Irbil (Gokbori)

Who rules

Name

Muzaffar al-Din Gokbori ibn Zayn al-Din Ali Kuchuk

Title

lord of Irbil (Begteginid)

Since

1190 (entered Irbil in January 1191)

Born

13 April 1154 at Mosul, so 45

Family

Begteginid (his father Ali Kuchuk had been lieutenant of the Zengids of Mosul)

Confidence

high

Wikipedia 'Gokbori'; TDV 'Begteginliler' (Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Khallikan, Abu Shama).

Overlord

None after Saladin's death; acknowledges only the caliph an-Nasir.

The realm that morning

Gokbori holds Irbil and Shahrazur. Across the borders: Mosul west of the Great Zab; the caliph's Iraq south (Takrit; the Kirkuk-Daquq country between him and the caliph is not pinned); Kurdish mountains north and east; Persia beyond Shahrazur.

Military

A veteran Turkish and Kurdish retinue; Gokbori commanded wings of Saladin's army at Hattin (1187) and before Acre. No numbers for 1200.

Threats

• Mosul
• the caliph's ambitions in northern Iraq
• the Kurds of the hills

Family and heirs

Wife: Rabi'a Khatun, Saladin's sister. No son; two daughters, later married to Nur al-Din Arslan Shah's sons (605/1208-1209), whose birth dates are not pinned. Heirs on 1 January 1200: none named.

Officers

Not named in the sources read.

Castles and towns

• Irbil: the citadel mound and the lower town
• Shahrazur and its plain
• castles of the Zab country and the Kurdish hills toward Rawanduz and Koya: not pinned

Mints and trade

The Irbil plain's grain; the road from Mosul to Shahrazur and Hamadan; pilgrim traffic. Gokbori spent heavily on charity and on the mawlid feast.

Treaties and wars

• No war recorded in 1199-1200.
• Rivalry with Mosul.

Relations

Caliph an-Nasir acknowledged; Mosul a rival across the Zab; the Ayyubids are his wife's kin; the Kurdish tribes of the hills (Hadhbani and others) round his lands.

Churches

Irbil has a metropolitan of the Church of the East (Arbela) and a Christian and Jewish population in the lower town.

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. 1204Gokbori raids Mosul's lands while Nur al-Din besieges Nisibin, and joins the coalition that routs him. Later.Depends on: renewed Zengid-Ayyubid war Stopped by: peace

Where the sources disagree

• TDV 'Zengiler' names Gokbori among Izz al-Din Mas'ud's allies against al-Adil in 1193.

Evidence: Gokbori is well known from Ibn Khallikan (an Irbil man) and Ibn al-Athir; his dealings in 1199-1200 and the limits of his lands are not pinned.

On the map: The Kurdish hills between Irbil and Shahrazur were held by tribal chiefs; the plain blocks are Gokbori's directly.

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
• The Mirror of Time, on the History of Notables, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (Shams al-Din Yusuf) (about 1240 to 1256, at Damascus). A Damascene preacher's year-by-year chronicle with obituaries, written by a grandson of the Baghdad scholar Ibn al-Jawzi, so it carries both the Baghdad view (the caliph al-Nasir and his court) and the Damascus view (al-Adil's court, the famine refugees of 1200, prices, the plague of 1201). Read online