Sayyid Fakhr al-Din

Sayyid Fakhr al-Din (Persian: سید فخرالدین) was a Mar'ashi prince, who ruled the region of Rustamdar from 1381 to 1390. He shared power with his three other brothers; Kamal al-Din I in Sari; Rida al-Din in Amul; and Sharaf al-Din in Karatughan. Together, they ruled a realm encompassing all of Mazandaran, reaching as far west to the city of Qazvin.^[1] They had inherited this realm from their father Mir-i Buzurg (r. 1359–1362), the founder of the Mar'ashis.^[2]

Rustamdar had originally been part of the Baduspanids, however, shortly after the accession of the Baduspanid ruler Adud al-Dawla Qubad (r. 1379–1381), the Mar'ashis accused him of being uncooperative and mistreating the dervishes of their order. Intenting to incorporate Rustamdar into their domains, Fakhr al-Din defeated Qubad and seized the coastal parts of Rustamdar in 1380.^[3]

A year later (1381), a Mar'ashi force defeated and killed Qubad at a battle at Laktor. The fortress of Kojur was conquered and made the permanent residence of Fakhr al-Din; the Mar'ashis were now the masters of all of Mazandaran. The Baduspanids were temporarily ousted from power, until almost a decade later in 1390, when Kamal al-Din I installed Sa'd al-Dawla Tus on the Baduspanid throne in Rustamdar to challenge the Afrasiyabid prince Iskandar-i Shaykhi who accompanied the Turco-Mongol ruler Timur (r. 1370–1405), who intended to conquer Mazandaran.^[3][1]

However, Tus secretly corresponded with Iskandar-i Shaykhi, and eventually joined the forces of Timur in 1392. The following year (1393), Timur dislodged the Mar'ashis and conquered Mazandaran.^[4] He split up their territories between rival families and Timurid governors.^[5] Tus managed to convince him to spare the Mar'ashi family; they were deported instead, while Iskandar-i Shaykhi was appointed governor of Mazandaran.^[3][4] By the time of Timur's death in 1405, Fakhr al-Din and Kamal al-Din had died in Kashghar.^[6]