Content area
Full Text
Patton, Douglas, Badr al-Din Lu'lu': Atabeg of Mosul, 1211-1259. Occasional Paper no. 3 of the Middle East Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991. 122 pp., appendix, bibliography, index. $12.95 (paper).
This is a fine short monograph based on the author's 1982 doctoral dissertation at New York University. His subject is Badr al-Din Lu'lu', an important if hitherto little-known individual who ruled Mosul for some 40 years until his death in 1259 AD. Lu'lu' ("pearl," a name often given to one of servile origin) who was in service to the local Zangid rulers, rose to become army commander, and, after the death of his patron, Arslan Shah I, in 1211, acted as atabeg or guardian of the ruler's sons and de facto ruler. In 1233 the Caliph recognized him as an independent sultan, thus formally bringing to an end over a century of Zangid rule. It was Lu'lu"s misfortune, however, to have established his family in power just as the Mongols were entering the Islamic world and extinguishing many local dynasties. In the aftermath of his death and the Mongol invasions, his sons fled to Egypt and never regained rule over Mosul.
Badr al-Din lived to the ripe old age of 80, at a time when outside...