NATANZ, a minor province of Persia, situated in the hilly district between Isfahan and Kashan, and held in fief by the family of the Hissam es Saltaneh (Sultan Murad Mirza, d.
of Germany at once forced the pontiff to crown him emperor, and three or four years later took possession of the Norman kingdom of Sicily; he refused tribute and the oath of allegiance, and even appointed bishops subject to his own jurisdiction; moreover, he gave his brother in fief the estates which had belonged to the countess Matilda of Tuscany.
In reward for the brilliant services rendered him by Ertoghrul (the father of Osman) and by Osman himself, Ala-ud-din, the last of the Seljuk sultans, conferred certain provinces in fief upon these two great warriors.
(976) this "East Mark" (Ostmark, Oesterreich, Austria) was granted in fief to the Babenbergers, and in the reign of Frederick Barbarossa (1156) it was advanced to the rank of a duchy.
Geoffrey Greytunic succeeded in making the count of Nantes his vassal, and in obtaining from the duke of Aquitaine the concession in fief of the district of Loudun.