Altun Jan Khatun (died December 1060) was the principal consort of Sultan

Tughril Abu Talib Muhammad Tughril ibn Mika'il ( fa, ابوطالب محمد تغریل بن میکائیل), better known as Tughril (; also spelled Toghril), was a Turkmen"The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

, the founder of the

Seljuk Empire The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to ...

, ruling from 1037 to 1063.

Early life

Altun Jan Khatun was a Turkish woman, possibly from

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...

. Before becoming Tughril Beg's wife she had been married to the

Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

Shah Malik Shah Malik was the head of the Oghuz Yabghus of Jand and Yengi-kent (two towns near the mouth of the Syr Darya), and was also Khwarazm Shah (1041–1042). Life ''Shah Malik'' held the title of Yabgu (the traditional leader of the Oghuz) ...

. Her son by that marriage, Anushirwan, apparently remained with her after she married Tughril Beg in around 1043.

Political influence

Tughril Beg is reported to have consulted his chief wife Altun Jan Khatun in affairs,

Sibt ibn al-Jawzi Shams al-Din Abu al-Muzaffar Yusuf ibn Kizoghlu (c. 581AH/1185–654AH/1256), famously known as Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī ( ar, سبط ابن الجوزي ) was a notable preacher and historian. Title He is the grandson of the great Hanbali scholar A ...

states that she was a religious woman, much given to charitable works, of good judgement and firm determination. When Tughril Beg went to

Hamadan Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') (Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ham ...

in 1058 to deal with the revolt of

Ibrahim Inal Ibrahim Inal (also spelled İbrahim Yınal, died 1060) was a Seljuk warlord, the son of ''Yûsuf Yınal'' and a foster brother of the Sultan Tughril. In 1047, Ibrahim wrested Hamadan and Kangavar from the Kakuyid ruler Garshasp I. Ibrahim late ...

, he sent Altun Jan, Anushirwan and al- Kunduri to

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

. Despite the Caliph's objection, Altun Jan went to join her husband at Hamadan, taking the treasury and Seljuk soldiery in Baghdad with her, leaving al-Kanduri. When Ibrahim Inal learnt of Altun Jan's approach he seems to have sent a force to have her intercepted. Other Turkmen joined Tughril Beg's forces, and defeated Ibrahim Inal. After this Tughril retired to Rey, where Altun Jan joined him. In Tughril's last days, before al-Basasiri's seizure of the city, a convoluted plot had been hatched by Altun Jan Khatun and his vizier al-Kunduri to install Altun Jan's son, Anushirwan. However, Anushirwan attracted no support, and Altun Jan soon dissociated herself from the plot, all of whose conspirators appear to have been eventually restored to favor without further punishment.

Death and aftermath

She died of edema in December 1060 in Zanjan. Tughril grieved for her greatly, and her bier was carried to Rey, where she was buried. She held estates in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Just before her death she bequeathed her states, assignments and pensions to the Caliph's daughter Seyyedeh Fatima. Tughril assigned these to the latter when the marriage contract between him and the caliph's daughter was finally concluded in 1062. According to some sources it was her who requested Tughril to marry the caliph's daughter at her deathbed. After Tughril's death in 1063, Anushirwan rebelled but was captured. He was imprisoned in Rey and was killed.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * *{{cite book, title=Türk dünyası araştırmaları - Issue 173, publisher=Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları Vakfı, year=2008, ref={{harvid, Türk, 2008 1060 deaths 11th-century Turkic women Seljuk Empire Women in 11th-century warfare