| Siege of Ani (1161) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Georgian–Seljuk wars | |||||||
 Plan of the city | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Georgia | Shah-Armens Saltukids Artuqids | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| George III | Sökmen II Saltuk II | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 9,000 Captured [1] | |||||||
The Siege of Ani was the unsuccessful siege of the city of Ani, by the Seljukid coalition arranged by the ruler of Shah-Armens in 1161. The large Muslim army was defeat by the Georgian King George III at the gates of Ani.
The Shaddadid emir of Ani Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Manuchihr was accused by the contemporary Armenian historian Vardan Areveltsi of persecuting Christians and attempting to sell Ani to the emir of Kars. In 1124 the Armenians decided to ask help from the Georgian King David IV, who besieged the city but Ani surrendered without a fight. David IV exiled the emir to Abkhazia and Ani was given by David to his general, Abuleti. [2] [3] [4]
While Armenian Christians welcomed liberation from Muslim rule, many nobles, feared losing their autonomy and sought better terms as Muslim vassals. Demetrius I of Georgia felt it expedient to release Fadl ibn Shavur ibn Manuchihr, Abulsuar's son, who returned to Ani in 1126, swore insincere oath of loyalty to the Georgian King and took back the governorship of the city. [5] In 1130, the Sultan of Khlat launched an attempt to oust Georgians from northern and central Armenia. Demetrius had to come to terms and give up the city to Shaddadids on terms of vassalage. They agreed that the Cathedral of Ani should have remained a Christian site and Georgia could intervene to protect the Christians. However, a stand-off continued for two decades. [5]
Fadl's successor, Fakr al-Din Shaddad ibn Mahmud, asked for Saltuk II's daughter's hand in 1154, however Saltuk refused him. This caused a deep hatred in Shaddad towards Saltuk. He planned a plot and formed a secret alliance with King Demetrius I. While a Georgian army waited in ambush, he offered tribute to Saltukid and asked the latter to accept him as a vassal. In 1154–1155, Emir Saltuk II marched on Ani, but Shaddad informed his suzerain, the King of Georgia, of this. Demetrius marched to Ani, defeated and captured the emir. At the request of neighbouring Muslim rulers, Demetrius released him for a ransom of 100,000 dinars, paid by Saltuk's sons in law and Saltuk swore not to fight against the Georgians. [6] [7]
In 1156 the Christian population of Ani rose against the emir Fakr al-Din Shaddad ibn Mahmud, and turned the town over to his brother, Fadl ibn Mahmud. But Fadl, too, apparently could not satisfy the people of Ani, and this time the town was offered to the Georgian King George III, who took advantage of this offer and subjugated Ani, appointing his general Ivane II Orbeli as its ruler in 1161. [4]
In July, 1161, a muslim coalition was formed consisting namely of the troops of Shah-Armens, Saltukids, and the lord of Kars and Surmari. Allies selected the route through the Araxes river, and the Artuqid lord Najm al-Din Alpi set out to join them. In August 1161, they arrived before Ani and besieged it. When the King George III has arrived to meet them, the emir Saltuk II, remembering his oath to the King Demetrius, withdrew his army from the battlefield. Muslims were defeated and put to the sword and many of them perished. [1]
Demetrius I, from the Bagrationi dynasty, was King (mepe) of Georgia from 1125 to 1156. He is also known as a poet. He was King of Georgian kingdom two times, first in 1125 to 1154 and second in 1155 before his death in 1156.
George III, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the 8th King (mepe) of Georgia from 1156 to 1184. He became king when his father, Demetrius I, died in 1156, which was preceded by his brother's revolt against their father in 1154. His reign was part of what would be called the Georgian Golden Age – a historical period in the High Middle Ages, during which the Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its military power and development.
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia.
Shams al-Din Ildeniz, Eldigüz or Shamseddin Eldeniz was an atabeg of the Seljuq empire and founder of the dynasty of Eldiguzids, atabegs of Azerbaijan, which held sway over Armenia, Iranian Azerbaijan, and most of northwestern Persia from the second half of the 12th century to the early decades of the 13th.
The Kingdom of Georgia, also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in c. 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great from the 11th to 13th centuries. Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the Christian East and its pan-Caucasian empire and network of tributaries stretching from Eastern Europe to Anatolia and northern frontiers of Iran, while also maintaining religious possessions abroad, such as the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem and the Monastery of Iviron in Greece. It is the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia.
The Saltukids or Saltuqids were a dynasty ruling one of the Anatolian beyliks of the Seljuk Empire, founded after the Battle of Manzikert (1071) and centered on Erzurum. The Saltukids ruled between 1071 and 1202. The beylik was founded by Emir Saltuk, one of the Turkmen commanders of the Great Seljuk Alp Arslan. The beylik fought frequently against the Georgian Kingdom for hegemony of the Kars region. The center of the beylik, Erzurum, was briefly re-occupied by the Byzantine Empire between 1077 and 1079, and was besieged by the Georgian King Giorgi III in 1184. It comprised the entirety of present-day Erzurum and Bayburt provinces, lands east of Erzincan, most of Kars, and lands north of Ağrı and Muş provinces during its height.
