Atsiz ibn Uwaq

Last updated

Atsiz ibn Uwaq al-Khwarizmi, also known as al-Aqsis, Atsiz ibn Uvaq, Atsiz ibn Oq and Atsiz ibn Abaq (died October 1079), was a Turkoman mercenary commander who established a principality in Palestine and southern Syria after seizing these from the Fatimid Caliphate in 1071.

Contents

Biography

Around 1069, Badr al-Jamali, then Fatimid governor (wali) of al-Sham, sent messengers to the Turkomans living in Anatolia, asking them to fight against invading Bedouin tribes in his region. [1] The Fatimids had previously hired Turkoman mercenaries, which had become one of the dominant forces in the Caliphate. At the same time, in the Egyptian heartland of the Fatimid Caliphate, a civil war between the Sudanese and Turkoman mercenaries had begun that was starting to destabilise the Caliphate. According to Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Jamali intended to settle the nomadic Turkomans south of Ma'arrat al Nu'man. [1]

The Seljuk Empire in 1072. Atsiz' dominion would be to the south of Aleppo up to Egypt Seljuk1072.jpg
The Seljuk Empire in 1072. Atsiz' dominion would be to the south of Aleppo up to Egypt

Atsiz, commander of the Turkoman Nawaki tribe [2] or group also known as Nawakiyya, arrived in Syria after that and seems to have fought for some time with the Fatimids against the Bedouins. In 1070, with the civil war in the Caliphate still raging, disputes about the financial compensation seem to have led some Turkoman to side with the Bedouin and seek to establish their own principality. [1] The beginnings of the new principality are uncertain, but in 1073, Atsiz was in control of Jerusalem as well as Ramla, the provincial capital of the region. He captured Damascus in 1076, becoming the first Turkoman emir of Damascus, where he began construction of the Citadel of Damascus.

The construction of the citadel of Damascus begun during the reign of Atsiz Damaskus4.jpg
The construction of the citadel of Damascus begun during the reign of Atsiz

Having established his position in Palestine, Atsiz attempted to invade Egypt in October 1076. Here he had to face al-Jamali, who in 1074 had become vizier to the caliph al-Mustansir and stopped the bloody infights between the Caliphate's military. [1] Atsiz advanced to Cairo where he started negotiations with Al-Jamali who, in the meantime, gathered his troops. Al-Jamali also bribed some of Atsiz' troops and in a battle in February 1077 he was so successful that Atsiz had to flee while one of his brothers was dead and another one had lost one of his arms. [3]

Atsiz's defeat led to rebellions in his domain, such as in Jerusalem, which he crushed brutally. [2] [4] In 1077, he broke his promise of amān, or quarter, given to the rebels, and after they opened the gates, his troops slaughtered an estimated 3,000 of them, including those who had taken shelter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and only sparing those inside the Dome of the Rock. [4] [5] [6] Al-Jamali, intent on profiting from the weakness of his enemy, sent an army under one of his Armenian generals, Nasr Al-Dawla, to confront him. Atsiz appealed to the Seljuks, and soon an army under Tutush I, brother of the Great Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I, marched towards Damascus, scaring off the Fatimid forces. Tutush, however, decided to take control of Atsiz territories and had him first imprisoned, then strangled with a bowstring in October 1079. [1]

Legacy

Atsiz's principality represents one of the many Turkmen state foundations on the periphery of the Seljuk empire, such as the emirates of Rum, of Izmir or of the Danishmendids that sprung up during the same period. Atsiz by his conquest of Jerusalem from the weakened Fatimids, along with the 1071 Byzantine defeat against the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert, is quoted as a major cause for the Crusades, as these events created a sense of threat to the Christian holy places, Europe and Christianity as a whole. [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alp Arslan</span> Sultan of Seljuk Empire from 1063 to 1072

Alp Arslan, born Muhammad bin Dawud Chaghri, was the second sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. He greatly expanded the Seljuk territory and consolidated his power, defeating rivals to the south and northwest, and his victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, in 1071, ushered in the Turkmen settlement of Anatolia.

Abu Sa'id Taj al-Dawla Tutush or Tutush I, was the Seljuk emir of Damascus from 1078 to 1092, and sultan of Damascus from 1092 to 1094.

