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Ghiyath ad-Dunya wa ad-Din ibn Muhammad (? - April 1161), better known by his regnal name of Suleiman-Shah (Turkish: Suleimanşah; Persian: سلیمان شاه‎‎), was sultan of the Seljuq Empire from 1037 to 1157.

Early life

Suleiman-Shah was the son of sultan Muhammad I Tapar. His mother was Gowhat Khatun the daughter of Isma'il bin Yaquti. His three brothers Mahmud II, Toghrul II and Mas'ud became the Sultans of the Seljuk Empire.[1] He was formerly with his uncle, Sultan Sanjar, who had made him heir apparent and put his name in the Khutbah on the pulpits of Khurasan. After Sanjar had endured from the Oghuz, Suleiman-Shah took the command of the Khurasan army, although they proved too weak to deal with the Oghuz, Suleiman-Shah went to Khwarazm Shah, who married him to the daughter of his brother Aqsis.[2] The couple had a son, who was named Sanjar. In 1152 after the accession of Sultan Muhammad, Suleiman-Shah along with others attacked attacked Muhammad and he was granted the title "Al-Melil al-Mustadir" by the caliph. He was proclaimed sultan at Baghdad in 1156/57, but was later defeated by Muhammad.

Traveled to Hamadhan

On 12 January 1160, Suleiman-Shah traveled from Mosul to Hamadhan. The reason he went to Hamadhan was that after the death of Prince Muhammad, son of Sultan Mahmud, the great emirs sent to Atabeg Qutb ad-Din Mawdud, lord of Mosul, requesting him to send them Prince Suleiman-Shah, so that they could invest him the sultanate. An agreement was settled between them that Suleiman-Shah should be the Sultan, Qutb ad-Din Mawdud his atabeg, that Jamal al-Din, Qutb ad-Din Mawdud's, vizier should be the vizier for Suleiman-Shah and Zayn al-Din Ali, the emir of the Mosul forces, should be commander of Suleiman-Shah's army. They all swore to accept this and Suleiman-Shah was equipped with large sums of money, campaign baggage, mounts, sovereign regalia and such like items fit for the sultan. He them sent out for Hamadhan with Zayn al-Din leading the Mosul army.

When they drew near the uplands, troops came to join them in droves, a group and an emir meeting them everyday, until a large force was gathered around Suleiman-Shah. Zayn al-Din thought them a treat to himself because he saw they had such sway over the sultan and showed such lack of respect as made his anxiety unavoidable. He therefore returned to Mosul. When he went back and left Suleiman-Shah, plans did not work out and he failed to achieve what he wished. The army arrested him at the gates of Hamadhan in October 1160 and made the Khutbah for Arslan-Shah, son of Sultan Toghril II, whose mother was married by Ildikiz.[3]

Accession and death

Suleiman-Shah succeeded Sultan Muhammad after his death in January 1159 and received from Bagdad the title "sultan Moizzu ud- Din Suleiman-Shah-Burhan emir al-Mouminin". But in September of 1160 he was deposed after reigning for eight months. He was held as a captive by Qutb ad-Din Mawdud until 1160 and was murdered in April 1161.[4][5] He was buried in Hamadhan.

References

1. Ann K. S. Lambton (January 1, 1988). Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-887-06133-2.
2. Ibn Al-Athir 2010, p. 77.
3. Ibn Al-Athir 2010, p. 254.
4. The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World, C.E. Bosworth, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 5, ed. John Andrew Boyle, (Cambridge University Press, 1968), 169-170.
5. Ibn Al-Athir 2010, p. 120.

Sources

• Ibn Al-Athir (2010). The Chronicle of Ibn Al-Athir for the Crusading Period from Al-Kamil Fi'l-Ta'rikh. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-754-66951-7.