Shihna

Shiḥna (شحنة) was a medieval Islamic term meaning, roughly, "military administrator." The term was used particularly for the Seljuk Turks' representative in Iraq, who exerted the Seljuks' power over the Abbasid caliph. The Seljuks themselves ruled their empire, which included most of southwest Asia in the 11th century and after, from Iran in Isfahan.^[2]

Ruler in Turkic military dress: long braids, sharbush fur hat, boots, close-fitting coat.^[1] Maqamat by Al-Hariri of Basra (1054–1122), a high government official of the Seljuks. Mesopotamia, 1237 copy.^[1]

List of shihnas

Baghdad

• Bursuq the Elder (April 1060 – 1061), the first shihna of Baghdad^[3]
• Oshin (1061–?), a ghulam^[3]
• Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi^[3]
• Ilghazi (until 1104)
• Aqsunqur al-Bursuqi (1124-1125)
• Baran-Qush Zakawi (1125-1126)
• Zengi (1126-1127)

References

1. Flood, Finbarr Barry (2017). "A Turk in the Dukhang? Comparative Perspectives on Elite Dress in Medieval Ladakh and the Caucasus". Interaction in the Himalayas and Central Asia. Austrian Academy of Science Press: 232.
2. ALPTEKIN, COJKUN (1972). The Reign of Zangi (PDF). University of London. pp. 33–44.
3. رحمتی, محسن (March 2018). "خاندان برسقی و تحولات عصر سلجوقی" (PDF). پژوهش های تاریخی (in Persian). 10 (1). doi:10.22108/jhr.2017.83577.

• "Shihna." Encyclopedia of Islam 3rd ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993.