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Bakjur was a Circassian military slave who served the Hamdanids of Aleppo and later the Fatimids of Egypt. He seized control of Aleppo in 975 and governed it until 977, when the rightful Hamdanid ruler, Sa'd al-Dawla, regained it. Given the governorship of Homs, in 983 he went over to the Fatimids and launched an attack on Aleppo, which was defeated through the intervention of Byzantine troops. Bakjur then became governor of Damascus for the Fatimids until 988. He made a last attempt to capture Aleppo in 991, which again was defeated thanks to Byzantine assistance. Bakjur was captured by Sa'd al-Dawla and executed.
Mufarrij ibn Daghfal ibn al-Jarrah al-Tayyi, in some sources erroneously called Daghfal ibn Mufarrij, was an emir of the Jarrahid family and leader of the Tayy tribe. Mufarrij was engaged in repeated rebellions against the Fatimid Caliphate, which controlled southern Syria at the time. Although he was several times defeated and forced into exile, by the 990s Mufarrij managed to establish himself and his tribe as the de facto autonomous masters of much of Palestine around Ramlah with Fatimid acquiescence. In 1011, another rebellion against Fatimid authority was more successful, and a short-lived Jarrahid-led Bedouin state was established in Palestine centred at Ramlah. The Bedouin even proclaimed a rival Caliph to the Fatimid al-Hakim, in the person of the Alid Abu'l-Futuh al-Hasan ibn Ja'far. Bedouin independence survived until 1013, when the Fatimids launched their counterattack. Their will to resist weakened by Fatimid bribes, the Bedouin were quickly defeated. At the same time Mufarrij died, possibly poisoned, and his sons quickly came to terms with the Fatimids. Among them, Hassan ibn Mufarrij al-Jarrah managed to succeed to his father's position, and became a major player in the politics of the region over the next decades.
The Jarrahids were an Arab dynasty that intermittently ruled Palestine and controlled Transjordan and northern Arabia in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. They were described by historian Marius Canard (1888–1982) as a significant player in the Byzantine–Fatimid wars in Syria who "created for themselves, in their own best interests, a rule of duplicity, treason and pillage". They were the ruling family of the Tayy tribe, one of the three powerful tribes of Syria at the time; the other two were Kalb and Kilab.
Aziz al-Dawla was the first Fatimid governor of Aleppo, serving from c. 1016 to his death. An ethnic Armenian, Aziz al-Dawla started his political career as a trusted ghulam of Manjutakin, the Fatimid governor of Damascus under Caliph al-Hakim. The latter appointed Aziz al-Dawla governor of Aleppo, which prospered during his rule.
Manṣūr ibn Luʾluʾ, also known by his laqab of Murtaḍā ad-Dawla, was the ruler of the Emirate of Aleppo between 1008 and 1016. He succeeded his father Lu'lu' al-Kabir, with whom he had shared power. Unlike Lu'lu', however, Mansur's rule was opposed by Aleppo's notables, who chafed at his oppression and monopolization of power. Both Mansur and his father harassed the remaining members of the Hamdanid dynasty, in whose name they ostensibly ruled. On the diplomatic front, Mansur balanced ties with both the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimid Caliphate, and maintained the emirate's Shia Muslim orientation.
Abūʾl-Murajjā Sālim ibn al-Mustafād al-Ḥamdānī was the commander of Aleppo's ahdath during the reigns of the Mirdasid emirs Salih ibn Mirdas and Nasr ibn Salih. He was executed by the latter in 1034 for stirring a local Muslim uprising against Aleppo's vassalage to the Christian Byzantine Empire.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Canard 1986, p. 820.
- 1 2 Amabe, Fukuzo (2016). Urban Autonomy in Medieval Islam: Damascus, Aleppo, Cordoba, Toledo, Valencia and Tunis. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004315983.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Canard 1971, p. 130.
- 1 2 3 4 Stevenson 1926, p. 251.
- ↑ Kennedy 2004, p. 281.
- ↑ Whittow 1996, pp. 379–380.
- 1 2 Kennedy 2004, p. 325.
- ↑ Whittow 1996, p. 380.
- 1 2 3 Stevenson 1926, p. 252.
- ↑ Whittow 1996, pp. 380–381.
- 1 2 Stevenson 1926, p. 254.
- ↑ Le Strange, 1890, p. 471
- ↑ Stevenson 1926, pp. 254–255.
- ↑ Kennedy 2004, pp. 281–282.