Kartids

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The Kurt Dynasty were a 1245-1389 ruling Iranian dynasty in the center of Khorasan , based in Herat , western Afghanistan today. They pursued a tenacious, if only locally based, interest policy aimed at undermining Mongol rule . After a short period of prosperity in the middle of the 14th century, it was removed by Timur Lenk .

Origin and advancement

The founder of the dynasty was Shams ad-Din I. ibn Rukn ad-Din Abi Bakr from the Kart clan (old spelling Kurt , today pronounced Kart ). His father was the brother of a Gurid dignitary and he himself was married to a Gurid princess. This legitimized his rule at a time when the Ghurid power had passed to the Khorezm Shahs and was finally extinguished.

The city and the surrounding area of ​​Herat were badly destroyed in the Mongol storm under Genghis Khan in 1221 ; Reconstruction did not begin until many years later, given the loss of people and the destructive balance of power. Shams ad-Din took over the area up to the Indus after the death of his father , but only as a vassal of the Mongols, with whom he attacked Multan in 1246 . He became suspicious of them and disappeared for a few years. In 1251 he went to the new Grand Khan Möngke in Mongolia , where he was warmly received and confirmed in his rule. Then he introduced himself to the governor of Khorasan.

Secured in this way, he pursued a cunning, constantly fluctuating policy to undermine Mongol rule in his territory. In 1258 he was charged with disregarding some Mongol princes, fled to a castle and murdered a leader sent against him on the pretext of negotiations. Then he appealed to Möngke and went to the Ilchan Hülegü , who graciously dismissed him, but transferred the government in 1261 to someone else. Abaqa , the next Ilkhan, then reinstated Shams ad-Din as ruler of Herat, who also supported him in a war in the Caucasus . Shams ad-Din's ambiguous stance in the war between Abaqa and the Chaghatai-Chan Baraq (1269/70) then led to his recall to Mesopotamia , to Baku and on to Tabriz, and finally to his poisoning (1278).

Unrest in Herat induced the Ilkhan to appoint Shams ad-Din's son Rukn ad-Din, also known as Shams ad-Din II, as ruler. The city of Kandahar had to be forced to pay homage by force of arms (1280/1) and individual cities remained independent. As early as 1283/84, Shams ad-Din II gave up the administration in favor of his son Ala ad-Din and retired to Haisar Castle, which he, slandered by Ilchan Arghun , never left. This created a power vacuum and the unrest that broke out forced the Mongol governors of Khorasan to appoint another son of Shams ad-Din II as ruler, Fachr ad-Din 1295.

Fachr ad-Din continued his grandfather's rocking policy: he rebelled against the Ilchanate by protecting unpopular people or taking them into his service and did not appear at Ilchan Öldscheitü's accession to the throne in 1304. The Mongols therefore had to besiege Herat three times. He escaped from one siege while the city was buying himself out (1299), and ended a second through negotiations in which the Mongolian commander was murdered in the city. At the third siege that followed, he appeared in the Mongolian camp and declared that he was innocent of the murder (1307). He died during the siege, but the occupation finally gave up under pressure from the population.

After Fachr ad-Din's death, his brother Ghiyath ad-Din I was appointed ruler by the Ilchan in 1308. He survived his brother Ala ad-Din, a multi-year trial before the Ilkhan, an attack by an ambitious Chaghatai prince named Yasavur, and an uprising. He enlarged his area and could finally even afford to give his son Shams ad-Din III. hand over the administration and make a multi-year pilgrimage to Mecca before his death.

Peak of power and fall

After the death of Hafiz ibn Ghiyath ad-Din, his brother Muizz ad-Din Pir Husain Muhammad came to power in 1332, under which the history of the dynasty reached its climax. Muizz ad-Din experienced the rapid decline of the Ilchanate, put down a revolt in Termez in 1337 and fought mainly with the Sarbedaran for possession of the western Khorasan . Furthermore, he provoked an attack by the Chaghatai-Emir Kazagan (d. 1357), when he acquired the attributes of a sultan around 1349 and thus equated himself to the Chaghatai-Chan. While he was able to hold back the Sarbedaran or defeat them at Zava in 1342, he suffered a defeat against Kazagan. Nevertheless, in the face of the continuing decline of the Mongol power, he finally became independent. Muizz ad-Din died in 1370, shortly after receiving an ambassador from the future conqueror Timur Lenk (r. 1370–1405).

The last ruler, Ghiyath ad-Din II. Pir Ali, had to deal with his stepbrother Malik Muhammad, who had inherited part of the empire. Both rivals tried to secure Timur Lenk's support, which he immediately exploited politically. When Pir Ali wanted to avoid his appearance on Timur's Kuriltai , he appeared at the gates of Herat in 1381 and was welcomed by numerous dignitaries. The city was taken without difficulty and Pir Ali was once again installed as a vassal. But as early as 1383 Herat was annexed after a conspiracy and Pir Ali was eliminated on suspicion of involvement. The surviving Kartids were murdered in 1396.

Others

The Kartids also drove the Childschis to the east over the Chaiber Pass .

Ruler list

  • Taj ad-Din Uthman Marghani (around 1200)
  • Rukn ad-Din Abu Bakr (ruled approx. 1236/44)
  • Shams ad-Din I. Muhammad (r. 1245–1278)
  • Shams ad-Din II. Or Rukn ad-Din (r. 1277–1283 / 4, d. 1305)
  • Ala ad-Din (r. 1283/4, d. 1314/5)
  • Fachr ad-Din (reg. 1295–1308)
  • Ghiyath ad-Din I. (r. 1308-1329)
  • Shams ad-Din III. (ruled 1329-1330)
  • Hafiz (ruled 1330-1332)
  • Muizz ad-Din Pir Husain Muhammad (r. 1332-1370)
  • Ghiyath ad-Din II. Pir Ali (r. 1370-1389)

Remarks

  1. ↑ Beatrice Forbes Manz: The Rise and Rule of Tamerlan , p. 11
  2. ↑ Kart Maliks ( Encyclopædia Iranica )
  3. ↑ The Kart were a large aristocratic family or a tribe from the middle Khorasan, Baghlan , Kabul , North Kandahar and Ghor . The rise of their tribal leaders as emirs of the Persian Ghurids began as early as the 12th century .

literature

  • Bertold Spuler : The Mongols in Iran , Berlin 1968
  • John Andrew Boyle (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5 The Saljuq and Mongol Periods , Cambridge 1968
  • Peter Jackson (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 6 The Timurid and Safavid Periods , Cambridge 1986