Abu Said Aq Sunqur al-Hajib was the Seljuk governor of Aleppo under Sultan Malik Shah I. He was beheaded in 1094 following accusations of treason by Tutush I, the ruler of Damascus.

Ridwan was a Seljuk emir of Aleppo from 1095 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suleiman ibn Qutalmish</span> Founder of the Sultanate of Rum

Suleiman Shah I ibn Qutalmish founded an independent Seljuk Turkish state in Anatolia and ruled as Seljuk Sultan of Rûm from 1077 until his death in 1086.

Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Abdallah al-Muqtadi usually known simply by his regnal name Al-Mustazhir billah was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 1094 to 1118. He succeeded his father al-Muqtadi as the Caliph. The main and important events during his reign are; appearance of the First Crusade in Western Syria, Muslim protest in Baghdad against crusaders, his efforts to help Mawdud to organize several expeditions to reconquer lands from the Crusaders.

Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mustazhir, better known by his regnal name al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allah, was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 1136 to 1160, succeeding his nephew al-Rashid, who had been forced to abdicate by the Seljuks. The continued disunion and contests between Seljuk Turks afforded al-Muqtafi opportunity of not only maintaining his authority in Baghdad, but also extending it throughout Iraq.

al-Mustansir Billah Fatimid caliph from 1036 to 1094/95

Abū Tamīm Maʿad al-Mustanṣir biʾllāh was the eighth Fatimid Caliph from 1036 until 1094. He was one of the longest reigning Muslim rulers. His reign was the twilight of the Fatimid state. The start of his reign saw the continuation of competent administrators running the Fatimid state, overseeing the state's prosperity in the first two decades of al-Mustansir's reign. However, the break out of court infighting between the Turkish and Berber/Sudanese court factions following al-Yazuri's assassination, coinciding with natural disasters in Egypt and the gradual loss of administrative control over Fatimid possessions outside of Egypt, almost resulted in the total collapse of the Fatimid state in the 1060s, before the appointment of the Armenian general Badr al-Jamali, who assumed power as vizier in 1073, and became the de facto dictator of the country under the nominal rule of al-Mustansir.

Abuʾl-Ḥārith Arslān al-Muẓaffar al-Basāsīrī was a Turkoman slave-soldier (mamlūk) who rose to become a military commander of the Buwayhid dynasty in Iraq. When the Buwayhids were ousted by the Seljuks in 1055, he transferred his allegiance to the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt, in whose name he conquered Baghdad, which he ruled for almost a year.

The Complete History, is a classic Islamic history book written by Ali ibn al-Athir. Composed in ca. 1231AD/628AH, it is one of the most important Islamic historical works. Ibn al-Athir was a contemporary and member of the retinue of Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt who captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders and massively reduced European holdings in the Levant, leaving the Principality of Antioch and County of Tripoli much reduced and only a few cities on the coast to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkyaruq</span> 5th Seljuk sultan (r. 1094–1105)

Rukn al-Din Abu'l-Muzaffar Berkyaruq ibn Malikshah, better known as Berkyaruq (برکیارق), was the fifth sultan of the Seljuk Empire from 1094 to 1105.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Badr al-Jamali</span>

Abū'l-Najm Badr ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Jamālī al-Mustanṣirī, better known as Badr al-Jamali, was a vizier and prominent statesman for the Fatimid Caliphate under Caliph al-Mustansir. His appointment to the vizierate in 1073 restored the fortunes of the Fatimid state, which had faced collapse in the previous decades, but also began a period where the vizierate was dominated by military strongmen who held power through their military strength, rather than through the Caliph's appointment. An Armenian Badr al-Jamali initiated a wave of Armenian migration into Egypt, and was the first of a series of viziers of Armenian origin, who played a major role in the fortunes of the Fatimid Caliphate over the subsequent century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaghri Beg</span> Seljuk Co-ruler (r. 1040–1060) and Ruler of Khorasan

Abu Suleiman Dawud Chaghri Beg ibn Mikail, widely known simply as Chaghri Beg (989–1060), Da'ud b. Mika'il b. Saljuq, also spelled Chaghri, was the co-ruler of the early Seljuk Empire. The name Chaghri is Turkic and literally means "small falcon", "merlin".

