Sa'd al-Dawla

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This article is about the 10th-century Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo. For the 13th-century Jewish physician of Persia, see Sa'ad al-Dawla.

Sa'd al-Dawla
سعد الدولة
Emir of Aleppo
Reign967–991
PredecessorSayf al-Dawla
SuccessorSa'id al-Dawla
Born952
DiedDecember 991
Aleppo, Syria
Names
Sa'd al-Dawla Abu'l-Ma'ali Sharif
DynastyHamdanid
FatherSayf al-Dawla
MotherSakhinah
ReligionShia Islam

Abu 'l-Ma'ali Sharif, more commonly known by his

Fatimids of Egypt
. In turn, Sa'd came to rely increasingly on Byzantine assistance, although he continued to fluctuate in his allegiance between Byzantium, the Buyids, and the Fatimids.

Biography

Early years

Family tree of the Hamdanid dynasty

Sa'd al-Dawla was the son of

Nikephoros II had just conquered Cilicia and was raiding its northern and western provinces, while rebellions of his closest lieutenants had plagued Sayf al-Dawla's last years.[1][3]

Sa'd al-Dawla reached Aleppo, which for years had been governed by Sayf al-Dawla's chief minister and chamberlain (

Emir of Mosul, who used the opportunity to expand his own territory. Immediately after Sayf al-Dawla's death, he captured Raqqa, and by 971 extended his control over the provinces of Diyar Bakr and Diyar Mudar. Sa'd al-Dawla, unable to offer any resistance, tacitly accepted these losses as well as his cousin's suzerainty.[4][5]

The year 969 was a crucial one in Syrian history, as it marked the climax of the Byzantine advance. In October, the generals

Ikhshidids and gained control of the country, from where they advanced into southern Syria. The competition between these two powers, Byzantium and the Fatimids, would shape the history of Syria and of Aleppo for the next fifty years.[4]

Recovery of Aleppo

It was not until 977 that Sa'd al-Dawla managed to regain his capital, which by now was under the control of Bakjur, who in 975 had deposed and imprisoned Qarquya. Aided by some of his father's ghilman, and, crucially, the powerful Banu Kilab tribe living around Aleppo, Sa'd al-Dawla besieged Aleppo and captured it. Qarquya was set free and again entrusted with the affairs of state until his death a few years later, while Bakjur was given the governorship of Homs.[1][6][7]

Soon after, in 979, he was able to capitalize upon Abu Taghlib's conflict with the

laqab of Sa'd al-Dawla (lit. 'Happiness of the Dynasty'), by which he is known.[8]

Conflicts with Bakjur, the Fatimids and Byzantium

Bakjur, in the meantime, had used his new post at Homs to open contacts with the Fatimids, who intended to use him as a pawn to subdue Aleppo and complete their conquest of the entirety of Syria.[8] Sa'd al-Dawla himself oscillated between the Fatimids and Byzantium: on the one hand he resented Byzantine overlordship and was willing to acknowledge the Fatimid Caliph, but on the other hand he did not want to see his domain become merely another Fatimid province like southern Syria.[7]

His first attempt to free himself of the Byzantine protectorate, in 981, ended in failure due to lack of outside support, when a Byzantine army appeared before Aleppo's walls to enforce compliance.[7][8] The Fatimids then induced Bakjur to act: in September 983, Bakjur launched an attack on Aleppo with the support of Fatimid troops. Sa'd al-Dawla was forced to appeal to the Byzantine emperor Basil II for help, and the siege was raised by a Byzantine army under Bardas Phokas the Younger. The Byzantines then proceeded to sack Homs in October. The city was returned to Hamdanid control, while Bakjur fled to Fatimid territory, where he assumed the governorship of Damascus.[7][8][9][10] It is an indication of the strained relations between Sa'd al-Dawla and his "saviours" that after Bakjur's flight, there were clashes between Byzantine and Hamdanid troops, which were settled only when the Hamdanid emir agreed to pay twice the usual yearly amount of tribute of 20,000 gold dinars.[7]

Hamdanid relations with Byzantium collapsed completely in 985–986, after the Fatimids took the Byzantine fortress of

Qal'at Sim'an.[7][8][11] However, soon after that, in May 986, the prospect of an imminent conclusion of a peace between Byzantium and Egypt forced Sa'd al-Dawla to return to his earlier allegiance, and he re-affirmed his tributary status on the same terms as before.[7][8] This did not prevent Sa'd al-Dawla from supporting the Byzantine general Bardas Skleros in his second rebellion against Basil II, once he was released from Buyid captivity in December 986, nor of recognizing Fatimid suzerainty in the same month,[8] especially as Byzantium now descended into a civil war that lasted until 989.[12]

Warfare with the Fatimids once again threatened in 991, again because of Bakjur. He had governed Damascus until 988, when he was deposed, and then fled to Raqqa. From there, though with little support from the Fatimids, he tried to attack Aleppo. With Byzantine assistance in the form of troops under the

hemiplegia in December 991 that stopped him from attacking Fatimid possessions.[8]

Succession and the end of the Hamdanid dynasty in Aleppo

Sa'd al-Dawla was succeeded by his son,

Lu'lu'. Several of the Hamdanid ghilman, resenting the influence of Lu'lu', went over to the Fatimids, who now launched a sustained offensive against Aleppo under the Turkish general Manjutakin. Only the personal intervention of Basil II in 995 and again in 999 would save the emirate from Fatimid conquest. Warfare lasted until 1000, when a peace treaty was concluded guaranteeing Aleppo's continued existence as a buffer state between the two powers. Finally, in 1002, Lu'lu' assassinated Sa'id al-Dawla and assumed control of Aleppo in his own name.[8][9][15][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Canard 1971, p. 129.
  2. ^ a b El Tayib 1990, p. 326.
  3. ^ Kennedy 2004, pp. 277–280.
  4. ^ a b c d Kennedy 2004, p. 280.
  5. ^ Canard 1971, pp. 127–128, 129.
  6. ^ Kennedy 2004, pp. 280–281.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Stevenson 1926, pp. 250.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Canard 1971, p. 130.
  9. ^ a b Kennedy 2004, p. 281.
  10. ^ Whittow 1996, p. 367.
  11. ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 367–368.
  12. ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 369–373.
  13. ^ Stevenson 1926, pp. 250–251.
  14. ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 379–380.
  15. ^ Stevenson 1926, pp. 251–252.
  16. ^ Whittow 1996, pp. 379–381.

Bibliography

  • OCLC 495469525
    .
  • El Tayib, Abdullah (1990). "Abū Firās al-Ḥamdānī". In Ashtiany, Julia; Johnstone, T. M.; Latham, J. D.; Serjeant, R. B.; Smith, G. Rex (eds.). ʿAbbasid Belles-Lettres. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 315–327.
    ISBN 0-521-24016-6
    .
  • ISBN 978-0-582-40525-7
    .
  • Stevenson, William B. (1926). "Chapter VI. Islam in Syria and Egypt (750–1100)". In Bury, John Bagnell (ed.). The Cambridge Medieval History, Volume V: Contest of Empire and Papacy. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 242–264.
  • ISBN 978-0-520-20496-6
    .
Preceded by
Emir of Aleppo

967–991 		Succeeded by
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