´¡°ÕÄ€µþ´¡°Ä€±·-E ¹óÄ€¸é³§, princes of the Salghurid dynasty who ruled FÄrs in the 6th/12th and 7th/13th centuries, initially with the status of ²¹³ÙÄå²ú²¹°ì. They were descended from the chief of a Turkmen clan, the Salḡūr or SalÅ«r, who had accompanied the Saljuq sultan Ṭoḡril on the migration into Khorasan in the mid 5th/11th century. One of his descendants, Sonqor b. MawdÅ«d, a nephew of the amir BÅ«z Aba, seized power in FÄrs in 543-44/1148 but remained tributary to the Saljuqs. His seat of government was at Shiraz. For a long time he was involved in conflicts with Saljuq princes, particularly MalekšÄh b. MaḥmÅ«d, and in his resistance to them he owed much to the help of the Saljuqs of the collateral line who ruled KermÄn. He was also on friendly terms with the small principality of Lor-e Bozorg. His dealings with Qays (KÄ«š) island gave him a strong position in Persian Gulf affairs. Time after time, however, he had to contend with Saljuq inroads into FÄrs.
Sonqor, who had surrounded himself with the usual array of a princely court, died at the town of BayÅ¼Ä in 556/1161 and was succeeded by his brother ZangÄ« b. MawdÅ«d. After defeating several rival members of the family, ZangÄ« adopted the name Moẓaffar-al-dÄ«n and acknowledged Saljuq suzerainty, though his allegiance to the sultans varied with political circumstances. He successfully overcame all opposing forces and repulsed an intervention by the Saljuqs of KermÄn. FÄrs suffered dreadful damage from all the fighting in these years. ZangÄ« died at the castle of OškovÄn near Eá¹£á¹aḵr in 574/1178-79 (according to some sources, 570/1174-75 or 571/1175-76).
Power then passed to one of ZangÄ«’s five sons, by the name Tekla, who had already been designated as the successor. He had trouble with repeated attacks by the ²¹³ÙÄå²ú²¹°ì Moḥammad PahlavÄn of Azerbaijan in 574-75/1179-80 and a revolt by his cousin Qoá¹b-al-dÄ«n Ṭoḡrel b. Sonqor in 577/1182-83. The latter temporarily gained possession of parts of the province but was finally captured and executed; he had assumed the titles of king and “heir to the empire of Solomon” (wÄreṯ-e molk-e SolaymÄn, see A. S. Melikian-Chirvani, “Le royaume de Salomon. Les inscriptions persanes des sites Achéménides,” Le Monde Iranien et l’Islam, Geneva and Paris, 1971, pp. 1-41). (According to some sources, these events took place at the start of SaÊ¿d I’s reign.) There was also some fighting with the Oḡuz for control of KermÄn after the collapse of the local Saljuq sultanate in 581-82/1186. The land and people of FÄrs again suffered much damage. Tekla died after a reign of some twenty years in 594/1197-98. He is praised in the sources for his just rule, but such praises are often conventional and do not necessarily reflect the truth.
After Tekla’s death, his cousin Ṭoḡrel b. Sonqor (again?) fought for the succession, the other claimant and, eventually, winner being Tekla’s younger brother Moẓaffar-al-dÄ«n AbÅ« ŠoÇ°ÄÊ¿ SaÊ¿d I b. ZangÄ« b. MawdÅ«d. While this contest was going on, an epidemic plague ravaged the country. SaÊ¿d proceeded to enlarge his domain of FÄrs by conquering part of KermÄn province, including SÄ«rÇ°Än. With the help of his vizier ḴᵛÄÇ°a Ê¿AmÄ«d-al-dÄ«n AbÅ« Naá¹£r AsÊ¿ad AbzarÄ« he restored some prosperity to FÄrs after the war devastation of the preceding years. Tradition affirms that he supported the poet SaÊ¿dÄ« (d. 691/1192) and that the latter chose his pen-name for this reason, though the evidence rather indicates that SaÊ¿dÄ«’s patron was SaÊ¿d II (see below). SaÊ¿d I’s troops occupied Isfahan for a short time in 600/1203-04, but during his absence he temporarily lost his capital Shiraz to the ²¹³ÙÄå²ú²¹°ì Uzbek b. PahlavÄn of Azerbaijan and had to hasten home. Later he was occupied for many years in struggles for