92

The Börids or Būrids

497–549/1104–54

Damascus and southern Syria

⊘ 497/1104

Ṭughtigīn, Abū Manṣūr Ẓahīr al-Dīn

⊘ 522/1128

Böri b. Ṭughtigin, Abū Sa‘īd Tāj al-Mulūk

526/1132

Ismā‘īl b. Böri, Shams al-Mulūk

⊘ 529/1135

Maḥmūd b. Böri, Abu ’1-Qāsim Shihāb al-Dīn

533/1139

Muḥammad b. Böri, Abū Manṣūr Jamāl al-Dīn, Shams al-Dawla

⊘ 534–49/1140–54

Abaq b. Muḥammad, Abū Sa‘īd Mujīr al-Dīn, d. 564/1169

549/1154

Succession in Damascus of the Zangid Nūr al-Dīn

This Atabeg dynasty derived from Ṭughtigin, Atabeg to the Seljuq Amīr of Damascus Duqaq b. Tutush I (see above, no. 91, 2), who after the early death of the child Tutush II b. Duqaq became himself sole ruler in Damascus, founding a line which endured there for half a century. Ṭughtigin and his son Böri managed to maintain their power through skilful diplomacy with the Fāṭimids and timely agreements with the Frankish Crusaders, but these balancing policies were regarded with disfavour by the ‘Abbāsid caliphs and the Great Seljuq sultans in Iraq. Hence the later Börids came under increased pressure from the bellicosely Sunnī orthodox Zangids of Mosul and Aleppo (see below, no. 93), who attacked Damascus in 529/1135, and in 549/1154 the last Börid Abaq had to abandon his capital to Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd b. Zangī.

Lane-Poole, 161; Zambaur, 225; Album, 22.

EI2 ‘Būrids’ (R. Le Tourneau); ‘Dimashḳ’ (N. Elisséeff).

M. Canard, ‘Fāṭimides et Būrides à l’époque du calife al-Ḥāfiẓ li-dīn-illāh’, REI, 35 (1967), 103–17.

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