Berk-Yaruq

Depiction of Sultan Berk-Yaruq in a much later miniature painting

Rukn ad-Dunya wa-d-Din Abu l-Muzaffar Berk-Yaruq ( DMG Rukn ad-Dunyā wa-'d-Dīn Abū 'l-Muẓaffar Berk-Yaruq ; * 1081 in Isfahan ; † December 22, 1104 in Borudscherd ) ruled from 1094 as Sultan of the Great Seljuks . His government was marked by incessant power struggles with rival Seljuks.

Berk-Yaruq ( Turkish for "strong shine", "strong brightness"; Arabic spelling:بركيارق, Barkiyāruq ) was the eldest son of Sultan Malik-Shah I with Zubaida-Chatun (bint Yaquti ibn Tschaghri Beg ) and as such determined to succeed his father on the throne. Against this, however, some of his brothers and uncles, who claimed the sultanate for themselves, revolted one after the other.

Right from the start, Berk-Yaruq was confronted with Terken-Chatun , Malik-Shah's powerful main wife, who put her own four- or five-year-old son Mahmud on the throne. She hid the death of Malik-Shah (in Baghdad , mid-November 1092), had Berk-Yaruq thrown in prison in Isfahan and set out there. But the Nizamiyya, ie the supporters of the murdered vizier Nizam al-Mulk , set him free again as soon as the Sultan's death became public knowledge.

Berk-Yaruq was proclaimed sultan, forced to flee Isfahan to Rayy and saved for the time being through the betrayal of Terken-Chatun's army. In January 1093 he defeated Terken-Chatun's troops at Borudscherd and besieged Isfahan, so that the queen had to agree to a peace in which Mahmud only kept Isfahan and the province of Fars . Berk-Yaruq then faced the rebellion of two uncles, Ismail ibn Yaquti (maternal uncle, in Azerbaijan ) and Tutusch ibn Alp-Arslan (in Syria ) in 1093/4 and was ousted by the latter from all areas west of Hamadan , so that Tutusch now was recognized as sultan in Baghdad.

After Terken-Chatun's death in September / October 1094, Berk-Yaruq tried to seize Mahmuds in Isfahan. Both found their way into the city, but Berk-Yaruq had only a thousand horsemen around at the time and could be imprisoned by Mahmud's ministers. Only by the death of his brother in November 1094 (from smallpox ) was he saved from being dazzled and ascended to the throne. Capable of acting again, he was able to oppose Rayy Tutusch in February 1095, whose numerically superior troops overran Tutusch because of his cruelty and ruthlessness.

The revolt of a third uncle, the governor Arslan-Arghun of Khorasan , was ended in December 1096 with his murder. Berk-Yaruq then enfeoffed his youngest half-brother Ahmad Sandschar with the province.

Between 1098 and 1104, Berk-Yaruq and his last half-brother, Muhammad I. Tapar , were involved in a changeable and exhausting war. It began with Muhammad's advance from Azerbaijan on Rey, the betrayal of Berk-Yaruq's troops, and the execution of his mother, Zubaida-Khatun, by Muhammad's vizier. It finally ended in a comparison about a year before Berk-Yaruq's death: Berk-Yaruq remained sultan, but Muhammad was assigned the western provinces (Azerbaijan, Upper Iraq , Mosul , Syria, Diyarbakir ) and the mention in the Chutba second Job. In addition, Muhammad was given sovereignty over his younger brother Sandjar, who had supported him in the fratricidal war.

Berk-Yaruq's underage son and heir Malik-Shah II was unable to assert himself as sultan; he was still subject to Muhammad Tapar in 1105.

Remarks

1. ↑ Cf. Nagendra Kr. Singh, International encyclopaedia of Islamic dynasties , p. 1084 f.
2. ↑ See Friedrich Christoph Schlosser , General History of the Times of the Crusades , first part, p. 81

predecessor	Office	successor
Mahmud I.	Sultan of the Great Seljuks 1094–1105	Malik Shah II