The Buyids take Baghdad
On 19 December 945 the Daylamite troops of the Buyid Ahmad ibn Buya entered Baghdad without a fight. The caliph gave him the title Mu'izz al-Dawla and the government of the caliphate, and soon afterwards Ahmad deposed al-Mustakfi in favour of the obedient al-Muti. For 110 years the Sunni Abbasid caliphs reigned in Baghdad under the tutelage of Shi'ite emirs from Iran, keeping only a religious and ceremonial role.
- Date
- 19 December 945exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Baghdadtoday: Baghdad, Iraq · Middle East and Egypt
- Participants
- Mu'izz al-Dawla, Buyids, Abbasid Caliphate, Hamdanids
- Threads
- Middle East and Egypt (6th–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Buyid conquest of Baghdad; Buwayhid takeover of Baghdad; Mu'izz al-Dawla in Baghdad; Буиды в Багдаде
By the 930s the Abbasid caliphs had lost their provinces and their revenues; from 936 real power in Baghdad lay with military strongmen bearing the new title of amir al-umara, ‘commander of commanders’, who fought one another for the capital. Meanwhile three brothers from Daylam, south of the Caspian — Ali, Hasan and Ahmad, sons of a fisherman named Buya — had risen in the service of the warlords of northern Iran and by the mid-930s held Fars and Isfahan, and by the early 940s much of western Iran. The youngest, Ahmad, took Khuzistan and from there raided Iraq.
When Ahmad marched on the capital at the end of 945, the Turkish troops left it to join the Hamdanids of Mosul and Ibn Shirzad, the weak amir al-umara who had succeeded Tuzun in August, went into hiding; Ahmad entered Baghdad without a fight on 19 December. The caliph al-Mustakfi received him, entrusted him with the government and gave him the title Mu'izz al-Dawla, ‘Fortifier of the State’, while his brothers became Imad al-Dawla and Rukn al-Dawla. On 29 January 946 — or in March, by other accounts — al-Mustakfi was deposed and later blinded, and his cousin al-Fadl was raised to the throne as al-Muti. In the summer of 946 Mu'izz al-Dawla had to fight the Hamdanid Nasir al-Dawla of Mosul for Baghdad, but by 947 he was master of all Iraq.
The Buyids were Shi'ites, but they kept the Abbasid caliph as a figurehead who legitimised their rule in the eyes of the Sunni majority by granting titles and diplomas, while the emirs controlled the army, the revenues and even the appointment of judges. From 963 Shi'ite observances such as the mourning of Ashura and the feast of Ghadir Khumm were celebrated publicly in Baghdad, and clashes between Sunnis and Shi'ites grew frequent. Buyid power reached its height under Mu'izz al-Dawla's nephew Adud al-Dawla, who united the family's lands and took the old Iranian title of shahanshah; the Buyids ruled Iraq until the Seljuk Tughril Beg entered Baghdad in 1055.
Connections
Related events
- Al-Mu'tasim founds Samarra, the new Abbasid capital836 · Middle East and Egyptthe domination of the caliphs by military commanders, which began with the Turkish guard at Samarra, ended in the Buyid takeover
- Samanid Bukhara and the rise of New Persian literature900–999 · Central and Northern Asiathe Buyid brothers had begun in Samanid service; later the two dynasties fought over Rayy — in 945 the Samanid governor of Khurasan, Ibn Muhtaj, drove Rukn al-Dawla out of central Iran — and the Samanids refused to recognise the Buyid-installed caliph al-Muti until they made peace with the Buyids in 955
- Sayf al-Dawla's Aleppo: al-Mutanabbi and the Hamdanid emirate29 October 944 – 8 February 967 · Middle East and Egyptin 946 Sayf al-Dawla's brother Nasir al-Dawla fought Mu'izz al-Dawla for Baghdad; in 958/959 the Buyids drove him to take refuge with Sayf al-Dawla
- Al-Sufi's ‘Book of the Fixed Stars’964 · Middle East and Egyptal-Sufi worked for the Buyid rulers and dedicated the book to Adud al-Dawla
Same participants
- Qarmatians sack Mecca and carry off the Black Stonebetween 11 January and 12 January 930 · Middle East and Egyptvia Abbasid Caliphate
Same place
- Reign of Vologases I51–78 · Middle East and Egypt
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117 · Middle East and Egypt
- Roman–Parthian War of 161–166161–166 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Vologases IV147–191 · Middle East and Egypt
- Mani begins his mission240 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Shapur II309–379 · Middle East and Egypt
- Julian’s Persian expedition and the Peace of 3635 March 363 – July 363 · Middle East and Egypt
- Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon410 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Bahram V Gurbetween 420 and 421 – 438 · Middle East and Egypt
- Suppression of the Mazdakitesbetween 524 and 529 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579 · Middle East and Egypt
- Revolt of Bahram Chobin and the restoration of Khosrow II589–591 · Middle East and Egypt
- Founding of Baghdad: al-Mansur’s Round Citybetween 30 July and 2 August 762 – between 766 and 767 · Middle East and Egypt
- Indian astronomy in Arabic: the Zij al-Sindhindbetween 771 and 773 · Middle East and Egypt
- Paper comes to Baghdadbetween 794 and 795 · Middle East and Egypt
- Fourth Fitna: al-Amin against al-Ma'mun and the siege of BaghdadJanuary 811 – September 813 · Middle East and Egypt
- Al-Khwarizmi writes the book of al-jabrc. 820 · Middle East and Egypt
- The mihna: the Abbasid inquisition over the createdness of the Qur’an833 – between 848 and 852 · Middle East and Egypt
- The House of Wisdom and the translation movement in Baghdadc. 800 – c. 900 · Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258 · Middle East and Egypt
- Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman Ibetween November and December 1534 · Middle East and Egypt
Adjacent events in the thread
- Al-Mas'udi writes ‘The Meadows of Gold’between 943 and 947 · Middle East and Egypt
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Olga’s revenge on the Drevlians945–946
- Drevlian uprising and death of Igor945
- Gnezdovo inscriptionbetween 925 and 960
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944
Africa
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
- Samanid Bukhara and the rise of New Persian literature900–999
- Satuq Bughra Khan and the conversion of the Karakhanids to Islambetween 932 and 955 – 960
South Asia
- Yashovarman builds the Lakshmana temple at Khajurahobetween 930 and 955
East Asia
- Fall of the Tang: the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms1 June 907 – 3 February 960
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Koh Ker, the capital of Jayavarman IVbetween 921 and 928 – 944
North America
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- Middle Sicán: the Lambayeque culture at its height at Batán Grandec. 900 – c. 1100
- Classic Maya collapse in the southern lowlandsc. 800 – c. 950
- Rise of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatánc. 800 – between 900 and 1000
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
+ 1 event
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Mu'izz al-Dawla
- Wikipedia (English): Buyid dynasty
- Wikipedia (English): Al-Mustakfi
- Wikipedia (English): Al-Muti'
- Wikipedia (Russian): Ахмед ибн Бувейх
- Wikipedia (Russian): Буиды
- Nagel T. Buyids // Encyclopaedia Iranica. — Vol. IV, fasc. 6. — 1990. — P. 578–586
- Busse H. Chalif und Grosskönig: Die Buyiden im Iraq (945–1055). — Beirut, 1969. — (Beiruter Texte und Studien; 6).
- Donohue J. J. The Buwayhid Dynasty in Iraq 334 H./945 to 403 H./1012: Shaping Institutions for the Future. — Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2003.