Atsiz ibn Uwaq

Atsiz ibn Uwaq al-Khwarizmi, also known as al-Aqsis, Atsiz ibn Uvaq, Atsiz ibn Oq and Atsiz ibn Abaq (died 1078 or 1079), was a Khwarezmian Turkish mercenary commander who established a principality in Palestine and southern Syria after seizing these from the Fatimid Caliphate in 1071. In 1076 he captured Damascus, becoming the first Seljuk emir of Damascus, where he began construction of the Citadel of Damascus. An attempt to attack Cairo in the following year resulted in defeat and he was in turn forced to deal with a Fatimid advance into Syria. After appealing to the Seljuks he received assistance from Tutush I, brother of the Great Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I, but was shortly afterwards imprisoned and strangled on the orders of Tutush, who proceeded to take control of his former territories.

Atsiz captured Jerusalem twice, in 1073 from the Fatimids and again in 1077, after returning from the campaign in Egypt, from the rebelling inhabitants.[1][2] In 1077 he broke his promise of amān, or quarter, given to the rebels, and after they opened the gates his troops slaughtered an estimated 3,000 of them, including those who had taken shelter in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and only sparing those inside the Dome of the Rock.[2][3][4] Atsiz, commander of the Turcoman Nawaki tribe[1] or group also known as Nawakiyya, by his conquest of Jerusalem from the weakened Fatimids, along with the 1071 Byzantine defeat against the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert, is quoted as a major cause for the Crusades, as these events created a sense of threat to the Christian holy places, Europe and Christianity as a whole.[5][6]

References

1. Gil, Moshe (1997). A History of Palestine, 634–1099. Cambridge University Press. pp. 409–412. ISBN 9780521599849. Retrieved 23 September 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. Cline, Eric H. (2007) [2004]. Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient Canaan to Modern Israel. University of Michigan Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 978-0-472-03120-7. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
3. Gil (1997), p. 412
4. Richards, Donald Sidney (ed., transl.) (2002). The Annals of the Saljuq Turks: Selections from Al-Kāmil fīʻl-Taʻrīkh of ʻIzz al-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr. Studies in the history of Iran and Turkey, Volume 2. RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 9780700715763. Retrieved 29 July 2020.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
5. Peacock, A. C. S. (2015). Great Seljuk Empire. The Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 54–55. ISBN 9780748698073. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
6. Holmes, Nick (2019). The Byzantine World War. Troubador Publishing. p. 111. ISBN 9781838598921. Retrieved 24 September 2020.

• Başan, Aziz (2010). The Great Seljuqs: A History. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 85, 88–89. ISBN 978-0-203-84923-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Burns, Ross (2005). Damascus: A History. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 144. ISBN 0-415-27105-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cahen, Cl. (1960). "Atsiz b. Uvak". The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume I: A-B. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 750–751. ISBN 90-04-08114-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Greenstone, Julius H. (January 1906). "The Turkoman Defeat at Cairo, by Solomon ben Joseph Ha-Kohen". The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. 22 (2): 144–175. doi:10.1086/369565. JSTOR 527656.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kennedy, Hugh (1994). Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 0-521-42068-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Richards, D. S. (Trans.) (2002). The Annals of the Saljuq Turks: Selections from al-Kamil fi'l-Ta'rikh of 'Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 172, 190, 192–193, 197–198. ISBN 0-700-71576-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)