|
|
<<< Iran
7000 (1) (2)
(3) (4) (5)
(6) (7)
>>>
The
Tahirids
In 205/820 al - Mamun, the Abbasid caliph, appointed Tahir ibn Husayn ibn
Masab to rule over a large portion of the Abbasid caliphate. According to
the historian, Tabari, the area of this rule extended from Baghdad to the
regions of the caliphate farthest to the cast. After Tahir's death the
Abbasid caliphs left his descendants in control of important sections of
Iran, the center of their rule begin the province of Khorasan. Finally, in
the year 259/872 Yaqub ibn Layth Saffari entered Neishabur and imprisoned
the Tahirid ruler of Khorasan, Mahmud ibn Tahir ibn Abdallah ibn Tahir.
During the whole period of their rule, the Tahirids remained obedient to
the Abbasid caliphate, sending to
Baghdad the taxes which they collected from the regions under their
control and going to war against the enemies of the Abbasid regime on
orders received from the capital. In the year 207/822 it did happen that
Tahir ibn Husayn purposefully left al - Mamun's name out of the
Fridaysermon (in effect declaring his own independence), but by
coincidence he died on the same night. After hearing of Tahir's death al -
Mamun appointed Talha ibn Tahir to be his father's successor, or,
according to other sources, he appointed Abdallah ibn Tahir to succeed his
father, but since Abdallah was in Raqqa, he sent his brother Talha to rule
as his representative. When Abdallah ibn Tahir died in 230/844 he ruled
over Khorasan, Rey, and Samanid princes in Transoxania were his vassals,
Oshrusana had been conquered during his rule and Maziyar had been taken by
his lieutenants.
The reasons that the Tahirids are considered the first Iranian dynasty of
the Islamic period are apparently that first, Tahir was an Iranian - his
geneology has even been traced back to Minuchihr, the mythical Iranian
king; second, in the war between al - Mamun and al - Amin, which was in
fact a war between the Iranians and the Arabs, Tahir was al - Mamun's
general and the leader of the army of Khorasan; and third, the Abbasid
caliphs left the rule of Khorasan in the hands of Tahir's descendants, by
reason of the influence of the Tahirids in that area.
The Saffarids
During the caliphate of al - Mutawakkil, Salih ibn Nasr occupied Sistan on
the pretext of driving out the Kharijites. In order to repulse the forces
of Tahir ibn Abdallah, the ruler of Khorasan, he sought help from
Yaqub ibn Layth Saffar, who had made somewhat of a name for himself. Salih
was succeded by his brother Dirham ibn Nasr, who appointed Yaqub as the
general of his army. In the year 247/861 Yaqub seized the rule of Sistan
from Dirham and began to expand the territory under his control. First he
turned to the east and after occupying Bost captured Kabol from Ratbil,
its independent ruler. Then he captured Harat from the Tahirids, but
instead of extending his conquests to the north set out in 254/868 for
Kerman. He wrested Shiraz from the control of the caliph's governor but
nevertheless continued to call himself a vassal of the caliph, the Abbasid
al - Mutazz Billah. In 255/869 he returned to Zaranj, his capital, and in
257/871, during the caliphate of al - Mutamid Billah, the successor of al
- Muhtadi, went once again to Shiraz. Thecaliph was able to prevent him
from attacking Baghdad by appointing him governor of Balkh, Tokharestan,
Fars, Kerman, Sistan and Sind. In 259/873, in order to bring Khorasan
under his control, Yaqub invaded Neishabur, where Muhammad ibn Tahir
surrendered to him. From Khorasan Yaqub went to Gorgan and Tabarestan and
then as far as Chalus in pursuit of Hasan ibn Zayd Alawi, who fled to
Gilan. Then for a third time he invaded Fars, advancing as far as
Khuzestan. Seventy kilometers from Baghdad, at Deyrol - aqul, he met the
forces of the caliph but was defeated and returned to Khuzestan. In the
