Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode 15 with English Subtitles
History
Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode.In his introduction to the history of the Seljuks, Ibn Bı b3 ı 3 gives a curious explanation for effectively omitting the dynasty’s first century from his account. [ This work starts] from the beginning of the crown prince- hood of the fortunate (i.e. late) martyr sultan Ghiya t3 h al-Dı n3 Kaykhusraw, the father of the great sultan ‘Al a ’ 3 al-Dı n3 Kayqub ad3 — may God shelter both of them in His forgiveness — for the reason that the particulars of the rule of sultan Sulaym a3 nb. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
Qutlumush and the circumstances of the events [concerning] the great amirs such as amir Mengüjek, amir Artuq, and amir Danishmend were not certain. The books of the historians of that realm had excessive difficulties and consulting them was not easy; the oral reports of distant times did not warrant confidence because of the inconsistency of the accounts and repose of mind did not result from those words; [thus] comprehension [of them] escaped [one]. 2 Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
The explanation is seemingly convincing: Ibn Bı b 3 ı 3 claims to have had at his disposal both written sources and oral reports concerning the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, which he cast aside on account of their alleged difficulty, unreliability, and inconsistency. Reading between the lines, however, one wonders whether the actual problem was not so much the shortcomings of these sources as his suspicion that the period in question – with its ever-shifting balance of power among numerous players and its manifold ups and downs for the Seljuks – might detract from his mission to present a cohesive account of the Seljuk dynasty through the twelfth and into the thirteenth century. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
Nevertheless, it is hard to disagree with Ibn Bı b 3 ı 3 that Anatolia’s twelfth-century presents special challenges of historical reconstruction, compounded by the presumable loss of at least some of those unnamed written sources that he rejected. The story of the twelfth-century Turkmen dynasties in Anatolia – Seljuk, Danishmendid, Mengüjekid, and Saltuqid – is told, for the greater part, by outsiders who weaved in and out of the political lives of these dynasties as needed by their narratives. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
3 The modern task of reconstruction has necessarily relied upon these patchy accounts in order to establish a basic outline of the political relations among the Anatolian Turkmen dynasties and their neighbors such as the Byzantines, Georgians, Armenians, Great Seljuks, Zangids, and Ayyubids. That there is more to their stories than what has so far been gleaned from textual reconstruction alone is the motivation for this chapter, which approaches the Divri gi5 branch of the Mengüjekid dynasty in the last two decades of the twelfth century through the architectural works built by Sayf al-Dı3 n Sh a3 harsh a3 h (r. c.1171–96). Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
The Family of Mengüjek What makes Divri gi 5 particularly significant as a case study for exploring the question of dynastic identity in the late twelfth century is the fact that no surviving medieval historical text explicitly mentions this branch of the Mengüjekids, whose existence is known solely from numismatic and architectural–epigraphic evidence. The town, marked by a citadel in the upper Euphrates catchment area, is remarkably rich in inscriptions that provide an invaluable conduit to the history of the Mengüjekid dynasty, while the buildings themselves attest its notable position in the network of artistic resources of medieval Anatolia. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
In fact, little is known about even the general history of the Mengüjekids whose main branch, based in Erzincan, is only intermittently mentioned by the medieval historians. As in the case of the other early Turkmen dynasties of Anatolia, the current state of knowledge about the origins of the Mengüjekids amounts to little more than speculation.4 The eponym Mengüjek (or Mang u4 jak, Mang UK 4 UK) is thought to belong to a military commander once in the service of the Great Seljuks who was active in the upper Euphrates region in the decades following the Battle of Manzikert. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
Some time in the middle of the twelfth century, after the death of Is h aq3 (Mengüjek’s son) around 1140, the Mengüjekid family entered into a power-sharing arrangement with bases in Erzincan, Kemah and Divri g5 i. SÇ ebinkarahisar (Koloneia/K u g4 huniya) was probably added around the turn of the thirteenth century. It is generally assumed that the rulers in these towns led their own branch of the dynasty in the pattern of family-based power-sharing schemes seen in most early and medieval Turkic dynasties. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk Episode
Of these rulers, Fakhr al-Dı n3 Bahr a3 msh ah3, who ruled from Erzincan for over 60 years between some time in the early 1160s until his death in 1225, is by far the most renowned. He was featured at length by Ibn Bı b3 ı 3 and briefly by R a3 w andı,3 with both authors agreeing on his exemplary rulership in terms of justice, generosity, and courage. Furthermore, thanks to his patronage of the poet Niz a 9 m3 ı’ 3 s didactic mathnawı, 3 the Makhzan al-asr an r 3 (‘Treasury of Secrets’, the 1160s or 1170s), Bahra m3 sh an h3 ’s name was also immortalized in the Persian literary realm.
The striking longevity of Bahra 3 msh ah3 ’s reign must have been due at least in part to the careful course of diplomacy which he followed, especially with regard to the Seljuks whenever the latter’s stars were on the rise.
Bahr a3 m sh ah3 was probably also a noteworthy patron of architecture, but no evidence of this has survived in the extremely earthquake-prone city of Erzincan located on the North Anatolian Fault.
