Shams al-Din Ildiguz

(also Shams al-Din Eldiguz). Date of birth unknown; died 1174. Founder of the Turkic Ildiguzid feudal dynasty in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran.

A Kipchak slave by birth, Shams al-Din Ildiguz was in the service of the Seljuk vizier Simirumi and later of Sultan Masud ibn Muhammad, who appointed him governor of northern and southern Azerbaijan in 1136. Having become an independent ruler of lands in Azerbaijan and head of the Iraqi-Seljuk sultanate after Masud’s death, he united under his rule various territories, including southern Azerbaijan, northern Azerbaijan as far as Shirvan and Georgia, and all western Iran.