Buyid dynasty: A Visual History

The Buyids (or Buwayhids) were a Shia Daylamite family from the highlands south of the Caspian. Between 934 and 945 the brothers Ali, Hasan and Ahmad seized Fars, Rayy and Iraq, and Ahmad (Muizz al-Dawla) entered Baghdad in 945, reducing the Abbasid caliph to a figurehead. Adud al-Dawla (949-983) united the family lands and ruled from Shiraz and Baghdad with the old Persian title shahanshah, building hospitals and dams. Family wars and the Seljuk advance ended Buyid rule when Tughril took Baghdad in 1055.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Buyid territory

Timeline of the Buyid dynasty

1. 934
   Ali ibn Buya takes Shiraz
2. 945
   Muizz al-Dawla enters Baghdad
3. 949
   Adud al-Dawla rules Fars
4. 978
   Adud al-Dawla takes Baghdad
5. 983
   Adud al-Dawla dies
6. 1029
   Ghaznavids take Rayy
7. 1055
   Seljuks take Baghdad
8. 1062
   Last Buyid ruler deposed

Daylamite soldiers

The Daylamites of Gilan were famous infantry mercenaries. Ali ibn Buya, serving a Ziyarid prince, took Shiraz in 934 and secured recognition from Baghdad; his brothers took Rayy and Kerman, and Ahmad marched into Baghdad in December 945, ending the caliphs' last shreds of temporal power. The brothers took the titles Imad, Rukn and Muizz al-Dawla, 'pillar', 'support' and 'strengthener' of the state.

Adud al-Dawla

Adud al-Dawla, Rukn's son, ruled Fars from 949 and by 978 held Iraq and most of Iran. He was crowned shahanshah, the first ruler in Islamic times to revive the Sasanian title, patronised scholars and poets, built the Band-e Amir dam near Shiraz and the Adudi hospital in Baghdad, and promoted Shia observances such as Ashura and Ghadir Khumm while leaving the Sunni caliph in place.

Fragmentation and the Seljuks

After Adud al-Dawla's death in 983 his sons and nephews fought over the inheritance while Turkish and Daylamite troops in Baghdad rioted for pay. Mahmud of Ghazni took Rayy in 1029. The Seljuk Tughril entered Baghdad in 1055 at the caliph's invitation, ending Buyid rule in Iraq; the last Buyid ruler of Fars fell in 1062.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)
• Samanid Empire (819 to 999)
• Ghaznavid Empire (977 to 1186)
• Great Seljuk Empire (1037 to 1194)
• Fatimid Caliphate (909 to 1171)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)

Wars of the same era and region

• Crusades (1096 to 1291)

8 surprising things about the Buyid dynasty

1. The Buyids were Shia rulers who kept a Sunni caliph as a puppet for 110 years rather than replace him with an Alid.
2. Adud al-Dawla was the first Muslim ruler to call himself shahanshah, king of kings, and coins bore his image in Sasanian style.
3. The Adudi hospital in Baghdad had 24 physicians on staff and was one of the medieval world's great medical centres.
4. The Buyid century is often called the 'Shia century' of Islam, coinciding with the Fatimids and Hamdanids.
5. Buyid Baghdad hosted the philosopher al-Farabi's successors and the Brethren of Purity's encyclopaedia.
6. The Buyid amirs blinded a caliph, al-Mustakfi, within a year of arriving in Baghdad.
7. Daylamite infantry fought with javelins and long shields; the Buyids had to hire Turkish cavalry to complement them.
8. The Buyids' Persian revival influenced Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, completed under their Ghaznavid rivals.

Sources

• Buyid dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Buyid dynasty Wikipedia
• Buyid Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (1986) Longman

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