Magnates and their honours · Contested ground · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Khujandis

The Khujandis are the great Shafi'i family of Isfahan: preachers, teachers and town chiefs, with the following of half the city.

In 591/1195 their head Sadr al-Din al-Khujandi wrote to the caliph's Diwan offering to hand Isfahan to its troops, and the Khwarazmian garrison withdrew before them; he then lived in Isfahan as the vizier Ibn al-Qassab's companion, and in 592/1196 was killed after a quarrel by Falak al-Din Sunqur the Tall, the prefect (shihna) of Isfahan (Ibn al-Athir). Who heads the house on 1 January 1200 is not pinned. Their politics turn on their feud with the Hanafi Sa'idis: each side calls in a prince against the other.

Who he is

Name
not pinned for 1200
Title
Head (ra'is) of the Shafi'is of Isfahan
Since
not pinned
Born
not pinned
Family
A family of Shafi'i scholars from Khujand brought to Isfahan in Nizam al-Mulk's time to teach in his college (the Nizamiyya); they have led the city's Shafi'is ever since. Sadr al-Din al-Khujandi, head of the Shafi'is and the city's leading man, was killed in 592/1196 (Ibn al-Athir); his successor is not named in the sources read.
Confidence
low

Ibn al-Athir years 591-592.

Overlord

Whoever holds Isfahan

What it holds

  • Leadership of the Shafi'i half of Isfahan and its quarters
  • Teaching posts and pulpits, with their endowments (waqf)

How it was acquired

Inherited religious and civic leadership.

Allies and rivals

Leaned toward the caliph's Diwan in 591-592; rivals: the Sa'idi Hanafis; the Khwarazmians, whose garrison they helped expel in 591.

How things stand that morning

The leading Shafi'i family inside a city whose governorship is not pinned; their head that winter is not named.

Wealth

Endowments, teaching stipends, urban property.

Military

The armed followers of the Shafi'i quarters.

Threats

  • The Sa'idis and the Hanafi quarters
  • A governor who resents their dealings with Baghdad

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The family is well known; its head in 1200 is not.

On the map: A family inside the city: no ground drawn.

Sources and studies

  1. Ibn al-Athir, The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athir for the Crusading Period, part 3, tr. D. S. Richards (archive.org text, years 589-594)
  2. al-Durar al-Saniyya, historical encyclopedia: the caliph's army takes Isfahan (591 AH), after Ibn al-Athir

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