Erzurum: the Saltukids

Who rules

Name

Mama Khatun (Melike Mama Hatun), daughter of Izz al-Din Saltuk II

Title

Ruler of Erzurum (the Arabic sources call her 'lady of Erzurum', sahibat Arzan al-Rum)

Since

587 AH (1191), on the death of her elder brother Nasir al-Din Muhammad

Born

not pinned (before 1168, when her father died)

Family

Saltukid

Confidence

medium

TDV (Seker; Ozaydin) has her ruling until she was deposed in 597 AH, a year that begins about 11 October 1200; Wikipedia's ruler list gives 1191-1200. On the date rule she still rules on 1 January 1200, with her nephews already pressing her.

Overlord

None in practice. Her brother's coin of 585 AH (1189) names the Eldiguzid atabeg Qizil Arslan and the Seljuk sultan of Iraq Tughril III, but that sultanate ended in 1194 and no later overlord is pinned. Konya treats Erzurum as within its reach (in 1202 Suleymanshah II summoned the Saltukid as a subject), and Georgian tradition calls the Saltukid a Georgian vassal (not pinned for 1200).

Allies and rivals

Allies: Ahlat. Rivals: her nephews; Georgia; in time Suleymanshah II.

The realm that morning

Mama Khatun holds Erzurum and the Saltukid castles. Her nephews are already her rivals. Georgia holds Ani and the lands beyond the Arpacay; Ahlat's governor in Kars and Ahlat's fortress of Oltu stand between.

Wealth

Caravan tolls and markets of Erzurum, the richest city of the region; flocks and horses of the high plateau; carpets (TDV).

Military

Strong walls and citadel at Erzurum; a ring of castles. Defeated by the Georgians in the field in 580 AH (1184-85) but the city held.

Threats

• Her nephews' faction among the emirs.
• Georgian raids from Ani and Tao.
• Suleymanshah II's ambitions in the east (Malatya 1201, Erzurum 1202).

Ruler

Mama Khatun, daughter of Izz al-Din Saltuk II (ruled 1132-1168) and sister of Nasir al-Din Muhammad (ruled 1168 to about 1191). She commands in person: in 1191 she led her troops to help Ahlat hold Malazgirt against Saladin's nephew Taqi al-Din Umar. TDV calls her strong and ambitious.

Consort

None: she is unmarried. In 597 AH (from October 1200) she asks the Ayyubid al-Adil for a husband who could help her govern; he proposes his emir Faris al-Din Maymun al-Qasri (later).

Heirs and children

No child of hers is pinned. Her successor Ala al-Din Melikshah is her nephew, a son of Nasir al-Din Muhammad, in TDV; Wikipedia calls him her son. TDV speaks of a struggle with her nephews (plural). The Saltukid tradition also tells of Nasir al-Din's son Muzaffar al-Din, who went to Queen Tamar's court as a suitor, was entertained and sent home (date not pinned; told as a tradition); whether he is the same man as Melikshah is not pinned.

Kin with land

None pinned. The nephews may hold castles or iqta' revenues; not pinned.

Officers and household

The Saltukid emirs (beys) who will depose her: no name pinned for 1200. The citadel of Erzurum and the castles of Bayburt, Tortum, Ispir, Micingird and Pasin each had a commander; no name pinned. A later lord of Pasin, Abu Mansur Arghun Shah, is attested only in 630 AH (1232-33).

Great families

Not pinned. Armenian, Georgian and Greek Christians lived in the towns and villages (Karin, Baberd, Sper, Derjan); no landholding family is named for 1200.

Castles and towns

Erzurum with its citadel (Ickale) and watchtower (Tepsi Minare); Pasin (Hasankale); Tercan, with Mama Khatun's caravanserai and tomb; Micingird (Becen castle, inscription of 577 AH / 1181-82); Bayburt; Tortum (castle repaired by the Saltukids); Ispir; Avnik; Mavrokastron (Sebinkarahisar) if the Saltukid hold there is right. Oltu was Saltukid under Izz al-Din Saltuk II, but Ibn al-Athir calls it a fortress of Ahlat near Erzurum in 1204-05, so it is drawn as Ahlat's.

