These letters roused the Shah’s wrath to the utmost. The Kalif, Nassir, who ascended the throne in 1180, had labored without success, though unceasingly, to stop Kwaresmian growth and aggression. He could not employ his own forces to this end, since he had none. The temporal power of the Prophet’s successors had shrunk to the narrow limits of Kuzistan and Arabian Irak. The other parts of their once vast dominions had passed to various dynasties whose sovereigns were supposed to receive lands in fief from the Kalif. If these sovereigns asked for investiture it was simply for religious, or perhaps more correctly, for political reasons. Outside the bounds of their own little state the Abbasid Kalifs had only two emblems of sovereignty: their names were mentioned in public prayer throughout Islam, and were stamped on the coins of all Moslem Commonwealths. They were not masters even in their own capital always. When the Seljuk Empire, composed at that time of Persian Irak alone, was destroyed by disorder under Togrul its last Sultan, the Kalif, a man of quick mind and adventurous instincts, did much to bring on the dissolution of the tottering state, through his intrigues, and by calling in Tukush, the Kwaresmian monarch. He had hoped to win Persian Irak, but when Tukush had won that great province he would cede not a foot of it to any man. The Kalif saw himself forced to invest a new line with the sanction of sacredness, a line which threatened Bagdad far more than that which he had helped so industriously to ruin. When Mohammed succeeded Tukush, Nassir roused Ghiath ud din of Gur to oppose him. This prince, lord already of Balkh and Herat, desired all Khorassan, and began war to win it. His death followed soon after. Shihab ud din, the next ruler, continued the struggle but lost his whole army, which was slaughtered and crushed in the very first battle. When at Ghazni, Mohammed found proof of the Kalif’s intrigues, he despatched to Nassir an envoy; through this envoy he demanded the title of Sultan for himself; a representative in Bagdad as governor; and also that his name be mentioned in public prayers throughout Islam. Nassir refused these demands and expressed great surprise that Mohammed, not content with his own immense Empire, was coveting also the capital of the Kalif.