Military History of Ray, Iran - Last Days of The Seljuqs, Late 12th Century

Last Days of The Seljuqs, Late 12th Century

The rivalry after the death of Malik-Shah I had split the Sultanate, effectively creating buffer states on all sides of Ray. Nevertheless, when the Jewish traveller Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited the region around 1169 CE, he was told that some 15 years earlier an Oghuz tribe called the Khofar-al-Turak had allied themselves with some of the lost tribes of Israel, who lived among the mountains near Nishapur, to invade the heartland of Iran, capturing and looting the city of Ray. This would refer to the Oghuz incursions of 548 H (1153-4 CE) from their settlements east of Khorasan, which led to their defeat of Sultan Ahmed Sanjar, although other records of these events do not specifically mention Ray. There were other threats to the city at this period, though. Ildegiz, atabeg of Azerbaijan, was determined to oust the amir of Ray, Inanj Sonqur, who had challenged his attempt to install his stepson Arslan-Shah (Arslan ibn Toghril, grandson of Muhammad) as Sultan of Iran. In 555 H (1160 CE) he succeeded, and Inanj withdrew to Bisotun. Inanj did not give up, and in 562 H (1166-7 CE) he sought help from the Khwarazm Shah, Il-Arslan. This alliance succeeded in recapturing Ray from the atabeg's garrison, but the Khwarazmians caused much damage in nearby Abhar and Qazwin before they returned home. Ildegiz arranged for Inanj to be killed, and put his son and heir Muhammad ibn Ildigiz Jahan Pahlawan (husband of Inanj's daughter Inanj-Khatun) in charge at Ray. After his father's death in 568 H (1172-3 CE), Pahlawan, as atabeg, was also the power behind the Sultan's throne, and became the key to stability when Arslan-Shah was assassinated in 571 H (1176 CE), leaving a son and heir, Toghril III, just seven years old.

At this time, Saladin was enjoying considerable success, conquering large areas of Syria and Egypt. Saladin attempted to capture the city of Mosul, in 578 H (1182 CE). Fearing that if Mosul fell, his territory would be next, Pahlawan allied himself with the ruler there, and when Saladin returned in 581 H (1185 CE) marched his army to challenge him. In the end Saladin's efforts were resisted without him, for Pahlawan succumbed to dysentery, and died late in 581 H or early in 582 H (1186 CE). The Iranian territory was inherited by his son Qutlugh Inanj, but the office of atabeg went by seniority to his brother Qizil Arslan, who treated the young adult Sultan Toghril as a puppet, while favouring another of Pahlawan's sons, Abu Bakr.

This succession was the occasion for major civil disturbances, notably in Isfahan, where Shafis and Hanafis (both branches of Sunni Islam) fought each other, and in Ray, where the Shafis and Hanafis allied themselves against the Shi'ites (who despite earlier attempts to eradicate them, still represented about half the Muslim population of the city). Many years later, in 617 H (1220 CE), the geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi came to Ray, looking for somewhere to settle following the Mongol conquest of the eastern city where he had been living. Ray was then, without any help from the Mongols, mostly in ruins, and he was told that after driving away the Shi'ites, the Shafis had turned on the Hanafis, and expelled most of them too. Yaqut also reported on the curious design of the city, where the streets were very narrow and labyrinthine, and some people even lived in caves, for more effective defence in house-to-house fighting. However, as the next few paragraphs demonstrate, he was not told anything like the whole truth about the decline of Ray, and in reality the disturbances of 582 H may have had little to do with it.

Sadly, young Toghril's attempts to assert himself, while militarily quite successful, were diplomatically disastrous, and in 586 H (1190 CE) he was forced to surrender to Qizil Arslan, who imprisoned him and his young son in Azerbaijan, then set himself up as Sultan. A year or so later, Qizil Arslan was poisoned (allegedly by Inanj Khatun), and Toghril was eventually released. Gathering an army in the spring of 588 H (1192 CE), he hastened to oppose Qutlugh Inanj, and soon defeated him. Qutlugh took a huge gamble, and headed for Ray, while sending a message calling for help from the Khwarazm Shah, Tekish (some sources claim that a message was sent by the Caliph, al-Nasir, whom Toghril had threatened before his imprisonment; others claim that Tekish decided to make the expedition when he heard of Qizil Arslan's death, hoping to profit from the inevitable succession dispute). The Khwarazm Shah set off westwards, early in the summer of 588 H, but by the time his army arrived at Ray, Qutlugh Inanj had decided he definitely did not want their help; worse, after capturing the Tabarak fort and beginning negotiations with the two Iranian armies, he learned that his brother, the ruler of Khorasan, was preparing to seize power back in Khwarazm. To salvage something from the situation, before hurrying home, Tekish engineered a three-way power split in which Ray was to be a centre of Khwarazmian influence in Iran. At the suggestion of Inanj Khatun, Tekish's son Yunus Khan married Toghril's daughter. The Sultan himself married Inanj Khatun, and took her to Hamadan in Ramadan (September–October)- only to have her strangled some time later, on hearing that she was planning to poison him.

Once Tekish was well on his way back to Khwarazm, the disputes resumed. Qutlugh Inanj toured Azerbaijan, trying to build forces for another attack on Toghril, but Abu Bakr, who had succeeded to Qizil Arslan's title and territory there, drove him out. In Muharram 589 H (January–February 1193 CE), Tekish's forces attacked and defeated one of Toghril's eastern allies, so the Sultan used this treaty violation as justification for besieging the Khwarazmian garrison in the Tabarak fort at Ray, eventually gaining entry and killing most of them, following which, in Sha'ban (August) he had the fort destroyed. Nearby, in rural Khvar-i Ray, Toghril won a battle against Khwarazmian raiders, capturing five of their leaders, then he returned to Hamadan. A few weeks later, Qutlugh Inanj returned to Ray, having made an alliance with Muzaffar al-Din of Qazwin. Asked by his new governor at Ray for reinforcements, the Sultan sent 4,000 horsemen from Hamadan, forcing Qutlugh to abandon his siege and escape towards Damghan. He was pursued, but escaped and contacted the Khwarazmians. Tekish's brother had conveniently died, and when the Khwarazm Shah heard of the fate of his garrison at Tabarak (receiving also, about the same time, a direct invitation from the Caliph to take over Toghril's territory) he sent 7,000 horsemen, who joined up with Qutlugh and began advancing on Toghril's smaller army. The Sultan retreated to Ray, and on 4 Muharram, 590 H (30 December 1193 CE) he made a desperate stand at the gate of the city. Unexpectedly, he won.

It was inevitable that Tekish would try to regain Ray, so Sultan Toghril III did not return to Hamadan. As he and his army waited at Ray, it became apparent that he had a fondness for alcohol. Some of his amirs lost respect for their commander, and the Khwarazm Shah began receiving messages of support as he approached. When the great Khwarazmian army arrived, on the last day of Rabi' I, 590 H (25 March 1194 CE), Toghril found he could not trust his amirs, so he rode out of the city gate accompanied only by those who were willing to support him in the most honourable course of action, and the little force charged the Khwarazmian advance guard. Toghril's body was later hung up in the main bazaar of Ray, but his head was sent to the Caliph at Baghdad.