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“Ad-Da’i as-Sagheer”, the Alawid Emir of Tabaristan
Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 27th of the Islamic month of Zil-Qa’dah in 900 AD, the Alawid Emir of Tabaristan, Mohammad Ibn Zayd, known as “ad-Da’i as-Sagheer” (the Younger Missionary), attained martyrdom, a day after he was mortally wounded in battle near Gorgan, while defending his realm of the Caspian Sea coast of Iran against the Samanid invaders.
He was 6th in line of descent from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Samanid army decapitated his corpse and took his head to Bukhara, while the body was buried at the gate of Gorgan and soon became a centre of pilgrimage.
His death ended the 36-year rule of the First Alawid state established in what are now the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan by his elder brother Hassan Ibn Zayd, known as “ad-Da’i al-Kabeer” (the Elder Missionary), who was invited by the people of northern Iran to lead them against the Abbasid regime. Mohammad, who ruled for 16 years, had served as governor and commander during the 20-year rule of his elder brother when the Alawid realm was constantly invaded by the Abbasids and their local agents.
A cultured figure, who appreciated good poetry and composed poems of his own, his welfare policies increased popularity of his rule amongst the Iranians, whom he enlightened with the teachings of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. He rebuilt the holy shrines of Najaf and Karbala – of Imam Ali (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) – that were destroyed some forty years earlier by the Godless Abbasid tyrant Mutawakkel.
In 914 AD, the Alawid state of Tabaristan was revived by Seyyed Hassan al-Utrush (5th in line of descent from Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), the Prophet’s 4th Infallible Heir), who inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Samanid occupiers at Burdidah on the River Burroud, west of Chalous. He had survived Mohammad Ibn Zayd’s defeat and martyrdom in the Battle of Gorgan 14 years earlier. Although he passed away three years later in 917, the Alawid State lasted till 931 AD.
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