Vizier Ibn Mahdi

Who he is

Name

Nasir al-Din Nasir ibn Mahdi al-Alawi al-Hasani al-Razi

Title

Vizier (wazir), head of the diwans

Since

after the death of Ibn al-Qassab in Sha'ban 592 (July 1196); the date he first held the full title is not pinned in the sources read

Born

not pinned

Family

An Alid (descendant of al-Hasan) from Rayy in the Jibal; he had a son in office with him (name not pinned)

Confidence

medium

Hancabay (2020) counts only four full viziers under al-Nasir: Ibn Yunus, Ibn Hadida, Ibn al-Qassab and Ibn Mahdi; Ibn Mahdi was dismissed in 604 (1207-1208) after quarrelling with the caliph's senior mamluks, several of whom fled (Ibn al-Athir as summarised on Islamweb; Ibn al-Najjar via al-Qurashi). That he heads the administration on 1 January 1200 follows from his being the only vizier between Ibn al-Qassab and 604; whether he then bears the title of vizier or of deputy vizier (na'ib al-wizara) is not pinned.

Overlord

the caliph

What it holds

• the vizierate and the chancery (diwan al-insha)
• supervision of the treasury and the provincial correspondence

How it was acquired

Appointment by the caliph after 592 (1196).

Allies and rivals

Rivals: the caliph's senior mamluk emirs; his own dependence on the caliph's favour.

How things stand that morning

Head of the caliph's administration (vizier, or deputy vizier with the vizier's powers; the title on this date is not pinned).

Wealth

Salary and perquisites of office; no iqta' recorded.

Military

None of his own; he commands through the caliph's officers.

Threats

• the mamluk emirs
• the caliph's suspicion (rumours that he aimed at the caliphate helped bring his fall in 604)

Where the sources disagree

• The brief notes Ibn al-Qassab died in 1196; confirmed (Sha'ban 592, July 1196). His successor is Ibn Mahdi; the exact date of his appointment is not pinned here.

Evidence: His dismissal (604) is well attested; his appointment date was not found in the sources read.

On the map: An office without land.

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.