Ahmad ibn Sahl ibn Hashim (died 920) was an Iranian aristocrat who served the Saffarids and later the Samanids.
Ahmad ibn Sahl ibn Hashim (died 920) was an Iranian aristocrat who served the Saffarids and later the Samanids.
Ahmad belonged to a dehqan family of Merv known as the Kamkarian family, which claimed descent from the last Sasanian king, Yazdegerd III. Ahmad was the son of a certain Sahl, and had three unnamed brothers, who were later killed during a local struggle in Merv between Iranians and Arabs. Ahmad, in order to avenge his three brothers, revolted against his overlord, the Saffarid ruler Amr ibn al-Layth (r. 879–901), but was defeated and taken prisoner in Sistan. [1] However, he managed to escape and then returned to Merv, where he captured the local governor Abu Ja'far Ghuri and proclaimed his adherence to Samanid ruler Isma'il ibn Ahmad (r. 892-907). [2] He shortly went to the Samanid court at Bukhara and quickly achieved prominence under Isma'il.
In 900 (or 901), Ismail defeated and captured Amr at Balkh, and shortly conquered his territories in Khurasan, which Ahmad also played a role in. In ca. 902, Ahmad was appointed as the governor of the newly conquered province of Tabaristan. He later served as the commander of the army in Ray and also as leader of the personal guards of the Samanid prince who governed the city, Abu Salih Mansur. [3] During the reign of Isma'il's successor, Ahmad Samani (r. 907-914), Ahmad was sent in 910-11 along with other prominent Samanid officers to conquer Sistan.
During the reign of Ahmad's successor, Nasr II (r. 914-943), Ahmad was sent in 919 to suppress the rebellion of the governor of Khurasan, Husayn ibn Ali Marvarrudhi, which he managed to accomplish. [2] [4] Husayn was captured during the battle and was sent to Bukhara. After a few weeks, however, after being lied to by Nasr, who had been promising him a certain thing, Ahmad shortly rebelled at Nishapur, made incursions into the Samanid city of Gorgan, and managed to repel its governor Karategin. [5] He then fortified himself in Merv to avoid a Samanid counter-attack. Nevertheless, the Samanid general Hamuya ibn Ali managed to lure Ahmad out of Merv and defeated him in a battle at Marw al-Rudh. Ahmad was captured during the battle and imprisoned in Bukhara, where he remained until his death in 920.
The Saffarid dynasty was a Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian origin that ruled over parts of Persia, Greater Khorasan, and eastern Makran from 861 to 1002. One of the first indigenous Persian dynasties to emerge after the Islamic conquest, the Saffarid dynasty was part of the Iranian Intermezzo. The dynasty's founder was Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, who was born in 840 in a small town called Karnin (Qarnin), which was located east of Zaranj and west of Bost, in what is now Afghanistan. A native of Sistan and a local ayyār, Ya'qub worked as a coppersmith (ṣaffār) before becoming a warlord. He seized control of the Sistan region and began conquering most of Iran and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Samanid Empire, also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids, was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan origin. The empire was centred in Khorasan and Transoxiana; at its greatest extent encompassing Persia and Central Asia, from 819 to 999.
Ya'qūb ibn al-Layth al-Saffār, was a coppersmith and the founder of the Saffarid dynasty of Sistan, with its capital at Zaranj. Under his military leadership, he conquered much of the eastern portions of Greater Iran consisting of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan as well as portions of western Pakistan and a small part of Iraq. He was succeeded by his brother, Amr ibn al-Layth.
Nasr I was amir of the Samanids from 865 to 892. He was the son and successor of Ahmad ibn Asad.
Ahmad ibn Ismail was amir of the Samanids (907–914). He was the son of Ismail Samani. He was known as the "Martyred Amir".
Abū Ibrāhīm Ismā'īl ibn-i Aḥmad-i Sāmāni, better known simply as Ismail-i Samani, and also known as Isma'il ibn-i Ahmad, was the Samanid amir of Transoxiana (892–907) and Khorasan (900–907). His reign saw the emergence of the Samanids as a powerful force. He was the son of Ahmad ibn-i Asad and a descendant of Saman Khuda, the eponymous ancestor of the Samanid dynasty who renounced Zoroastrianism and embraced Islam.
