Nūr al Dīn Mahmūd b. Zankī's Policy toward Powerful Amirs in His Regime, in Terms of Placement and Movement

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Other Title
  • ザンギー朝ヌール・アッディーン政権における有力アミールの配置と移動
  • ザンギー チョウ ヌール ・ アッディーン セイケン ニ オケル ユウリョク アミール ノ ハイチ ト イドウ

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Abstract

This article deals with the reign of the Zangid ruler of Syria, Nur al-Din Mahmud (r. 541-569 AH/1146-1174AD) and attempts to analyze his policies towards his amirs who played important roles in the government and army. For this purpose, the author collected and organized information on individual amirs from contemporary documents, including their official positions, movements, iqta' (i. e. fiefs), and families, and confirmed trends in their activities and analyzed their participation in internal government affairs, which has not been dealt with in depth in previous studies. In the management of his amirs, Nur al-Din took account of an amir's family, its ties with others and internal order, not only of the amir himself. He emphasized the notion of "service of the family" by assuring transfer of a deceased amir's iqta' to his son (even if the son was still in his minority) and punishing the amir's family for the amir's misdeeds. He aimed to strengthen his leadership by adjusting the amir's family order in accord with his relationship with his amirs based on their service to the master. Nur al-din never had an amir killed for posing a threat to his reign but usually dealt with the unsettling matters by adjusting the amirs' positions and situations, for example, changing their iqta', or forcing them to participate in expeditions. His policies towards the amirs seems to have been effective in keeping the amirs and the soldiers in their charge in support of the regime by avoiding sudden, unreasonable executions. This rational order was based of the political and military steadiness of his regime. Occasionally, Nur al-Din was obliged to compromise with ambitious or disruptive amirs out of military necessity as in a series of battles against the Franks (Crusaders). Because of such circumstances and the fact that the amirs also could move to keep their independence within the framework of their services to their master, Nur al-Din faced a leadership crisis at the end of his reign. This is confirmed by the actual independence of the Ayyubids in Egypt who still operated within the framework of service to Nur al-Din.

Journal

  • 東洋史研究

    東洋史研究 75 (2), 379-348, 2016-09-30

    THE TOYOSHI-KENKYU-KAI : The Society of Oriental Researches, Kyoto University

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