Naservand

The Naservand were a Gilaki clan who ruled Lahijan and the eastern Gilan region of Bia-pish before the rise of the Kar-Kiya sayyids. Their name points to a link, real or claimed, with the Zaydi imam Nasir al-Din al-Atrush, who died in 917 and brought Zaydi Shi'ism to Bia-pish; the family grew out of the Kutam clans of Ranikuh.

Under Öljaitü the house split into two branches, with Nupasha Naservand ruling Lahijan. His resistance to the Ilkhanid Gilan campaign of 1306 failed, but he submitted and kept his lands as a tributary; after the Mongols sacked the town it was rebuilt around 1328.

The Naservand still held Lahijan in 1337, until the Zaydi sayyid Ali Kiya conquered Bia-pish from 1367 and founded the Kar-Kiya dynasty. The last Naservand resistance was broken by 1390, when Sayyid Hadi Kiya became master of the whole region.