Mongol campaign against the Nizaris

Mongol campaign against the Nizaris
Part of the Mongol conquest of Persia
Date 1253–1256 Location Nizari strongholds in Khurasan, Quhistan, Qumis, Tarem, Rudbar, and Alamut Result Mongol victory
Belligerents
Mongol Empire Golden Horde Chagatai Khanate Oirats Supported by the local dynasties of Anatolia Tabaristan Fars Iraq Azerbaijan Arran Shirvan Georgia Armenia	Nizari state of Alamut (Assassins)
Commanders and leaders
Möngke Khan Hülegü Kitbuqa Tegüder Buqa Temür Köke Ilgei Guo Kan Quli Balagha Tutar Abaqa Yoshmut Arghun Aqa Büri †	Imam Ala al-Din Muhammad Muhtasham Nasir al-Din ibn Abi Mansur  Imam Rukn al-Din Khurshah  Vizier Shams al-Din Gilaki  Khwaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi  Muqaddam al-Din  Qadi Tajuddin Mardanshah
Strength
250,000 1,000 squads of Chinese and Muslim siege engineers	70,000
Casualties and losses
Heavy	Minimal
est. 100,000 Ismailis were executed in the 1257 massacres

The Mongol campaign against the Nizaris of the Alamut period (the Nizari Ismaili state) began in 1253 after the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire and a series of Nizari–Mongol conflicts. The campaign was ordered by the Great Khan Möngke and was led by his brother, Hülegü. The campaign against the Nizaris and later the Abbasid Caliphate was intended to establish a new khanate in the region—the Ilkhanate.

Hülegü's campaign began with attacks on strongholds in Quhistan and Qumis amidst intensified internal dissensions among Nizari leaders under Imam Muhammad III of Alamut whose policy was fighting against the Mongols. His successor, Rukn al-Din Khurshah, began a long series of negotiations in face of the implacable Mongol advance. In 1256, the Imam capitulated while besieged in Maymun-Diz and ordered his followers to do likewise according to his agreement with Hülegü. Despite being difficult to capture, Alamut ceased hostilities too and was dismantled. The Nizari state was thus disestablished, although several individual forts, notably Lambsar, Gerdkuh, and those in Syria continued to resist. Möngke Khan later ordered a general massacre of all Nizaris, including Khurshah and his family.

Many of the surviving Nizaris scattered throughout Western, Central, and South Asia. Little is known about them afterward, but their communities maintain some sort of independence in their heartland of Daylam and their Imamate reappeared later in Anjudan.