The Nāṣirī Generations 78: SECTION XIII. · ACCOUNT OF THE SANJARIYAH RULERS.

78

The humblest of the servants of the Almighty’s Court, Minhaj-i-Saraj, Jurjani, states, that, when the period of the dynasty of the Sanjariyah expired, and no son remained unto Sultan Sanjar, nor brother’s sons [likewise], everyone of his slaves held some territory among the dominions of Islam. These slaves assumed the title of Ata-baks [guardians and preceptors], and, to the brother’s sons of Sultan Sanjar, they accorded the title of Sovereign, whilst they possessed themselves of the different territories of the empire.
These Ata-baks were of different races. One was the descendant of the Ata-bak, I-latt-giz, to whom Sultan Sanjar had given the territories of ’Irak and Azarbaijan; the second, the Ata-bak, Sankur, to whom he had given the territory of Pars; and, third, the Ata-baks of Mausil, and the Maliks of Sham. Trustworthy authorities have related some little respecting the events [in the lives] of two of these dynasties, as has been [herein] recorded; and, with regard to the Ata-baks of Mausil, as much as has been written respecting the affairs of Sultan Nur-ud-Din of Sham is all the information that has been obtained, with the exception of that of which the Khudawand-Zadah [son of a lord or great man] of Mausil informed me, which was this much, that his eighth ancestor was a Turk of Khata-i, and the slave of Sultan Sanjar. Such being the case, this dynasty [of Ata-baks] has been classified into three sections.