Abu'l-Abbas Ma'mun ibn Ma'mun (died March 1017) was the
Ma'munid ruler of
Khwarazm from 1009 until his death in 1017, having succeeded his brother
Abu al-Hasan Ali in that post. He was the son of
Ma'mun I ibn Muhammad.
The greatest threat to Ma'mun's rule came in the form of the
Ghaznavid sultan,
Mahmud of Ghazni. Mahmud viewed Khwarazm as a strategically important province, as it would allow him to widen the front against his biggest enemy, the
Karakhanids
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; zh, t=喀喇汗國, p=Kālā Hánguó), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Karluks, Karluk Turkic peoples, Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia from the 9th to the ...
of
Transoxiana. When the
caliph al-Qadir sent Ma'mun several awards, including an investiture patent for Khwarazm (confirming him as independent ruler) in 1014, Ma'mun refused to accept the awards in his capital, fearing that personally accepting the symbols of independence would anger Mahmud. He instead sent out a delegation to accept the awards on the steppe. Ma'mun also married Mahmud's sister
Hurra-yi Khuttali, who had previously been married to his brother, in 1015 or 1016.
Despite these efforts to placate Mahmud, the Ghaznavid demanded that Ma'mun put his name in the ''
khutba'', in effect acknowledging his suzerainty. Although the nobility and the army were opposed to such measure, Ma'mun had no choice but to give in. He agreed to place Mahmud's name in the ''khutba'' and to fulfil other humiliating demands. In response the army revolted and Ma'mun was killed. The rebels placed his nephew
Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
on the throne, but Mahmud used the death of his brother-in-law as a pretext for annexing Khwarazm.
During Ma'mun's reign several scholars, such as
al-Biruni, resided in Khwarazm, and in fact one of Mahmud's demands upon the shah was that several of them be sent to him. Ma'mun also was responsible for several building projects; he ordered a minaret to be constructed in
Gurganj in 1011.
[''The Monumental Inscriptions from Early Islamic Iran and Transoxiana'', editor Sheila Blair, E.J. Brill, 1992,80]
See also
*
Ghaznavid conquest of Khwarazm
References
Sources
*
1017 deaths
Year of birth unknown
11th-century Iranian people
Ma'munids
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