Kings and their demesnes · The Nizari Ismailis of Alamut · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Nur al-Din Muhammad II

Muhammad II has ruled the Nizari state from Alamut for thirty-three years.

He is a learned imam who wrote much and who, according to the later Nizari tradition, taught that his father's proclamation of the Resurrection (qiyama) in 1164 had ended the rule of the outward religious law for the faithful and that the lords of Alamut were themselves imams descended from Nizar. He rules Rudbar, the upper valley of the Shahrud and the Alamut river north-east of Qazvin, directly from Alamut, with Lamasar as its western bulwark and a string of lesser castles and fortified villages along the valleys. Girdkuh near Damghan and the towns and castles of Quhistan are held for him by commanders and a regional chief (muhtasham) appointed from Alamut.

His people are a minority scattered through hostile Sunni lands; their strength is in castles, in the loyalty of the mountain villages, and in the fear of the dagger (the fida'is), which reaches viziers and princes far from the castles.

Who he is

Name
Nur al-Din Muhammad II, called A'la Muhammad
Title
Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, lord (khudawand) of Alamut
Since
561 AH (1166)
Born
542 AH (1148) by the Nizari tradition preserved by Rashid al-Din (about nineteen at his accession); so about 51 in January 1200. Some modern accounts give about 550-553 AH.
Family
Son of Hasan II 'ala dhikrihi'l-salam (murdered at Lamasar in 561 AH by his brother-in-law Hasan ibn Namawar, whom Muhammad II put to death with his kin). His mother is said to have been of Buyid descent. Son and designated heir: Jalal al-Din Hasan (born about 582 AH, 1186-87). Wives and other children: not pinned.
Confidence
high

Juvaini and Rashid al-Din (both hostile, both using Nizari chronicles taken at Alamut in 1256), via Daftary and Hodgson; Wikipedia summary.

What it holds

  • Alamut castle and the Alamut valley (Rudbar of Alamut), the imam's residence
  • Lamasar (Lambasar), the great castle of the Shahrud valley west of Alamut, taken by Kiya Buzurg-Umid about 1102
  • The lesser castles and fortified villages of Rudbar along the Alamut river and the Shahrud (names for 1200 not pinned)
  • Maymun-diz, if it already stands: Juvaini dates its building to the reign of Ala al-Din Muhammad (after 1221), Rashid al-Din to 490 AH (1097); not pinned
  • Girdkuh near Damghan, held by a commander appointed from Alamut (name for 1200 not pinned)
  • Other castles of Qumis attributed to the Nizaris in the Alamut period, such as Mihrin (Mehrnegar) near Damghan and Mansuriyya (Mansur Kuh) near Semnan: whether held in 1200 is not pinned
  • Castles of Taliqan and Tarum attributed to the Nizaris (Mansur, Arzhang; Samiran): whether held in 1200 is not pinned
  • Overlordship of Quhistan through its muhtasham (see Muhtasham of Quhistan)
  • The allegiance of Nizari communities without castles in Daylam, Qazvin, Rayy, Isfahan and Khurasan (numbers not pinned)
  • Overlordship of the Syrian Nizaris (Masyaf and the castles of the Jabal Bahra), drawn on the Latin East map as realm 'assassins'

How it was acquired

Alamut was seized by Hasan-i Sabbah in 483 AH (1090); Lamasar by his lieutenant Kiya Buzurg-Umid about 495 AH (1102); Girdkuh came over through its secretly converted Seljuk commander Ra'is Muzaffar about 489-493 AH (1096-1100); Quhistan rose for the Nizaris in the 1090s. Muhammad II inherited the whole from his father in 561 AH (1166).

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the Khwarazmshah Tekish, who in 1199 besieged and took the Nizari castle of Arslan-gusha near Qazvin and whose vizier the Nizaris killed (date of the murder, 595 or 596 AH, not pinned against 1 January 1200); the Bavandid Ardashir of Mazandaran, who in 586 AH (1190) caught and killed the Paduspanid Hazarasp of Ruyan after Hazarasp had found refuge at Alamut and raided his old lands with Nizari fighters; the townsmen and Sunni scholars of Qazvin, the old enemy across the mountains; the caliph al-Nasir (the rapprochement with Baghdad comes only under Jalal al-Din Hasan after 1210). Relations with the Ghurids: an agreement between Ghiyath al-Din and the Nizaris of Quhistan is reported from Juzjani (not checked against the text for this map; date not pinned). No allies among the Sunni princes are attested for the winter of 1199-1200.

How things stand that morning

On the morning of 1 January 1200 the imam holds Alamut, Lamasar and Rudbar, Girdkuh and Quhistan. The last year has gone badly in the west: Tekish's campaign of 1199 took Arslan-gusha near Qazvin after a siege of about four months (by one account the garrison was allowed to withdraw to Alamut), and Tekish's campaign also stripped the Bavandid of the castles of Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul on Rudbar's eastern flank, so that Khwarazmian garrisons now sit on the roads from Rayy into the mountains. There is no truce with Tekish known for this winter.

