GOWHAR-ĀʾĪN, Saʿd-al-dawla

 

GOWHAR-ĀʾĪN, Saʿd-al-dawla, Turkish eunuch slave commander of the Great Saljuqs (d. 493/1100). In his early life he had been a slave (mamluk) of the Buyid ruler of Iraq, Abu Kālijār b. Solṭān-al-Dawla, but passed into the service of the Saljuqs (Ebn al-Jawzi, Montaẓam IX, p. 115; Ebn al-Aṯir, Beirut, X, p. 295; Ṣadr-al-Din Ḥosayni, p. 51). In 464/1071-72, Sultan Alp Arslān (q.v.) appointed him the Saljuq military governor (šeḥna) in Baghdad, an office which he was to hold, on and off, for the rest of his long life (Rāvandi, pp. 119, 121; Ebn al-Aṯir, Beirut, X, p. 70). He became high in Malekšāh’s favor, and as šeḥna in Baghdad led deputations to the ʿAbbasid caliph for such purposes as seeking a formal grant of the sultanate for his master (466/1073-74) and for Malekšāh’s demand to marry al-Moqtadi’s daughter (482/1089-90; Ebn al-Jawzi, Montaẓam VIII, p. 284; Ebn al-Aṯir, Beirut, X, pp. 90, 175). He participated in important expeditions, including the vizier Faḵr-al-Dawla Moḥammad b. Jahir’s campaign against the Marwanids of Diārbakr (1085); against Mohaḏḏeb-al-Dawla Aḥmad, the Arab chief of the Baṭāʾeḥ, or southern Iraq marshlands, (480/1087); and against Yaman (Ebn al-Aṯir, Beirut, X, pp. 144, 162, 204). On Malekšāh’s death, his conduct was opportunistic. He at first supported Tutuš/Totoš’s bid for the throne, became šeḥna in Baghdad again successively for Malekšāh’s sons Moḥammad and Barkiāroq (Berk-yaruq), but was finally killed in battle near Hamadān fighting for Barkiāroq against Moḥammad in Rajab 493/May 1100 (Ebn al-Jawzi, Montaẓam IX, pp. 111-13, 116; Ebn al-Aṯir, X, pp. 222, 226, 289, 293-96).

 

Bibliography:

Ebn al-Qalānesi, Ḏayl taʾriḵ Demašq, ed. H. F. Amedroz, Beirut, 1908, index.

İ. Kafesoğlu, Sultan Melikşah devrinde Büyük Selçuklu imparator-luğu, Istanbul, 1953, index s.v. Gevherâyîn.

Moḥammad b. Solaymān Rāvandi, Rāḥat al-ṣodur wa āyat al-ṣodur dar tāriḵ-e āl-e Saljuq, ed. Moḥammad Eqbāl, GMS, London, 1921.

Ṣadr-al-Din Abu’l-Ḥasan ʿAli Ḥosayni, Aḵbār al-dawla al-saljuqiya, ed. Moḥammad Eqbāl, Lahore, 1933.

(C. Edmund Bosworth)

Originally Published: December 15, 2002

Last Updated: February 17, 2012

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Vol. XI, Fasc. 2, p. 180