ABŪ BAKR B. ABĪ ṢĀLEḤ, vizier of the Ghaznavids in the 5th/11th century. He is first heard of as the second vizier to serve Sultan Farroḵzād b. Masʿūd (443-51/1052-59). He was called to this office, probably at the end of 445 or beginning of 446/spring-summer, 1055, in succession to Ḥosayn b. Mehrān. He had already had a long career as official and soldier and for thirty years had been a governor in India, where he had been active in public and charitable works. He remained vizier for the rest of the sultan’s reign; on Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd’s succession in 451/1059, he stayed on as the new ruler’s chief executive. However, he was killed while still in office by a conspiracy of the Turkish generals and palace guards, resentful of his influence; the date of his end is uncertain but must have been quite early in Ebrāhīm’s reign.
Bibliography:
Nāṣer-al-dīn Kermānī, Nasāʾem al-asḥār, ed. Ormavī, Tehran, 1338 Š./1959, p. 46.
Sayf-al-dīn ʿOqaylī, Āṯār al-wozarāʾ, ed. Ormavī, Tehran, 1337 Š./1958, p. 195.
Ḵᵛāndamīr, Dastūr al-wozarāʾ, ed. S. Nafīsī, Tehran, 1317 Š./1938, pp. 145-46.
These sources are utilized in Bosworth, Later Ghaznavids, chaps. I, II.
(C. E. Bosworth)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 19, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 3, p. 261
C. E. Bosworth, “ABŪ BAKR B. ABĪ ṢĀLEḤ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/3, p. 261; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abu-bakr-b-1 (accessed on 30 January 2014).