96

The Artuqids

c. 494–812/c. 1101–1409

Diyār Bakr

1. The line in Ḥiṣn Kayfā and Āmid 495–629/1102–1232

2. The line in Khartpert 581–631/1185–1234

3. The line in Mārdīn and Mayyāfāriqīn c. 494–811/c. 1101–1408

The Turkish Artuqids of Diyār Bakr stemmed from Artuq b. Ekseb, a chief of the Döger tribe of the Oghuz. He is first heard of fighting against the Byzantines in Anatolia, and then the Great Seljuq sultan Malik Shāh (see above, no. 91, 1) sent him, like other Turkmen begs or chiefs, to fight on the peripheries of his empire – in Baḥrayn, Syria and Khurasan. He ended up as governor of Palestine and died in Jerusalem, but his sons were unable to maintain themselves there against the Fāṭimids and Crusaders, and settled instead in Diyār Bakr around Mārdīn and at Ḥiṣn Kayfā. Gradually, 11 Ghāzī I b. Artuq took over Seljuq territories in that region; he was an energetic opponent of the Franks in the County of Edessa, and in 515/1121 (var. 516/1122) he also acquired Mayyāfāriqīn. There were henceforth two main branches of the family, the descendants of Sökmen I in Ḥiṣn Kayfā and later Āmid, and the descendants of his brother Il Ghāzī I in Mārdīn and Mayyāfāriqīn, with a third, subordinate branch at Khartpert which succumbed, however, after half a century of existence to the Seljuqs of Rūm.

As a Turkish dynasty in a region strongly settled by Turkmen begs and their followers, the Artuqid state retained many distinctively Turkish features, seen for example in the personal nomenclature of its princes, with such names as Alp/Alpï ‘warrior, hero’. Yet Diyār Bakr was still strongly Christian also. The Artuqids, however, seem to have been tolerant towards their Christian subjects, with the Patriarch of the Syrian Jacobites periodically resident in Artuqid territory. Much attention has been focused on the distinctive artistic and iconographical features of Artuqid culture, seen for instance in the rulers’ figural coinage, with its apparent classical and Byzantine motifs and representations.

The rise of the Zangids (see above, no. 93) halted the Artuqids’ expansionist plans, and they had to become vassals of Nūr al-Dīn. Then the Ayyūbids whittled their power down further, and they lost Ḥiṣn Kayfā, Āmid and Mayyāfāriqīn to them. In the early thirteenth century, they were for a time vassals of the Rūm Seljuqs and of the Khwārazm Shāh Jalāl al-Dīn Mengübirti. Eventually, only the Mārdīn line survived, with Qara Arslan submitting to the Mongol I1 Khān Hülegü. The end of the dynasty a century and a half later was connected with the fresh wave of Turkmen nomads brought in the wake of the Tīmūrid invasions. The last Artuqids were enveloped by the Qara Qoyunlu confederation, and in 812/1409 Aḥmad b. ‘Īsī was forced to abandon Mārdīn to the Qara Qoyunlu chief Qara Yūsuf (see below, no. 145).

Lane-Poole, 166–9; Zambaur, 228–30; Album, 40.

İA ‘Artuk Oğullari’ (M. F. Köprülü); EI² ‘Artuḳids’ (CI. Cahen).

O. Turan, Doğa Anadolu Türk devletleri tarihi, Istanbul 1973, 133–240, with list and genealogical table at 244, 281.

L. Ilisch, Geschichte der Artuqidenherrschaft von Mardin zwischen Mamluken und Mongolen 1260–1410 AD, diss. Münster 1984.

G. Väth, Die Geschichte der artuqidischen Fürstentümer in Syrien und der Ğazīra’l-Furātīya (496–812/1002 [sic]-1409), Berlin 1987, with lists and genealogical table at 216–18.

W. F. Spengler and W. G. Sayles, Turkoman Figural Bronze Coins and their Iconography. I. The Artuqids, Lodi WI 1992.