Anushtegin Gharchai (also spelled Anush-Tegin; fa, , Anūštigin Ḡaṛčaʾī; died 1097) was a

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

slave commander () of the Seljuks and the governor of Khwarazm from approximately 1077 until 1097. He was the first member of his family to play a role in the history of Khwarazm, and the namesake for the dynasty that would rule the province in the 12th and early 13th centuries.

Name

''Anushtegin'' is a combination of the Iranian word ''nush/anush'' ("undying", "born of an undying parent") and the Turkic word '' tegin'' ("prince"), thus meaning "immortally-born prince".

Biography

Anushtegin was originally a

slave from Gharchistan (hence his surname "Gharchai"), but was later sold to the

Seljuk Seljuk or Saljuq (سلجوق) may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * Seljuk (warlord) (di ...

officer Gumushtegin Bilge-Beg. Anushtegin first appears in records in 1073, when he and Gumushtegin Bilge-Beg were sent by the Seljuk sultan

Malik-Shah I Jalāl al-Dawla Mu'izz al-Dunyā Wa'l-Din Abu'l-Fatḥ ibn Alp Arslān (8 August 1055 – 19 November 1092, full name: fa, ), better known by his regnal name of Malik-Shah I ( fa, ), was the third sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire from 1072 to ...

() to reconquer territory in northern

Khorasan Khorasan may refer to: * Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan * Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...

seized by the Ghaznavid ruler

Ibrahim Ibrahim ( ar, إبراهيم, links=no ') is the Arabic name for Abraham, a Biblical patriarch and prophet in Islam. For the Islamic view of Ibrahim, see Abraham in Islam. Ibrahim may also refer to: * Ibrahim (name), a name (and list of people ...

(). They successfully defeated the latter and razed a Seljuk-Ghaznavid frontier place named Sakalkand. Anushtegin served as the ''tashtdar'' (keeper of the royal washing bowls) of the Seljuks, and, as the revenues from the Central Asian province of Khwarazm were used to pay for the expenses incurred by this position, he was made governor of the province, in . Anushtegin bore the title of '' shihna'' (military governor) of Khwarazm, as well as the traditional title of Khwarazmshah. Since the defeat of the Oghuz Yabghu leader

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) ...

in 1042, Khwarazm had been governed by representatives of the Seljuk Empire. The province would go on to play a minor role in eastern Islamic history for the next decades. The Seljuk sultans deliberately gave the governorship of Khwarazm to Turkic slave-soldiers () rather than Seljuk princes, with the exception of Arslan Arghun, who governed the province during the reign of his brother

Alp Arslan Alp Arslan was the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty. He greatly expanded the Seljuk territory and consolidated his power, defeating rivals to the south and northwest, and his v ...

() and early reign of MalikShah I. Geographically, Khwarazm was a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

that bordered the Turkic

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

s, and as a result was subject to their neighbours' political and linguistic influence. During this period, the local Iranian population of Khwarazm was gradually being assimilated by the Turks. However, during the Seljuk period, the Khwarazmian language (which resembled Sogdian and to a lesser extent Ossetian) was commonly spoken and written. The details of Anushtegin's tenure as governor are unclear, but he died by 1097 and the post was briefly given to Ekinchi before being transferred to his son, Muhammad I, whose accession is considered the start of the fourth and most prominent line of the

Khwarazmshahs Khwarazmshah was an ancient title used regularly by the rulers of the Central Asian region of Khwarazm starting from the Late Antiquity until the advent of the Mongols in the early 13th-century, after which it was used infrequently. There were a to ...

(which existed from 1097 to 1231). This new empire would go on to become the most powerful in the eastern Islamic world until the advent of the Mongols.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gharchai, Anushtigin Khwarezmid rulers 1090s deaths Year of birth unknown Turkic slaves Anushtegin dynasty