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Muhammad Tapar 1105–18
Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle On Berkyaruq’s death aged twenty-five in 498/1105 after a reign devoted almost exclusively to fighting, Muhammad Tapar entered Baghdad with little resistance, and an attempt by some amirs to install Berkyaruq’s infant son Malikshah as sultan soon faltered. Go to Watch
36 Isfahan too welcomed the new sultan, who is claimed to have put a stop to the excesses of the military ‘so that the word of the civilian became stronger than that of the soldier and the soldier had no power over the civilian thanks to the majesty and justice of the sultan. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle Go to Watch
37 Muhammad Tapar gets a good write-up in most sources. Isfahani, for instance, calls him ‘the perfect man of the Seljuk dynasty and their strongest steed.
38 True, he was certainly more successful than subsequent rulers in the west in navigating the turbulent waters of Seljuk politics. His younger brother, Sanjar, remained loyal in Khurasan, and a revolt in the Hamadhan region in 499/1105–6 by his nephew, Alp Arslan’s grandson Mengubars, was crushed without much difficulty. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle
39 The sultan retained command of substantial resources. Go to Watch
40 Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle a luxury subsequent later sultans of Iraq did not enjoy. However, the tendency of amirs to assert themselves at the expense of the sultan’s authority could not be reversed. Muhammad’s strategy was simply to grant a recalcitrant amir’s iq†ā‘ to another one and leave them to fight it out. It was by setting amir against amir, by allotting iq†ā‘s to different muq†a‘s simultaneously, that the sultan managed to keep his vast domains united under his nominal rule. Events in Mosul between 500/1105 and 502/1108 illustrate this phenomenon. The sultan initially left Berkyaruq’s governor Chökermish in place; when this latter stopped remitting revenue in an attempt to assert independence, Muhammad assigned the iq†ā‘ of Mosul to the amir who governed Fars and Khuzistan, Chavli Saqqa’u. After Charlie had successfully kicked the forces loyal to Chökermish out of Mosul, he himself started down the same path of independence.
41 trying to draw on a web of alliances with regional powers, including the Frankish County of Edessa. Charlie had, moreover, obtained control of the valuable prize of a Seljuk prince, Alp Arslan’s grandson Bektash b. Turkish. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle Go to Watch
42 Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle The danger that the latter could be used as a potential rival for the sultanate meant that when Muhammad sent a third army to retake Mosul under amir Mawdud, Chavli had to be treated with care. He sought the sultan’s forgiveness, yielded up the prince, and was eventually reinstated as ruler of Fars. Chavli’s career underlines the limits of sultanic power. Far from meeting with retribution, he was rewarded with a new appointment. Chavli’s position was, of course, helped by his control of a potential rival for the Seljuk throne, and not every amir who crossed Muhammad was so lucky: Ayaz, for instance, a leading loyalist to Berkyaruq and the latter’s son Malikshah who changed sides at the last minute, ensuring Muhammad’s entry in Baghdad, was murdered on the sultan’s instructions. Go to Watch
43 Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle The same combination of brutality and circumspection can be seen in Muhammad’s dealings with his bureaucrats. The vizier Sa‘d al-Mulk, for instance, accused of Ismaili tendencies by the influential qadi of Isfahan, al- Khatibi, was crucified, but when it came to choosing his successor, Muhammad was unwilling or unable to antagonize either of the main factions in his court who backed rival candidates, Khatir al- Mulk Maybudi and Diya’ al-Mulk b. Nizam al-Mulk, and so appointed them both to senior positions.
44 Muhammad’s positive image in the sources can be largely attributed to his role as a fighter for Islam who ‘rooted out the castles of the heretics and raised the banners of the Muslims’, as Isfahani put it. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle
45 Although in reality Muhammad’s commitment to any sort of jihad was distinctly lacked- luster, he was able to use the threats the Seljuk Empire faced to his propaganda advantage. These threats were, first, the Crusaders, and, secondly, and more seriously, the Ismailis. Neither was a new phenomenon, but it was under Muhammad Tapar that the Seljuk state made some progress against them.
