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Caucasica in the History of Mayyāfāriqīn

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

V. Minorsky
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MAYYĀFĀRIQĪN, a small town situated on one of the left tributaries of the Tigrīs, at 70 km. to the north-east of Āmid (Diyārbakr), owed its importance to its situation on a short road connecting Armenia (Mush) with Upper Mesopotamia. It is probable that the ancient capital of Armenia, Tigranocerta, built by Tigran II circa 80 B.C., stood in the immediate neighbourhood of MAYYĀFĀRIQĪN.

In Islamic times Mayyāfāriqīn had a historian, Ahmad b. Yusuf b. ‘All ibn al-Azraq al-Fāriql, who wrote shortly after 572/1176. The only two copies of this curious work belong to the British Museum. The detailed description of the work and the first systematic presentation of its contents belong to that accurate British historian H. F. Amedroz, who has so considerably increased our knowledge of the medieval Arabic sources for the Near East. Numerous passages from Ibn al-Azraq are quoted by Amedroz in the footnotes of his edition of Ibn al-Qalanisi (1908). In more recent years M. Canard has published six passages of the history of Mayyāfārīqīn relative to Sayf al-daula and Claude Cahen has summed up its rich information on the early Artuqids.

These preparatory works will greatly help the future editor of the Mayyāfārīqīn chronicle. His task will not be easy, for the two versions are defective and divergent, and the best plan will be to print them in parallel columns. The script of Or. 6310 is very cursive and devoid of dots; that of Or. 5803 is defaced towards the end. The scribes were negligent even in geographical and personal names. The grammar of the author (or of his copyists) is lax and may occupy the attention of some student of vulgar Arabic in Upper Mesopotamia.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 1949 , pp. 27 - 35
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1949

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References

page 27 note 1 See Minorsky, “Maiyāfāriḳīn” in El., and A. Manandian, Tigran II i Rim, Yerevan, 1943, pp. 42–6.

page 27 note 2 Or. 5803 (200 fol. almost complete), and Or. 6310 (covering only 170 ff. of Or. 5803 in a slightly abridged form, and with numerous variants). It is likely, however, that Or. 6310 represents the original draft of the chronicler. A table of concordances of the two MSS. prepared by Amedroz is attached to Or. 6310.

page 27 note 3 See his articles in the JBAS., 1902,783–812 (general account of the History of Mayyafariqin), and 1903, 123–154 (history of the Marwanids) with an appendix by J. Marquart, ibid., 1909, 170–6.

page 27 note 4 Sayf al-daula, Recueil de textes, Alger, 1934, 71–8, 208–10, 257, 276–280, 283–5.

page 27 note 5 JA., October 1935, 219–276. The former reading Ortuq is apparently incorrect but the Georgian chronicle, Brosset, Histoire de la Georgie, i/l, 369, spells Ordukh.

page 27 note 6 One can quote:(a) such irregularities in numerals as: (b) verbs in the plural before collective nouns: (c)the use of rigid

page 28 note 1 In this case Abkhàz has no ethnical meaning. In 975 the Bagratid prince Bagrat, whose mother was an Abkhazian princess, succeeded to the throne of Abkhazia. In 1008 he ascended the throne of Georgia (Karthli) and thus united the two kingdoms. The Bagratid family, native of Sper, in the Chorokh basin, ruled in Armenia, Georgia, and several other places.

page 28 note 2 First under the Kurdish Shaddādids and then under the Seljuk princes and governors. On the Shaddādids see now Kasravi, Padshahān-i gum-nam, iii, Tehran, 1308/1929.

page 28 note 3 Cf. Brosset's Histoire de la Géorgie (i, St. Petersbourg, 1849–1851), still unsurpassed in its wealth of quotations, and Defreméry's selection of Muslim texts on Transcaucasia, JA., 1849, xii, 457–523 (chiefly I. Athīr, years 514, 429, 517, 548, 550, 556, 557–8, 561, 599, 601, 602, 603, 605, 618, 619, 620, 622, 623, 624). The continuation of the series: 1849, xiv, 447–514; 1850, xvi, 50–75, 153–201; 1851, xvii, 105–162, does not bear on our subject.