Nasr ibn Ahmad or Nasr II, nicknamed "the Fortunate", was the ruler (amir) of Transoxiana and Khurasan as the head of the Samanid dynasty from 914 to 943. His reign marked the high point of the Samanid dynasty's fortunes. He was the son of Ahmad ibn Isma’il.
Amr ibn al-Layth or Amr-i Laith Saffari was the second ruler of the Saffarid dynasty of Iran from 879 to 901. He was the son of a whitesmith and the younger brother of the dynasty's founder, Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar.
Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad was the amir of Sistan from 923 until his death in 963. He is responsible for restoring Saffarid rule over Sistan, and was a great patron of the arts.
Abu Ahmad Wali 'l-Dawla Khalaf ibn Ahmad was the Saffarid amir of Sistan from 963 until 1002. Although he was renowned in the eastern Islamic world as a scholar, his reign was characterized by violence and instability, and Saffarid rule over Sistan came to an end with his deposition.
Al-Mu'addal ibn Ali ibn al-Layth was the Saffarid ruler of Zarang for a part of 911.
Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Tahir ibn 'Abdallah was the last Tahirid governor of Khurasan, from 862 until 873. He was the governor during the period of Extreme instability in Abbasid Caliphate and Civil war of 865–866. His career spanned under four caliphs al-Musta'in, al-Mu'tazz, al-Muhtadi and al-Mu'tamid. He was later appointed as governor of Baghdad by caliph al-Mu'tamid from 885 to 889.
Shahid Balkhi was a scribe, philosopher and poet active in the Chaghaniyan and Samanid courts. He is notable being for one of the first composers of New Persian poetry.
Abu Mansur Makan ibn Kaki was a Daylamite military leader active in northern Iran in the early 10th century. He became involved in the succession disputes of the Alids of Tabaristan, and managed to establish himself as the ruler of Tabaristan and Gurgan for short periods of time, in competition to other Daylamite warlords such as Asfar ibn Shiruya or the Ziyarid brothers Mardavij and Vushmgir. He alternately opposed and secured support from the Samanid governors of Khurasan, and eventually fell in battle against a Samanid army.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Zayd ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismaʿīl ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd, also known as al-Dāʿī al-Ṣaghīr, was an Alid who succeeded his brother, Hasan, as ruler of the Zaydid dynasty of Tabaristan in 884. Little is known of his early life, before coming to Tabaristan after Hasan established Zaydid rule there in 864. He served his brother as a general and governor, and continued his policies after his accession. His reign was troubled by rebellions and wars, most notably by the invasion of Rafi' ibn Harthama in 889–892, which occupied most of his domains. After Rafi' fell out of favour with the Abbasids, Muhammad recovered his position and secured the allegiance of Rafi', but did not particularly support him against the Saffarids. In 900, following the Saffarids' defeat by the Samanids, he tried to invade Khurasan, but was defeated and died of his wounds, whereupon Tabaristan fell to the Samanids.
Rāfi‘ ibn Harthama was a mercenary soldier who in the turmoils of the late 9th century became ruler of Khurasan from 882 to 892.
Abu Salih Mansur was a Samanid prince, who served as governor during the reign of his uncle Isma'il ibn Ahmad, his cousin Ahmad Samani, and Nasr II.
Simjur al-Dawati was a 10th-century Turkic general who served the Samanids. He was the founder of the Simjurid family which would play an important role in the Samanid Empire.
The Muslim conquest of Khorasan, or Arab conquest of Khorasan, was the last phase of the heavy war between the Arab Rashidun caliphate against the Sassanid Empire & Later vassal states of Tang dynasty
Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bazdawi al-Nasafi was an early 10th-century Isma'ili missionary and theologian. In c. 937 he succeeded in converting the Samanid emir, Nasr II, to Isma'ilism, and ushered in a period of Isma'ili dominance at the Samanid court that lasted until Nasr's death. In the subsequent persecution of the Isma'ilis, launched by Nuh I, al-Nasafi himself fell victim. As a theologian, he is generally credited with being among those who introduced Neoplatonic concepts into Isma'ili theology. His doctrines dominated indigenous Isma'ilism in the Iranian lands in the 9th–10th centuries, but were denounced as antinomian by Isma'ili theologians aligned with the Fatimid Caliphate.