70
276–312/889–929
Azerbaijan (Ādharbāyjān)
|
276/889 |
Muḥammad b. Abi ’1-Sāj Dīwdād I b. Dīwdast |
|
288/901 |
Dīwdād II b. Muḥammad, Abu ’1-Musāfir |
|
⊘ 288/901 |
Yūsuf b. Abi ’1-Sāj Diwdād I, Abu ’1-Qāsim |
|
⊘ 315–17/928–9 |
Fath b. Muḥammad b. Abi ’1-Sāj, Abu ’1-Musāfir |
|
317/929 |
End of the line of governors |
The Sājids were a line of caliphal governors in north-western Persia, the family of a commander in the ‘Abbāsid service of Soghdian descent which became culturally Arabised. Abu ’1-Sāj Dīwdād I was governor in Baghdad and Khūzistān, but with his son Muḥammad’s appointment to Azerbaijan in 276/889, the family acquired what was to be its power-base for some forty years. During their tenure of power, the Sājids led numerous campaigns against such Armenian princes as the Bagratids and the Ardzrunids of Vaspurakan and extended their suzerainty over them. After the murder of Abu ’1-Musāfir Fath, however, their rule in Azerbaijan ended, and control of the region passed to various Daylamī and Kurdish chiefs.
Sājid rule was thus important for the extension of Arab political and cultural influence over the Armenian provinces of eastern Transcaucasia; but, like the Tāhirids (see below, no. 82), the Sājids always remained faithful to their ‘Abbāsid masters and must be considered as autonomous but not independent of Baghdad.
Lane-Poole, 126; Zambaur, 179; Album, 33.
EI2 ‘Sādjids’ (C. E. Bosworth). Eir ‘Banu Saj’ (W. Madelung).
C. Defrémery, ‘Mémoire sur la famille des Sadjides’, JA, 4th series, 9 (1847), 409–16; 10 (1847), 396–436.
W. Madelung, in The Cambridge History of Iran, IV, 228–32.