page 29 note 1 See Minorsky, “Tiflis” in El. The Georgian chronicle, Brosset, i/1, 367, is only approxi-mate in saying that in 1122 David occupied ”la ville de Tiflis qui avait été 400 ans an pouvoir des Persans”.

page 29 note 2 See Minorsky, “Transcaucasica,” JA., juillet 1930, pp. 57–62 (where the detailed passage of Tabari, iii, 1414–16, is translated).

page 29 note 3 Under 429/1037–8, I. Athir, ix, 311, says only that the Abkhaz king besieged Tiflis but had to abandon the siege for fear of the Ghuz.

page 29 note 4 Brosset, loc. cit., i/1, 334.

page 30 note 1 See Minorsky, “Maragha” in El.

page 30 note 2 I. Athīr's account of the events (x, 398 and 434) is brief and in details differs from Ibn al-Azraq's. He first records Georgian raids against Muslims. The rulers interested, and among them Tughril, master of Arran and Nakhichevan, and his atabek Kün-toghdl, made a concerted plan for an expedition. A feigned surrender of some Qipchaqs provoked confusion in the ranks of the Muslims. Tughril is mentioned among those who escaped from the battle in 514/1120–1. After it David's siege of Tiflis lasted till 515. In 516 refugees, especially from Derbend in Shirvan, implored Sultan Mahmud to take the field against the Georgians. Mahmūd marched from Hamadan to Shamakhl. His vazir Shams al-mulk ‘Othman (son of Nizam al-mulk) was against further action, but the Georgians quarrelled with the Qipchaqs and after a time the sultan (in Jamādī ii 517/August 1123) returned to Hamadan. Of. also Ibn Qalanisi, 205.

page 30 note 3 A newly found “History of the kings Demetrius I, George III, Thamar, and George IV” was published in Georgian by Professor Javakhishvili, Tiflis, 1927. See Prince C. Toumanoff, “Medieval Georgian Historical Literature” in Traditio, i, 1943, pp. 139–182 (especially p. 157), and v, 1947, p. 342. [Additional Note. —Prince Toumanoff has kindly sent me the translation of a passage on Dimitri I's reign from Queen Ann's Chronicle (discovered in 1927, and published by the Georgian Academy in 1942), pp. 237–9. The new text only says that still in the reign of David his son Dimitri was sent to “Sharvan” where ”he waged battles which filled the eye-witnesses with wonder”. In A.D. 1130 (A.H. 624) he put to flight the men of Sukhman (Suqmān) and slaughtered the heads of the whole “Persiandom” (sparset'obisa). At that time ” Persian ” was synonymous with Muslim. The new source adds nothing to Ibn al-Azraq's account.]

page 31 note 1 Pakhomov, “Monetl Gruzii”, Zap. Numizm. Otd. Imp. Ross. Archeol. Obshch., i/4, 1910, 1–132, see pp. 81–6.

page 31 note 2 Ibn Funduq, Târīkh-i Bayhaq, ed. Tehran, 1317/1938, p. 163.

page 31 note 3 See the Arabic text reproduced in a footnote in Ibn al-Qalānisī, ed. Amedroz, pp. 205–6.

page 31 note 4 In Ibn al-Azraq's text this name is spelt mostly Mīfarqīn, side by side with the more formal Mayyāfāriqīn. Cf. in Syriac Mipherkēt.

page 32 note 1 I think that the meaning “protector” is here fully attested for the term shihna (the origin of the latter is still obscure).

page 32 note 2 The passage is not clear in Or. 5803 but Or. 6310, f. 102b, is unequivocal:ma zālat.

page 32 note 3 In this case the king of Georgia must be meant. After a period of insufficient help from Tughril the people of Tiflis turned to the oppressor himselfand, under the pretext of protection, paid him a considerable tribute.

page 32 note 4 Or. 6310 adds:al-Mazyadī.

page 32 note 5 Guhār, to render the Persian-Turkish pronunciation of the name Qauhar, with the stress on the last syllable.

