DARGAZĪNĪ

 

DARGAZĪNĪ, nesba (attributive name) for Dargazīn (or Darjazīn), borne by several viziers of the Great Saljuqs in the 12th century.

The most distinguished was Abu’l-Qāsem Nāṣer b. ʿAlī, Qewām-al-Dīn Zayn-al-Molk ʿEmād-al-Dawla; he and his relative and successor ʿEmād-al-Dīn Abu’l-Barakāt, at least, also bore the additional nesba Anasābāḏī (after Anasābāḏ, a village in the district of Dargazīn between Hamadān and Zanjān; Yāqūt, Boldān, ed. Beirut, I, p. 265, II, pp. 451-52). Of peasant origin, he rose within the Saljuq administration through ambition and intrigue, becoming ʿāreż al-jayš (head of the military department), and eventually succeeded Šams-al-Molk ʿOṯmān b. Neẓām-al-Molk as vizier to Sultan Maḥmūd b. Moḥammad b. Malekšāh (511-25 /1118-31; for Abu’l-Qāsem’s career, see Bondarī, pp. 121-24, 144-50, 160-70; Ebn al-Aṯīr, X, p. 642, 652, 669; Kermānī, pp. 74-77; ʿAqīlī, pp. 255-56; cf. Eqbāl, pp. 265-74; Bosworth, p. 124; Lambton, pp. 251, 263-64; Klausner, pp. 39, 43-44, 54-56, 61, 90, 92-93). He served in the latter office for three years (518-21/1124-27). His rival Anūšervān b. Ḵāled (q.v.) and ʿEmād-al-Dīn Eṣfahānī, who translated and expanded Anūšervān’s literary work, preserved in an abridgment by Bondarī, stigmatized Dargazˊīnī for his plebeian background, hostility to Turkish military commanders, and alleged tenderness toward the Ismaʿilis, supposedly shown at the time when Amir Šīrgīr lifted the siege of Alamūt in 511/1118. Anūšervān secured Abu’l-Qāsem’s dismissal, but the latter was restored and served as vizier in 522-25/1128-31. After his second dismissal he persuaded the senior member of the Saljuq dynasty, Sanjar (511-52/1118-57), to appoint him as vizier to Sultan Maḥmūd’s brother Ṭoḡrel, who ruled briefly in Azerbaijan in 525/1131 before becoming sultan in 526/1132; in the following years Abu’l-Qāsem served as Sanjar’s own vizier, exercising this function, however, through a deputy, Ẓahīr-al-Dīn ʿAbd-al-ʿAzīz Ḥāmedī while himself remaining at Ṭoḡrel’s court (Klausner, pp. 54-56). Anūšervān b. Ḵāled denounced Abu’l-Qāsem’s financial exactions, tyranny, and general mismanagement of affairs, which aroused much fear and hostility. Opposition to him and his policies mounted, and he was executed by Sultan Ṭoḡrel II (526-29/1132-34) in August 1133.

According to ʿEmād-al-Dīn Eṣfahānī (Bondārī, pp. 181-82; cf. Ebn al-Aṯīr, XI, pp. 45, 64; Kermānī, pp. 79-80; ʿAqīlī, p. 260; Klausner, pp. 52, 77, 87, 93, 108), ʿEmād al-Dīn Abu’l-Barakāt b. Salama Dargazīnī, a maternal kinsman of Abu’l-Qāsem, succeeded Anūšervān b. Ḵāled as vizier to Sultan Masʿūd b. Moḥammad b. Malekšāh (530-32/1136-38). The appointment resulted from the sultan’s perception that the state was slipping into disorder under Anūšervān and his hope that Abu’l-Barakāt’s kinship to Abu’l-Qāsem would bring with it administrative and financial expertise. These hopes were initially realized: During his two years in office Abu’l-Barakāt curbed the influence of the military and restored some of the prestige of the sultanate. In the process he made powerful enemies, who procured his arrest and dismissal in 532/1138; he was replaced by the mostawfī (chief auditor) Kamāl-al-Dīn Ṯābet Qomī, who had already been exercising considerable influence on affairs of the state.

Three other, less distinguished members of the Dargazīnī family served the Saljuq sultans as viziers and officials during the 12th century. Abū Najīb, Šams-al-Dīn (d. 554/1159), son of Abu’l-Qāsem’s sister, served in the administrations of various Saljuq atabegs and provincial governors and eventually, in 541/1146, became vizier in Hamadān on behalf of Sultan Masʿūd b. Moḥammad (529-47/1134-52); he remained in that post until the sultan’s death.

Abu’l-Fażl Jalāl-al-Dīn, a son of Abu’l-Qāsem, was vizier in 547-49/1152-54, serving Malekšāh III (547-48/1152-53) and Moḥammad II (548-55/1153-60); he died in about 1182.

Finally, a second son of Abu’l-Qāsem, Qewām-al-Dīn, often called Ṭōḡrāʾī, was vizier to Ṭōḡrel III b. Arslān (571-90/1176-94) in the years 578-81/1182-85; he died in about 585/1189.

 

Bibliography:

Sayf al-Dīn ʿAqīlī, Āṯār al-wozarāʾ, ed. J. Moḥaddeṯ Ormavī, Tehran, 1337 Š./1958.

Qewām-al-Dīn Fatḥ Bondārī, Zobdat al-noṣra wa noḵbat al ʿoṣra, in Houtsma, Recueil II. C. E. Bosworth, “The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (A.D. 1000-1217),” in Camb. Hist. Iran V, pp. 1-202.

ʿA. Eqbāl, Wezārat dar ʿahd-e salāṭīn-e bozorg-e saljūqī, Tehran, 1338 Š./1959.

Nāṣer-al-Dīn Monšī Kermānī, Nasāʾem al-asḥār, ed. J. Moḥaddeṯ Ormavī, Tehran 1338 Š./1959.

C. L. Klausner, The Seljuk Vezirate. A Study in Civil Administration 1055-1194, Cambridge, Mass., 1973.

A. K. S. Lambton, “The Internal Structure of the Saljuq Empire,” in Camb. Hist. Iran V, pp. 203-282.

 

(C. EDMUND BOSWORTH)

(C. Edmund Bosworth)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 17, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 1, pp. 33-34