Kings and their demesnes · Tabaristan: the Bavandid kings · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Ardashir I (Bavandid)

Ardashir has reigned in Sari for twenty-six years and has spent most of them losing ground, piece by piece, to his father-in-law Tekish.

He gave up Gurgan about 1183, Bistam and Damghan about 1191-92, then the lands east of the Tamisha wall, where Tekish's emir Sutash set a military governor (shihna) after sacking and burning Sari in 590 AH (1194). In 595 AH (1199) Tekish took the mountain castles of Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul and made Ardashir send his eldest son into Khwarazmian service. A plot of Ardashir's vassals to put his second son Rustam on the throne followed; Sutash marched on Sari and Arghush, the Khwarazmian lord of Fulul, seized Amul.

Ardashir crushed the plot, drove Arghush out of Amul and shut Rustam up in the fortress of Dara. He still holds the heart of the kingdom: Sari, Amul and Mamatir in the rich Caspian plain, the forested mountain districts behind them, and Ruyan to the west, which he has held directly since he killed the Paduspanid ruler Hazarasp in 586 AH (1190).

Who he is

Name
Husam al-Dawla Ardashir ibn Hasan
Title
Shah and ispahbad of Mazandaran (Tabaristan)
Since
568 AH (1173)
Born
not pinned
Family
Son of Ala al-Dawla Sharaf al-Muluk Hasan (murdered 568 AH, 1173), grandson of Shah Ghazi Rustam (died 8 Rabi I 560 AH, 23 January 1165). Wife: a daughter of the Khwarazmshah Tekish, betrothed to him as a girl and sent to Sari for the wedding about 578 AH (1182-83); Tekish is now demanding her back and Ardashir has ignored the demand (between 595 AH and July 1200; the exact date not pinned). Sons: Sharaf al-Muluk (the eldest, heir), Shams al-Muluk Rustam (prisoner in the fortress of Dara), Rukn al-Dawla Qarin (the youngest). Other wives and daughters: not pinned.
Confidence
high

Ibn Isfandiyar (who served this house and wrote about 1216), via Madelung's article in Encyclopaedia Iranica.

Overlord

None in practice. He acknowledges the caliph al-Nasir, who sent him robes and gifts in 591 AH (1195).

What it holds

  • Sari, the capital (burned by Sutash in 590 AH, 1194), with the plain east to the Neka river and the Tamisha wall
  • Amul, the largest town of Tabaristan, and the Haraz plain (recovered from Arghush in 595 AH, 1199)
  • Mamatir (Babol) and the central plain to the sea
  • The mountain districts behind the plain: Savadkuh (the Qarin mountains) and Hazar Jarib (Shahriyar-kuh, with the old Bavandid seat of Firim), less the castles taken by Tekish
  • Ruyan: Nur, Kojur, Kalar and Chalus (Shalus), held directly since the killing of the Paduspanid Hazarasp in 586 AH (1190)
  • The fortress of Dara (site not pinned), where Shams al-Muluk Rustam is imprisoned
  • Lower Larijan on the Haraz below Fulul (not pinned)
  • Lost and claimed: Gurgan (since about 1183), Bistam and Damghan (about 1191-92), the land east of Tamisha (1191-94), Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul (595 AH, 1199)

How it was acquired

Inherited in 568 AH (1173). He recovered Astarabad, Bistam and Damghan in 569 AH (1174) after the death of Mu'ayyid Ay-Aba, then lost them and Gurgan to Tekish between about 1183 and 1194; Ruyan seized in 586 AH (1190).

Allies and rivals

Rival and father-in-law: Tekish, the Khwarazmshah, whose emirs Sutash (east of Tamisha) and Arghush (at Fulul) press him on two sides. The Nizaris of Alamut sheltered his enemy Hazarasp; relations are hostile. He cultivated the caliph al-Nasir and, in the 1180s-90s, the last Seljuk sultan Tughril III and the atabeg Muhammad Pahlavan, all now gone. His own vassals plotted against him in 1199 for his son Rustam.

