Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

94 HISTORY OF PERSIA
robber called Mohamed ibn llias but known as Abu All,
and when Ahmad, having captured Sirjan, was besieging
Kerman, Abu Ali adopted the unusual course of righting
by day and sending gifts by night, with the result that he
was allowed to keep Kerman on the condition that he
paid tribute. In an expedition to Jiruft the Buwayhid
prince was ambushed in the Dilfard pass, and according
to the chronicler escaped with only a few men and the
loss of one of his hands. This, however, was merely a
temporary reverse, and marching westwards he annexed
Fars in conjunction with his brothers in A.H. 322 (934).
The Caliph was obliged to recognize the conquerors as
his lieutenants. After organizing
the captured provinces,
Ahmad first moved westward and annexed Khuzistan,
and ultimately
in A.H. 334 (945) entered Baghdad, where
the Caliph perforce welcomed him, bestowing on him the
title of Muizz-u-Dola " and the rank of Amir-ul-Omara^ or
Amir of Amirs," which was held by the family for many
generations. 1 The unfortunate Caliph was subsequently
deposed, and his successors were puppets in the hands
of the Buwayhid chiefs, who retained all
power for about
a century.
It is
beyond the scope of this work to deal in detail
with the three families of Fars, Irak, and 'Rei, into which
the dynasty broke up but I will attempt to give ; briefly
some of the leading events of the period. Muizz-u-Dola
died in A.H. 356 (967), and the next great member of the
dynasty was Azud-u-Dola, who held the post of Vizier
to the puppet Caliph and ruled Irak and Fars. His
operations against his brother Fakhr-u-Dola have already
been referred to in connexion with Kabus. He was an
exceptionally enlightened prince, who encouraged pilgrims
by restoring the sacred buildings at Medina, NajafJ and
Kerbela. Moreover, he established hospitals
for the
poor of Baghdad, appointing physicians with regular
made by him, appears to have travelled to Sistan in A.H. 1025 (1636). The manuscript
of this work was published by Houtsma in A.D. 1X86. It deals with the Seljuks of
Kerman and gives the chief events of the province from A.H. 433 (1041) to A.H. 619
(1222), i.e. up to the era of the Kutlugh Khans.
1
Curiously enough, this high-sounding title is now used only in writing to nomad
chiefs of secondary importance, such as the Ilkhani of Kuchan or the Chief of the
Hazara tribe in Khorasan.