Nizam al-Din Yahya (c. 1417 – October 1480) was the Mihrabanid

malik Malik, Mallik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Maleek, Malick, Mallick, or Melekh ( phn, 𐤌𐤋𐤊; ar, ملك; he, מֶלֶךְ) is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic duri ...

Sistan Sistān ( fa, سیستان), known in ancient times as Sakastān ( fa, سَكاستان, "the land of the Saka"), is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran ( Sistan and Baluchestan Province) and Southern Afghanistan (N ...

from 1438/1439 until his death. He was the son of Shams al-Din 'Ali.

Biography

Nizam al-Din gained the throne of Sistan after his father's death in 1438 or 1439. During his reign he spent a significant amount of time at the court of the Timurids at

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...

. Some time after Abu Sa'id's capture of

Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plate ...

in 1458, Nizam al-Din was summoned by the Timurid to Herat. There he was given one of Abu Sa'id's sisters in marriage. In 1468 Abu Sa'id undertook a military campaign against the

Aq Qoyunlu The Aq Qoyunlu ( az, Ağqoyunlular , ) was a culturally Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two tribal confederations: Akkoyunlu (Wh ...

Turkmen of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. Nizam al-Din participated in this operation, leading a part of the army of Sistan. Ultimately the campaign ended in disaster; both Abu Sa'id and Nizam al-Din captured by the Aq Qoyunlu, who went on to briefly occupy Herat. The Turkmen leader

Uzun Hasan Uzun Hasan or Uzun Hassan ( اوزون حسن; fa, اوزون حسن; 1423 – January 6, 1478; where ''uzun'' means "tall" in Oghuz Turkic) was a ruler of the Turkoman Aq Qoyunlu state and is generally considered to be its strongest ruler. Ha ...

imprisoned Nizam al-Din for six months. He eventually released him and restored him as governor of Sistan, while also giving him land grants in parts of Fars and

Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...

. Ultimately the Timurids under Husayn Bayqarah managed to retake Herat, but Nizam al-Din may also been compelled to pay tribute to Uzun Hasan for a while. The last years of Nizam al-Din's rule were marred by internal discord. The malik had grown wary of the power of his commander-in-chief (''sipahsalar'') Mir Sayyid Ahmad and his five sons, who held several governorships in parts of Sistan. In around 1475 Nizam al-Din led a campaign to assert his authority over the Garmsir region and

Makran Makran ( fa, مكران), mentioned in some sources as Mecran and Mokrān, is the coastal region of Baluchistan. It is a semi-desert coastal strip in Balochistan, in Pakistan and Iran, along the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It extends westwards, ...

, with Mir Sayyid Ahmad and his sons participating. When the Mihrabanid army reached the Helmand River Nizam al-Din planned to arrest the ''sipahsalar'' and his family, but they were warned about the plot and managed to flee. Mir Sayyid Ahmad and his sons traveled to Herat, where they met with the Timurid Husayn Bayqarah. They managed to convince him to revoke the grant for Nizam al-Din's governorship of Sistan and to give the governorship to Husayn Bayqarah's son Badi' al-Zaman instead.Bosworth, p. 463 Nizam al-Din decided that an attempt to resist in Sistan itself would be futile, since Mir Sayyid Ahmad had a large degree of support in the province. He therefore made his way to the southern frontier region of Sistan, where he commanded the loyalty of several fortresses, and set up his base there. In c. 1478 he was invited by the people of Zirih to return to Sistan, but was repulsed by the forces of Badi' al-Zaman and Mir Sayyid Ahmad. In 1480 the people of Zirih again tried to convince Nizam al-Din to return, but the malik became ill and died. His military commanders then elected his eldest son Shams al-Din Muhammad as his successor.

Notes

References

*Bosworth, C.E. ''The History of the Saffarids of Sistan and the Maliks of Nimruz (247/861 to 949/1542-3)''. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 1994. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nizam al-Din Yahya 1410s births 1480 deaths Year of birth uncertain Mihrabanids 15th-century Iranian people