The Salghurids, Atabegs of Fars (1148-1282)

The Salghurids came from the Salur tribe of the Oghuz. The name can confuse: "Fars" here is the name of a province, not of a people. In 1148 Sunqur ibn Mawdud used the weakening of the Seljuks to seize Fars and founded an atabegate with Shiraz as its capital.

They were vassals first of the Seljuks, then of the Khwarazmshahs. Their best-known ruler, Abu Bakr ibn Sa'd (1226-1260), submitted to the Mongols in good time and so spared Shiraz from destruction. The poet Saadi of Shiraz wrote the "Bustan" and the "Gulistan" during his reign.

The last ruler of the line was Abish Khatun. She married Möngke Temür, a son of Hülegü, and Fars gradually passed under direct Ilkhanid rule. After 1282 the Salghurids were gone.