Anush-tegin as an Eponym of the Khorezm Dynasty in the Muslim Sources
In this article, the author analyzes the formation in Muslim literature of the twelfth - thirteenth centuries of the eponym of the dynasty of Khorezm rulers, whose power in this region begins in 1097 and ends in the era of the Mongol invasion. We are discussing the Anushteginid dynasty and the father of the first Khorezmshah, Qutb ad-Din Muhammad, after whom this dynasty was named by researchers. According to medieval Muslim historians, Anush-tegin or Nush-tegin Garcha/Garja himself never ruled Khorezm, but his descendants not only managed to gain a foothold in these lands, but also created one of the most powerful Muslim states of the Middle East, which was destroyed only by the Mongol conquerors. Despite the close attention to the power of the Khorezmshahs in the research environment, which has been reflected in numerous special works, to this day we do not see in Russian and foreign literature a single study devoted to the ancestor of the Anushteginid dynasty, or rather, the analysis of the description of his biography in Muslim sources. Researchers, relying mainly on reports on this subject by the historian of the first half of the thirteenth century, Ibn al-Asir, broadcast his story about Anush-tegin, often not taking into account the nature and volume of information about this eponym as part of earlier sources. We will also attempt to understand what Muslim authors of the twelfth century write about Anush-tegin, how fully his biography is reflected in these texts in comparison with ‘al-Kamil fi-t-Tarikh’ by Ibn al-Asir, and what is the specificity of their description of the biography of the ancestor of the Khorezm rulers. In addition, we will try to consider what pre-Mongol texts Ibn al-Asir and subsequent historians could rely on in their reconstructions of the history of Anush-tegin’s life and work, as well as what contradictions in this case could arise between individual authors. We hope that this work will be useful to specialists in the history of the Middle East in the pre-Mongol period, as well as to researchers of Muslim historical literature of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries.