Muhammad ibn Jaghribak (1), the Seljuq Turk.
He inherited the throne after his father, and the vizier Nizam al-Mulk administered the realm for him in accordance with Alp Arslan’s testament, in the year 465 AH. His uncle, Qārot (2), the ruler of Kirman, rose against him; they met near Hamadhan (3), where Qārot’s forces were routed and the uncle was brought in chains. The sultan rebuked him, and Qārot replied, “Your amirs wrote to me,” producing a pouch containing their letters. He handed it to Nizam al-Mulk to read, but the vizier cast it into a brazier, whereupon the amirs rejoiced and renewed their obedience. The sultan then had his uncle strangled (4).
After that he gained possession of more cities than any sultan before him: the towns beyond the Oxus, the land of the Hayāṭilah (5), Bāb al-Abwāb, the Byzantine territories, al-Jazīrah, and much of Syria. His dominion stretched length-wise from Kashghar (6) to Jerusalem, and breadth-wise from the outskirts of Constantinople to the lands of the Khazars (7) and to the Indian Ocean. He was of upright conduct and passionately devoted to hunting.
= 2/12–13; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 12/142-143; Tarikh Ibn Khaldun, 5/13; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 5/134-135; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 3/376; Muʿjam al-Ansab wa-l-Usar al-Hakima, pp. 52, 73.
(1) His biography has already been given in vol. 18, no. 51.
(2) The manuscript reads Qarut, with the letter r placed before w; the same form occurs in Ibn Khallikan, 5/284. Ibn al-Athir’s al-Kamil, 1/78, has Qawrat, reversing the two letters, while Akhbar al-Dawla al-Saljuqiyya, p. 50, gives Qarud, substituting d for t.
(3) For the account of the war between the two sides, see Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, 10/78-79.
(4) Wafayat, 5/284, adds that he ordered his uncle to be killed, and the latter was strangled with a bow-string.
(5) Yaqut states in Muʿjam al-Buldan that Haytal designates the lands beyond the river—Bukhara, Samarkand and Khujand—so called after Haytal b. ʿAlam b. Sam b. Nuh.
(6) Yaqut further notes that Kashghar is a town with surrounding villages and districts, reached from Samarkand and the neighbouring areas; it lies in the heart of Turkic territory. Ibn Khallikan vocalises it with an open kaf, then an alif, a silent sh, an open gh, and finally a raʾ, and calls it the capital of Turkistan.
(7) Yaqut explains that Khazar refers to the Turkic lands beyond the Bāb al-Abwāb pass (Darband); some trace the name to Khazar b. Yafith b. Nuh. The dictionary al-ʿAyn adds: al-Khazar, a people noted for blue eyes; see Muʿjam al-Buldan, 2/367.