94
Before 529–630/before 1145–1233
North-eastern Iraq and Kurdistan, with a centre at Irbil, and at Ḥarrān in northern Syria
|
Before 539/before 1145 |
‘All Küchük b. Begtigin, Zayn al-Dīn, 539/1145 governor of Mosul |
|
563/1168 |
Yūsuf b. ‘Alī Küchük, Nūr al-Dīn, in Irbil, d. 586/1190 |
|
⊘ 563/1168 |
Gökböri b. ‘Alī Küchük, Abū Sa‘īd Muẓaffar al-Dīn, in Ḥarrān until 586/1190, thereafter in Irbil, d. 630/1233 |
|
630/1233 |
Succession of the ‘Abbāsid caliphs in Irbil |
Like the Lu’lu’ids of Mosul (see below, no. 95), the Begtiginids arose out of the Turkish military entourage of the Zangids, in the case of ‘Alī Küchük, that of Zangī b. Aq Sunqur. ‘Alī already controlled extensive lands on the Kurdish fringes of northern Iraq, with his capital in Irbil, when Zangī in 539/1145 gave him the governorship of Mosul also. ‘Alī remained faithful to the Zangids, and secured from them the right to transmit his territories hereditarily. Hence after his death in 583/1168, his sons succeeded at Irbil and Shahrazūr and also in his northern Syrian territories, Gökböri eventually falling sole heir to all of them. He pursued an astute policy of supporting Saladin and the Ayyūbids against the ambitions of Lu’lu’, and, on his death without sons, bequeathed his lands to the ‘Abbāsid caliph al-Mustanṣir. The Begtiginids thus never functioned as a completely independent principality, but nevertheless enjoyed considerable local authority, within the framework of the surrounding greater powers, for almost a century.
Lane-Poole, 165; Zambaur, 228; Album, 41.
EI2 ‘Begteginids’ (Cl. Cahen).