Injuids

The Injuids gained control of parts of Iran, mostly Fars, in 1304 at the beginning of the reign of the Ilkhan Öljeitü. The Ilkhan had given Sharaf al-Din Mahmud Shah control of the injü (or inji; the Mongol word for the royal estates). Before progressively gaining independence, the "Injuids" had been appointed initially by Öljeitü as "margrave", or local governors, for the area of Fars.

File:Shahnama frontispiece (court scene). Shiraz, Injuid AH 733 (1333 CE) Saint-Peterbourg ex-Dorn 329.jpg for the Ilkhan Abu Sa'id, with his court. Frontispiece of an Injuid Shahnama of Firdawsi. Shiraz, dated February 1333. Dorn 329.{{cite book |last1=Bloom |first1=Jonathan M. |title=Beyond the legacy of Genghis Khan |date=2006 |pages=217, 237 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden ; Boston |isbn=978-9004150836 |url=https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/11137 |quote=p.217: "There then follow three well-known manuscripts of the Shahnama, long associated with the Inju dynasty and its capital of Shiraz. The first of these is dated Safar 7311November 1330 (pl. 17); the second dated the last day of Jumada I 733/16 February 1333 (fig. 34); and the third, dispersed but reconstructed, contains a dedication dated Ramadan 741/mid-March 1341 (pl. 18). " (...) p.237 "It has been proposed that the enthroned figure in the center of the left side of the frontispiece in the 1333 Shahnama represents Sharaf al-Din Mabmud Shah who, at the time this manuscript was produced, served as the Inju dynasty administrator of the estates in Fars province belonging to the Ilkhan Abu Sa'id. In this capacity, Mabmud Shah certainly would have had the wherewithal to commission an illustrated Shahnama and to have directed that his portrait be placed at the beginning of the volume."}}]]

Sharaf al-Din was reportedly descended from 'Abd-Allah Ansari, an 11th-century mystic of Herat. His son, Amir Ghiyas al-Din Kai-Khusrau, assisted another family, the Muzaffarids, in their takeover of Yazd. By 1325 Sharaf al-Din had gained nearly an absolute grip on the region. His power displeased Öljeitü's successor Abu Sa'id, who ordered Sharaf al-Din removed and sent a Sheikh Hussein ibn Juban to replace him. Kai-Khusrau, who ruled Shiraz for his father, resisted; and Sheikh Hussein was forced to return with an Ilkhan army. Also during Abu Sa'id's lifetime, Sharaf al-Din was imprisoned in Tabriz for a failed attempt to murder his successor.

With the death of Abu Sa'id in 1335, Arpa Ke'un took the throne. He had Sharaf al-Din executed; two of Sharaf's sons in the royal encampment (Amir Jalal al-Din Mas'ud Shah, who fled to Hasan Buzurg; Shaikh Abu Ishaq to Amir 'Ali Padishah) withdrew from the scene. Meanwhile, Kai-Khusrau was asserting his authority in Shiraz. When Arpa Ke'un was captured by rebels, he was sent to Mas'ud Shah, who killed him. Mas'ud Shah then served as vizier under the Jalayirid puppet Ilkhan Muhammed Khan; when the latter was killed, he made his way to Shiraz. The two brothers came into conflict, which was only settled when Kai-Khusrau's died (1338/9).

Mas'ud Shah was quickly faced with more challenges to his reign. A year after Kai Khusrau's death, a fourth son of Sharaf al-Din named Shams al-Din Muhammad escaped from his brother's prison of Qal'a-yi Saf'id, whereupon he joined the Chobanids. Shams al-Din, together with the Chobanid Pir Hosayn, marched to Shiraz, which they captured. Mas'ud Shah fled to Luristan. Pir Hosayn, however, murdered Shams al-Din; this act lost him support in the city, and he had to withdraw. Pir Hosayn reconquered the city in the next year, however. Mas'ud Shah attempted to take advantage of Chobanid infighting, and allied with Yagi Basti to take the city, which had in the meantime fallen into the hands of Abu Ishaq. He had been given Isfahan by Pir Hosayn, and he now took Shiraz as well. When Yagi Basti murdered Mas'ud Shah that same year, Abu Ishaq became the sole surviving son of Sharaf al-Din. He took Shiraz from Yagi Basti in March 1343.

File:Frontispiece (rulers enthroned). Firdawsī, Stephens Shāhnāma. Probably Shiraz, 1352–53.jpg and his queen. Frontispiece of the Shahnama of 1352-53. Shiraz, Injuid period.{{cite journal |last1=Chida-Razvi |first1=Mehreen |title=Power and Politics of Representation: Picturing Elite Women in Ilkhanid Painting |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |date=October 2022 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=778–779 |doi=10.1017/S1356186321000742 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186321000742 |language=en |issn=1356-1863}}]]

Jamal al-Din Abu Ishaq's goal was to conquer Kerman; he therefore undertook expeditions against the Muzaffarids, who were led by Mubariz al-Din Muhammad. The rivalry between the two heated up during a campaign against the Muzaffarid city of Yazd during 1350 and 1351. In retaliation, Mubariz al-Din invaded Fars in 1352. After defeating the Injuids in battle, he laid siege to Shiraz in 1353. Abu Ishaq, who grew increasingly paranoid, ordered the extermination of two quarters of the city in order to root out traitors. The chief of another quarter, fearing for his people, gave the key for his gate to Mubariz al-Din's son Shah Shuja. Abu Ishaq was forced to surrender, but he escaped and made his way to Isfahan with the support of the Jalayirids. Mubariz al-Din, however, laid siege to that city also, and captured it in 1357. Abu Ishaq again surrendered, was sent to Shiraz, and was executed. The Injuid lands now fell into the hands of the Muzaffarids, who would hold them until the onslaught of Timur forty years later.

