AMĪRAK ṬŪSĪ

 

AMĪRAK ṬŪSĪ, 4th/10th century notable of the ʿAbd-al-Razzāqī family of Ṭūs, related to Abū Manṣūr Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-al-Razzāq (an earlier local leader [kanārang] and governor of Ṭūs) and ruler of the fortress of Kalāt and the district of Tārūd (?) in Khorasan. In the struggle between Abū ʿAlī Sīmǰūr and the Samanid ruler Nūḥ b. Manṣūr (r. 365-87/976-97), Amīrak supported Abū ʿAlī Sīmǰūr and took part in several of his battles against Sebüktigin and the latter’s son Maḥmūd. After Abū ʿAlī Sīmǰūr was taken captive in 386/996, Amīrak made peace with Maḥmūd and enlisted in the Ghaznavid army, but he was soon arrested as a Magian and a Bāṭenī; he was imprisoned at Gardīz with Abū ʿAlī Sīmǰūr and his comrades and executed with them in 389/999.

According to the Tārīḵ-e Sīstān (pp. 328-30), Amīrak Ṭūsī accompanied the force of Ṭāher b. ʿAlī sent by the Samanid Naṣr b. Aḥmad (r. 301-31/914-43) to fight Mākān b. Kākūya, but this is implausible, because Amīrak would then have been at least eighty years old at the time of the suppression of Abū ʿAlī Sīmǰūr’s revolt. Such aid to a Samanid ruler also seems inconsistent with Amīrak’s participation in an uprising against the Samanids. An Amīrak Ṭūsī is mentioned in the preface to several mss. of the Šāh-nāma as one of Ferdowsī’s patrons. According to M. T. Bahār (Tārīḵ-e Sīstān, p. 330, n. 7; Sabk-šenāsī I, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1337 Š./1958, p. 167) this is the same person who was put to death by Maḥmūd, but this opinion cannot be reconciled with what Ferdowsī says about him in the Šāh-nāma (Moscow, I, p. 23, vv. 162-77; the benefactor mentioned is probably Manṣūr, a younger son of Abū Manṣūr Moḥammad b. ʿAbd-al-Razzāq.

Bibliography:

ʿOtbī, al-Tārīḵ al-Yamīnī, on the margin of Ebn al-Aṯīr, Cairo, 1290/1873, pp. 156ff.

Baḡdādī, al-Farq bayn al-feraq, ed.

M. L. Kawṯarī, Cairo, 1367/1948; English tr. by K. C. Seelye, Moslem Schisms and Sects, New York, 1966.

Gardīzī, ed.

Ḥabībī, p. 171.

Mīrḵᵛānd (Tehran) IV, p. 66.

(Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh)

Originally Published: December 15, 1989

Last Updated: August 3, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 9, pp. 972-973

Cite this entry:

Dj. Khaleghi-Motlagh, “AMĪRAK ṬŪSĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/9, pp. 972-973, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amirak-tusi (accessed on 30 December 2012).