Ala al-Din Muhammad III

ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad III (; 1211–1255), more commonly known as ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn , son of Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥasan III, was the 26th Nizāri Isma'ilism Imām. He ruled the Nizari Ismaili state from 1221 to 1255. By some accounts, he was considered a respected scholar and the spiritual and worldly leader of the Nisari Ismailis. His reign witnessed the beginnings of the Mongol conquests of Persia and the eastern Muslim world. He was assassinated by an unknown perpetrator on 1 December 1255, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Rukn al-Din Khurshah, in 1255.

Under Muhammad III's reign, the Sunni conformity that had been initiated by his father was gradually and quietly reversed. As a result, his community increasingly regarded itself openly as Ismaili Shi'ite.

He was assassinated by an unknown perpetrator on 1 December 1255, This treatise also mentioned that Ala’ al-Din Muhammad dictated to his hujja, Shams al-Den ibn Ahmad ibn Yaqoub al-Taibi, a document called The Constitution of Mawlana Ala'audeen, which displayed his high intellectual and scientific capacities.

Alāʾ ad-Dīn Muḥammad offered special attention to the learned discussions and debates that took place in Alamut. He assigned one day per week to philosophical and doctrinal debates between da'is, guiding them to polish their skills for dialectical debating and offering pedagogical and argumentation techniques that made them proficient in dialectical discussions and arguments.

The Syrian Nizārī author (1201–1257) was his da'i to Syria. He had important philosophical treatises as Risālat al-Asābīʿ, ed., ʿĀrif Tāmir, in his Khams Rasāʾil Ismāʿīliyya (pp. 057–079), which discussed esoteric exegesis (taʾwīl) of certain Quranic verses and Ismaili theology related to the number seven. All-Dādīkhī was a talented poet; in the presence of Alāʾ ad-Dīn Muḥammad and his son Imam Rukn al-Din Khurshah, he expressed a poem titled "Degree of the Fatimid Imam is Glorified" (قدر الإمام الفاطمي معظم), the verses of which affirm the Fatimid origin of Alāʾ ad-Dīn Muḥammad.

Tolerance and pluralism

Alāʾ al-Din Muhammad was very inclusive and pluralistic in his outlook. He granted patronage and shelter to various scholars from surrounding countries destroyed by the Mongol invasion.

Besides his missions to create a Christian–Muslim coalition in anticipation of the Mongols' invasion, Alāʾ al-Din Muhammad was among the first to send peaceful messages to the Great Khan Guyuk in Mongolia in full collaboration with the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate. The relationship with Abbasid Caliphate during his leadership was friendly and cordial. Additionally, he sent da'is to Sind to establish Nizāri Ismāʿilī Islam in the Indian subcontinent. who alleged that his rule was described as "cruel, imperious, sadistic, alcoholic, and unpredictable". Juvayni was an important Sunni official of the Mongol empire which invaded and destroyed the Ismaili state.

Marco Polo's description of Alāʾ al-Din Muhammad III, the penultimate Lord of the Alamut, was copied by other European writers and caught the imagination of many readers. However, the contemporary historian al-Juwayni — an avowed enemy of the Nizaris who accompanied the Mongol leader Hulagu to Alamut in 1256 and carefully inspected the fortress before its destruction — does not report discovering any "secret gardens of paradise" as claimed in Marco Polo's popular account. Even though al-Juwayni mentions that he selected many "choice books" from the famous Alamut library for his purposes, he burned the books that he did not like.