Tekish himself has left the west and is back in Khwarazm by late March 1200 at the latest. Where the imam is in person: presumably Alamut, not pinned.

Wealth

Small but secure: the produce of the Rudbar valleys (grain, rice in the lower valleys, fruit, honey, flocks), dues from the Nizari villages, the revenues of the Quhistan towns, tolls on the Khorasan road levied from Girdkuh, and contributions from Nizari communities abroad. The great library of Alamut is famous.

Military

Castles built and stocked for long sieges (rock-cut cisterns, stores); a garrison soldiery of local Daylami and Rudbari mountaineers; the fida'is, sworn agents for assassination. The Nizaris do not field large armies; their record is one of outlasting sieges (Seljuk sieges of 1118 and later failed) and of striking at commanders.

Threats

  • A renewed Khwarazmian offensive: Tekish orders his son Muhammad against Turshiz in Quhistan in 1200
  • The Khwarazmian garrisons now at Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul
  • Bavandid hostility on the Caspian side
  • Sunni reprisals against Nizari townsmen in Qazvin and Iraq

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. 596 AH, about March to July 1200Tekish's son Qutb al-Din Muhammad besieges the Nizari fortress of Turshiz in Quhistan for about four months, sent by his father after the murder of the vizier.Depends on: Tekish keeping up the war and Muhammad being free to march from Nishapur Stopped by: A settlement with Tekish before spring, or a crisis elsewhere in Khurasan
  2. 19 Ramadan 596 AH (3 July 1200)Tekish dies on the road to Khurasan; Muhammad raises the siege of Turshiz after taking a payment from the Nizaris and agreeing peace, and hurries to claim the throne.Depends on: Tekish's natural death on its date Stopped by: Tekish surviving

Later, on the likely course

  1. 10 Rabi I 607 AH (1 September 1210)Death of Muhammad II (poison was suspected); Jalal al-Din Hasan succeeds and turns the community towards Sunni practice.Depends on: Natural course Stopped by: Any earlier death or change in the succession

Places of note

  • Alamut castle: The imam's residence and library
  • Lamasar (Lambasar): The great castle of the Shahrud valley; Hasan II was murdered here in 1166
  • Maymun-diz (if built by 1200): Majidi's proposed site on Kuh-e Shatan; building date disputed
  • Girdkuh: Nizari fortress on the Khorasan road, 15-18 km west of Damghan

Where the sources disagree

  • The GM's dossier line 'The Nizaris hold Rudbar (Alamut), Girdkuh and Quhistan' is confirmed. Add: Arslan-gusha near Qazvin was lost to Tekish in 1199 (before 1 January 1200).
  • The Wikipedia article on Tekish says the Nizaris 'executed their vizier Ma'sud ibn Ali'; this is garbled: Mas'ud ibn Ali (Nizam al-Mulk) was Tekish's vizier, killed by Nizari agents.

Evidence: The outline of the reign is clear from Juvaini, Rashid al-Din and Ibn al-Athir, but the internal history of the Nizari state under Muhammad II is thinly recorded: commanders, castles beyond the famous ones, and the dates of 595-596 AH are not pinned to the month.

On the map: Rudbar's limits are drawn from the valleys; the Nizari hold on the Daylam uplands to the north is not pinned and is not drawn; Taliqan is drawn as likely.

Primary sources for Nizaris of Alamut

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 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
  • 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
  • The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
  • Compendium of Chronicles, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani (1300 to 1311, at Tabriz). The official Ilkhanid history, compiled from Mongol oral tradition and the lost Altan Debter. 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

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, 'Nur al-Din Muhammad II' (after Juvaini, Rashid al-Din, Daftary, Hodgson)
  2. F. Daftary, The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines (2nd ed., 2007), ch. 6 (the Nizaris of the Alamut period)
  3. Wikipedia, 'Ala al-Din Tekish' (after Ibn al-Athir, trans. Richards, and Juvaini, trans. Boyle)
  4. Wikipedia, 'Lambsar Castle' (coordinates and history)
  5. Wikipedia, 'Maymun-Dizh' (Majidi's identification; building date in Juvaini and Rashid al-Din)
  6. Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Gerdkuh' (F. Daftary)
  7. Wikipedia, 'Gerdkuh' (coordinates; commanders)
  8. Juvaini, Ta'rikh-i Jahan-gusha, trans. J. A. Boyle, The History of the World-Conqueror (1958), on Tekish and on the Ismailis
  9. Wikipedia, 'List of Assassin strongholds' (sites and coordinates; most attributions undated)

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