Rukn ad-Din Khurschah

Rukn ad-Din Churschah ( Arabic - Persian رکن الدین خورشاه, DMG Rukn ad-Dīn Ḫūršāh ; * 1230 ; † 1257 ) was the 27th Imam of the Shia of the Nizari-Ismailis and the eighth and last ruler of Alamut .

Churshah was often publicly mistreated by his insane father, Ala ad-Din Muhammad . When the father was murdered on December 1, 1255, he was sick himself, but rumor has it that the killer acted on his consent. Churschah publicly distanced himself from the crime by having the murderer and some members of his family executed; however, contemporary chroniclers accused him of complicity.

The Mongols occupied Alamut. Illustration from an edition of the Jami 'at-tawarich by Raschīd ad-Dīn from the 15th century.

After taking over the rule of Alamut, he ignored several requests from the Mongols to appear personally before Möngke Khan in order to avoid the required kowtowing . Instead, he sent his son Shams to the yurt camp of Hülegü , the brother of the Great Khan who had been appointed ruler of Persia, but this was not taken as a gesture of submission. After Churschah let one of the last ultimatum expire, Hülegü marched with his huge armed force at the beginning of November 1256 into the northern Persian region. It was only after Churschah had recognized his hopeless inferiority that he went personally with many family members to Hülegü to submit to him. This happened on the last day of the month of Schauwāl 654 AH (November 19, 1256), exactly one year to the day after the murder of his father according to the Islamic calendar. By order of the Hülegü Chur Shah was now forced to abandon Alamut with his garrison, after which the Mongols in December 1256, the castle razed and burned their extensive library.

The Ismaili rule in northern Persia thus ended after almost one hundred and seventy years. Only in Gerdkuh Castle (near Damghan ) was the community able to resist Mongolian power until 1270. Churschah himself initially remained in the entourage of the Hülegü until he was finally escorted with several family members from Hamadan to the yurt camp of the Great Khan in Mongolia on March 9, 1257 . The Jassa he and executed with his family here from families of the victims of the Assassins in retaliation for the actions of his forefathers in accordance. At least one son of Churschah, Shams († 1310), was able to escape this massacre and continue the line of imams as their twenty-eighth first in Azerbaijan .

literature

• Farhad Daftary , The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge University Press 1990.
• Farhad Daftary, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismaʿilis. London 1994.
• Farhad Daftary, Ismaili Literature: A Bibliography of Sources and Studies. London 2004.
• Heinz Halm, Caliphs and Assassins: Egypt and the Near East at the Time of the First Crusades 1074–1171. Munich 2014, pp. 336–346.

swell

• Ata al-Mulk Dschuwaini , "History of the World Conqueror" ( Ta'rīkh-i Jahāngushāy ) : ed. as a translation into English by John Andrew Boyle, Genghis Khan, the history of the world conqueror (1958), pp. 709-725.
• Hamd Allah Mustawfi , "Selected Story" (Ta'rīkh-i-guzīda) : ed. as a translation into English by Edward G. Browne, The Ta'ríkh-i-guzída or "Select history" of Hamdulláh Mustawfí-i-Qazwíní, part 2 (1913), p. 130.
• Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn Isfandiyār , "History of Tabaristan" (Ta'rīkh-i Ṭabaristān) : ed. as a translation into English by Edward G. Browne, An abridged translation of the History of Tabaristan (1905), p. 259.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ala ad-Din Muhammad (III.)	27. Imam of the Nizari- Ismailis 1255–1257	Shams ad-Din Muhammad
Ala ad-Din Muhammad (III.)	Ruler of Alamut 1255–1256	Defeat of the Ismaiti state by the Mongols