year 265/878 he died from colic at Jondishapur. Yaqub's brother and
successor, Amr ibn Layth, acknowledged the authority of the caliph and was
thereby granted the governorship of Fars, Kerman, Isfahan, Kuh - ha (the
mountains, i.e. the region of Jebal or today's Eraq - e- Ajam and Qohestan_,
Gorgan, Tabarestan, Sistan and Sind (i.e. the regions inhabited by Muslims
and bordering on the Indus River). In order to force Amr into a
confrontation with Amir Ismail Samani, who had
newly come to power in Transoxania, the caliph also issued a firman for
the rule of Transoxania in Amr's name. Unaware of the caliph's ploy Amr
went to war with Ismail in order to assert his authority in Transoxania
and in 287/900 was defeated and captured. The territories of the Saffarids
reached the limit of their expansion during the rule of Yaqub and his
brother Amr. To the cast they extended to the Indus River and to the
northeast to the Oxus. In the north and northwest all of Khorasan, Gorgan
and Tabarestan were Saffarid territory and in the south the Saffarids
occupied Kerman and Fars. However, Khuzestan can not be considered as part
of Saffarid territory. After Amr the \doman of the Saffarids was limited
to Sistan and the Saffarid princes were the vassals of the powerful
Iranian dynasties which came into existence one after another, such as the
Samanids, the Ghaznavids, the Khwarazm - Shahs, the Il - Khans, the Karts,
the Timurids and the Safavids.
The Samanids
In the year 261/874 Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Asad was appointed ruler of
Transoxania by al - Mutamid, the Abbasid caliph. Nasr established
Samarqand as his capital and sent his brother Ismail to Bokhara as
governor. After Nasr's death Ismail assumed the rule of all Transoxania.
In 270/883-4 he coquered territories beyond the Jaxartes River and in
287/900, after capturing Amr ibn Layth, he was given the rule of Sistan
and Khorasan by al - Mutamid, so that his territory to the southeast
extended to the Indus River. Ismail also conquered Gorgan and Mazandaran
from Muhammad ibn Zayd Alawi and in the area of Eraq - e - Ajam advanced
as far as Rey and Qazvin. Thus Samanid territory during Ismail's rule
included Transoxania, Khorasan, Sistan as far as the western branches of
the Indus River, Gorgan, Tabarestan, Rey, Qumes,
Qazvin, Abhar and Zangan. It also included to the northeast Torkestan and
the borders of China, During the rule of Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Ismail Kerman
was occupied by Muhammad ibn Ilyas and thus was added to the Samanid
domains. It was in fact at this time that these domains reached their
greatest extension.
The Samanids
In the year 261/874 Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Asad was appointed ruler of
Transoxania by al - Mutamid, the Abbasid caliph. Nasr established
Samarqand as his capital and sent his brother Ismail to Bokhara as
governor. After Nasr's death Ismail assumed the rule of all Transoxania.
In 270/883-4 he coquered territories beyond the Jaxartes River and in
287/900, after capturing Amr ibn Layth, he was given the rule of Sistan
and Khorasan by al - Mutamid, so that his territory to the southeast
extended to the Indus River. Ismail also conquered Gorgan and Mazandaran
from Muhammad ibn Zayd Alawi and in the area of Eraq - e - Ajam advanced
as far as Rey and Qazvin. Thus Samanid territory during Ismail's rule
included Transoxania, Khorasan, Sistan as far as the western branches of
the Indus River, Gorgan, Tabarestan, Rey, Qumes,
Qazvin, Abhar and Zangan. It also included to the northeast Torkestan and
the borders of China, During the rule of Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Ismail Kerman
was occupied by Muhammad ibn Ilyas and thus was added to the Samanid
domains. It was in fact at this time that these domains reached their
greatest extension.
