Jazirat ibn Umar (Sanjar Shah)

Who rules

Name

Mu'izz al-Din Sanjar Shah ibn Sayf al-Din Ghazi II

Title

lord (malik) of Jazirat ibn Umar

Since

576 AH (1180), when his father Sayf al-Din Ghazi II of Mosul died (3 Safar 576 / 29 June 1180)

Born

not pinned

Family

Zengid (son of Sayf al-Din Ghazi II, nephew of Izz al-Din Mas'ud, first cousin of Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and of Qutb al-Din of Sinjar)

Confidence

high

TDV 'Zengiler' (foundation of the Cizre branch, 1180); TDV 'Cizre' (submitted to Saladin 1183); TDV 'Nureddin Zengi, Arslansah' (league of 1199); Ibn al-Athir 589 ('your nephew Sanjar Shah, lord of Jazirat ibn Umar').

Overlord

None formally; joined Saladin in 1183 and served on his campaigns; in Nur al-Din of Mosul's league in 1199.

The realm that morning

Sanjar Shah holds Jazirat ibn Umar and its valley. Across the borders: the Bohtan Kurds north and east; Mosul's Hakkari castles east; Sinjar's Nisibin west; the Artuqids of Hisn Kayfa north-west up the Tigris.

Military

A small host; took part in the victory below Mardin (August 1199). No numbers.

Threats

• al-Adil, who had tried for the town after 1193
• the Kurdish chiefs of the mountains
• his own sons (his murder in 1208)

Family and heirs

Sons: Ghazi, who will murder him in 605 (1208), and Mu'izz al-Din Mahmud, who will succeed; whether both were born by 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Officers

Not named in the sources read.

Castles and towns

• Jazirat ibn Umar (Cizre): walls, bridge, Friday mosque
• villages of the Tigris valley below the town
• the Kurdish castles of the Bohtan (Finik of the Bashnawi Kurds) lie round it, under their own lords

Mints and trade

River trade by raft down the Tigris to Mosul (honey, butter, walnuts, almonds and pistachios, as al-Maqdisi described); tolls of the crossing on the road from Mosul north to Ahlat and Armenia.

Treaties and wars

• In the Zengid league against al-Adil (1199).

Relations

Kin and allies at Mosul and Sinjar; Kurdish neighbours in the mountains; the Artuqids of Hisn Kayfa up-river.

Churches

Christians of the Church of the East and a large Jewish community in the town; Mount Judi (al-Judi) nearby, held by Muslims and Christians to be the resting place of Noah's ark.

Coinage

Zengid copper struck at Jazirat ibn Umar.

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. 601 AH (1204)Sanjar Shah joins al-Ashraf and Gokbori against Nur al-Din at Bushara. Later.Depends on: al-Adil winning him over by the khutba Stopped by: a firm Zengid league

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The prince and his alignments are attested; his household and the town's institutions in 1200 are thinly recorded in what was read.

On the map: Small; the boundary with the Kurdish mountains is a guess.

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