Atabeg

Atabeg or Atabek (in Russian) or Atabey (in Turkic languages) is a title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. First instance of the title's appearance was with early Seljuq's.

Title origins and meanings

The word atabeg means in Turkic languages "father chief." When a Seljuk prince died, leaving minor heirs, a guardian would be appointed to protect and guide the young princes. These guardians would often marry their ward's widowed mothers, thus assuming a sort of surrogate fatherhood.

The title of Atabeg was common during the Seljuk rule of the Near East starting in the 12th century. It was also common in Mesopotamia (Iraq).

Amongst the Turkmen tribes, as in Persia, the rank was senior to a Khan.

The title atabeg was also in use for officers in Mameluk Egypt; some of them even were proclaimed Sultan before the incorporation into the Ottoman empire. After the end of Seljuk rule, the title was used only intermittently.

When describing the Azerbaijani Atabegs of the Ildeniz (Ildegoz) dynasty, the title Atabeg-e-Azam (Great Atabeg) was used, to denote their superior standing, power and influence on the Seljuk Sultans.

In Persian, the style Atabeg-e-Azam ('Great Atabeg) was occasionally used as an alternative title for the Shah's Vazir-e-Azam (Grand Vizier), notably in 1916 for a Qajar prince, Major-General Shahzada Sultan 'Abdu'l Majid Mirza.

Atabeg dynasties

Great Atabeg's Ildegiz (Ildegoz) of Azerbaijan

In the Near East

Beginning in the twelfth century the atabegs formed a number of dynasties, and displaced the descendants of the Seljukian amirs in their various principalities. These dynasties were founded by emancipated Mamluks, who had held high office at court and in camp under powerful amirs. When the amirs died, they first became stadtholders for the amirs' descendants, and then usurped the throne of their masters. There was an atabeg dynasty in Damascus founded by Tughtigin (1103-1128).

Other atabeg "kingdoms" sprang up to the north east, founded by Sokman (Sökmen), who established himself at Kaifa in Diyarbakır about 1101, and by his brother Ilghazi called Mardi. The city of Mosul on the Tigris Maudud, was also ruled by atabegs such as Aksunkur and Zengi. Zengi became Atabeg of Mosul in 1128 and soon established himself as an independent ruler of much of northern Mesopotamia and Syria (including Aleppo).

The northern part of Luristan, formerly known as Lurikuchik ('Little Luristan'), was governed by independent princes of the Khurshidi dynasty, styled atabegs, from the beginning of the 17th century when the last atabeg, Shah Verdi Khan, was removed by Persian Shah Abbas I and the government of the province given to Husain Khan, the chief of a rival tribe. Husain, however, was given the gubernatorial title of vali instead of atabeg. The descendants of Husain Khan retained the title.

Great Luristan, in the southern part of Luristan, was an independent state under the Fazlevieh atabegs from 1160 until 1424 . Its capital was Idaj, now only represented by mounds and ruins at Malamir, 60 miles south east of Shushtar.

In the Caucasus

Shams al-Din Eldiguz (1137–1175), the Great Atabeg of the Seljuk sultan of Baghdad, established an independent dynastic state in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran that lasted until 1225.

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) (passim; details not yet worked in)
• Amin Maalouf. Crusades Through Arab Eyes, 1984
• Royal Ark - Qajar dynasty in Iran
• Inanu Khatun, Encyclopedia Iranica
• Atabak, Encyclopedia Iranica
• Atabakan-e Adarbayjan, Encyclopedia Iranica