control of KermÄn, warring against local forces, against the Oḡuz, and finally (in 602/1206-605/1209) against the Sultan ḴᵛÄrazmšÄh Moḥammad II, whose power was on the rise at this time. In 609/1213 the ḴᵛÄrazmšÄh succeeded in annexing KermÄn. In 614/1217-18, when the ḴᵛÄrazmšÄh was in conflict with the caliph al-NÄá¹£er, SaÊ¿d I marched northward and occupied Ray, QazvÄ«n, and SemnÄn, but was defeated in a battle with Khwarazmian troops near Ray and taken prisoner. He remained in captivity at HamadÄn until he undertook to cede the district around Eá¹£á¹aḵr and OškovÄn to Moḥammad II and pay one third of the revenue of his domain as tribute. He also had to deliver his eldest son as a hostage, but the latter was released when marriage ties between the two families were arranged. While these events were in progress, SaÊ¿d’s son AbÅ« Bakr attempted to seize power at Shiraz but was defeated by local troops and imprisoned. Moḥammad II’s subsequent embroilment with the Mongols gave SaÊ¿d I the chance to cast off Khwarazmian suzerainty. SaÊ¿d had to battle against Moḥammad II’s son ḠīÄṯ-al-dÄ«n in 620/1223-24, but fared better in the following year when ḠīÄṯ-al-dÄ«n clashed with his brother JalÄl-al-dÄ«n MangÅ«bardÄ« (Mengüberdi), who had by then returned from India. JalÄl-al-dÄ«n married SaÊ¿d’s daughter and forced his brother to cede to him a large piece of territory, including Isfahan, and assigned them to his father-in-law; at the same time SaÊ¿d recognized JalÄl-al-dÄ«n as his overlord. SaÊ¿d I died on 12 Ḏu’l-qaÊ¿da 623/5 November 1226 (more probably than in 628/1230-31 as stated in some accounts).
He was succeed by his son AbÅ« Bakr b. SaÊ¿d b. ZangÄ«, who on account of an attempted revolt (see above) had been kept in prison for a long time. With prudent regard for the might of the Mongols, AbÅ« Bakr sent his brother (or nephew?) Tahamtan to the Great Khan Ögedei (OgdÄy, OktÄy) in token of his submission. He received the title Qutluḡ Khan and had to admit into his territory a resident Mongol overseer (&²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô;±ðḥn²¹), who did not in fact pay much heed to the workings of the government. FÄrs now enjoyed a quite long spell of calm and was able to make good progress, both politically and economically. AbÅ« Bakr, like his father and his successors, surrounded himself with scholars and artists (list in Merçil, Fars Atabegleri, pp. 135-43), though none except the poet SaÊ¿dÄ« were of more than local importance. The ²¹³ÙÄå²ú²¹°ì himself pursued scholarly interests. He was well served by the viziers Moḡreb-al-dÄ«n MofÄḵer MasÊ¿Å«d and AmÄ«r Faḵr-al-dÄ«n AbÅ« Bakr, the chief ±çÄåżī JamÄl-al-dÄ«n AbÅ« Bakr Meá¹£rÄ«, and a carefully picked staff of officials. Several mosques and madrasas were built in his reign, and remains of some of them survive today (list in Merçil, op. cit., pp. 135-39; also idem, Die Bautätigkeit der Salguridenzeit nach historischen Quellen, Fifth International Congress of Turkish Arts, ed. G. Fehér, Budapest, 1978, pp. 599-604). Strict financial discipline made it possible to cope with the tribute payments to the Mongols. Attempts were made to reform the land tenure usages but in the main had to be abandoned. The army was enlarged and put to good use in the suppression of a prince’s revolt and in an expedition in 627/1230 which extended the ²¹³ÙÄå²ú²¹°ì’s sway to the island of Qays, thereby facilitating trade with India and bringing new tax and customs revenues to the government. A further advance to the Bahrain islands, which then belonged to the caliphate, led to protracted fighting with the local Arabs; this began in Ḏu’l-ḥeÇ°Ç°a, 633/August, 1236 and ended in 654/1256-57 with a concession of far-reaching autonomy and a division of authority between certain Arab amirs.
