Sultan ibn Mahmud was the last known
Shaddadid
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal fami ...
emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
of
Ani
Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia.
Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...
reigning in parts of the dynasty's possessions from at least 1174 to 1199. He is known exclusively from the
epigraphic data.
At the time of Sultan and his immediate predecessors, Ani became a target of expansionism of the
kings of Georgia
This is a list of kings and queens regnant of the kingdoms of Georgia before Russian annexation in 1801–1810.
For more comprehensive lists, and family trees, of Georgian monarchs and rulers see Lists of Georgian monarchs.
Kings of Iberia ...
. Sultan's rule in parts of his dynasty's dwindling possessions, in the lands across the
Araxes, is documented by an inscription dated to
Safar 570
__NOTOC__
Year 570 ( DLXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 570 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...
(September 1174) in the Dashtadem castle in modern
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
. Another inscription, that from Ani, dated to , indicates that he had revived the Shaddadid rule in Ani.
Vladimir Minorsky
Vladimir Fyodorovich Minorsky (russian: Владимир Фёдорович Минорский; – March 25, 1966) was a Russian Orientalist best known for his contributions to the study of Persian, Lurish and Kurdish history, geography, ...
identified him with
Shahanshah ibn Mahmud, known from the literary sources. Sultan's inscription from Ani is the last the Shaddadis are heard of. By 1200, Ani had been invaded by the armies of Queen
Tamar of Georgia
Tamar the Great ( ka, თამარ მეფე, tr, lit. "King Tamar") ( 1160 – 18 January 1213) reigned as the Queen of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, presiding over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age. A member of the Bagrationi dyna ...
, who granted the city in possession to her loyal subject of the Armeno–Georgian
Mkhargrdzeli family.
References
Shaddadid emirs of Ani
12th-century rulers in Asia
12th-century Kurdish people
{{MEast-royal-stub