71

The Musāfirids or Sallārids

Before 304–c. 483/before 916–c. 1090

Daylam, with their centres at Ṭārum and Samīrān, and then in Azerbaijan and Arrān also

Division of the family into two branches

1. The line in Azerbaijan

2. The line in Daylam

The Daylamī Musāfirids were a sister-dynasty of the Justānids and were closely linked with them (see above, no. 69), but, as a newer and, it seems, more vigorous family, were to direct their energies outside Daylam as well as within it. Whereas the Ziyārids and Būyids (see below, nos 81, 75) strove to control the rich lands of northern Persia and, in the case of the latter family, southern Persia and Iraq also, the Musāfirids expanded westwards into Azerbaijan and the eastern fringes of Armenia, where the collapse of the line of Sājid governors (see above, no. 70) had left a vacuum. ‘Musāfir’ is apparently an attempt to Arabise Persian Asfār/Asvār, but other names for the dynasty are found in the sources: Sallarids (< Pers. sālār ‘military commander’) and Langarids (probably from a personal name, this form being more probable, it appears, than that of Kangarids).

Muhammad b. Musāfir, the first member of the line to appear in history, held the key fortresses of Ṭārum and Samīrān in the Safīd Rūd valley of Daylam, and from these he increased his power at the expense of the older dynasty of the Justānids. After the imprisonment of Muhammad by his sons in 330/941, the family split into two branches, with Wahsūdān remaining in Ṭārum while his brother Marzubān extended his power northwards and westwards into Azerbaijan, Arrān, some districts of eastern Armenia and as far as Darband on the Caspian coast. Around this time, the Musāfirids seem to have espoused Ismā‘īlī Shī‘ī doctrines, which were spreading within Daylam. The two branches frequently squabbled, and the latter failed to maintain itself in face of the growing power of the Rawwādids of Tabrīz (see below, no. 72). The Daylam branch was also for a while hard pressed by the Būyids, and for a time lost Shamīrān to Fakhr al-Dawla of Rayy. Their fortunes subsequently revived, and they were able to expand as far south as Zanjan. But the dynasty’s history now becomes obscure and fragmentary. It survived confrontation with the Ghaznawids (see below, no. 158) and later submitted to the Seljuq Ṭoghrïl Beg. After this comes only silence, but it is probable that the last obscure Musāfirids were ended by the Ismā‘īlīs of Alamūt (see below, no. 101).

Justi, 441 (linking the Musāfirids with the Rawwādids under the common designation of Wahsūdānids); Sachau, 14 no. 23; Zambaur, 180 (defective); Album, 33–4.

EI² ‘Musafirids’ (V. Minorsky).

R. Vasmer, ‘Zur Chronologie der Ǧastāniden und Sallāriden’, 170–81, with a genealogical table at p. 184 correcting Zambaur.

Sayyid Ahmad Kasravī, Shahriyārān-i gum-nām, I, 52–120, with a genealogical table at p. 112.

V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian History, London 1953.

C. E. Bosworth, ‘The political and dynastic history of the Iranian world (A.D. 1000–1217)’, in The Cambridge History of Iran. V. The Saljuq and Mongol Periods, ed. J. A. Boyle, Cambridge 1968, 30–2.

W. Madelung, in The Cambridge History of Iran, IV, 232–6.