Nasir al-Din Mahmud I (10881094) was an infant sultan of the

Seljuk Empire The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to ...

from 1092 to 1094, with most power held by his mother Terken Khatun. He was a younger son of the former sultan

Malik Shah I Jalāl al-Dawla Mu'izz al-Dunyā Wa'l-Din Abu'l-Fatḥ ibn Alp Arslān (8 August 1055 – 19 November 1092, full name: fa, ), better known by his regnal name of Malik-Shah I ( fa, ), was the third sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire from 1072 t ...

and proclaimed sultan at

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...

by the

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 ...

al-Muqtadi Abū'l-Qasim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qa'im (Arabic: أبو القاسم عبد الله بن محمد بن القائم) better known by his regnal name Al-Muqtadi ''(1056 – February 1094)'' (Arabic: المقتدي 'the follower') was ...

(r. 1075–1094). Under his notional reign, the empire built by his father and

Alp Arslan Alp Arslan was the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. He greatly expanded the Seljuk territory and consolidated his power, defeating rivals to the south and northwest, and his ...

fragmented. After Mahmud's forces lost a battle at Borujerd, he and his mother were assassinated by the family of the former vizir

Nizam al-Mulk Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi (April 10, 1018 – October 14, 1092), better known by his honorific title of Nizam al-Mulk ( fa, , , Order of the Realm) was a Persian scholar, jurist, political philosopher and Vizier of the Seljuk Empire. Rising ...

Life

In 1092, when

was assassinated shortly after Nizam al-Mulk, Taj al-Mulk nominated Mahmud as Sultan and set out for Isfahan. Mahmud was a child, and his mother Terken Khatun wished to seize power in his name. To accomplish this, she entered in negotiations with her son-in-law, the Caliph

, to secure her rule. The Caliph opposed both a child and a woman as ruler, and could not be persuaded to allow the ''

khutba ''Khutbah'' ( ar, خطبة ''khuṭbah'', tr, hutbe) serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition. Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic tradition ...

'', the sign of the sovereign, to be proclaimed in the name of a woman. Eventually, however, the caliph al-Muqtadi agreed to let her govern if the ''khutba'' was said in the name of her son, and if she did so assisted by a vizier he appointed for her, a condition to which she saw herself forced to accept. She was thus not formally a regent, but she secured the reins of power de facto with al-Shirazi as vizier and Unar as army commander. The older son of Malik Shah,

Berkyaruq Rukn al-Din Abu'l-Muzaffar Berkyaruq ibn Malikshah ( fa, ابو المظفر رکن الدین برکیارق بن ملکشاه, Rukn al-Dīn Abuʿl-Moẓaffar Berkyāruq ibn Malik-Šāh; 1079/80 – 1105), better known as Berkyaruq (), was the f ...

, was proclaimed too, and the armies of the two pretenders met in

Borujerd Borujerd ( fa, بروجرد ''Borūjerd'') is a city and the capital of Borujerd County, Lorestan Province in western Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 234,997 persons. Among the existing modern cities in Iran, Borujerd is one of the ...

, near

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...

. The forces of Berkyaruq won and took the capital Isfahan. After this, Mahmud and his mother were assassinated by the family of the vizir

. Following Malik Shah I's death, successor states split from the Great Seljuk. In

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...

, Malik Shah I was succeeded by

Kilij Arslan I Kilij Arslan ibn Suleiman ( 1ca, قِلِج اَرسلان; fa, , Qilij Arslān; tr, I. Kılıç Arslan or ''Kılıcarslan'', "Sword Lion") (‎1079–1107) was the Seljuq Sultan of Rum from 1092 until his death in 1107. He ruled the Sult ...

, who escaped from Isfahan; and in Syria by Mahmud's uncle

Tutush I Abu Sa'id Taj al-Dawla Tutush (; died 25 February 1095) or Tutush I, was the Seljuk emir of Damascus from 1078 to 1092, and sultan of Damascus from 1092 to 1094. Years under Malik Shah Tutush was a brother of the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I. I ...

. Other governors in Aleppo and Amid declared independence too. The disunity within the Seljuk realms allowed for the unexpected success of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ...

shortly afterwards, beginning in 1096.Asbridge, Thomas S., ''The First Crusade: A New History'', (Oxford University Press, 2004), 334.

References

Sources

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Seljuk rulers 11th-century monarchs in the Middle East 1088 births 1094 deaths 11th-century monarchs in Asia Child monarchs {{MEast-royal-stub