Toghtekin
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Zahir al-Din Toghtekin or Tughtekin (Modern Turkish: Tuğtekin; Arabicised epithet: ظاهر الدين طغتكين Zahir ad-Din Tughtikin; died February 12, 1128), also spelled Tughtegin, was a Turkoman military leader, who was emir of Damascus from 1104 to 1128. He was the founder of the Burid dynasty of Damascus.
Biography
Toghtekin was a junior officer to
On October 21, 1097, a Crusader army began the
When the Crusaders moved southwards from the newly conquered Antioch, the qadi of Jebleh sold his town to Duqaq, who installed Toghtekin's son,
The following year Duqaq died and Toghtekin, now acting as regent and de facto ruler, had the former's junior son Tutush II proclaimed emir, while he married Duqaq's widow and reserved for himself the title of atabeg. After deposing Tutush II he had the brother of Duqaq, Irtash, named emir, but soon afterward he had him exiled. Irtash, with the support of Aytekin al-Halabi, the emir of Bosra, tried to reconquer Damascus, but was pushed back by Toghtekin and forced to find help at the court of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.
Around 1106, Toghtekin intervened to momentarily raise the
Late in November 1111, the town of
Nonetheless, the next year the two Muslim commanders allied in reply to the ravages of Baldwin I and
In 1115, Toghtekin decided to ally himself with the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Seljuk general Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi, who had been sent by the Seljuk sultan Muhammad I Tapar to fight the Crusaders. The following year, judging the Franks too powerful, he visited Baghdad to obtain a pardon from the sultan, though never forgetting to remain independent himself between the two main forces.
Allied with
In 1125, al-Bursuqi, now in control of Aleppo, appeared in the Antiochean territory with a large army which Toghtekin joined; however, the two were defeated at the Battle of Azaz on June 11, 1125. The following January Toghtekin also had to repel an invasion by Baldwin II of Jerusalem. In late 1126 he again invaded the Principality of Antioch with Bursuqi, but again with no results.
Toghtekin died in 1128. He was succeeded by his son Buri.
In the
See also
Sources
- Grousset, René (1934). Histoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem - I. 1095-1130 L'anarchie musulmane.
- Maalouf, Amin (1984). ISBN 0-8052-0898-4.
- Runciman, Steven (1951). A History of the Crusades, Volume One: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press. pp. 215, 221–222.
