Kingdom · Persia and the Eastern Islamic World · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Tabaristan: the Bavandid kings

The Bavandids are one of the oldest ruling houses of Iran, kings of the Caspian province of Tabaristan, which by 1200 is usually called Mazandaran.

Their kingdom is a fertile, rainy plain between the Caspian and the forested wall of the Alborz, with Sari, Amul and Mamatir as its towns, and the mountain districts behind it where the old lords of the hills (ispahbads) hold their castles. Ardashir I has reigned since 1173. He was close to his father-in-law Tekish at first, but the Khwarazmshah has taken the outer provinces one after another: Gurgan about 1183, Bistam and Damghan about 1191-92, the land east of the Tamisha wall by 1194 (when the emir Sutash burned Sari), and in 595 AH (1199) the castles of Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul that guard the passes from Rayy.

In the same year a plot of Ardashir's vassals for his second son Rustam was crushed; Arghush, the Khwarazmian lord of Fulul, seized Amul and was driven out. Ruyan to the west has been under direct Bavandid rule since Ardashir killed the Paduspanid Hazarasp in 586 AH (1190); the Paduspanid line returns only in 1209-10. Larijan's upper valley is in Khwarazmian hands with Fulul; the lords of lower Larijan are not named in the sources read.

Who rules

Name
Husam al-Dawla Ardashir ibn Hasan
Title
King (shah) and ispahbad of Mazandaran
Since
568 AH (1173), on the murder of his father Ala al-Dawla Sharaf al-Muluk Hasan
Born
not pinned
Family
Second line of the Bavandids (the house of Sari). Wife: a daughter of the Khwarazmshah Tekish (betrothed young, sent to Sari for the wedding about 578 AH, 1182-83), whom Tekish is now demanding back. Sons: Sharaf al-Muluk (eldest, heir), Shams al-Muluk Rustam (second, in prison in the fortress of Dara after the plot of 595 AH), Rukn al-Dawla Qarin (youngest). Daughters: not pinned.
Confidence
high

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

Overlord

None in practice. He courts the caliph al-Nasir (robes and gifts from the caliph's vizier in 591 AH, 1195); his father-in-law Tekish presses him as a superior.

The realm that morning

Ardashir holds Mazandaran west of the Tamisha wall and Ruyan; the Khwarazmians hold Gurgan, Astarabad, Qumis and the southern castles. Relations with Tekish are at their lowest: Tekish has sent back (or is about to send back) Ardashir's heir and demands the return of his daughter; Ardashir ignores the demand. Rustam is a prisoner at Dara. No Khwarazmian army is in Mazandaran this winter as far as the sources show.

Threats

  • A new Khwarazmian campaign over the queen's return
  • Vassal discontent around Rustam
  • Nizari assassins (Rustam is murdered in 1210; Qarin is later killed by Ismailis)

Family and court

Sons Sharaf al-Muluk, Shams al-Muluk Rustam (prisoner), Rukn al-Dawla Qarin; the Khwarazmian queen. The vizier and officers of 1200 are not named in the sources read. Ibn Isfandiyar, the historian, served this house a few years later.

Great families

The ispahbads and lords of the mountain districts (the old Qarinid and Bavandid cadet lines of Savadkuh, Hazar Jarib and Firim), the Paduspanids of Ruyan (dispossessed since 1190), the lords of Larijan (not named). Some of them backed Rustam in 1199.

Castles and towns

Sari (capital), Amul, Mamatir, Tamisha on the frontier; Ruyan's towns Kalar, Chalus (Shalus) and Nur; the fortress of Dara (prison of Rustam, site not pinned); the old mountain seat of Firim. Lost: Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul (1199), Gurgan, Astarabad, Bistam, Damghan.

Religion

Islam, with a strong Shi'i (Zaydi and Twelver) tradition in Tabaristan from the Alid period and Sunni communities in the towns; the dynasty's own confession in 1200 is not pinned in the sources read.

Coinage and khutba

The caliph's name is acknowledged; whether Tekish's name was in Ardashir's sermon in 1199-1200 is not pinned. In 600 AH (1203-04) Ardashir put the Ghurid Mu'izz al-Din's name in the khutba and on his coins (later).

Army

The king's guard and the levies of the mountain lords; forest, rivers and passes are the defence. No numbers in the sources.

Relations

Khwarazm: forced cession of lands and hostages, open hostility in 1199. Nizaris: hostile. Caliph: friendly. Gilan chiefs: not pinned. Ghurids: no dealings before 1203-04 as far as the sources show.

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. After 3 July 1200Ardashir gradually recovers Damghan, Firuzkuh, Fulul and Ustunawand as Khwarazmian rule in the west collapses (dates not pinned).Depends on: Tekish's death and his son's war with the Ghurids in Khurasan Stopped by: Tekish surviving or a strong Khwarazmian garrison

Later, on the likely course

  1. 600 AH (1203-04)Ardashir names the Ghurid Mu'izz al-Din in his khutba and coinage.Depends on: The Ghurid war on Khwarazm Stopped by: No Ghurid war
  2. 602 AH (1205-06)Ardashir dies; Rustam succeeds; the dynasty ends with Rustam's murder on 4 Shawwal 606 AH (1 April 1210) and the Khwarazmian annexation.Depends on: Natural course Stopped by: Any change in the succession

Where the sources disagree

  • GM dossier: 'The Bavandid Ardashir I at Sari': confirmed; the kingdom is reduced to Mazandaran west of Tamisha with Ruyan, and the dossier should not give the Bavandids Gurgan, Astarabad, Damghan or Firuzkuh on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: Ibn Isfandiyar's contemporary history (read through Madelung) gives the sequence of events but few month dates; the internal structure of the kingdom in 1200 is thinly known.

On the map: The western limit against Gilan and the southern limit in the high mountains are approximate.

Primary sources for this realm

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.