Shah Ghazi Rustam IV

Shah Ghazi Rustam, was king of the Bavand dynasty of Mazandaran, ruling from 1142 to 1165. He expanded the borders of the kingdom at the expense of his neighbors, particularly the Ismailis and the Seljuks. He established a Bavandid presence in Gilan as a result of his frequent vengeful raids against the Ismailis, who had assassinated his son and heir, Girdbazu. He also brought Qumis and Ray under Bavandid control during his wars against the Seljuks and the Karakhanids. Shah Ghazi's reign represented the pinnacle of Bavandid power and influence in Iran, and Shah Ghazi himself was considered the most illustrious king of the dynasty. Name The name of Shah Ghazi Rustam is combination of Persian and Arabic—"shah" meaning king in Persian, and "ghazi" meaning warrior in Arabic. "Rustam" was the name of the popular mythological Iranian warrior Rostam. Shah Ghazi Rustam's laqab was Nusrat al-Din ("victory of the religion"). Birth and background Shah Ghazi was born in ca. 1105, as the son of Ali I, whose father, Shahriyar IV (r. 1074–1114), was the then Bavandid king of Mazandaran. The Bavand kingdom was during this period a vassal of the Seljuk Empire, which had a decade earlier under sultan Malik-Shah I (r. 1072–1092) controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. However, after the assassination of Malik-Shah and his vizier Nizam al-Mulk in 1092, the Seljuk Empire had fallen into decline. Shahriyar IV had thus been able to disobey the orders of the Seljuk sultan Muhammad I Tapar (r. 1105–1118) several times. After Shahriyar IV's death in 1114, his son Qarin III succeeded him, and started arresting and imprisoning many loyal servants of his father, thus heavily weakening the kingdom. He later fell ill, and died in 1117 after he asked the local people to pledge allegiance to his son Rustam III, who succeeded him. Rustam III's reign, however, was even more shortlived—he was poisoned by his stepmother, the sister of Muhammad I Tapar, who wanted to marry Ali I, who ascended the Bavandid throne.