Sökmen was a Turkoman emir of the Seljuk Empire in the early 12th century.

Zaheer-ul-Daulah Artuk Beg, known as Artuk Bey, was a Turkoman commander of the Seljuk Empire in the 11th century, chief of the Oghuz tribe of Döğer, and eponymous founder of the Artuqid dynasty. His father's name was Eksük. He was the Seljuk governor of Jerusalem between 1085–1091. Although the Artuqid dynasty was named after him, actually the dynasty was founded by his sons Sökmen and Ilghazi after his death. He was also father to Alp-Yaruq, Bahram, Abd al-Jabar, and three other sons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim ibn Quraysh</span> 10th-century Muslim ruler of northern Syria

Abu'l-Makarim Muslim ibn Qirwash also known by the honorific title Sharaf al-Dawla, was the Uqaylid emir of Mosul and Aleppo. He died in June 1085.

The Jarrahids were an Arab dynasty that intermittently ruled Palestine and controlled Transjordan and northern Arabia in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. They were described by historian Marius Canard (1888–1982) as a significant player in the Byzantine–Fatimid wars in Syria who "created for themselves, in their own best interests, a rule of duplicity, treason and pillage". They were the ruling family of the Tayy tribe, one of the three powerful tribes of Syria at the time; the other two were Kalb and Kilab.

Irtash was a Seljuk emir of Damascus in 1104. Irtash was born to Taj ad-Dawla Tutush, the brother of the Seljuk Sultan Malik-Shah I who established a principality in Syria after his brother gave the region and the adjacent areas to him. Following the death of Malik-Shah, Tutush claimed the Seljuk crown, but he was killed by the forces of his nephew Berkyaruq near Ray. Subsequently, Irtash's brother Ridwan moved to Aleppo and proclaimed himself the new emir. Irtash's other brother Duqaq's declaration of a new emirate in Damascus separated the Syrian Seljuk state into two and started a rivalry between the two brothers. Duqaq then imprisoned Irtash for nine years in Baalbek.

Tāj al-Dawla Alp Arslān ibn Riḍwān, nicknamed al-Akhras, was the Seljuk sultan of Aleppo from AD 1113 until his death in 1114 (508). According to Ibn al-Athīr, he was not actually mute but had only a speech impediment and a stammer. He was the son of the Sultan Riḍwān by a daughter of Yağısıyan, governor of Antioch.

Khadija Arslan Khatun was a Seljuk princess, sister of sultan Alp Arslan (r.1063–1072) and Aunt of sultan Malik Shah. She was a royal consort of Abbasid caliph Al-Qaim, and then a consort of Kakuyid ruler Ali ibn Faramurz.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Dadoyan, Seta (2013). The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World: Armenian Realpolitik in the Islamic World and Diverging ParadigmsCase of Cilicia Eleventh to Fourteenth Centuries. Transaction Publishers. p. 47. ISBN   9781412848879 . Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  2. 1 2 Gil, Moshe (1997). A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Cambridge University Press. pp. 409–412. ISBN   9780521599849 . Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  3. ↑ ben Joseph Ha-Kohen, Solomon; Greenstone, Julius H. (January 1906). "The Turkoman Defeat at Cairo". The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. 22 (2): 144–175. doi:10.1086/369565. JSTOR   527656. S2CID   170839031 . Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  4. 1 2 Cline, Eric H. (2007) [2004]. Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel. University of Michigan Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN   978-0-472-03120-7 . Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  5. ↑ Gil (1997), p. 412
  6. ↑ Richards, Donald Sidney (ed., transl.) (2002). The Annals of the Saljuq Turks: Selections from Al-Kāmil fīʻl-Taʻrīkh of ʻIzz al-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr. Studies in the history of Iran and Turkey, Volume 2. RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN   9780700715763 . Retrieved 29 July 2020.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Peacock, A. C. S. (2015). Great Seljuk Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN   9780748698073 . Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  8. ↑ Holmes, Nick (2019). The Byzantine World War. Troubador Publishing. p. 111. ISBN   9781838598921 . Retrieved 24 September 2020.

Bibliography

Regnal titles
Preceded by Emir of Damascus
1076–1079		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.