sweeping socio-political, economic and artistic
rapid increase of small principalities founded
changes that made “northern Mesopotamia” –
by atābeg s /atābak s (“father-beys”) or various
a geographical entity known in medieval Islam
members of the Saljuq dynasty resulted in the
as the Jazīra (“island”), the northern part of the
establishment of numerous courts, all competing
territory located between the Tigris and Euphra-
with each other for cultural prestige, which may
tes rivers (today divided between eastern Syria,
well have provided the impetus for the prolif-
northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey) – “one of
eration of innovative images However, this was
the liveliest regions ”38 Political stability, though
severely disrupted under the impact of invasions
not hegemony, brought about relative prosperity
from the east, first by the Turkic Khwārazm shāhs
Following the decline of the Great Saljuq dynasty
in the 1220s and shortly after by the Mongols,
from around 512/1118, the area was divided into
which brought about a cataclysm with great social
a number of Turkish and Kurdish principali-
upheavals, destruction and discontinuity After
ties 39 The Saljuq “successor states” included the
the battle of Köse Dagh in the region of Sivas
Artuqids of Amīda/Diyārbakr (end of the fifth/
(Sebasteia) in 641/1243, the Mongols occupied
eleventh to the beginning of the ninth/fifteenth
Anatolia and Saljuq autonomy was lost forever
century), the Zangids of northern Syria (521–
For a time the Saljuq sultanate continued as a
2/1127–8 until 579/1183 in Aleppo and until
Mongol province, although some Türkmen emirs
631/1233 in Mosul), the Ayyubids of Syria and
maintained small principalities of their own in
Egypt (564/1169–658/1260) and the Saljuqs of
distant mountainous districts, but finally the
Rūm (Anatolia, c. 483/1081– c 707/1307) The
Saljuq dynasty came to its end
38 Ettinghausen and Grabar, 1987, pp 297–9
39 For an outline of the political, religious and cultural
climate of the region, see Hillenbrand, C , 1985
dragons on monumental settings in regions west of iran
21