Battle of Gorgan | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
Belligerents | |||||||||
Samanid dynasty | Zaydid dynasty | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
The Battle of Gorgan took place in 900, between the Alids of Tabristan and the Samanids of Khorasan at Gorgan, northern Iran. The battle, which took place after the invasion of Khorasan by Muhammad ibn Zayd, ended with a Samanid victory and brought Tabaristan under Samanid control until restoration of Alid rule in 914. Muhammad ibn Zayd, however, was killed in action and his son was captured. [1]
The Samanid victory was also considered a victory for Sunni Islam, against Shiaism and was celebrated in Baghdad, capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. [1]
The Samanid Empire was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian dehqan origin. The empire was centred in Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest extent encompassing northeastern Iran and Central Asia, from 819 to 999.
The Ziyarid dynasty was an Iranian dynasty of Gilaki origin that ruled Tabaristan from 931 to 1090 during the Iranian Intermezzo period. The empire rose to prominence during the leadership of Mardavij. After his death, his brother Vushmgir and his Samanid allies led the dynasty in wrestling for control over territory against the Buyids in the early- to mid-10th century. When Vushmgir died, his sons Bisutun and Qabus fought for influence. Qabus would eventually outlive his brother and ruled the kingdom. However, Qabus was placed in exile from 980 to 998 by the Buyid ruler, Adud al-Dawla who would then dominate Tabaristan, the heartland of Ziyarid power. A succession of other rulers came to rule the kingdom with Ghaznavid support in the early 11th century. The Nizari Ismaili state invaded and ended Ziyarid rule in 1090.
Zahir al-Dawla Vushmgir was the second Ziyarid emir who ruled from 935 until his death in December 967. He was a son of Ziyar. Voshmgir means "quail catcher" in the local Caspian Iranian dialects.
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.
Alid dynasties of northern Iran or Alavids. In the 9th–10th centuries, the northern Iranian regions of Tabaristan, Daylam and Gilan, sandwiched between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz range, came under the rule of a number of Arab Alid dynasties, espousing the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam.
In 740, Zayd ibn Ali led an unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate, that had taken over the Rashidun Caliphate since the death of his great-grandfather, Ali.
The Bavand dynasty, or simply the Bavandids, was an Iranian dynasty that ruled in parts of Tabaristan in what is now northern Iran from 651 until 1349, alternating between outright independence and submission as vassals to more powerful regional rulers. They ruled for 698 years, which is the second longest dynasty of Iran after the Baduspanids.
Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq, surnamed al-Dībāj, was a son of the sixth Shi'a imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq, who led a failed revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate in 815.
The Alid revolt of 762–763 or Revolt of Muhammad the Pure Soul was an uprising by the Hasanid branch of the Alids against the newly established Abbasid Caliphate. The Hasanids, led by the brothers Muhammad and Ibrahim, rejected the legitimacy of the Abbasid family's claim to power. Reacting to mounting persecution by the Abbasid regime, in 762 they launched a rebellion, with Muhammad rising in revolt at Medina in September and Ibrahim following in Basra in November.
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 an Abbasid mercenary soldier who in the turmoils of the late 9th century became ruler of Khurasan from 882 to 892.
Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Ashraf ibn ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn ibn al-Ḥusayn, better known as al-Ḥasan al-Uṭrūsh, was an Alid missionary of the Zaydi Shia sect who re-established Zaydi rule over the province of Tabaristan in northern Iran in 914, after fourteen years of Samanid rule. He ruled Tabaristan until his death under the regnal name of al-Nāṣir liʾl-Ḥaqq, and became known as al-Nāṣir al-Kabīr to distinguish him from his descendants who bore the same surname. His grandfather Al-Ḥasan is the grandson of ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn'son ʿUmar al-Ashraf. He is still known and recognized as an imam among the Zaydis of Yemen.
Al-Hasan ibn al-Fairuzan was a Daylamite prince from the Firuzanid family.
Justan III was the sixth king of the Justanid dynasty, ruling from 865 to 919. He was the brother and successor of Khurshid of Dailam.
Batrīyya or Butrīyya is an early branch of Zaydī Islam.
Abu'l-Sarāyā al-Sarī ibn Manṣūr al-Shaybānī was leader of a Zaydi revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate in Kufa and Iraq in 815. The revolt spread quickly across southern Iraq, and his agents even took over Mecca and Medina. At one point, the rebels threatened even Baghdad, but the Abbasid general Harthama ibn A'yan drove them back to Kufa in a series of victories. Forced to abandon Kufa in late August, Abu'l-Saraya and his followers tried to flee, but were pursued, defeated, and captured. Abu'l-Saraya himself was executed at Baghdad on 18 October. The uprising continued in the Hejaz for a few months under Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq as anti-caliph at Mecca, until this too was suppressed by the Abbasid troops.
Yahya ibn Zayd was the eldest son of Zayd ibn Ali, the founder of the Zaydi movement. He participated in the unsuccessful revolt against the Umayyad Caliphate launched by his father in 739/40, and escaped to Khurasan, where he tried with limited success to gain support for another rebellion. In 743 he was tracked down and finally killed by forces of the Umayyad governor, Nasr ibn Sayyar.