The Eldiguzids, Atabegs of Azerbaijan (1136-1225)

The founder of the line, Shams al-Din Eldiguz, was a Turk of Kipchak origin. The Seljuk sultan Mas'ud gave him Arran, and Eldiguz married Momine Khatun, widow of the former sultan Toghrul II. When her son Arslan-Shah took the throne in 1161, Eldiguz became his atabeg and the real master of the state.

Until 1194 the Eldiguzids were nominally subject to the Seljuk sultans and struck the sultan's name on their coins, but they ran the country. Under Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan (1175-1186) and Qizil Arslan (1186-1191) the state reached its widest borders. Nizami Ganjavi dedicated his poem "Khosrow and Shirin" to these atabegs.

After the fall of the Seljuks the Eldiguzids were independent in practice, but pressure from Georgia and the Khwarazmshahs kept growing. In 1225 the Khwarazmshah Jalal al-Din took Tabriz, ending the rule of the last atabeg, Özbek.