Seljuqs4

1134 - 1152 Ghiyāth ad-Dunyā wa'd-Dīn Abū'l-Fatḥ Masʿūd, Tenth Seljuq Sultan, born  1107. In the 1120s he was appointed ruler of Azerbaijan (modern northwestern Iran and Azerbaijan) by Sanjar, under the nominal overlordship of his brother Maḥmūd II in Iraq. This subservient position rankled and in 1130 he led a rebellion against Maḥmūd II. When Maḥmūd defeated him in battle at Asadabad, he reconciled with Maḥmūd and together they led a rebellion against Sanjar, which ended in Maḥmūd's death. Shortly thereafter, Sanjar began to face the first of his major reverses in the east, and the fact that the former rebel Masʿūd was able to rise to power in the west in 1134 is a sign of how deeply Sanjar was occupied with eastern matters. The nominal overlord married his daughter to Masʿūd, recognising the fait accompli. Having taken control of Iran, it was no longer practical for Masʿūd to govern Azerbaijan; he handed it to a Kipchaq Turk called Ildiguz, a dynamic leader with higher ambitions, who would come to dominate Seljuq politics after Masʿūd's death - using them and their power for his own dynastic ends, leading to civil strife and, eventually, the fall of the dynasty in the 1190s.

But all that lay in the future; Masʿūd's power faced contemporary challenges. The Abbasid Caliph, Mustarshid, figurehead ruler of all Sunni Muslims attempted to assert his power by force - Masʿūd defeated him in battle at Day Mars, but in the aftermath the Caliph was assassinated. His son Rashid continued the war and beseiged Isfahan. He too was assassinated, and a new, more pliant Caliph was installed - and married to Masʿūd's sister to ensure his loyalty. 

All was not calm, however. Isfahan was displeased that it had been threatened in the war with the Abbasids and switched its loyalty to Masʿūd's brother, Dāwūd. Meanwhile the Alightar rebelled. Masʿūd snuck into their camp in the middle of the night with a tiny force, an act which so overawed the Alightar that they surrendered instantly. Fars was lost to another rebellion (that of Mankubarz Buz Aba), and despite a campaign which temporarily restored order, it was lost to the realm.

Moreover, Masʿūd increasingly came under the control of more powerful personalities at court, first the general Qara Sunqur and later the chief bodyguard Chawli. He was still nominally under the control of Sanjar, out to the east, as well. This meant increasingly little: an order to fire the mayor of Rayy was ignored, for example. The mayor duly demonstrated his gratitude by rebelling and joining Buz Aba. In 1147, Masʿūd discovered that Buz Aba was being secretly supported by his own chamberlain, whom he duly executed. Shortly thereafter he wiped out the rebellion altogether. Order was restored, until his sudden deathfive years later in 1152.

He married (first) ʿArab Khātūn 

He married (second) his cousin Gawhar Khatun, daughter of Sanjar, Seventh Seljuq Sultan (see above)

• 1) Malik Shah (son of ʿArab)

• 1) Gawhar Kirmānī (daughter of Gawhar), who married her cousin Muḥammad II, Twelfth Seljuq Sultan (see below)

1152 - 1153 & 1160 Mugīth ad-Dunyā wa'd-Dīn Malik Shah II, Eleventh Seljuq Sultan. He succeeded his uncle for a few months, but proved indolent and self-absorbed. Baghdad and the territories in Iraq drifted out of Seljuq control as the Abbasid Caliph reasserted his autonomy. The senior official, Khass Bey, therefore deposed Malik Shah, who clearly wasn't working out, in favour of his brother and he fled to Khuzistan on the Persian Gulf. Malik Shah made no real attempt to regain the capital until 1157 when he attacked Hamadan at the instigation of Ildiguz, who had been appointed Atabeg in Azerbaijan by the Tenth Sultan. Malik Shah was beaten back handily, but returned to the throne briefly when his brother died in 1160. It took the people of Isfahan a whole sixteen days to remember that he was a terrible Sultan and replace him.  

1153 - 1160 Ghiyāth ad-Dunyā wa'd-Dīn Abū Shujāʿ Muḥammad II, Twelfth Seljuq Sultan, born 1128. He had been his uncle's heir since the 1140s, but did not initially succeed him in 1152. A year later, however, he was placed upon the throne by Khass Bey who headed the administration. His first act was to order Khass Bey's execution - it is dangerous to have a Sultan in your debt. Khass Bey's body was thrown to the common folk of Hamadan, who were disgusted at such brutality and drove Muḥammad II out of town. They raised his uncle Sulayman to the sultanate and he sought help from the Caliph. As a result, when Muḥammad II arrived in Isfahan, his officials demanded that he lead an expedition against the Caliph. Muḥammad II refused, so they took one of his cousins instead and were defeated. Meanwhile, Muḥammad concentrated on Sulayman, whom he defeated in 1155. Only then did Muḥammad II agree to march against the Caliph, and he was besieging Takrit when word reached him that his brother Malik Shah II had attacked Hamadan. He returned, fought Malik Shah back but then died of sickness in 1160.