The Ziyarids
After Asfar ibn Shiruya was killed in 316/928, Mardawij ibn Ziyar gained
control of all of Deylam. In addition he conquered Rostamdar, Mazandaran
and Gorgan, and in the province of Jebal or Eraq - e - Ajam captured the
cities of Rey, Hamedan, Kangavar, Dinavar, Borujerd, Qom, Golpayegan and
Isfahan. He also sent an army to occupy Ahwaz. In 323/935 he was killed in
Isfahan. His brother, Wushmgir, was crowned in Rey, but because of the
opposition of Hasan Rukn al - Dawla Daylami, was not able to remain in
Eraq - e - Ajam and went to Mazandaran. He also seized the province of
Gorgan from Hasan ibn Firuzan, the paternal cousin of Makan ibn Kaki.
During Wushmgir's rule and that of his descendants the Ziyarid domain was
limited to Gorgan , Mazandaran, Gilan and Qumes. The Ziyarid dynasty was
overthrown by the Ghaznavids in 434/1042.
The Buyids
The origins of the Buyid (Bawayhid) dynasty go back to the time when Abu
Shuja Buya and his three sons, Ali, Hasan and Ahmad joined the forces of
Makan Kaki. Afterwared the three sons enterd the service of Mardawij, by
whom Ali, the service of pointed governor of Karaj (between Hamedan and
Borujerd). Several years laters Ali added Isfahan to his domain and his
brother Hasan gained control of Shiraz, while the third brother, Ahmad,
became ruler of Kerman. In the same year, 334/945-6, Ahmad set out for
Khuzestan which along with
Baghdad he subsequently conquered. The caliph, al - Mustakfi Billah, gave
the title Muizz al - Dawla to Ahmad, Imad al - Dawla to Ali and Rukn al -
Dawla to Hasan. It should be mentioned that it was from this time that the
Baghdad caliphate was under the control of the Persian Buyids; and it was
not long before Muizz al - Dawla blinded al - Mustakfi and removed him
from the caliphate, replacing him with al - Muti Lillah, the son of the
caliph al - Muqtadir. The most famous of the Buyid sultans was Adhud al -
Dawla Fana Khusraw, the son of Rukn al - Dawla, who ruled in Fars from the
year 338/949 and extended his domain to the southern region of the Persian
Gulf and Oman. Among his famous monuments are the Amir Dam on the Kur
River in Fars, the remains of which are still to be seen, and the Adhudi
hospital, which he founded in Fars in 368/978-9.
The Buyids had four main centers of government. The first was Baghdad,
where the following members of the dynasty ruled in succession from
334/945-6 to 440/1048: Muizz al - Dawla, Izz al - Dawla, Adhud al - Dawla,
Samsam al - Dawla, Sharaf al - Dawla, Baha al - Dawla, Musharrif al -
Dawla, Jalal al - Dawla, Abu Kalijar Marzban and al - Malik al - Rahim
Khusraw Firuz. The second was Fars and Khuzestan, where Imad al - Dawla,
Adhud al - Dawla, Sharaf al - Dawla, Samsam. al - Dawla, Baha al - Dawla,
Sultan al - Dawla, Mushrrif al - Dawla, Abu Kalijar and al - Malik al -
Rahim ruled from 322/934 to 440/1048. The third was Kerman where Muizz al
- Dawla, Adhud al - Dawla, Samsam al - Dawla, Baha al - Dawla, Qiwam al -
Dawla, Abu Kalijar and Abu Mansur Fulad Sutun ruled from 324/936 to
440/1048.
The fourth was Jebal (Rey, Hamedan, Isfahan and part of Azarbaijan), where
Imad al - Dawla, Rukn al - Dawla. Muayyid al - Dawla, Ala al - Dawla,
Kakuya, Fakhr al - Dawla and Majd al - Dawla ruled from 320/932
to 420/1029. The Buyid government in Jebal was transferred to the
Ghaznavids in 420/1029 after the conquest of Rey by Sultan Mahmud Ghaznawi,
while in Fars, Khuzestan and Baghdad the Buyids were overthrown in
447/1055 by Toghril Beg the Seljuk. In Kerman the Buyid princes
surrendered their rule to Malik Qavurt Seljuki in the year 444/1052-3.
Source:
Historical Atlas of Iran, University of Tehran,
Institute of Geography
|
