AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ṬĀHER, governor in Ḵᵛārazm and son of the last Tahirid governor in Khorasan. Although Vasmer has doubted whether Ṭāher b. Moḥammad, who ruled in Marv after the capture of Moḥammad b. Ṭāher at Nīšāpūr in 259/873, was the latter’s son, there seems no reason to doubt the filiation of Aḥmad. He is mentioned by Ebn al-Aṯīr, in his account of the complex fighting in Khorasan under the events of 262/875-6, as governor in Ḵᵛārazm at that time. After the Arab conquest of Qotayba, Ḵᵛārazm had been loosely attached administratively to Khorasan; and Aḥmad was presumably governor at the side of the indigenous ruling monarch, the Afrighid Ḵᵛārazmšāh. According to Ebn al-Aṯīr, Aḥmad sent an army of 5,000 men against the military adventurer Aḥmad Ḵoǰestānī in Nīšāpūr but was unable to dislodge him (Ebn al-Aṯīr, VII, p. 302); nothing further is known of him.
Bibliography:
Zambaur, pp. 198, 208.
R. Vasmer, “Über die Münzen der Ṣaffāriden und ihrer Gegner in Fārs und Ḫurāsān,” Numismatische Zeitschrift 63, 1930, pp. 147-48, 149.
(C. E. Bosworth)
Originally Published: December 15, 1984
Last Updated: July 28, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 6, p. 642
C. E. Bosworth, “AḤMAD B. MOḤAMMAD B. ṬĀHER,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/6, p. 642; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahmad-b-10 (accessed on 19 March 2014).