He married his cousin Gawhar Kirmānī, daughter of Masʿūd, Tenth Seljuq Sultan (see above)

1153-1155 & 1160 Muʿizz ad-Dunyā wa'd-Dīn Abū'l Ḥārith Sulaymān Shah, Thirteenth Seljuq Sultan. Born 1117. He raised the standard of revolt against his nephew Muḥammad II in 1153, after Muḥammad killed the official who had brought him to power. Taking control of Hamadan, while Muḥammad II held Isfahan, Sulayman managed to secure the support of the Caliph for his rebellion, but was nevertheless defeated at Nawaghush in 1155. He fled to Mosul in northern Iraq, where he remained until 1160, when he was called in to replace his useless nephew Malik Shah II. This was done with the support of the lord of Rayy, Inanj. It soon became clear that Sulayman had not been a good choice - he spent most of his days drinking. The officials began to make plans to deal with him, with the help of Ildiguz, the Atabeg of Azerbaijan, who had once supported the candidacy of Malik Shah II. When Sulayman caught on, he asked if he could just leave. The officials refused and threw him in prison, where he died in 1161.

• 1) Sanjar II, Sixteenth Seljuq Sultan (see below)

1160 - 1176 Rukn ad-Dunyā wa'd-Dīn Arslan, Fourteenth Seljuq Sultan. He was born in 1134, the same year his father the ninth Seljuq Sultan, Ṭughrīl II, died. Thereafter he was raised by his uncle Masʿūd, until 1146 when he was sent to Takrit "for his safety" (and so that no rebel could use him as a figurehead). He remained there, under the care of Ildiguz, until he was discovered there by his cousin Muḥammad II in 1157. As a result of this upbringing, he was extremely sheltered and literally did not understand the concept of money, which manifested as generosity (in the view of the common people) or profligacy (in the view of his treasurers). In 1155, when Muḥammad II refused to lead an expedition against the Caliph in Baghdad, he was made leader of the exedition instead, and acquited himself inadequately. Nevertheless, he remained popular and was appointed heir by his uncle Sulayman in 1160 and soon after was appointed Sultan in the old sot's place. The true power was his erstwhile guardian, Ildiguz. 

Things remained unstable: Ildiguz's rival Inanj, who had supported Sulayman's rule raised a new candidate and briefly captured Isfahan before he and Ildiguz made up. The next year, 1161, saw an invasion from Georgia, which was only defeated in 1163. In 1164 there was war with the Assassins. In 1165, more war with Georgia, mostly in the territory of Ildiguz, and Fars (southwestern Iran) was handed over to an Atabeg, who founded the Salghurid dynasty. Shortly after that, Ildiguz's alliance with Inanj collapsed and the two went to war - Inanj supported by Khwarezm to the East. He recaptured Rayy in 1168, was besieged, and murdered. Having settled his private feud, Ildiguz next led the Seljuq armies against Georgia, in 1174. The army was afflicted by cholera, and among the victims was Ildiguz, whose son Pahlawān (Arslan's maternal half-brother) became the new power behind the throne. Arslan himself died in 1176.

He married Kirman Khatun.

• 1) Rukn ad-Dunyā wa'd-Dīn Abū Ṭalib Ṭughrīl III, Fifteenth Seljuq Sultan (see below)

1176-1191 & 1192-1193 Rukn ad-Dunyā wa'd-Dīn Abū Ṭalib Ṭughrīl III, Fifteenth Seljuq Sultan. Named for his grandfather, he was appointed by his maternal uncle the Azerbaijani Atabeg Pahlawān as successor to his father in 1176. Pahlawān had control over him until his own death in 1186, when he was replaced by his brother Qizil Arslan - who had a much less subtle touch. Things rapidly went pear-shaped. Two of Qizil Arslan's slaves offended Sultan Ṭughrīl on account of their domination of him, so in 1188 he killed them. Qizil Arslan was outraged and Ṭughrīl fled from Hamadan. War followed, but Ṭughrīl  was captured in 1190 and imprisoned. Qizil Arslan declared himself Sultan... and was found dead hours before his coronation. Ṭughrīl  escaped imprisonment and retruned to Hamadan, ejecting Qizil Arslan's son and taking power for himself. 

In the confusion, the Khwarezm-Shah Tekish had brought an army from the east, planning to restore the Seljuqs. Finding that they had restored themselves, he was rather put out and demanded that Ṭughrīl III recognise his supremacy. At first Ṭughrīl acceded, but he reneged on the agreement once the Khwarezmian army had departed. As a result, it returned in 1193 and soon dominated. Vastly outnumbered, Ṭughrīl went down in a blaze of glory on the battlefield and the Seljuq dynasty with him.

• 1) Malik-Shah

1189-1191 Sanjar II, Sixteenth Seljuq Sultan. Set up as Sultan in Hamadan by Qizil Arslan after Ṭughrīl III fled, he served as Qizil's figurehead until Qizil achieved victory in 1190, after which a figurehead was no longer required and Sanjar vanishes from the record.