so he is an old man in 1200

Family

The Fadluya (Fadlawayh) house, settled in northern Luristan about 500/1106; it claimed Syrian origin (Iranica, Atabakan-e Lorestan), or descent from the Shabankara Kurdish chiefs (Mustawfi, cited by Bosworth). His son and heir Hazarasp succeeds in 600/1203-04 and gives the line its later name; other children not pinned.

Confidence

medium

Iranica dates Abu Tahir's independence to about 550/1155 and Hazarasp's accession to 600/1203-04, which leaves Abu Tahir the ruler on 1 January 1200 unless he died earlier unrecorded. No contemporary chronicle read names him in 1199-1200.

Overlord

None shown on 1 January 1200 (formerly the Salghurids of Fars, from whom he broke about 1155)

What the realm holds

• Idhaj (Malamir), the seat, with its upland plain
• The Bakhtiari highlands: the valleys of Lordegan, Ardal and Farsan and the upper Karun round Chelgard (Kuhrang)
• The summer pastures of the Zard Kuh and the winter grazing above the Khuzistan plain
• A claim to Kuhgiluya, the governorship Abu Tahir first held for the Salghurids (who holds it in 1200 is not pinned)
• The mountain roads between Isfahan and Khuzistan

How it was acquired

Abu Tahir's family settled in northern Luristan about 500/1106. He joined the Salghurid Sunqur (1148-1161) on a campaign into the Shabankara country, was rewarded with Kuhgiluya, extended his control over Luristan and broke with Sunqur about 550/1155, taking the title atabeg (Iranica, Atabakan-e Lorestan).

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: the caliph's Khuzistan on the plain below, governed for al-Nasir since 591/1195 (irq researcher's records); the Salghurids of Fars to the south, divided that winter between Tughril ibn Sunqur and Sa'd ibn Zangi (far researcher's records); Isfahan to the north-east, in dispute between the Khwarazmshah's claim and the Pahlavanid mamluks; the Khurshidid atabeg of Lesser Lur across the Dez to the north-west. Inside: the Shul, a Lur tribe that Hazarasp later drives out. No treaty, war or feud in force on 1 January 1200 is recorded in the sources read.

The realm that morning

Abu Tahir holds Idhaj and the Lur highlands as an independent atabeg. No overlord is shown: the Seljuk sultanate is gone, the caliph's men hold the Khuzistan plain but are not shown taking tribute from him, and the Salghurids are at war among themselves. Whose name is read in the khutba at Idhaj is not recorded; presumably the caliph's alone.

Wealth

Flocks of sheep and goats, horses and mules moving between summer and winter pastures; grain and orchards in the Idhaj plain and the high valleys; tolls and guide fees on the mountain roads between Isfahan and Khuzistan. No mint is known.

Military

Lur tribal horsemen and foot who know the passes, and mountain strongholds (none named in the sources read). No slave guard is recorded. No figures in the sources.

Threats

• The Salghurids of Fars, once the civil war ends (Hazarasp later wars with them)
• The caliph's governor of Khuzistan on the plain below
• The Shul and other tribes inside Greater Lur
• Whoever wins Isfahan

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. 600/1203-04 (later than 1200)Abu Tahir dies or gives way and his son Hazarasp succeeds, styles himself malik, expels the Shul and fights the SalghuridsDepends on: Abu Tahir's natural death; the sources give only the accession year Stopped by: play that changes the succession or Abu Tahir's circumstances

Places of note

• Idhaj (Malamir): The atabeg's seat in its upland plain

Where the sources disagree

• The GM's dossier and the brief call him Nusrat al-Din Abu Tahir. No source read gives Abu Tahir that title; Iranica lists a Nusrat al-Din among the later rulers of the line (649/1251-52).
• Wikipedia's ruler list (Abu Tahir 1115-1153, Hazarasp 1204-1248) conflicts with Iranica (independence about 550/1155, Hazarasp from 600/1203-04). This file follows Iranica.
• Bosworth (Iranica, Hazaraspids) notes that no member of the line was really an atabeg, a guardian of a Turkish prince: the title was adopted as a mark of rank.

Evidence: Known from late Persian sources (Mustawfi's Tarikh-i guzida, Wassaf, Shabankara'i's Majma al-ansab) through Iranica; the origins and chronology are, in Bosworth's words, extremely obscure.

On the map: A rough outline of tribal mountain country; real control was over tribes and pastures, not lines. Kuhgiluya is drawn only as a claim.

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.

• 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