Disintegrated Rulership

  January 10, 2022   Read time 2 min
Disintegrated Rulership
After the dismissal of Ibn al-Furat, his protector in Baghdad, Yusuf had begun to withhold some of his annual tribute to the caliphal government. In 303 /915 -16 he imprisoned an envoy of the caliph, though later he released him and sent him back with presents and money.

After the restoration of Ibn al-Furat to the vizierate in 304/917 Yusuf conquered Zanjan, Abhar, Qazvin and Ray from a Samanid governor and claimed in a letter to Baghdad that the previous vizier had invested him with the governorship of that province, evidently in the hope that Ibn al-Furat would back him up. The caliph al-Muqtadir was thoroughly incensed, however, and an army was sent against the Sajid, who defeated it. When the 'Abbasid commander-in-chief Mu'nis approached with another army, Yusuf withdrew to Ardabil. Despite the intercession of Ibn al-Furat for him the caliph still refused to confirm him in the governorship of his provinces. Mu'nis was routed by Yusuf in a first battle near Ardabil, but a year later in 307/919 he defeated the Sajid there. Yusuf was carried to Baghdad where al-Muqtadir put him into prison for three years. In Azarbaljan his ghuldm Subuk gained control and, after defeating an army sent against him, was recognized by the caliph as governor.

In 310/922 Yusuf was released and invested with the governorship of Ray, Qazvin, Abhar, Zanjan and Azarbaljan. He proceeded to Azarbaljan where Subuk, who had always remained faithful to him, had died. In 311/924 he defeated and killed the previous governor of Ray, who had rebelled against the caliph, and took over the city. As he left and occupied Hamadan, his deputy soon was expelled by the people of Ray. Yusuf returned there briefly in 313/925 and went on to Azarbaljan. In 314/926 he was called by the caliphal government to 'Iraq to take charge of the war against the Qarmatis of Bahrain who were ravaging the country. A year later he was defeated near Kufa by these fierce opponents, even though his army greatly outnumbered them. Yusuf was captured and a few months later, in 315/928, killed. Some of his Turkish troops entered the caliphal service in Baghdad, where they formed the Sajiyya regiment.

After Yusuf's death his nephew Abu'l-Musafir al-Fath, son of Muhammad al-Afshln, was invested by the caliph with the government of Azarbaljan. One and a half years later, in 317/929, he was poisoned in Ardabil by one of his slaves. Though the Sajid dynasty ended with him, Azarbaljan did not revert to the rule of governors sent by the caliphal government. After al-Fath's murder Waslf al-Sharvani gained sway over Azarbaljan. He was succeeded, probably still in the same year, by Muflih al-Yusufi, who according to numismatic evidence remained in power at least until 323/935. In 325/937 the Hamdanid al-Hasan of Mosul sent Nazif, an officer of the Sajiyya regiment who had sought refuge with him, to conquer Azarbaljan, but he had evidently not much success. By 326/938 Daisam b. Ibrahim al-Kurdl had taken over the reins. Daisam's father, whose patronymic b. Shadhluya points to Iranian, most likely Kurdish, origin, was a companion of the Kharijite leader Harun al-Waziql in Mosul. After the capture of Harun by the caliph al-Mu'tadid in 283/896 Ibrahim fled to Azarbaljan where he married the daughter of a Kurdish chieftain who bore him his son Daisam. Daisam, like his father a Kharijite, was employed by the Sajid Yusuf and rose in his service to prominence.


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