1 - The disintegration of the caliphate in the east

Summary

The period of the Buyids, Samanids and Ghaznavids

The many disorders in the government, the deposition of caliphs and wazīrs, the arbitrary attitudes of the Turks, the quarrels between the different sects and theological schools, all prepared the way for new political changes in the eastern Fertile Crescent. Once again the foreign conquerors came from the east, as they did at the time of the ‘Abbasid revolution, They were from the Daylam area to the south-west of the Caspian Sea, and were led by a ruling family called, from their eponym, the Buyids (also Buwayhids, from the Arabic form of the name). Within a few years from 320/932 they had risen to greater importance than their Daylamite predecessors with their few petty dominions in what is now Āzarbāyjān and in Māzandarān. In 334/945 they occupied Baghdād, installed a new caliph, al-Mutī‘, and took over the secular government of the country. Thereby the Commander of the Faithful was subordinated to a family that did not in fact recognize the religious basis of his dignity, but refrained from attacking it in order to prevent the caliphs from settling elsewhere outside their sphere of influence, and thus becoming more dangerous. However, the caliphs found themselves in a very awkward situation. It was indeed alleviated to some extent by the fact that the members of the Buyid house were often at enmity with one another, so that the individual provinces of western Persia under their dominion were usually in the hands of various members of the dynasty; a real Buyid central authority existed only under ‘Adud al-Dawla from 366/976 to 372/983.