Meanwhile the Il-khan Hülegü (HÅ«lÄgÅ«) had taken steps since 653-54/1256 to assert his authority throughout Iran. AbÅ« Bakr offered allegiance and sent his son SaÊ¿d as a hostage to the Mongol court, then at Baghdad. Before SaÊ¿d’s return, AbÅ« Bakr died on 5 JomÄdÄ II 658/18 May 1260. With his death the bright days of the ²¹³ÙÄå²ú²¹°ìs of FÄrs were over. His still absent son succeeded him as SaÊ¿d II but died after a reign of only eighteen days before reaching Shiraz. The local mint managed to produce a few coins bearing SaÊ¿d II’s name.
The next successor was SaÊ¿d’s young son Moḥammad I, who was under the guardianship of his mother Terken (TorkÄn) ḴÄtÅ«n, a princess of Yazd. She chose a vizier named NeẓÄm-al-dÄ«n AbÅ« Bakr. Unrestrained oppression and peculation now opened the way to ruin. Moḥammad I died after a reign of two and a half years on 6 Moḥarram 661/20 November 1262. Terken ḴÄtÅ«n then procured the succession of Moḥammad II b. Salḡūr b. SaÊ¿d (I). Despite a record of valor as a warrior on the side of the Mongols, he spent too much of his time as a ruler in revelry. Before long, Terken ḴÄtÅ«n decided to get rid of him, even though he had married her daughter; in RamażÄn, 661/July, 1263 she arranged his departure for a stay at the Mongol court. A secret approach of Terken ḴÄtÅ«n to the MamlÅ«k sultan Baybars I at this time evidently had no useful result.
Moḥammad II’s brother and successor SalÇ°Å«qšÄh b. Salḡūr proceeded to marry Terken ḴÄtÅ«n, but soon incurred the displeasure of his wife and the amirs. He therefore had Terken ḴÄtÅ«n murdered at a banquet. Next he foolishly sanctioned an attack on the Mongol delegation. The consequences were that Moḥammad II met an early death at the Mongol court and a force of HÅ«lÄgÅ«’s troops set out for Shiraz, SalÇ°Å«qšÄh escaped and entrenched himself at KÄzerÅ«n, but finally had to surrender and was excecuted outside that town on 12 á¹¢afar 663/4 December 1264.
The throne of FÄrs was then given to the princess Ä€beš ḴÄtÅ«n, a daughter of SaÊ¿d II, she and her sister being the only members of the Salghurid family left alive. She was only a child, and in 671/1272 she was married to Möngke Temür (MongÅ« TeymÅ«r), a brother of the Il-khan AbÄqÄ. The Mongols were thus in position to exert direct influence. Disorders at Shiraz gave them a pretext to imprison her in or around 683/1284. She died on 12 Ḏu’l-qaÊ¿da 685/31 December 1286. The deposition of Ä€beš marked the end of the dynasty of the Salghurid ²¹³ÙÄå²ú²¹°ìs of FÄrs. The province was then placed under direct Mongol rule.
Bibliography:
Primary sources. Ebn al-Aṯīr, XII, p. 273.
Abu’l-FedÄ, ed. J. G. C. Adler, Annales Moslemici, Copenhagen, 1792, IV, pp. 322-24.
ŠehÄb-al-dÄ«n Moḥammad NasavÄ«, SÄ«rat-e JalÄl-al-dÄ«n MÄ«nkbernÄ«, ed. M. MÄ«novÄ«, Tehran, 1344 Š./1965, passim.
TaqÄ«-al-dÄ«n Aḥmad MaqrÄ«zÄ«, tr. M. E. Quatre-mère, Histoire des sultans Mamlouks, 2 vols., Paris, 1837-45, I, part 1, pp. 190, 238.
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TÄrīḵ-e gozÄ«da I, pp. 499-509.
Ê¿AbdallÄh b. FażlallÄh WaṣṣÄf ŠÄ«rÄzÄ«, KetÄb-e mostaá¹Äb-e WaṣṣÄf, Bombay, 1269/1852-53, pp. 155-222 (lithograph).
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²ÑÄ«°ùḵᵛÄå²Ô»å, The History of the Atabeks of Syria and Persia . . . , ed. W. H. Morley, London, 1848, pp. 35-49.
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T. W. Haig, “Salghurids,” EI1IV, pp. 105-06.
Zambaur, p. 232 (for the list of rulers).
M. Th. Houtsma, “Zur Geschichte der SelÄŸuqen von KermÄn,” ZDMG 39, 1885, pp. 362-402 (extract from Moḥammad EbrÄhÄ«m).
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(B. Spuler)
Originally Published: December 15, 1987
Last Updated: August 17, 2011
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Vol. II, Fasc. 8, pp. 894-896
