The Political Relations of Atabegs of Azarbaijan and the Abbasid Caliphs

Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract

Atabegs of Azarbaijan emerged and gained power with the help of Atabeg Shamsuddin Ildeniz, and by way of using the Atabeg office which existed in the Seljuqid ruling system and also through taking advantage of internal conflicts amongst the Seljuqid princes. Ildeniz dynasty ruled the Iraq Seljuqid territory from 540 to 621 AH under the name of Seljuqid Sultans and made the Atabeg office and government hereditary. The main idea behind this research is to identify the principles governing the relations of Atabegs of Azarbaijan—as the representatives of Seljuqid Monarchy—with the Abbasid Caliphate who, as the spiritual leaders of the Islamic world, were trying to revive the political identity of the Caliphate which was lost during the political chaos in the Seljuqid period. Using a descriptive and analytic approach, the present research focuses on the main references and new studies, and its results show that during Atabegs monarchy the relations of the two aforementioned identities undergone numerous ups and downs, due to different reasons, and in this political relation Abbasid Caliphs used every opportunity to revive the political identity of caliphate in order to dominate over what remained from Iraq of Seljuqids.

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