Mints tolls markets

A Saltukid mint at Erzurum (copper coins, for example 574 AH and 585 AH). Tolls on the caravan road from Tabriz and Khoy to Erzincan and Sivas, and on the road north over the mountains to Trebizond. Mama Khatun's caravanserai at Tercan (587 AH / 1191 in TDV) served that road.

Treaties wars feuds

Feud within the dynasty: Mama Khatun against her nephews (TDV; it breaks open in 597 AH). War with Georgia: not a formal war that winter, but Georgian raids since about 1191, a Georgian attack on Erzurum in 580 AH (1184-85), and the fall of Ani to Zakare Mkhargrdzeli in 1199 (common account) put the Kars and Basean frontier under pressure. Alliance with Ahlat, renewed by marriage under Saltuk II and in arms at Malazgirt in 1191.

Relations

Rum (Suleymanshah II): a powerful western neighbour who will end the dynasty in 1202. The Mengujekids of Erzincan: neighbours to the south-west, the sultan's in-laws. Ahlat: old allies. Georgia: the enemy across the Kars and Tortum frontier. The Ayyubids: Mama Khatun turns to al-Adil for help in 597 AH. The Eldiguzids: once named on Saltukid coins; no tie pinned for 1200.

Churches

Erzurum (Karin) had an Armenian population with its own clergy, and Greek and Georgian Christians as well; no churchman is named for 1200.

Coinage

Saltukid copper coins of Erzurum; the latest pinned is of 585 AH (1189). None of Mama Khatun pinned.

The host

The emir's mamluks and Turkmen horsemen of the Erzurum pastures; the castles. No numbers in the sources for 1200.

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. 597 AH (from about 11 October 1200 to 30 September 1201)Pressed by her nephews, Mama Khatun asks al-Adil for a husband; he proposes Faris al-Din Maymun al-Qasri; before the marriage she is deposed and imprisoned and her nephew Ala al-Din Melikshah takes Erzurum.Depends on: The nephews keeping the emirs on their side; al-Adil being too far away to help. Stopped by: A quick marriage alliance, Ayyubid troops, or the nephews' death or flight.

Later, on the likely course

1. 2 Shawwal 598 AH (25 June 1202), laterSuleymanshah II, marching against Georgia, imprisons Melikshah for coming late and gives Erzurum to his brother Mughith al-Din Tughrilshah, ending the dynasty.Depends on: Suleymanshah's eastern campaign; the Saltukid's weakness. Stopped by: A strong Saltukid ruler, or Suleymanshah being held in the west.

Places of note

• Citadel of Erzurum and the Tepsi Minare: Byzantine citadel repaired by the Saltukids, with their watchtower.
• Mama Khatun's caravanserai and tomb, Tercan: Her foundation on the caravan road (587 AH / 1191 in TDV).

Where the sources disagree

• Mama Khatun's end: Wikipedia's list gives 1191-1200; TDV ('Mama Hatun', 'Saltuklular') puts her fall in 597 AH, which begins about 11 October 1200. Either way she rules on 1 January 1200 unless the 1200 of the list means early 1200.
• Her successor Melikshah: her nephew in TDV, her son in Wikipedia.
• Mavrokastron (Sebinkarahisar): the assignment lists it among the Mengujekid towns, but TDV ('Sebinkarahisar', Acun) says the Saltukids took it after the Danishmendid fall (about 1170) and the Mengujekids only in 598 AH (1201-02). Followed here, with low confidence.

Evidence: Known from Ibn al-Athir, Ibn Bibi, Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, Vardan, coins and inscriptions, through modern summaries (Turan, Sumer, TDV). Dates of the last rulers are uncertain within a year or two.

On the map: The emirate is drawn through its ruler's record (Mama Khatun). Its western end (Kelkit and Sebinkarahisar) and its north (Ispir, Oltu) are uncertain.

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 Chronicle of Michael the Syrian (Michael the Great), Michael the Syrian, patriarch of Antioch 1166 to 1199 (about 1180 to 1195). The Jacobite patriarch's world chronicle, in parallel columns of church, secular and miscellaneous events, ending four years before 1200 and shortly before his own death on 7 November 1199, which left the Syrian Orthodox church with a disputed succession in 1200. 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 History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online