The Early Nizari Ismailis and their Neighbouring Powers Politics in the Caspian Provinces
I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies
This history of the Alamut era of the Nizari Ismaili community concentrates on the local politics of the remote mountainous Caspian region of northern Iran. This is where the prominent religious and military leader Hasan-i Sabbah (1050s–1124) famously founded the medieval Nizari Ismaili state in 1090, before it ultimately collapsed at the hands of the Mongols in 1256.
Miklós Sárközy presents here a fresh investigation of this turbulent period through a detailed examination of the contemporary regional Caspian histories. His analysis provides an important contribution to our understanding of the development of the early Nizari Ismailis and their Imams in Iran. The book considers the effects of neighbouring regional powers on the formation and adaptions of the Nizari state whilst it was continuously subjected to the assaults of the Saljuq Turks. The result is a new perspective on how the Nizari Ismailis were able to survive and flourish through difficult times and to establish themselves as a significant polity of the Muslim world.
The Nizaris—also known pejoratively as “the Assassins” in western literature—have attracted considerable interest among both scholars and the general public. This book is a much-needed analysis of a neglected area of their vital history.
Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Introduction: Sources and Studies
Chapter 2: The Political Relations of the Nizārī Ismaili State in the Caspian Provinces under Ḥasan-i Ṣabbāḥ
Chapter 3: The Development of Local Powers in the Caspian Region during Saljūq Decline
Chapter 4: Nizārī Bāwandid Competition for Hegemony, 534–565/1140–1170
Chapter 5: Nizārī Bāwandid Confrontation in the Late 6th/12th Century
Chapter 6: The Last Decades of the Nizārī Ismaili State
Chapter 7: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad III and the End of the Nizārī Ismaili State in the Caspian Provinces
Chapter 8: The Economy and Social Structure of the Nizārī Ismaili State
Conclusion
Appendix I Maps of the Caspian Provinces
Appendix II The Dīwān-i Qāʾimiyyat, Extracts in Translation
Appendix III Dynastic Tables
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Miklós Sárközy is Assistant Professor in the Institute of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Károli Gáspár University of the Hungarian Reformed Church, Hungary. He is the author of many journal articles and chapters, most recently contributing to Texts, Scribes and Transmission: Manuscript Cultures of the Ismaili Communities and Beyond (2022) and the Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2018). His research interests include Ismaili studies, early Islamic and medieval Iran and Central Asia.