DAYSAM

 

DAYSAM b. Ebrāhīm KORDĪ, ABŪ SĀLEM, Kurdish commander who ruled sporadically in Azerbaijan between 326/938 and 344/955 after the period of Sajid domination there.

Daysam is described as the son of a Kurdish mother and an Arab father who had been a partisan of the Kharijite Hārūn Wāzeqī at Mosul during the caliphate of al-Moʿtażed (279-89/892-902). A Kharijite like his father, Daysam rose to prominence in the service of Yūsof b. Abi’l-Sāj. Owing largely to Kurdish backing, he had taken control of Azerbaijan by 326/938, but his position there was soon threatened by the northward expansion of the Deylamites, particularly Moḥammad b. Mosāfer of Ṭārom and his sons Marzbān and Vahsūdān. The Gīlanī general Laškarī b. Mardī expelled Daysam, who then sought help from the Ziyarid Vošmgīr in Ray; he recovered his principality, only to lose it again to Marzbān b. Moḥammad in 330/941-42. He was invited back from exile in Armenia by pro-Kurdish, anti-Deylamite elements in Azerbaijan but was nevertheless forced to surrender to Marzbān, who then extended his dominion as far as Dvin and Arrān (333/944-45). Daysam was back in Azerbaijan in 341/952, but two years later he had been expelled thence yet again and was seeking help from the Hamdanids. With aid from Sayf-al-Dawla, ruler of Aleppo (333-56/945-67), he took advantage of Vahsūdān b. Moḥammad’s preoccupation with quelling a revolt in Darband, reappeared in Azerbaijan, and took Salmās (344/955-56), but he was again obliged to retreat into Armenia when Marzbān appeared. The Artsrunid prince Deranikʿ, son of Gagik, then handed him over to Marzbān, who blinded and imprisoned him; when Marzbān died in 346/957 his supporters killed Daysam.

 

Bibliography:

A. A. Bykov, “Daisam ibn Ibrāhkhīm al-Kurdī i ego monetui (Iz istorii Azerbaidzhana i Armenii X v.)” (Daysam b. Ebrāhīm Kordī and his coins [from the history of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the 10th century]), Epigrafika Vostoka 10, 1955, pp. 14-37.

Ebn al-Aṯīr, VIII, pp. 349-50, 480, 500.

Ebn Ḥawqal, pp. 334, 354; tr. Kramers, pp. 326-27, 347.

W. Madelung, “The Minor Dynasties of Northern Iran,” in Camb. Hist. Iran IV, pp. 232-35.

Margoliouth and Amedroz, Eclipse I, pp. 398-404; II, pp. 148-51.

Aḥmad Monajjem-bāšī, Bāb fi’l-Šaddādīya men ketāb Jāmeʿ al-dowal, tr. V. Minorsky as Studies in Caucasian History, London, 1953, pp. 11, 161-62, cf. pp. 113-14.

(C. Edmund Bosworth)

Originally Published: December 15, 1994

Last Updated: November 18, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. VII, Fasc. 2, pp. 172-173