Kafshutids: A Turkoman Principality in Zanjan in The 11th and 13th Centuries

The ruler of the Turkomans in Mangyshlak, Kaf？ut, whose name is encountered in the campaign of Sultan Alp Arslan towards Khwarezm in 1065-66, subsequently moved to Iran, settling in Zanjan. Benefiting from the struggles for the sultanate after the death of Sultan Melikshah in 1092, his sons got politically more powerful. When the western regions of Iran, including Zanjan, was involved in the borders of the Iraqi Seljukian State, which was founded by Sultan Sanjar in 1120, Kafshudis accepted the hegemony of this new state, empowering their own dominance and establishing a principality. In this period, the first famous member of the family was Jamāl al-dīn ？lkafshut. While he was one of the intimate friends of Turkoman Hasbeg, who was one of the powerful commanders of Iraqi Seljukians, he betrayed the Seljukian commander in 1153 and sided with Sultan Muhammed, gaining the position of a hajib as a close fellow to him. In the struggle for dominance between the last Iraqi Seljukian sultan, Tugrul II, and Atabeg K？z？l Arslan, the chieftains of the Kafshudis sided with the Sultan. The management of the Western Iran including Zanjan, which had been a scene of fights following the termination of the Iraqi Suljukians in 1194, was left to the dominance of Ogulmish in 1215 who was the freed slave of the Atabeg Ozbek. Zanjan and its environs were taken under the reign of Khwarezm State in 1217-18, putting an end to the existence of the Kafshudis Principalit