Ortaçağ Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

The Khwārazmshāhs, members of the Afrīghid Dynasty, ruled the historical Khwārazm region from 305 A.D. to 386/996. The end of the Afrīghids' administration came not because of the invasion of another state but as a result of a bloody civil war. Amīr Ma’mūn I, who ruled the city of Jurjāniya/Gurgānj in Khwārazm independently of the Afrīghids and directly as a vassal of the Sāmānids, dethroned and executed the last Afrīghid Khwārazmshāh Muhammad II in 386/996. Thus, Ma’mūn I assumed the title of Khwārazmshāh by ruling Khwārazm and founded a new state. However, right after he ascended to the throne, he was murdered in 387/997 as a result of an unsolved murder. After his death, the Ma’mūnids government separated from its subordination to the Sāmānids in 389/999 and became an independent state. The political legitimacy of the Ma’mūnid State was also confirmed by the Abbāsid Caliphate. The Ma’mūnids State dominated Khwārazm until 408/1017. This article is about the establishment of the Ma’mūnid State, which we briefly described above, and deals with some problems related to the subject. It describes the political status of the Khwārazmian rulers, their relations with Sāmānid statesmen, and the factors that led them to war, and evaluates the occurrence and results of the war. It shows the reflections of the civil war on local literature by quoting political poems from poets who were witnesses of the events. It accepts the death of Khwārazmshāh Ma’mūn I shortly after his accession to the throne as an assassination organized by Khwārazmian statesmen and defends the claim that the Sāmānid ruler Nūh II instigated it. Ultimately, it explains how the Ma’mūnid State became independent from the Sāmānid vassalage and was recognized by the Abbāsid Caliphate.