Abu Nasr (heir)

Who he is

Name

Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn al-Nasir (reigns later as al-Zahir bi-Amr Allah, 1225-1226)

Title

Heir to the caliphate (wali al-ahd)

Since

585 (1189) as heir

Born

571 (1175-1176) in Baghdad; aged about 24

Family

Son of al-Nasir; his son Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (the later al-Mustansir) was born in 588 (1192); a younger son Abu'l-Qasim Ahmad (birth not pinned).

Confidence

high

Designated heir in 585 with khutba and coin; deposed by his father in 601 (1204-1205) in favour of his younger brother Ali; restored in Shawwal 618 (1221) after Ali's death in 612 (al-Durar al-Saniyya, event 2453).

Overlord

his father the caliph

What it holds

• his household in the palace city
• his name in the khutba and on the coins after the caliph's

How it was acquired

Designation by his father in 585 (1189).

Allies and rivals

His younger brother Ali, al-Malik al-Mu'azzam, is his father's favourite and his natural rival for the succession.

How things stand that morning

Heir, named in the khutba and on the coins; no command or province.

Wealth

Allowances from the caliph's treasury.

Military

None of his own.

Threats

• his father's favour for Ali

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. not in 1200: 601 (1204-1205)al-Nasir sets him aside from the succession in favour of Ali.Depends on: the caliph's will Stopped by: Ali's death or disgrace; pressure from the officials and jurists

Where the sources disagree

• Some modern accounts imply he was set aside early; the chronicles summarised by al-Durar al-Saniyya date the deposition to 601, so he is heir on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Chronicle notices of 585, 601, 618 and 623.

On the map: No land of his own.

Primary sources for Abbasid Iraq

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The Mirror of Time, on the History of Notables, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (Shams al-Din Yusuf) (about 1240 to 1256, at Damascus). A Damascene preacher's year-by-year chronicle with obituaries, written by a grandson of the Baghdad scholar Ibn al-Jawzi, so it carries both the Baghdad view (the caliph al-Nasir and his court) and the Damascus view (al-Adil's court, the famine refugees of 1200, prices, the plague of 1201). Read online
• Comfort of Hearts and Sign of Joy: a History of the Seljuks, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rawandi (Ravandi) (1203 to 1204, dedicated to Kaykhusraw I of Rum). A history of the Great Seljuks from their origins to the death of the last sultan Toghril III in 1194, begun at Hamadan and finished for Kaykhusraw of Rum when the author moved to Anatolia. Read online
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online
• Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online
• The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, Benjamin of Tudela (about 1173). A generation before 1200 but the only survey of its kind: the Jewish communities and their heads from Navarre through Provence, Italy, Constantinople and the Aegean, Antioch, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mosul and Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, with notes on rulers, trades, the exilarch at Baghdad, the Assassins of Syria and Persia, and hearsay on India, Ceylon and China. Read online

1 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.