Böritigin, also known as Ibrahim ibn Nasr or Tamghach Khan Ibrahim, was a

Karakhanid The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...

ruler in

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

from 1038 to 1068. He was one of the greatest rulers of the dynasty.

Biography

He was the son of Nasr Khan, a Karakhanid ruler from the western branch of the family, known as the "Alids", which was named after their ancestor Ali ibn Musa Qara Khan. Böritigin is first mentioned some time after 1034, when he was imprisoned by the sons of the deceased

Ali-Tegin Ali ibn Hasan, also known as Harun Bughra Khan and better known as Ali-Tegin (also spelled Alitigin) was a Karakhanid ruler in Transoxiana from 1020 to 1034 with a brief interruption in 1024/5. Biography Origins He was the son of Hasan ibn Sul ...

, who was from the eastern branch of the family, known as the "Hasanids". However, Böritigin eventually managed in 1038 to escape to his brother who was at Uzgend, and then raised an army consisting of Kumiji tribes from the upper Oxus river. He then invaded the territories of the

Ghaznavid The Ghaznavid dynasty ( fa, غزنویان ''Ġaznaviyān'') was a culturally Persianate, Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic ''mamluk'' origin, ruling, at its greatest extent, large parts of Persia, Khorasan, much of Transoxiana and the northwest ...

Sultan Mas'ud I, and plundered

Khuttal Khuttal, frequently also in the plural form Khuttalan (and variants such as ''Khutlan'', ''Khatlan'', in Chinese sources ''K'o-tut-lo'') was a medieval region and principality on the north bank of the river Oxus (modern Amu Darya), lying between i ...

and Vakhsh. He then conquered

Chaghaniyan Chaghaniyan (Middle Persian: ''Chagīnīgān''; fa, چغانیان ''Chaghāniyān''), known as al-Saghaniyan in Arabic sources, was a medieval region and principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand. Histo ...

and defeated a Ghaznavid counter-attack. The following year, Böritgin began fighting the sons of Ali-Tegin and by 1040 had annexed much of Transoxiana. He then made Samarkand his capital and took the title of "Tamghach Khan Ibrahim". In 1042, the newly crowned Ghaznavid ruler Maw'dud invaded the territories of the

Seljuqs The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

and conquered much of Khorasan. This greatly increased the fame of Maw'dud and made Böritigin acknowledge him as his suzerain. In ca. 1050, Maw'dud, with the aid of Böritigin and an army sent by the former

Kakuyid The Kakuyids (also called Kakwayhids, Kakuwayhids or Kakuyah) ( fa, آل کاکویه) were a Shia Muslim dynasty of Daylamite origin that held power in western Persia, Jibal and Kurdistan (c. 1008–c. 1051). They later became ''atabegs'' (g ...

ruler Garshasp I, re-invaded Khorasan; Böritigin and his commander Qashgha invaded

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...

and

Tirmidh Termez ( uz, Termiz/Термиз; fa, ترمذ ''Termez, Tirmiz''; ar, ترمذ ''Tirmidh''; russian: Термез; Ancient Greek: ''Tàrmita'', ''Thàrmis'', ) is the capital of Surxondaryo Region in southern Uzbekistan. Administratively, it i ...

, but Maw'dud died and thus the invasion failed. The Seljuqs then extended their rule as far as Vakhsh and appointed a certain Abu 'Ali ibn Shadhan as the governor of their new conquests. After this, Böritigin seems to have stopped recognizing the Ghaznavids as his suzerain. In 1059/60 Böritigin forced the Karakhanid rulers of Farghana to acknowledge him as their suzerain. In the early 1060s, the newly crowned Seljuq ruler Alp Arslan invaded Transoxiana, which made Böritigin complain to the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

of needless aggression from the Seljuqs. Böritigin died in 1068 and was succeeded by his son Shams al-Mulk Nasr. He also had a daughter named Terken Khatun who later married the son of Alp Arslan, Malik-Shah I.

References

Sources

* * * * Kochnev B.D. Numizmaticheskaya istoriya Karakhanidskogo kaganata (991—1209 gg.). Moskva «Sofiya», 2006

Biography

References

Sources

Further reading