Abu'l-Aswar or Abu'l-Asvar Shavur ibn Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a member of the Shaddadid dynasty. Between 1049 and 1067 he was the eighth Shaddadid ruler of Arran from Ganja. Prior to that, he ruled the city of Dvin from 1022 as an autonomous lord. A capable warrior, and a wise and cunning ruler, Abu'l-Aswar was engaged in several conflicts with most of his neighbours. During his rule over Dvin, he was mostly involved in the affairs of the Armenian principalities. He collaborated with the Byzantine Empire in its conquest of the last remnants of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, but when the Byzantines later turned on him, he survived three successive offensives that sought to take Ganja. In 1049, a revolt in Ganja overthrew his infant great-great-nephew, Anushirvan. The rebels invited him to take up the family's emirate, and he moved from Dvin to Ganja. Under his rule, the Shaddadid dynasty reached its zenith. He undertook successful campaigns into Georgia and Shirvan, although the limits of Shaddadid power were exposed by his failure to take over the Emirate of Tiflis and by devastating raids by the Alans. At the same time, his reign witnessed the rapid rise of the Seljuk Empire and the extension of its control over the Transcaucasian principalities. Abu'l-Aswar became a Seljuk vassal in 1054/5. Although he gained control over the former Armenian capital of Ani through Seljuk patronage in 1065, this association also paved the way for the dynasty's decline after his death in November 1067.
Ashot ibn Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl was a Shaddadid prince, the second son of Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl. During the captivity of his older brother Fadl ibn Shavur by the Georgians in 1068, he ruled in his stead as emir of Arran for eight months, even minting coins in his own name and that of his overlord, the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan.
The Georgian–Seljuk wars, also known as Georgian Crusade, is a long series of battles and military clashes that took place from c. 1048 until 1213, between the Kingdom of Georgia and the different Seljuqid states that occupied most of Transcaucasia. The conflict is preceded by deadly raids in the Caucasus by the Turks in the 11th century, known in Georgian historiography as the Great Turkish Invasion.
Saltuk II was a bey of Saltukids in the 12th century.
Manuchihr ibn Shavur was a Shaddadid emir of Ani from c. 1072 to 1118, the first of the dynasty to rule this key city, formerly an Armenian royal capital.
Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Manuchihr was the Kurdish Shaddadid emir of Ani from c. 1118 to 1124.
Fadl ibn Shavur ibn Manuchihr was Shaddadid emir of Ani from c. 1125 to 1130. Fadl was the son of deposed emir Abu'l-Aswar Shavur. Fadl retook Ani from the Georgians, but promised to observe the rights of its Christian population. Fadl extended his rule to Dvin and Ganja, but failed to maintain these cities. He was murdered by his courtiers following the fall of Dvin to the Turkish emir Qurti c. 1130. His brothers, Mahmud ibn Shavur and Khushchikr, ruled briefly in quick succession until the emirate was taken over by Fadl's nephew, Fakr al-Din Shaddad b. Mahmud.
Fakr al-Din Shaddad ibn Mahmud was the Kurdish Shaddadid emir of Ani from sometime after 1131 until 1155.
Fadl V ibn Mahmud was a Shaddadid emir of Ani from 1155 to 1161.
The Forgotten Kings is a Chronicle account by Ahmad Kasravi. it is wrote since late 1928 to 1929, which includes documentary research on several At that time unknown and anonymous post-Islamic to pre-Seljuk Empire Iranian dynasties.
Menucihr Mosque, also Manučehr Mosque is a mosque in the medieval city of Ani in Kars Province, Turkey. It was built between 1072 and 1086 by Manuchihr ibn Shavur of the Kurdish Shaddadid dynasty. The restoration of the mosque started in June 2020.
The Siege of Ani took place in 1124, which the Georgian army under the command of David IV the Builder liberated the ancient capital of Armenia, the city of Ani, from the Muslim emirs.
Tughril Shah, also Abdu'l Harij Muhammad Mughis ad-din Tughril Shah ibn Kılıç Arslan II (r.1202-1225) was a Turkoman king of the "Seljuqs of Erzurum", following the fall of the Saltukids in the region, one of the Anatolian beyliks. He was another son of Kılıç Arslan II, who in 1186 had partitionned his kingdom in Anatolia between several of his numerous sons. He was succeeded by his son Rukn al-Din Jahanshah bin Tughril.
Ivane II Orbeli was a Court official of the Kingdom of Georgia, holding the offices of Amirspasalar (Commander-in-Chief) and Mandaturtukhutsesi.
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