The Nizari Ismailis of Alamut

Who rules

Name

Nur al-Din Muhammad II (A'la Muhammad), son of Hasan II

Title

Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, lord (khudawand) of Alamut

Since

561 AH (1166), on the murder of his father Hasan II

Born

542 AH (1148) by the Nizari tradition preserved by Rashid al-Din and Juvaini (about nineteen at his accession); some modern accounts give about 550-553 AH

Family

Son of Hasan II 'ala dhikrihi'l-salam, who proclaimed the Resurrection (qiyama) at Alamut on 17 Ramadan 559 AH (8 August 1164) and was stabbed at Lamasar in 561 AH by his brother-in-law Hasan ibn Namawar. Heir: his son Jalal al-Din Hasan (born about 582 AH, 1186-87). Wives and other children: not pinned.

Confidence

high

Juvaini and Rashid al-Din (hostile Sunni chroniclers who used the Nizari chronicles found at Alamut in 1256), as summarised by Daftary and Hodgson.

Overlord

None. The imam acknowledges no caliph or sultan; the Sunni powers call his people heretics (malahida).

The realm that morning

Holds Rudbar with Alamut and Lamasar, Girdkuh, and Quhistan with Turshiz. Lost in 1199: Arslan-gusha near Qazvin (taken by Tekish after a siege of about four months; by one account the garrison was allowed to withdraw to Alamut). No truce with Tekish is known for the winter; his son Qutb al-Din Muhammad will besiege Turshiz from about March 1200. The vizier's murder is dated 593 AH (1197) in the TDV account and connected with the campaigns of 595-596 AH in others: not pinned against 1 January 1200.

Relations with the Bavandid Ardashir are hostile since he killed the Nizaris' protege Hazarasp of Ruyan in 586 AH (1190). With the Ghurids of Herat the Nizaris of Quhistan are said to have an agreement with Ghiyath al-Din (reported from Juzjani, not checked against the text; date not pinned). No Nizari belt is drawn: no raiding is attested for the winter itself.

Threats

• Khwarazmian siege of Turshiz (spring 1200)
• Khwarazmian garrisons now holding Firuzkuh, Ustunawand and Fulul east of Rudbar
• Ghurid raids on Quhistan after the Ghurid conquest of Khurasan (1200-01)

Family and court

The imam's household at Alamut; his son and heir Jalal al-Din Hasan, about 13. The chief da'is and castle commanders of 1200 are not named in the sources read.

Castles and towns

Rudbar: Alamut (seat), Lamasar, lesser castles along the Alamut river and the Shahrud; Maymun-diz only if already built (its building date is disputed). Qumis: Girdkuh. Quhistan: Qa'in, Tun, Junabad, Turshiz, Tabas Gilaki, Khusf, Khur, Mu'minabad (castle). Lost 1199: Arslan-gusha near Qazvin.

Religion

Nizari Ismaili Shi'ism under the qiyama teaching. Sunni neighbours treat them as heretics; Nizari townsmen in Sunni cities live in danger. The rapprochement with the caliph comes only in 1210 under Jalal al-Din Hasan.

Coinage and khutba

No Abbasid or Seljuk name in the Friday prayer in Nizari places. The Nizaris struck coins at Alamut under the mint name 'Kursi al-Daylam' (the seat of Daylam); which issues belong to Muhammad II's reign is not pinned.

Army

Castle garrisons of Daylami and Rudbari mountaineers and Quhistani townsmen; the fida'is; no field army of note.

Relations

Khwarazm: at war (1199 campaign, the vizier's murder, the Turshiz siege to come). Bavandids: hostile. Ghurids: an agreement with Ghiyath al-Din covering Quhistan is reported from Juzjani (unverified here; date not pinned). The caliph al-Nasir: hostile in 1200. The Eldiguzid atabeg and the Jibal emirs: no dealings recorded for 1199-1200. Syria: the Syrian Nizaris under their own chief da'i after Rashid al-Din Sinan's death (1193), on the Latin East map.

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 1200Qutb al-Din Muhammad besieges Turshiz for about four months.Depends on: Tekish keeping up the war after his vizier's murder Stopped by: A truce with Tekish before the spring
2. 19 Ramadan 596 AH (3 July 1200)Tekish dies on campaign (the TDV article gives 20 Ramadan, 4 July, near Nasa); Muhammad makes peace with the Nizaris of Turshiz for a payment and leaves for Khwarazm.Depends on: Tekish's natural death Stopped by: Tekish surviving
3. Late 1200 and 1201The Ghurid conquest of Khurasan brings Ghurid armies to Quhistan's borders and as far as Gurgan; the story reported from Juzjani of Mu'izz al-Din attacking the Nizaris and being called off by Ghiyath al-Din because of their agreement may belong here (unverified, not pinned).Depends on: The Ghurid invasion of Khurasan after Tekish's death Stopped by: Tekish surviving; Ghurid peace with Khwarazm

Later, on the likely course

1. 10 Rabi I 607 AH (1 September 1210)Muhammad II dies; Jalal al-Din Hasan succeeds.Depends on: Natural course Stopped by: Any earlier death

Where the sources disagree

• GM dossier: 'The Nizari Ismailis under the imam Nur al-Din Muhammad II hold Rudbar (Alamut), Girdkuh and Quhistan': confirmed. Add the loss of Arslan-gusha near Qazvin in 1199 and the state of war with Tekish.
• The chronology of Tekish's war with the Nizaris differs between accounts: the TDV article puts the vizier's murder and a Nizari payment in 593 AH (1197); the Wikipedia article (unsourced at this point) puts the siege of Arslan-gusha in 1199; Juvaini and Ibn al-Athir as usually read put the siege of Turshiz in 596 AH, ended by Tekish's death. The war being unresolved on 1 January 1200 holds under all of them.

Evidence: Thick for the main events in Juvaini, Rashid al-Din and Ibn al-Athir; thin for the internal government (no muhtasham or castle commander is named for 1200).

On the map: The Nizari state is a scatter of castles and oasis towns; drawing Quhistan as a block includes desert that no one governed.

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.

• 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