Rū'īn Dez, sometimes also called just Rū'īn, was a fortress near

Maragheh Maragheh () is a city in the Central District (Maragheh County), Central District of Maragheh County, East Azerbaijan province, East Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Maragheh is on the bank of ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

that served as the main dynastic stronghold and residence of the Ahmadili Atabegs of Maragheh in the 1100s and early 1200s.

Vladimir Minorsky Vladimir Fyodorovich Minorsky (; – 25 March 1966) was a White Russian academic, historian, and scholar of Oriental studies, best known for his contributions to the study of history of Iran and the Iranian peoples such as Persians, Lurs, and ...

tentatively located it at present-day Yayshahr, 16 km north of Maragheh on the slopes of Mount

Sahand Sahand (), is a massive, heavily eroded stratovolcano in East Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran. At , it is the highest mountain in the province of East Azerbaijan. Sahand is one of the highest mountains in Iranian Azerbaijan, in addition ...

. In 1174/5 (570 AH), the

Eldiguzid The Ildegizids, EldiguzidsC.E. Bosworth, "Ildenizids or Eldiguzids", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Edited by P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs et al., Encyclopædia of Islam, 2nd Edition., 12 vols. with ind ...

ruler

Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan Nusrat al-Din Muhammad ibn Ildeniz (), better known as Muhammad Jahan-Pahlavan (, "Muhammad, the champion of the world"), was the ruler (''atabeg'') of the Eldiguzids from 1175 to 1186. He was the son and successor of Eldiguz, and was later succ ...

besieged Ru'in Dez and then Maragheh, each time unsuccessfully. In 1197, when the poet

Nizami Ganjavi Nizami Ganjavi (; c. 1141 – 1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī,Mo'in, Muhammad(2006), "Tahlil-i Haft Paykar-i Nezami", Tehran.: p. 2: Some commentators h ...

completed his ''

Haft Peykar ''Haft Peykar'' (), also known as ''Bahramnameh'' (, ''The Book of Bahram'', referring to the Sasanian emperor Bahram V), is a romantic epic poem by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, written in 1197. This poem is one of his five works known collecti ...

'', he sent it to his patron, the Ahmadili atabeg Ala ad-Din, who received it at Ru'in Dez. After Ala ad-Din died in 1207 or 1208 (604 AH) and then his young son died a year later, the Eldiguzid atabeg Abu Bakr invaded Ahmadili territory. A eunuch who stayed loyal to the Ahmadili family took up a defensive position at Ru'in Dez with

Sulafa Khatun Sulafa Khatun (d. ''after'' 1225), was the ruling atabeg of Maragha between 1209-1225. She was the last member of the Ahmadilis dynasty and its only female ruler. Sulafa Khatun succeeded Arslan-Aba II in 1209. It was uncommon and controversial f ...

, Ala ad-Din's granddaughter, along with the dynastic treasury. Ru'in Dez was the only Ahmadili possession that did not come under Abu Bakr's control. Sulafa Khatun remained in charge at Ru'in Dez after the Mongols took Maragheh itself in 1220 or 1221 (617 AH). Her reign came to an end after a siege of Ru'in Dez by the

Khwarazmshah 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 ...

vizier Sharaf al-Molk when

Jalal al-Din Mangburni Jalal al-Din Mangburni (), also known as Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah (), was the last Khwarazmshah of the Anushtegin dynasty. The eldest son and successor of Ala ad-Din Muhammad II of the Khwarazmian Empire, Jalal al-Din was brought up at Gurganj ...

arrived, made her marry him, and installed a new governor at Ru'in Dez.

References

Further reading