The Seljuks and the Jihad against the Crusaders and Ismailis The alarm caused by the victory at Manzikert and Atsız’s capture of Jerusalem had been cleverly manipulated by the Byzantine emperor Alexios to secure western support that he hoped would shore up his own position. Thus it was that the First Crusade was born. Go to Watch
46 Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle Paradoxically, the arrival of the Franks in Syria in 1097 provoked little reaction in Baghdad or Isfahan, even though Frankish principalities were established in lands that had once proclaimed the khu†ba in the name of Seljuk sultans: Antioch, Edessa, and Jerusalem. However, the latter two had already fallen to other powers – the Byzantines and Fatimids, respectively – and only Antioch was in name a Seljuk town at the time of its conquest. Even here, the lack of interest in the fall of Antioch by much of the Islamic historiographical tradition is noteworthy, especially given that the main, unsuccessful effort to relieve the siege was led by Berkyaruq’s governor of Mosul at the time, Kirbuqa. Isfahani and Nishapuri entirely ignore the fall of Antioch; Ibn al- Jawzi does mention the city’s capture very briefly, but Kirbuqa does not at all. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle
47 It is only our local Muslim sources who provide any detailed information: Ibn al-A this, himself a native of Mosul, Ibn al-Q Alanis of Damascus, and another Syrian chronicler, ‘Azimi. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle
48 Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle A similar pattern is true even of the fall of Jerusalem to the Crusaders in 1099, which as one of Islam’s holy cities one might have expected to be an event of some significance. Go to Watch
49 The silence of our eastern Islamic sources and the lack of enthusiasm for intervention on the part of the sultans reflect, of course, their own preoccupations, in which the coming of the Franks played very little role. However, the Great Seljuks were not able to ignore entirely events in Syria. As early as Rabi‘ II 491/March 1098, six months after the arrival of the Crusaders, Muslim complaints had forced Berkyaruq to order his amirs to accompany the vizier Ibn Jahir on a campaign against the Franks, although the expedition was aborted before it had left Baghdad for reasons that are unclear, but are probably connected with the deteriorating situation in Khurasan (p. 77 above).
50 Pressure for action came, however, not from Baghdadis, but from delegations of Syrian Muslims who traveled to the sultanic and caliphal courts in Baghdad to seek support: Abu Sa‘d al-H arawi the qadi of Damascus stood up in the [caliphal] dīwān and made a speech which made the assembled company weep. Someone was appointed from the dīwān to go to the sultan’s camp [al- ‘askar] and inform them of this disaster. Then apathy reigned (thumma waqa‘a al- taqā‘ud).
51 Muhammad Tapar is said to have sent out letters ‘proclaiming his intention to seek jihad’, Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle
52 and, more concretely, ordered Mawdud, the amir of Mosul, to campaign against Crusader-h eld Edessa in 503/1110. Although Mawdud’s armies ravaged northern Syria for the next three years, these measures did not stem the criticism from Syria. In 504/1111, Ibn al- Athir reports that a Byzantine emissary also came to Baghdad to encourage the Seljuks to make war on the Crusaders, prompting the people of Aleppo to complain to the sultan: Do you not fear God, given that the Byzantine king is a better protector of Islam than you are, so that he has sent to you to wage jihad against them? Go to Watch
53 One of these Syrian delegations was so frustrated that it staged a protest at the lack of action by disrupting Friday prayers in Baghdad in both the sultanic and caliphal mosques. Passionate poetry by Seljuk court poets like al-A biwardi and Mu‘izzi called for war on the infidel invaders;54 as Mu‘izzi put it to ‘make polo- balls of the Franks’ heads in the desert, and polo- sticks from their hands and feet. Alparslan Buyuk Seljuk 18 With English Subtitle
[…] While Ibn al- Qalanisi presents the Seljuk campaigns as motivated by a newly enthusiastic jihad spirit, operations were evidently hindered, and in some instances had to be aborted, owing to the intense distrust and suspicion of Mawdud’s would-be allies like Najm al-Din Ilghazi b. Artuq of Mardin and the Seljuk Ridwan of Aleppo. By far the most effective of Mawdud’s campaigns came in 507/1113 when he turned his attention to Damascus, which had been threatened by Baldwin of Jerusalem. Watch Episode 18 […]
[…] Dubays sought to strengthen his own position. Meanwhile, Caliph al- Mustarshid, too, although on the surface remaining loyal to Mahmud, started to try to extend his own authority, provoking Mahmud in 520/1126 to besiege Baghdad and sack the caliphal palace. Watch Episode 18 […]