The Injuids, having been appointed initially by Öljeitü as "margrave", or local governors, for the area of Fars, tried to assert their independence by the creation of a specific literature with elaborate illustrations. This efforts helped Shiraz become a recognized and admired center for the arts of the book throughout the 14th century.{{cite book |title=The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire Vol 1 |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781316337424 |page=228 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316337424 |quote=In the absence of the Ilkhanid dynasty, various margrave families also struck out on their own. In Fars, the Injuids, whom Öljeitü had appointed to govern the royal lands in the south, expressed their own claim to sovereignty, exemplified in a series of elaborately illustrated books that set the course for Shiraz to become a pre-eminent center of book arts through the fourteenth century. The Injuids did not last long, and Fars was absorbed by 1357 into the expanding Muzaffarid state.}}

The Injuid school of Shiraz is characterized by a fairly consitent style, and many of the manuscripts are signed and dated. The paintings are very rich in color, using red, yellow ocher, or sometimes plain-paper backgrounds. The painting are quite original compared to others of the period, the style is rather vigorous, the action scenes are dynamic.{{cite book |last1=Swietochowski |first1=Marie Lukens |last2=Carboni |first2=Stefano |title=Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s |date=1994 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-87099-693-1 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=00t6HH7RUCAC&pg=PA75 |language=en}}

The depiction of mountains in particular is quiet characteristic, with strong symbolic peaks painted over yellow backgrounds, although this is probably derived from Mongol painting. Some of the faces tend to be Iranian, and derive from traditional Sassanid styles.{{cite web |last1=Moravej |first1=Elahe |title=COMPARING THE SCENE OF HUNTING DEER, BAHRAM GUR AND AZADEH IN SHAHNAMEHS OF 1331, 1333 AND 1352 A.D. COPIES |url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/mage-of-Bahram-and-Azadeh-in-hunting-place-Ferdowsis-Shahnameh-of-1352-AD_fig3_308023286 |date=2016 |quote=These colorful famous injuid mountains which are laid on the yellow background are probably derived from Mongol painting. (...) Face of Bahram and Azadeh is Iranian and derived from Iranian old faces which can be seen in central Asian painting after Sassanids (Sherveh, 2013).}}

File:Isfandiyar battles the Simurgh or Persian Phoenix, Shah Nama (Book of Kings) Shiraz, 1330 (detail).jpg|Shahnama of 1330, Shiraz, Injuid period

File:Samak-e Ayyar Folio 061a Ilkhanid Battle scene.jpg|Samak-e Ayyar, Injuid, circa 1330

File:Wolf Head kneeling as a prisoner in front of Esfandiar, Shahnama, Shiraz, 1331.jpg|Shahnama of 1330, Shiraz, Injuid period

File:Bahram Gur Hunting with Azada, Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) Author Abu'l Qasim Firdausi Iranian dated 753 AH-1352 CE, Shiraz, Injuid period (miniature).jpg|Shahnama, 1352 CE, Shiraz, Injuid

File:Bahram Gur and Azadeh in hunting place, Istanbul Shahnameh, Shiraz 1331.jpg|Bahram Gur and Azadeh in hunting place, Istanbul Shahnameh, Shiraz 1331.{{cite web |last1=Moravej |first1=Elahe |title=COMPARING THE SCENE OF HUNTING DEER, BAHRAM GUR AND AZADEH IN SHAHNAMEHS OF 1331, 1333 AND 1352 A.D. COPIES |url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/mage-of-Bahram-and-Azadeh-in-hunting-place-Ferdowsis-Shahnameh-of-1352-AD_fig3_308023286 |date=2016}}

{{History of Iran|Battle scene, Injuid period.jpg}}

• Sharaf al-Din Mahmud Shah (1304–1335)
• Amir Ghiyas al-Din Kai-Khusrau (1336–1338/9)
• Amir Jalal al-Din Mas'ud Shah (in opposition to Kai-Khusrau) ({{circa|1338–1342}})
• Shams al-Din Muhammad (in opposition to Mas'ud Shah) (1339)
• Shaikh Jamal al-Din Abu Ishaq ({{circa|1343–1357}})

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{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Manz|first=Beatrice Forbes|author-link=Beatrice Forbes Manz|title=Trajectories of State Formation across Fifteenth-Century Islamic West-Asia|publisher=Brill|year=2020|isbn=978-9004431300|editor-last=Steenbergen|editor-first=Jo Van|pages=257–282|chapter=Iranian Elites under the Timurids|url=https://brill.com/view/title/57550}}
• Peter Jackson (1986). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume Six: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. {{ISBN|0-521-20094-6}}
• Arthur J. Arberrt (1960). Shiraz: Persian City of Saints and Poets. {{ISBN|0-608-11726-9}}

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{{Iran topics}}

Category:14th century in Iran

Category:States and territories established in 1335

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1357

Category:Former countries in West Asia