page 32 note 6 Dubays [1108–1135] intrigued against Sultan Mahmfūd. The latter marched on Hilla in Shawwal 514/Dec. 1120–Jan. 1121, and Dubays fled to El-Ghāzī, see I. Athir, x, 398.

page 32 note 7 Or. 6310 omits this passage. Then it suddenly says that Tughril moved from Janze and ”Fakhr al-din Tughan Arslan al-Ahdab from the region (nahiya) of Duvin”. Their further participation in the campaign is not specified. Consequently in Or. 5803, I suspect some con^ fusion between the Duvin belonging to Arzan (i.e. to the valley situated between the river of Bitlis and that of Mayyafarqin), see C. Cahen, loc. cit., 224, and the ancient Armenian capital Duwin/Dvin, lying north of the Araxes, within the limits of Arrān, see Yāqūt sub verbo Dabil. Either al-Ahdab had to cross the Araxes (no small operation!) to march in agreement with Tughril, or the original reference is not to al-Ahdab but to some “Falehr ad-din” connected with the northern Dvin !

page 32 note 8 Or. 6310, f. 1026, does not indicate that the son accompanied his father—as Or. 5803 suggests (ma'ahu) —but only that he was the qadl of Mārdīn at the author's time.

page 32 note 9 Thus spelt also in Juvayni, ii, 161.

page 32 note 10 Thrialethi—a district to the south of the Kur, upstream from Gori. The invaders must have reached the Kur via Kars-Ardahan-Akhalkalaki. The Georgian annals mention also Manglis and Did-Gor(n)i, Brosset, loc. cit., i/1, 366.

page 33 note 1 I put in {}brackets the personal experiences of the author under TCing Dimitri in 1153.

page 33 note 2 Ablchāz (omitted in this place in Or. 6310) is the obvious reading in Or. 5803, but one must have in view the confusion found in Arab sources of andLāyjān, one of the districts of Shirvan, see Hudūd al-'Ālam, p. 408. As King Dimitri was operating in the eastern part of the Caucasus, Layjan (with its famous fortress) might fit into the geographical pattern of his campaign. More important is the reference to Derbend and the Alan territory showing the large extent of Dimitri's operations. At this period Derbend had its own dynasty which was quarrelling with the Shirvanshahs, Brosset, loc. cit., i/1, 364, and Pakhomov, O Derbendskom kniazhestve, Baku, 1930.

page 33 note 3 Or. 5803: (sic) ; Or.6310. f. 103a: .

page 33 note 4 After this Or. 5803 intercalates: “It was reported in the year 515/1121—(and the first is right)—that the king… wān in Aleppo.”

page 33 note 5 The passage is clearer in Or. 6310.

page 34 note 1 See above, pp. 30–31.

page 34 note 2 Possibly, Ishaq's father, Ismā'Il b. Shu'ayb, who settled in Georgia at the time of the caliph Amīn (A.D. 809–813), see Ya'qūbī, ii, 528.

page 34 note 3 Or. 5803, f. 1636: Or. 6310, f. 104a: (sic) In Sibt ibn al-Jauzi's version, Dimitri “batit des ribāt et hdtelleries pour les pnSdicateurs, les soufis at les poetes”, gee Defremery, JA., 1849, xii, 485.

page 34 note 4 This earthquake in Ganja is different from that of 534/1139, at the time of the atabek Qara-Sunqur, see I. Athir, xi, 51, and Vardan, in Brosset, i/2, 416. The behaviour of King David would have been excessive in King Dimitri's time.

page 34 note 5 Omitted in Or. 6310. Perhaps Amir Maudfid of Mossul But he was murdered in Damascus in 507/1113, see Ibn Qalanisi, 187. The whole paragraph reflects the uncertainty of later intercalations.

page 35 note 1 He began to rule in 516 (Nov. 1122) and died “towards the end of 547/1152, or perhaps in 548/1153”, see C. Cahen, loc. cit., 254.

page 35 note 2 Or. 6310, f. 137a: “and he appointed to the governorship of Mifarqln the hajib Abu Bakr and Bayram and ‘Othman, sons of Khumar-tash al-Hajj, each of them for a (short) period, except the hajib Bayram who was appointed twice”, etc.