al-Nasir

Who he is

Name

Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad al-Nasir li-Din Allah

Title

Caliph (khalifa), Commander of the Faithful

Since

2 Dhu'l-Qa'da 575 (30 March 1180)

Born

553 (August 1158); aged 41

Family

Mother Zumurrud Khatun (alive; dies 599, about January 1203). Sons: Abu Nasr Muhammad, the heir (born 571/1175-1176); Abu'l-Hasan Ali, called al-Malik al-Mu'azzam, his favourite (birth year not pinned; dies 612/1216). Grandson: Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (the later caliph al-Mustansir), son of Abu Nasr, born 588 (1192).

Confidence

high

Accession, designation of the heir and the later deposition from al-Durar al-Saniyya's summaries of the chronicles; al-Mustansir's birth year from the usual accounts (588/1192), not checked against a primary source here.

What it holds

• the palace city (Dar al-Khilafa) and the east bank of Baghdad
• the west-bank quarters of Baghdad (Karkh, the Harbiyya, Bab al-Basra)
• the Sawad districts of the Dujayl, the Nahr Isa, the Nahr Malik, the Nahr Sarsar, the Khalis and the Khurasan road with Ba'quba and Baradan
• the Nahrawan district east of the Tigris
• al-Mada'in (Salman Pak)
• the caliph's mint and treasury (makhzan)
• the headship of the futuwwa

How it was acquired

By succession from his father al-Mustadi in 575 (1180).

Allies and rivals

See the realm record. In the palace his rivals are his own servants: the vizier Ibn Mahdi and the great mamluks will fall out in 601-604 (later).

How things stand that morning

Rules Baghdad and the Sawad in person through the vizier Nasir ibn Mahdi and his household officers; his heir Abu Nasr Muhammad is named after him in the khutba and on the coins.

Wealth

The land tax and canal dues of the Sawad, Baghdad's markets and the bridge tolls, the mint, pious endowments and confiscations.

Military

His mamluk guard and the household troops in Baghdad; the walls of the east side with their four gates (Bab al-Sultan, Bab al-Zafariyya, Bab al-Halba, Bab al-Basaliyya).

Threats

• Tekish's claim to the sultanate of Baghdad
• faction fighting in Baghdad

Places of note

• al-Mada'in, the tomb of Salman al-Farisi: small town by the ruins of Ctesiphon with the shrine of Salman

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Chronicles of Baghdad and Ibn al-Athir; the internal organisation of the Sawad districts in 1200 is described from the general literature (Le Strange) rather than a 1200 document.

On the map: The caliph's direct districts merge into the governorships; the block shows the central Sawad round Baghdad.

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

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