Zia al-Din Ali

Ala al-Din Ali 'ibn Shuja al-Din Mohammad, also known as Zia' al-Din Ali', was the last Sultan of the Ghurid dynasty from 1214 to 1215. He was the cousin and successor of Ala al-Din Atsiz.

Biography

Zia al-Din Ali was the son of Shuja al-Din Muhammad and a princess known as Malek-ye Hajji. During his early years, Zia al-Din Ali was appointed as governor of Khorasan in ca. 1199/1200 by his cousin Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad. Ghiyath later died in 1202, and was succeeded by his brother Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad, who shortly appointed Ala al-Din Ali as the governor of Ghur, Gharchistan and Zamindawar. Ala al-Din Ali later led a campaign against the Ismailis in Quhistan.
After the death of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad in 1206, Ala al-Din Ali was dismissed by the new Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Mahmud, who had him imprisoned in a fortress in Gharchistan. Ala al-Din Ali, however, was later freed by the ghulam Taj al-Din Yildiz, who crowned him as the Sultan of the Ghurid dynasty. After a year Taj al-Din Yildiz was forced to surrender Firozkoh to the Khwarazmian dynasty, and Ala al-Din Ali was captured by a Khwarazmian army and brought to Khwarazm, where he lived in an honorable exile in Khwarazm. Ala al-Din Ali died a few years later.