DEMAŠQ ḴᵛĀJA

 

DEMAŠQ ḴᵛĀJA, third son of the amir Čobān (q.v.), possibly born in 699/1300, when his father was on campaign in Damascus. He was married and remained devoted to Tūrsīn (or Tursān) Ḵātūn, despite the opposition of her father, Īrenjīn (Īrenčīn; Waṣṣāf, pp. 639-40; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, ms., fol. 506b). She bore him four daughters, of whom the eldest was Delšād Ḵātūn (q.v.).

After the death of Čobān’s rival Sevīnč (Sevenj) in 718/1318 Demašq Ḵᵛāja seized control of the Šabānkāra district in Fārs, which he divided up among his supporters (Šabānkāraʾī, p. 180; cf. Naṭanzī, p. 9). In the revolt of the amirs against Čobān in the following year Shaikh ʿAlī, son of Īrenjīn, seized Demašq Ḵᵛājā, plundered his possessions, and almost killed him, believing himself to be acting with Abū Saʿīd’s support (Waṣṣāf, p. 641; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, 1350 Š./1971, pp. 146-47; Samarqandī, p. 41; Melville). The amirs were defeated, however, and, as a result, Čobān’s position became unassailable; Demašq Ḵᵛāja, who was noted for his prudence and clear thinking, became his vicegerent (nāʾeb-e koll; Šabānkāraʾī, p. 278).

As Demašq Ḵᵛāja’s power grew, so did his arrogance and the consequent resentment of the amirs at court. Abū Saʿīd, who was only a nominal ruler, complained of his behavior to Čobān and requested that one of Demašq Ḵᵛāja’s brothers, either Jelāʾū Khan or Shaikh Maḥmūd, replace him. Demašq Ḵᵛāja blamed the sultan’s disfavor on slanders by the vizier, Rokn-al-Dīn Ṣāyen (Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, pp. 168-69) and succeeded in having Ṣāyen removed from court. Demašq Ḵᵛāja then acquired full control of affairs (Tārīḵ-e gozīda, ed. Browne, p. 607), but his rudeness to the sultan and his tyrannical behavior increased. The situation came to a head with the supposed discovery that Demašq Ḵᵛāja was trespassing in the sultan’s harem (Ebn Baṭṭūṭa, tr. Gibb, II, pp. 337-38; Abu’l-Fedāʾ, p. 87; Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, pp. 168-69). On this pretext Abū Saʿīd moved decisively against him, and Demašq Ḵᵛāja, while trying to escape from Solṭānīya, was captured by the amir Meṣr Ḵᵛāja and executed on 5 Šawwāl 727/24 August 1327. This harem intrigue was not mentioned by the contemporary authors, who reported instead that Abū Saʿīd was goaded into action by the hostility of the amirs (Tārīḵ-e gozīda, ed. Browne, p. 608; Šabānkāraʾī, pp. 280-81). Among the latter was Nūrīn Taḡāy, who had previously been banished from court by Demašq Ḵᵛāja until Čobān intervened in his favor (Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, ms., fols. 523b-24a; Samarqandī, p. 86). According to Aharī (p. 55; tr., p. 154), Abū Saʿīd was distressed at Demašq Ḵᵛāja’s death, but this report was probably simply a gesture of respect to Delšād Ḵātūn; in fact, Abū Saʿīd then ordered the arrest of Čobān and his other sons in different parts of the empire.

Demašq Ḵᵛāja was buried in a mosque at Tabrīz that was built in his memory by his sister Baḡdād Ḵātūn (Ḥāfeẓ Ḥosayn, p. 523).

 

Bibliography:

(For cited works not found in this bibliography and abbreviations found here, see “Short References.”) Abu’l-Fedāʾ, al-Moḵtaṣar fī aḵbār al-bašar, ed. and tr. P. M. Holt as The Memoirs of a Syrian Prince, Wiesbaden, 1983.

Abū Bakr Qoṭbī Aharī, Tārīḵ-e Šayḵ Oways, ed. and tr. J. B. van Loon, the Hague, 1954.

ʿA. Eqbāl, Tārīḵ-e mofaṣṣal-e Īrān az estīlā-ye Moḡol tā eʿlān-e mašrūṭīyat I. Az ḥamla-ye Čengīz tā taškīl-e dawlat-e tīmūrī, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962, pp. 333, 335-37, 341.

Faṣīḥ Aḥmad Ḵᵛāfī, Mojmal-e faṣīḥī, ed. M. Farroḵ, 3 vols., Mašhad, 1340 Š./1961.

Ḥabīb al-sīar III, pp. 210-12, 214, 216.

Ḥāfeẓ-e Abrū, Ḏayl-e Jāmeʿ al-tawārīḵ-e rašīdī, Biblio-thèque Nationale, Paris, ms. no. Suppl. persan 209; ed. Ḵ. Bayānī, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1350 Š./1971.

Ḥāfez Ḥosayn Karbalāʾī Tabrīzī, Rawżat al-jenān wa jannāt al-janān, ed. J. Solṭān-al-Qorrāʾī, I, Tehran, 1344 Š./1965.

C. Melville, “Abū Saʿīd and the Revolt of the Amirs in 1319,” in D. Aigle and J. Aubin, eds., L’Iran face à la domination mongole, forthcoming.

Moʿīn-al-Dīn Naṭanzī, Montaḵab al-tawārīḵ-e moʿīnī, ed. J. Aubin, Tehran, 1336 Š./1957.

Moḥammad Šabānkāraʾī, Majmaʿ al-ansāb, ed. M.-H. Moḥaddeṯ, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984.

(Charles Melville)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 21, 2011

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Vol. VII, Fasc. 3, pp. 256-257