After a reign of eight years Nasir al-Din Muhammad was replaced by his fifteen-year-old brother Fakhr al-Din Qasim, but he was killed in a riding accident on his wedding day in 567 H (1172 AD). After his untimely death Malatya passed to another brother, Dhu’l-Qarnayn’s third son Afridun.

After Afridun had been on the throne for three years, Nasir al-Din Muhammad seized the town of Malatya from him, and reigned there until 573 (1178). His return to power was overshadowed by the growing might of the Rum Saljuq ruler ‘Izz al-Din Qilij Arslan II ibn Mas’ud, who had already brought an end to the Danishmendids of Sivas in 567 (1172) and the branch in Kayseri in 569 (1174).

In 571 (1176) Qilij Arslan’s forces inflicted a crushing defeat on the army of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus at the Battle of Myriokephalon.

It was during this time that Nasir al-Din Muhammad returned to Malatya as a vassal of Qilij Arslan, but issued coins in his own name.

This horseman coinage, which does not show the name of the Saljuq ruler as overlord, was introduced by Qilij Arslan with the intention of pleasing all his new subjects. On the one hand the Muslims could regard the horseman as a ghazi (warrior for the Faith), while on the other Christians could view it as one of Anatolia’s two warrior saints, St. George or St. Theodore.

In the end Nasir al-Din Muhammad’s willingness to adopt the figure did not save his throne, because Qilij Arslan II, in the wake of his victory at Myriokephalon, deposed him in 573 (1178). Now all the Danishmendid lands had fallen to the Rum Saljuqs, which left little more than romantic legends of the dynasty.