Nasrid Maliks of Sistan

Origins

After the Ghaznavid Empire absorbed Sistan, a branch of the old Saffarid dynasty regained local power. In 1029 Abu'l-Fadl Nasr ibn Ahmad established himself at Zaranj, founding a line of maliks often called the Nasrids or Maliks of Nimruz.

Rule and society

The maliks governed the irrigated delta of the Helmand as local hereditary rulers, accepting the overlordship in turn of the Ghaznavids, the Seljuk Empire, the Ghurid Sultanate and the Khwarazmian Empire. The anonymous Tarikh-i Sistan, a Persian local history, reflects their court's pride in Sistan's past, from the hero Rustam to the Saffarids. Taj al-Din Harb, who reigned for nearly fifty years until 1215, was the most notable of the line.

Decline and legacy

The Mongol invasion devastated Sistan in the early 1220s, and the last Nasrid rulers were killed around 1225. Local rule soon passed to the Mihrabanid dynasty.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.