104

The Atabegs of Yazd

c. 536–696/c. 1141–1297

c. 536/1141

Sām b. Wardānrūz, Rukn al-Dīn, d. 590/1194

c. 584/1188

Langar b. Wardānrūz, ‘Izz al-Dīn, succeeded during his father’s lifetime and reigned for nearly twenty years, d. 604/1207

604/1207

Wardānrūz b. Langar, Muḥyī ’l-Din

616/1219

Isfahsālār b. Langar, Abū Manṣūr Quṭb al-Dīn

626/1229

Maḥmūd Shāh b. Abī Manṣūr Isfahsālār

639/1241

Salghur Shāh b. Maḥmūd Shāh

650/1252

Ṭogha(n) Shāh b. Salghur Shāh

⊘ 670/1272

‘Alā’ al-Dawla b. Ṭogha(n) Shāh

⊘ 673/1275

Yūsuf Shāh b. Ṭogha(n) Shāh

696/1297

Mongol conquest

c. 715–18/c. 1315–18

Ḥājjī Shāh b. Yūsuf Shāh, overthrown by local rivals

719/1319

Muẓaffarid governor

This line of local rulers in the central Persian town of Yazd succeeded the branch of the Kākūyids there (see above, no. 78). From the names of their earlier members at least, it seems that they were ethnically Persian, but, like the Hazāraspids (see above, no. 102), they adopted the Turkish title of Atabeg. This came about because the Great Seljuq sultan Sanjar appointed the founder of the line, Sām b. Wardānrūz, Atabeg to the daughters of the deceased last Kākūyid, Abū Kalījār Garshāsp II, in c. 536/c. 1141. Sām’s successors were at first vassals of the Seljuqs and then, in the the next century, tributary to the Mongols; the Atabeg Ṭogha(n) Shāh b. Salghur Shāh had to send troops to the Mongol army attacking Alamūt and other Ismā‘īlī fortresses of northern Persia in 654/1256. The penultimate Atabeg, Yūsuf Shāh, fell into arrears of tribute, and had to flee to Sistan before an army sent out by the I1 Khānid Ghazan, after which a Mongol darugha or police commander was appointed over Yazd. A son of his was reappointed over Yazd in c. 715/c. l315, but was overthrown three years later by local rivals and the town soon afterwards passed under the control of the Muẓaffarids (see below, no. 140) as vassals of the I1 Khānids.

Sachau, 27 no. 66; Zambaur, 231.

EIr ‘Atābakān-e Yazd’ (S. C. Fairbanks).

Ja‘far b. Muḥammad b. Ḥasan Ja‘farī, Ta ’rīkh-i Yazd, ed. Īraj Afshār, Tehran 1338/1960, 23–9.

Aḥmad b. Ḥusayn b. ‘Alī Kātib, Ta ’rīkh -i jadīd-i Yazd, ed. Afshār, Tehran 1345/1966, 66–79.

If you find an error or have any questions, please email us at admin@erenow.org. Thank you!