Tekish (Khorezmia)

Ala ad-Dunya wa-d-Din Abu l-Muzaffar Tekish ibn Il-Arslan (علاء الدنيا والدين ابو المظفر تكش بن ال ارسلان, DMG ʿAlāʾ ad-Dunyā wa-'d-Dīn Abu 'l-Muẓaffar Tekiš b. Il-Arslan ; * 12th century ; † July 4, 1200 in Iran ) from the Anushteginid dynasty ruled between 1172 and 1200 as the Khorezm Shah over Khorezmia , Khorasan and (other) parts of Iran and Central Asia.

The Tekish mausoleum in Gurganj .

The Turkish name Tekisch means something like "he who strikes in battle". Tekisch's ruler title was that of a sultan , the usual salutation was ḫudāvand-i ʿālam ("Lord of the world"). Other, partly panegyric honorary names ( alqāb ) were pādi šāh -i banī Ādam ("ruler of the people"), sayyid mulūk aš-šarq wa-'l-ġarb ("lord of the kings of east and west"), šahriyār-i Īrān va Tūrān ("King of Iran and Turan ").

Tekisch was the eldest son of the Khorezm Shah Il-Arslan , under whom the Anushteginids had risen from regional princes to sultans. Tekisch served as governor in Jand under his father . When his father died in 1172, he and his brother Sultan Shah claimed the succession and Sultan Shah came to the throne with the help of his mother. Tekisch himself marched with the help of the Kara Kitai , under whose suzerainty Khorezmia was, into the capital Gurganj and chased his brother away. He fled and finally established himself as an independent ruler in Khorasan, where he tried for years to overthrow Tekish with the help of other powers.

In his first year, Tekisch challenged the Kara-Kitai by failing to meet their high demands for tribute. The Kara Kitai ruler Fu-ma penetrated Khoresmia to exchange Tekisch for his brother, but Tekisch beat him back. The next year Tekisch himself went on the offensive and briefly took the Kara-Kitai from Bukhara . In 1174 the Sultan Shah tried with the help of the ruler of Nishapur to beat his brother, but Tekisch defeated the army from Khorasan and was able to capture and kill Sultan Shah's mother a little later. Sultan Shah himself posed a threat until his death in 1193 because he had Marw , Sarachs and Tūs under his rule.

Tekisch also turned his attention north. On the Syr Darya he wanted to win Turkish tribes like the Kipchaks as allies and to develop trade relations. He was able to mobilize many Turkish men for his military projects in the south, which he also owed to his wife Terken-Chatun, who was a Kipchak princess. With these men he was able to conquer Bukhara in 1182. Since defeating the Kara Kitai, he called himself Sultan. Later, with the capture of Nishapur in the spring of 1187, he was able to bring western Khorasan and then Māzandarān under his control.

In addition to the Kara-Kitai and his brother, Tekisch also had to deal with the Ghurids in what is now Afghanistan. They wanted to extend their rule over Khorasan as well and competed with Tekisch for supremacy in the region. Tekish received help against the Ghurids from the caliph an-Nāsir li-Dīn Allāh from Baghdad. In 1194, for better or worse, Tekisch had to call the Kara-Kitai to help against the Ghurids. Years later, his son was to smash the Ghurid Empire.

In the last years of his rule, Tekisch saw the final fall of the Seljuks in western Iran. The last Seljuk sultans were under the control of Atabegs (see Atabegs of Azerbaijan ) and the Abbasid caliphate under an-Nāsir grew into a competitor for the rule of the Iraqi part of the Seljuk Empire. Tekisch himself tried to profit from it and wrest territories from the Seljuks. In 1192 he was called to help by the emir of the city of Rey . Sultan Shah took advantage of his absence in Khorezmia to join forces with the Bawandids from Mazandaran and the Seljuk Sultan Toghril III. to mobilize against Tekisch. But again he had to admit defeat to Tekisch, who took Sarachs, Mazandaran, Bistam and Damghan and devastated Astarabad .

Back in western Iran, Tekish ended in March 1194 with a victory over Toghril III. the dynasty of the Greater Seljuks and became ruler of large parts of Iran from Khoresmia to Hamadan . But his new strength brought him into conflict with the caliph an-Nāsir. Under this the Abbasid caliphate had finally returned to worldly strength. That's why he first called Tekisch against his direct competitor, the Seljuk Sultan. Now an-Nāsir supported the Ghurids, who marched against Tekisch from 1198 and initially achieved some successes. But Tekisch quickly regained the upper hand, so that in 1199 an-Nāsir was forced to recognize him as the sultan of Persian Iraq , Khorasan and Turkistan . The conflict between the caliph and the Khorezm Shahs would reach its climax under Tekish's son Muhammad.

In 1200 Tekisch died of a peritonsillar abscess and was inherited by his second eldest son, Muhammad II . Despite the warning from his doctors, Tekisch had once again set off on a campaign in 1200, ill. Tekisch was buried in a mausoleum in Gurganj.

Tekisch was able to stand up against all dangers and left an orderly and well-organized empire. His successor led the empire to its climax before it collapsed in the Mongol storm. Tekisch was considered a talented, educated, capable ruler and poet who was praised by well-known writers of his time. These included Aufi , Saifi Nischapuri , Kamal ad-Din Isfahani and Raschīd ad-Dīn Watwāt , who, despite his old age, insisted on seeing the Sultan on a stretcher and dedicating a rubāʿī and other works to him. Watwāt stayed at the Gurgandsch court until his death.

Web links

Commons : Tekisch's Mausoleum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Tekish (Khorezmia) . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
• Tekisch in Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (Turkish)