EBN DĀROST, MAJD-AL-WOZARĀʾ MOḤAMMAD

 

EBN DĀROST, MAJD-AL-WOZARĀʾ MOḤAMMAD b. Manṣūr (d. Ahvā, 467/1074), vizier to the ʿAbbasid caliph al-Qāʾem from 15 Rabīʿ II 453/9 May 1061 to 4 Ḏu’l-ḥejja 454/9 December 1062. He seems to have been a native of Fārs, where he had been a wealthy merchant connected with the Buyid Abū Kālījār Marzbān. With the arrival of the Saljuqs in Iraq, the caliph was once more able to choose his own vizier, and Ebn Dārost wrote to al-Qāʾem from Shiraz asking for the vizierate, offering a large sum of money and stating that he required no eqṭāʿ (Ebn al-Aṯīr, X, p. 14; Bondārī, p. 23). It is not surprising that during his eighteen months in office he further lined his own pockets. His appointment had been strongly opposed by Ṭoḡrel’s own vizier, the ʿAmīd-al-Molk Kondorī (Bondārī, p. 22 ), at a time when relations were in any case strained over the question whether the proud ʿAbbasid would let his daughter marry the parvenu Saljuq. Ebn Dārost played a role in the marriage negotiations, but his incompetence became manifest and the caliph dismissed him and restored his predecessor in the vizierate, Faḵr-al-Molk b. Jahīr. Ebn Dārost retired to Ahvāz (Ebn al-Aṯīr, X, p. 23). Ebn Dārost was a representative of the non-official classes, without a previous background in the Saljuq administration, hence opposed as both incompetent and corrupt by the professional bureaucrats.

 

Bibliography: (For cited works not given in detail, see “Short References.”)

Fatḥ b. ʿAlī Bondārī, Zobdat al-noṣra wa noḵbat al-ʿoṣra, in Houtsma, Recueil, pp. 20, 22-23.

Ebn al-Aṯīr X, pp. 14, 21, 23.

Ebn al-Jawzī, al-Montaẓam VIII, pp. 226, 297.

C. L. Klausner, The Seljuk Vezirate. A Study in Civil Administration, 1055-1194, Cambridge, Mass., 1973, pp. 28, 29, 52.

G. Makdisi, “The Marriage of Ṭughril Beg,” IJMES 1, 1970, pp. 264, n. 4, 271.

(C. Edmund Bosworth)

Originally Published: December 15, 1997

Last Updated: December 6, 2011

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