74

The Dulafids

Early third century to 284/early ninth century to 897

Central Jibāl, with their centre at Karaj

Abū Dulaf came of ancient Arab tribal stock, and from a family with a tradition of service to the ‘Abbāsids. Hārūn al-Rashīd appointed him governor of Jibāl or Media, and he served subsequent caliphs there, acquiring a reputation both as a brave military commander and as a littérateur and maecenas. His centre of power became the fief, an īghār or hereditary, tax-free concession, centred on Karaj between Hamadan (Hamadhān) and Isfahan (Iṣfahān), a place which henceforth became known as Karaj Abī Dulaf. His son‘Abd al-‘Aziz and the latter’s sons, all functioning as governors for the ‘Abbāsids and exercising their military skills, succeeded him in succession, confirmed by the caliphs (to whom they remained firmly loyal) but minting their own coins, until al-Ḥārith b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz was killed in battle in 284/897. The district then erverted to direct ‘Abbāsid control, although descendants of the Dulafids continued to be prominent in the public affairs of the caliphate for well over a century.

Lane-Poole, 125; Zambaur, 199; Album, 32.

EI² ‘Dulafids’ (E. Marin); ‘al-Kāsim b.‘Īsa’ (J. E. Bencheikh); EIr ‘Abū Dolaf ‘Ejlī’ (F. M. Donner).

M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des H’amdanides de Jazîra et de Syrie, I, Algiers 1951, 311–13.