How things stand that morning

Holds Mazandaran west of the Tamisha wall, from the Caspian shore to the mountain crest, with Ruyan; relations with Tekish are at their worst: Khwarazmian garrisons hold Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul on his southern edge and a Khwarazmian shihna holds the land east of Tamisha. Whether his heir Sharaf al-Muluk has already been sent back by Tekish on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (it happened between 595 AH and Tekish's death in July 1200). Rustam is a prisoner at Dara.

Wealth

The Caspian plain is the richest farmland in northern Iran: rice, citrus, silk, flax and cotton; the forests give timber, charcoal and boxwood; the towns weave silk and fine cloths and make mats; falcons and horses. Sea trade along the Caspian. Mint: not pinned for this reign.

Military

The king's guard and the levies of his vassal lords (the lords of the mountain districts and of the plain); a country of forests, rivers and swamps, hard for cavalry armies. Sari was nonetheless sacked in 1194. Numbers not in the sources read.

Threats

  • Tekish's demand for his daughter's return and a new Khwarazmian campaign
  • Sutash's forces east of Tamisha and Arghush at Fulul
  • The disaffected vassals who backed Rustam
  • Nizari daggers

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.

In 1200

  1. 3 July 1200 (19 Ramadan 596 AH) and afterOn Tekish's death Ardashir begins to win back Damghan, Firuzkuh, Fulul and Ustunawand as Khwarazmian rule in the west collapses (dates not pinned, 1200-1204).Depends on: Tekish dying on his date and his son Muhammad being tied down in Khurasan by the Ghurids Stopped by: Tekish surviving, or Muhammad sending a strong force west

Later, on the likely course

  1. 600 AH (1203-04)Ardashir names the Ghurid Mu'izz al-Din in his Friday sermon and on his coins while the Ghurids attack Khwarazm; the tie lapses after the Ghurid defeat of 601 AH (1204-05).Depends on: The Ghurid war with Khwarazm Stopped by: Any change in that war
  2. 602 AH (1205-06)Ardashir dies; his heir Sharaf al-Muluk dies about the same time; Rustam is released from Dara and enthroned at Amul; Qarin goes to Khwarazm.Depends on: Natural course Stopped by: Earlier deaths or a change in the succession

Places of note

  • Sari: Capital
  • Amul: Largest town

Where the sources disagree

  • The GM's line 'The Bavandid Ardashir I at Sari' is confirmed, but the kingdom is much reduced: Gurgan, Astarabad, Bistam, Damghan and (since 595 AH, 1199) Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul are Khwarazmian on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Ibn Isfandiyar is a contemporary court source, read here through Madelung's summary; month dates for 595-596 AH are not given.

On the map: The western limit of Ruyan against the Gilan chiefs (Tunakabun, Sakhtsar) and the southern limit in the high mountains are approximate.

Primary sources for Bavandids

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.

  • History of Tabaristan, Ibn Isfandiyar (Baha al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan) (begun 1206, extended about 1216; continued anonymously to 1349). The local history of the Caspian province and the only account of the Bavandid kings of Tabaristan: Husam al-Dawla Ardashir (reigned 1173 to 1206) at Sari and Amul, his dealings with the Khwarazmshahs Tekish and Ala al-Din Muhammad, the Nizaris of Alamut, the Eldiguzids and the caliph, and the marriages, feuds and raids of the Daylamite and Gilaki lords. 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

Sources and studies

  1. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Bavandids' (W. Madelung), on Hosam-al-dawla Ardashir after Ibn Esfandiar
  2. Wikipedia, 'Ala al-Din Tekish' (after Ibn al-Athir, trans. Richards, and Juvaini, trans. Boyle)
  3. Wikipedia, 'Paduspanids' (after Madelung, Iranica 'Baduspanids')
  4. G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905), chs. on Tabaristan, Gilan, Jurjan, Qumis and Quhistan

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.