Artuqid dynasty
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The Artuqid dynasty (also Ortokid, Artukid, Artuklu, etc) was an Oghuz Turkish dynasty that ruled in Eastern Anatolia and Northern Iraq in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Two main branches of the dynasty ruled from Hasankeyf (Hısn-ı Keyf, Hısnkeyfa) between 1102-1231 and Mardin between 1106-1186 (and until 1409 as vassals). There was also a third branch that acquired Harput in 1112 and was independent between 1185-1233.
The dynasty was founded by Artuq, a general originally under Malik Shah I and then under the Seljuk emir of Damascus, Tutush I. Tutush appointed Artuq governor of Jerusalem in 1086. Artuq died in 1091, and his sons Sokman and Ilghazi were expelled from Jerusalem by the Fatimid vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah in 1098; the Fatimids lost the city to the crusaders the following year.
Sokman and Ilghazi set themselves up in Diyarbakır, Mardin, and Hasankeyf in the Jezirah, where they came into conflict with the sultanate of Great Seljuk. Sokman, bey of Mardin, defeated the crusaders at the Battle of Harran in 1104. Ilghazi succeeded Sokman in Mardin and imposed his control over Aleppo at the request of the qadi Ibn al-Khashshab in 1118. In 1119 Ilgazi defeated the crusader Principality of Antioch at the Battle of Ager Sanguinis.
In 1121 a Seljuk-Artuqid alliance, commanded by Mehmed I of Great Seljuk and Ilghazi, was defeated by Georgia at the Battle of Didgori. Ilghazi died in 1122, and although his nephew Balak nominally controlled Aleppo, the city was really controlled by Ibn al-Khashshab. Al-Kashshab was assassinated in 1125, and Aleppo fell under the control of Zengi of Mosul. After the death of Balak, the Artuqids were split between Diyarbakır, Hasankeyf and Mardin. Sokman's son Davud, bey of Hasankeyf, died in 1144, and was succeeded by his son Kara Aslan. Kara Aslan allied with Joscelin II of Edessa against the Zengids, and while Joscelin was away in 1144, Zengi recaptured Edessa, the first of the Crusader states to fall (see Siege of Edessa). Hasankeyf became a vassal of Zengi as well.
Kara Aslan's son Nur ad-Din Muhammad allied with the Ayyubid sultan Saladin against the Sultan of Rum Kilij Arslan II, whose daughter had married Nur ad-Din Muhammad. In a peace settlement with Kilij Arslan, Saladin gained control of Artuqid territory, although the Artuqids were still technically vassals of Mosul, which Saladin did not yet control. With Artuqid support Saladin eventually took control of Mosul as well.
The Ortoqid dynasty still nominally controlled the upper Mesopotamia but their power declined under Ayyubid rule.
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources
- Carole Hillenbrand, A Muslim Principality in Crusader Times: The Early Artuqid State. Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, 1990.
- Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. Routledge, 2000.
- P.M. Holt, The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517. Longman, 1989.
- Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vol. II. Cambridge University Press, 1952.
- Kenneth Setton, ed., A History of the Crusades. Madison: 1969–1989 (available online).
