302 – Tughtigin Abū Manṣūr, the Atabeg

The lord of Damascus, King Abū Manṣūr Tughtigin the Atabeg, was one of the emirs of the Seljuk sultan Tutush ibn Alp Arslan. The sultan married him to the mother of his son Duqāq. When the sultan was killed, power passed to his son Duqāq, and Tughtigin became commander of the army; after Duqāq’s death, Tughtigin himself assumed the throne.

He was resolute, courageous, and awe-inspiring, a mujahid against the Franks, devoted to justice, and known by the honorific Ẓahīr al-Dīn (Defender of the Faith).

Abū Yaʿlā ibn al-Qalānsī (1) said: “He fell ill and wasted away, and he died in Ṣafar of the year 522 AH. He made eyes weep, pierced hearts, weakened arms, and tore at livers, thus deepening our sorrow—may Allah have mercy on him and cool his resting place. A few days later his wife, the lady Umm Burī, passed away and was buried in her domed mausoleum outside the Bāb al-Farādīs (2).”

I say: Had Allah not raised up Tughtigin for Islam to stand against the Franks, they would certainly have overwhelmed Damascus. He routed them more than once. The army of Mosul came to his aid alongside Mawdūd and al-Bursuqī. He also travelled to Baghdad to pay homage to the sultan Muḥammad ibn Malikshāh, who honored and exalted him greatly.

Ibn al-Athīr states that after him his eldest son, Tāj al-Mulūk Burī, acceded to the throne by virtue of the pledge his father had made.