Muhammad II () was the third Layzanshah (king of Layzan, r. 917–948) and the sixth

Shirvanshah ''Shirvanshah'' ( fa, شروانشاه), also spelled as ''Shīrwān Shāh'' or ''Sharwān Shāh'', was the title of the rulers of Shirvan from the mid-9th century to the early 16th century. The title remained in a single family, the Yazidids, a ...

(king of Shirvan, r. 948–956). He was the son of Abu Tahir Yazid. He is often mislabeled as Muhammad III because of sharing same name with

Muhammad of Layzan Muhammad was second Shah of Layzan whose father was first Layzanshah Yazid ibn Khalid, a member of junior branch of Yazidids. He was nephew of first independent Shirvanshah Haytham I. Nothing about his reign is known in sources except for that ...

, who was in fact his grandfather and never ruled as Shirvanshah.

Biography

Under Yazid

Muhammad II is first mentioned in 917, when he was appointed as the ruler of Layzan and

Tabarsaran Tabasarans are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group native predominantly to southern part of the North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan. Their population in Russia is about 150,000. They speak the Tabasaran language. They are mainly Sunni Muslims. ...

by his father Abu Tahir ibn Yazid. He had younger brothers called Ahmad and Abul-Badr.

Reign

When Muhammad's father died in 948, he succeeded him as the ruler of Shirvan, and appointed his son

Ahmad Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

as the ruler of Layzan, while his other son Haytham ibn Muhammad was appointed as the ruler of Tabarsaran. From 948 to 956, Muhammad constantly raided the territories of the non-Muslims, who are called " infidels" in Muslim sources.

Death

On 4 June 956, Muhammad died of

small-pox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) cer ...

. However, according to another source, he was poisoned by his ''

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

'' Ibn al-Maraghi. The reason for that was because, when Muhammad was suffering from small-pox, Ibn al-Maraghi used the opportunity to kill the imprisoned brother of Muhammad and had his body hidden. When Muhammad miraculously survived the illness, he ordered the release of his brother. Ibn al-Maraghi, who feared that his life was in danger, had Muhammad poisoned. His son

then succeeded Muhammad as the ruler of Shirvan.

Legacy

Writing in the first half of the 10th-century, the Arab historian and geographer

al-Masudi Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...

reported that Muhammad II was "incontrovertibly" descended from the

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

monarch Bahram V Gur (), which demonstrates the early

Persianization Persianization () or Persification (; fa, پارسی‌سازی), is a sociological process of cultural change in which a non-Persian society becomes "Persianate", meaning it either directly adopts or becomes strongly influenced by the Persian ...

of the Shirvanshahs.

References

Sources

* * * {{Shirvanshahs