page_title: Nizari–Seljuk conflicts
section_title: Sultan Muhammad Tapar's campaigns
hierarchical_section_title: Nizari–Seljuk conflicts / Sultan Muhammad Tapar's campaigns
caption_attribution_description: English: Coin of Muhammad I, an Seljuq Sultan.
context_page_description: By the late 11th century, the Shi'a sect of Isma'ilism, propagated by the Fatimid Caliphate, had found many adherents in Persia, although the region was ruled by the staunchly Sunni Great Seljuk Empire. The bulk of the Persian Isma'ilis broke away from the declining Fatimids in 1095, forming the Nizari sect, under Hassan-i Sabbah. Based at Alamut Castle, Hassan revolted against the Seljuk order, and his followers captured many similar strongholds inside Seljuk territories. Socio-economic factors and the religious background of the population, as well as the politically decentralized nature of the Seljuk government, all facilitated the rapid spread of the revolt, while the Ismailis' effective use of strongholds, the selective removal of key enemies through assassination, and maintaining crucial alliances thwarted continuous Seljuk military efforts against their weaker opponent.
  The movement of the Nizaris soon lost its initial vigor and their territories were confined to isolated strongholds within the Seljuk Empire. However, the Seljuks failed to exterminate the Nizaris after prolonged wars, and tacitly accepted their existence.
context_section_description: Barkiyaruq died in 1105 and Muhammad Tapar, along Sanjar who acted as his eastern viceroy, became the unchallenged Seljuk sultan who reigned the stabilized empire until 1118. The Nizari expansion had probably been already checked by Barkiyaruq and Sanjar, but they still hold their ground and were posing threats from Syria to eastern Persia and in the Seljuk capital of Isfahan itself.
  Muhammad Tapar launched a series of campaigns against the Nizaris and checked their expansion within two years after his accession. A siege of Takrit failed to capture the citadel after several months, but the Nizaris under Kayqubad were also unable to keep it and ceded it to an independent local Twelver Shia Arab ruler, the Mazyadid Sayf al-Dawla Sadaqa. At the same time, Sanjar attacked Quhistan, but the details are unknown.
  Muhammad Tapar's main campaign was against Shahdiz which was threatening his capital Isfahan. He eventually captured Shahdiz in 1107 after a dramatic siege involving many negotiations; some of the Ismailis safely withdrew according to an agreement, while a small group kept fighting. Their leader, Da'i Ahmad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Attash, was captured and executed together with his son. The fortress of Khanlanjan was also probably destroyed, and the Ismaili presence in Isfahan was brought to an end. Muhammad Tapar issued a fathnama (فتحنامه, a victory proclamation) after the capture of Shahdiz.
  Probably soon after destroying Shadiz, Seljuk forces under Muhammad Tapar's atabeg of Fars, Fakhr al-Dawla Chawli, destroyed the Nizari fortresses in Arrajan in a surprise attack as he pretended to be preparing for an attack against his neighbor Bursuqids. Little is recorded about Nizaris in the area after this event.
  In 1106-1109, Muhammad Tapar sent an expeditionary force under his vizier Ahmad ibn Nizam al-Mulk (whose father Nizam al-Mulk and brother Fakhr al-Mulk had been assassinated by the Nizaris), accompanied by emir Chawli, against the Nizari heartland of Rudbar. The campaign devastated the area but failed to capture Alamut, and the Seljuks withdrew. Muhammad Tapar unsuccessfully attempted to receive assistance from the Bavandid ruler Shahriyar IV ibn Qarin.
  In 1109, Muhammad Tapar began another campaign against Rudbar. The Seljuks had realized that Alamut is impregnable to a direct assault, so they began a war of attrition by systematically destroying the crops of Rudbar for eight years and engaging in sporadic battles with the Nizaris. In 1117/1118, atabeg Anushtagin Shirgir, the governor of Sawa, took up the Seljuk command and began the siege of Lamasar on June 4, 1117, and Alamut on July 13. The Nizaris were at a difficult position; Hassan-i Sabbah and many others had sent their wives and daughters to Girdkuh and elsewhere. The Nizari resistance amazed their adversary, which was being continually reinforced by other Seljuk emirs. In April 1118, the news of Muhammad Tapar's death caused the Seljuks to withdraw while reportedly being on the verge of victory; many men were lost in the retreat, and the Nizaris obtained much supplies and weapons. Apparently, the vizier Abu al-Qasim Dargazini, who was allegedly a secret Nizari, procured the new Seljuq Sultan, Mahmud II, to withdraw the forces of Anushtagin, and later poisoned the mind of the Sultan against Anushtagin, who had the latter imprisoned and executed.
  Muhammad Tapar's campaign thus ended as a stalemate, with the Seljuks failing to reduce the Nizari strongholds and the Nizari revolt losing its initial effectiveness.
  Unable to repel the concerted Seljuk forces, the Nizaris continued to rely on assassinations of senior Seljuk leaders, such as Ubayd Allah ibn Ali al-Khatibi (qadi of Isfahan and the leader of the anti-Ismaili movement there) in 1108-1109, Sa'id ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman (qadi of Nishapur), and other bureaucrats and emirs. Ahmad ibn Nizam al-Mulk, who led the expedition against Alamut, survived an assassination attempt in Baghdad, though he was wounded. In 1116/1117, the Seljuk emir of Maragha, Ahmadil ibn Ibrahim al-Kurdi, was assassinated by the N
caption: Coin minted with the names of the Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir and the Seljuk sultan Muhammad Tapar
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