Home > An-Nasir

In the early years of his caliphate, his goal was to crush the Seljuk power and replace it with his own. He incited rebellion against the Seljuk Sultan. The Khwarizm Shah, Tekish , at his instigation, attacked the Seljuk forces, and defeated them. Tekish, recognized now as supreme ruler of the East, bestowed on the Caliph certain provinces of Persia that had been held by the Seljuks.

An-Nasir sent his vizier to Tekish with some gifts, but the imprudent vizier so irritated the hot-tempered Tekish, that Tekish attacked the Caliph's troops and routed them. Thereafter hostile relations prevailed for many years. The Caliph assassinated a governor of Tekish by using an Ismaili emissary. Tekish responded by having the body of an-Nasir's vizier, who died on a campaign against him, exhumed, and the head stuck up at Khwarizm. Irritated at this and other hostile acts, the Caliph retaliated by treating with indignity the pilgrims who came from the East under Khwarizm's flag. But beyond such poor revenge, he was powerless for any open enmity.

Tekish's son, Muhammad II of Khwarezm, annoyed at the actions of the Caliph, set up a Shi'a caliph to paralyse an-Nasir's spiritual power. Following up this act, he turned his army on Baghdad. In response, an-Nasir appealed to Genghis Khan, the rising Mongol chief, to check Muhammad's progress, but it was too late: Muhammad had already taken Eastern Iraq. But before he could invade Baghdad, the weather forced him to return to Khorasan.

The caliph soon found his diplomacy bearing evil fruit. The steppes of Central Asia were set in motion by Genghiz Khan, and his hordes put to flight the Khwarizm Shah, who died an exile in an island of the Caspian.

Meanwhile SaladinSaladin ( 1137 1193) Salah al Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub founded the ethnically Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt and Syria. He was also renowned in both the Christian and Muslim worlds for his leadership and military prowess tempered by his chivalry and merciful, when hard pressed by the CrusadeThis article is about the historical Crusades and the extended term "Crusade". For the artillery system, see XM2001 Crusader; for the fighter jet, see F-8 Crusader; for the television series, see Crusade. Historically, the Crusades were a series of severars, appealed for help to an-Nasir, who, caring for little beyond his own aggrandizement, contented himself with sending a store of naphthaNaphtha is a group of various volatile flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixtures used chiefly as solvents. It is obtained from petroleum refineries as the portion of the distillate which is intermediate between the lighter gasoline and the heavier benzene., with men to use it against the invaders in the field.

Besides his occasional conquests, he held Iraq from TikritTikrit (, also transliterated as Takrit or Tekrit is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river (at 34. The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 28,900, is the administrative centre of the province of Salah ad D to the GulfThe Persian Gulf ( Persian: , Arabic: ) is an extension of the Gulf of Oman in between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. This inland sea of some 233,000 km² is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz, and its western end is marked without interruption. He is described as having been an oppressive ruler. There are instances, however, in which when appealed to, he interposed in favor of the weaker party — though partly from the fear of too powerful antagonists. His long reign of forty-seven years is chiefly marked by ambitious and corrupt dealings with the TartarTatars or Tartars collective name applied to the Turkic-speaking people of Europe and Asia. Most Tatars live in the central and southern parts of Russia, Ukraine, and in Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. They collectively numbe chiefs, and by his hazardous invocation of the Mongols, which so soon brought his own dynasty to an end. But in his day, there was comparative peace at Baghdad; learning flourished; schools and libraries were promoted; while refuges for the poor, and other works of public interest, were encouraged.

The text above is adapted from William MuirSir William Muir ( April 27, 1819 1905), was a Scottish Orientalist. He was born at Glasgow and educated at Kilmarnock Academy, at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, and at Haileybury College. In 1837 he entered the Bengal Civil Service. He served as sec's public domain, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall.