BUYID DYNASTY

also called Buwayhid (9451055), Islamic dynasty of pronounced Iranian and Shi'i character that provided native rule in western Iran and Iraq in the period between the Arab and Turkish conquests. Of Daylamite (northern Iranian) origin, the line was founded by the three sons of Buyeh (or Buwayh), 'Ali, Hasan, and Ahmad. 'Ali, appointed governor of Karaj about 930 by the Daylamite leader Mardaviz ebn Zeyar, seized Isfahan and Fars, while Hasan and Ahmad took Jibal, Khuzestan, and Kerman (935936). In December 945 Ahmad occupied the 'Abbasid capital of Baghdad as amir al-umara' (commander in chief) and, reducing the Sunni caliphs to puppet status, established Buyid rule (January 946). Thereafter the brothers were known by their honorific titles of 'Imad ad-Dawlah ('Ali), Rukn ad-Dawlah (Hasan), and Mu'izz ad-Dawlah (Ahmad). The dynasty's power, subsequently fragmented among family members and provinces, was consolidated briefly during the reign of 'Adud ad-Dawlah (949983), who established himself as sole ruler (by 977), adding Oman, Tabaristan, and Jorjan to the original domains. The Buyid state was then at its peak; it engaged in public works, building hospitals and the Band-e amir (Emir's Dam) across the Kur River near Shiraz; it had relations with the Samanids, Hamdanids, Byzantines, and Fatimids; it patronized artists, notably the poets al-Mutanabbi and Ferdowsi. The Shi'i nature of the state was manifest in the inauguration of popular and passionate observance of Shi'i festivals and the encouragement of pilgrimages to the holy places of an-Najaf and Karbala' in Iraq. The major cultural centres of the Buyids were the cities of Rayy and Nayin, in Iran, and Baghdad, in Iraq. The Persian character of Buyid art was deep enough to flavour the art of that part of the world through the reign of the Seljuqs until the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Buyids were quite fond of metalwork, particularly fine silverwork. They often employed Sasanian (pre-Islamic Persian) techniques and motifs: a typical decoration consists of a seated figure surrounded with wild animals, birds, and musicians, depicted in the highly stylized Sasanian tradition. Buyid pottery, usually called Gabri ware, is a red-bodied earthenware covered with a white slip (liquified clay washed over the body before firing). Designs were executed by scratching through the slip to reveal the red body beneath. Yellowish or green lead glazes were used. Some pieces were decorated with linear patterns, others with elaborate representational designs, which often included mythological figures such as birds and quadrupeds with human faces. Some of the earliest extant of these pieces illustrate stories from the Shah-nameh (Book of Kings), the Persian national epic by the poet Ferdowsi (died 1020). After the death of 'Adud ad-Dawlah, a slackening economy, dissention in the army, and general Buyid disunity hastened the dynasty's decline. In 1055, the last Buyid ruler, Abu Nasr al-Malik ar-Rahim, was deposed by the Seljuq Toghrl Beg.