Home › Multilingual Archive Index › Hamdanid dynasty

Hamdanid dynasty

The Hamdanid dynasty (Arabic:حمدانيون) was a Muslim Arab dynasty of northern Iraq (Al-Jazirah) and Syria (890-1004).

The Hamdanid dynasty was founded by Hamdan ibn Hamdun (after whom it is named), when he was appointed governor of Mardin in SE Anatolia by the Abbasid Caliphs in 890.

His son Abdallah (904-929) was in turn appointed governor of Mosul in northern Iraq (906) and even governed Baghdad (914). His sons were installed as governors in Mosul and Aleppo.

The rule of Hassan Nasir ad-Daula (929-968), governor of Mosul and Diyarbakır, was sufficiently tyrannical to cause him to be deposed by his own family.

His lineage still ruled in Mossul, a heavy defeat by the Buyids in 979 notwithstanding, until 990. After this, their area of control in northern Iraq was divided between the Uqailids and the Marwanids.

Ali Saif al-Daula 'Sword of the State' ruled (945-967) Northern Syria from Aleppo, and became the most important opponent of the Byzantine Empire's (Christian) expansion. His court was a centre of culture, thanks to its nurturing of Arabic literature, but it lost this status after the Byzantine conquest of Aleppo.

To stop the Byzantine advance, Said al-Daula converted to Shiism in 969 and put Aleppo under the suzerainty of the Fatimids in Egypt, but in 1003 the Fatimids deposed the Hamdanids anyway.

Hamadanid Rulers

Hamdanids in Al-Jazira

1. Hamdan ibn Hamdun (868-874)
2. al-Husayn ibn Hamdan (895-916)
3. Abdullah ibn Hamdan (906-929)
4. Nasir ad-Daula (929-967)
5. Adid ad-Daula (967-980)
6. Abul Tahir Ibrahim ibn al-Hasan (989-997)
7. Abu Abdillah al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan (989-997)

Hamdanids in Aleppo

1. Sayf al-Daula (945-967)
2. Saad al-Daula (967-991)
3. Said al-Daula (991-1002)
4. Abul Hasan Ali (1002–1004)
5. Abul Ma'ali Sharif (1004–1004)

References

• Hukam (Arabic)