72

The Rawwādids

Early fourth century to 463/early tenth century to 1071

Azerbaijan, with their centre at Tabriz (Tabrīz)

?

Muḥammad b. Ḥusayn al-Rawwādī

344/955

Ḥusayn I b. MuḤammad, Abu ‘1-Hayjā’

⊘ 378/988

Mamlān or Muḥammad I b. Husayn, Abu ‘1-Hayja’

391/1001

Ḥusayn II b. Mamlān I, Abū Naṣr

416/1025

Wahsūdān b. Mamlān I, Abū Manṣūr

451/1059

Mamlān or Muḥammad II b. Wahsūdān, Abū Naṣr

(463/1071

Seljuq occupation of Azerbaijan)

?

Ahmadīl b. Ibrāhīm b. Wahsūdān, died in Marāgha 510/1116

510/1116

Aḥmadīlī Atabegs of Marāgha

Although Daylamīs were most prominent in the upsurge in northern Persian of Iranian peoples in the tenth century, the role of other races was not negligible. The Shaddādids of Arrān (see below, no. 73) were probably of Kurdish origin, while the Rawwādids (the form ‘Rawādi’ later becomes common in the sources) were in the tenth century accounted Kurdish. In reality, the family was probably Arab in origin, from the Yemeni tribe of Azd, and in the early ‘ Abbāsid period they had been governors of Tabriz; but, just as the Yazīdī Sharwān Shāhs became Iranised (see above, no. 67), so the Rawwadids became Kurdicised, with such names as ‘Mamlān’ and ‘Ahmadīl’ being characteristic Kurdish versions of the familiar Arabic names ‘Muhammad’ and ‘Ahmad ’.

Like their Musāfirid neighbours, the Rawwādids took advantage of the confused state of post-Sājid Azerbaijan. Despite help from the Būyids, that branch of the Musāfirids which had installed itself in Azerbaijan (see above, no. 71, 1) was gradually driven out by Abu ‘1-Hayjā’ Mamlān I, so that by 374/984 all the region was in Rawwādid hands. In the next century, the most outstanding member of the dynasty was Wahsūdān b. Mamlān I. With the help of Kurdish neighbours, he successfully coped with the first incursions of the Oghuz Turkmens, but in 446/1054 submitted to Ṭoghrïl Beg. Thereafter, the Rawwādids ruled as Seljuq vassals until Alp Arslan returned from his Anatolian campaigns and deposed Mamlān II b. Wahsūdān. However, at least one later member of the family is known, Aḥmadīl of Marāgha, and his name was perpetuated in the twelfth century by a line of his Turkish ghulāms, called after him the Aḥmadīlīs see below, no. 98).

Justi, 441; Zambaur, 180 (like Justi, erroneously taking the Rawwādids to be a branch of the Musāfirids); Album, 34.

EI1 ‘Tabrīz’ (V. Minorsky); EI2 ‘Rawwādids (C. E. Bosworth).

Sayyid Aḥmad Kasravī, Shahriyārān-i gum-nām, II, 130–58.

V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian History, 167–9, with genealogical table at p. 167.

C. E. Bosworth, in The Cambridge History of Iran, V, 34–5.

W. Madelung, in ibid., IV, 239–43.

If you find an error or have any questions, please email us at admin@erenow.org. Thank you!