Taj al-Din Zangi ( fa, تاج الدین زنگی) was the

Ghurid The Ghurid dynasty (also spelled Ghorids; fa, دودمان غوریان, translit=Dudmân-e Ğurīyân; self-designation: , ''Šansabānī'') was a Persianate dynasty and a clan of presumably eastern Iranian Tajik origin, which ruled from the ...

ruler of

Sarakhs Sarakhs ( fa, سرخس, Saraxs, also Romanized as Serakhs) is a city in Sarakhs County, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. Sarakhs was once a stopping point along the Silk Road, and in its 11th century heyday had many libraries. Much of the original ...

from c. 1200 to 1204/5.

Biography

He was the son of the Ghurid ruler of

Bamiyan Bamyan or Bamyan Valley (); ( prs, بامیان) also spelled Bamiyan or Bamian is the capital of Bamyan Province in central Afghanistan. Its population of approximately 70,000 people makes it the largest city in Hazarajat. Bamyan is at an alti ...

Fakhr al-Din Masud Fakhr al-Din Masud (Persian: فخر الدین مسعود), was the first ruler of the Ghurid branch of Bamiyan, ruling from 1152 to 1163. Early life Fakhr al-Din Masud was the son of Izz al-Din Husayn and a Turkic woman. He also had several b ...

. Zangi also had a brother named

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Masud Shams ( ar, شمس , links=no), an Arabic word meaning ''sun'', may refer to: Media * ''Shams'' (newspaper), a defunct Saudi newspaper * ''Al-Shams'' (newspaper), a Libyan government newspaper until 2011 * Network for Public Policy Studies, an ...

. Zangi is first mentioned during the Ghurid conquest of western

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 ...

, where he was appointed as the governor of

, and was also given

Abiward Abiward or Abi-ward, was an ancient Sassanid city in modern-day Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to ...

and Nasa as part of his domains. In 1201/2, the

Khwarazm-shah 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 ...

Muhammad II invaded Khorasan, and besieged Sarakhs. However, Zangi managed to trick Muhammad II by pretending to leave the city to him, but then pillaged a Khwarazmian camp, where he managed to get supplies for his army and the city. The Ghurid prince

Nasir al-Din Muhammad Kharnak Nasir ( ar, ناصر, translit=Nāṣir) is a masculine given name, commonly found in Arabic which can mean "helper" or "one who gives victory" (grammatically the Stem I masculine singular active participle of consonantal verb root ''n-ṣ-r''). ...

shortly came to the aid of Zangi, and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Khwarazmians. In 1204/5, Zangi was killed by the Khwarmazians near

References

Sources

* * * {{Ghurid dynasty 13th-century Iranian people 12th-century Iranian people Ghurid dynasty 13th-century deaths 12th-century births