Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani, born in 915 AD, was able to expand the borders of the Hamdanid state, and establish the "Emirate of Aleppo", which became a home for philosophers and poets such as al-Farabi, Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi and Abu Firas al-Hamdani, and he spent most of his life on the battlefields, until it was said that he collected the dust that had accumulated on His armor and clothes from one battle after another, and a brick was formed from it, and he recommended that it be placed under his head when he was buried.

He died in 967 AD.

The name "Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani" emerged as the only Arab prince who posed a threat to the Byzantines at a time when the Abbasid caliphate collapsed and Arab rulers and princes were busy competing for power.

Birth and upbringing

Ali bin Abdullah Abi al-Hayja bin Hamdan, born in 915 AD and belonging to the Banu Hamdan who form a branch of the Banu Taghlib, the famous Arab tribe that settled the Euphrates island in the pre-Islamic era, and they were in control of Mosul and its environs, until the Abbasid state was imposed its authority in the region.

Nevertheless, the Banu Hamdan were able to maintain their position in Mosul even during the periods when the Abbasid influence was strong, and thanks to Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani's jihad against the Byzantines and his preservation of his emirate despite the challenges he faced, he became considered one of the brightest names in the history of the Hamdanid state.

The political experience.. the establishment of the Hamdanid state

The age of the Abbasid caliph Al-Muqtadir Billah was only 13 years old when he assumed the caliphate after his brother Ali Al-Muktafi Billah, and at that time the affairs of the state suffered from turmoil during his reign, due to his young age on the one hand and his mother, "Mrs. Shaghab" monopolizing power and the reins of affairs on the other hand.

During the reign of Jaafar al-Muqtadir Billah, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Haija, nicknamed "Nasser al-Dawla", took over the rule of the city of Mosul and its surroundings, who was known for his ambition and political capabilities.

The endeavors of "Nasser al-Dawla" succeeded, and he announced the birth of the state of Bani Hamdan (the Hamdanid state) in the year 930 AD, and he was able to expand his rule to include other cities in northern Iraq, then extracted recognition of his state from the Abbasid caliph, who granted him safety in exchange for an amount of money paid to the caliphate annually.

Beginning in the year 936 AD, the name of Ali bin Abdullah Abi al-Hayja bin Hamdan, the brother of Nasir al-Dawla, who later became known as "Saif al-Dawla", emerged, and he had a pivotal role in helping his brother eliminate the rebels against the Hamdanid state.

When Nasir al-Dawla became stronger, he stopped paying money for the caliphate, but when the Buyids (a dynasty of Daylamite Shiites) seized power in Baghdad, they forced the Hamdanids to retreat in Mosul, and to pay tribute to them as well.

In light of the chaos in which the country plunged, Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani decided to leave Mosul and head to the north of the Levant, where in 944 AD he was able to control the city of Aleppo and its environs, which were ruled by the Ikhshidids at the time.

The Ikhshidid state is an Islamic emirate that was founded in Egypt in 935 AD, in light of the weakness of the Abbasid caliphate, and extended at its peak to include the Levant and the Hijaz.

The rule of the Hamdanids in general lasted about 77 years, of which 59 years were in Aleppo alone, where the period of rule of Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani constituted the golden age of that emirate.

towards Damascus

And after things settled down for Saif al-Dawla in Aleppo, he tried to expand his rule towards the south with the encouragement and support of his brother Nasir al-Dawla, and set Damascus, which is ruled by the Ikhshidids, in his sights, and although he was able to control it temporarily in the year 945 AD, he was forced to leave it because of the popular uprising against him, and because of the ruler Al-Ikhsidi in Egypt, who personally led an army to confront the Hamdani in Syria and forced him to retreat towards the north.

After the raids of the Egyptian army reached Aleppo, the two parties reached an agreement stipulating that the ruler of Egypt, Al-Ikhsheedi, would recognize the authority of Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani in northern Syria and provide him with annual tribute in return for al-Hamdani giving up his dreams of expansion and not directing his armies towards Damascus again.

The marriage of Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani to the niece of the Ikhshid ruler was arranged, and al-Hamdani was able to extract official recognition of his rule from the Abbasid caliph as well.

But with the death of the Ikhshid ruler in the year 946 AD, the truce between the two parties went unheeded. In the same year, Hamdani's dreams of seizing Damascus awoke again, and he immediately prepared his army, heading towards the south to seize it, so he entered it and headed from there to Palestine to confront the ruler of the Ikhshidids, Kafur.

However, he suffered a defeat at the hands of Camphor Al-Ikhshidi, which forced him to withdraw to Damascus and from there to Homs, where his forces gathered there, and in the year 947 AD he tried to regain Damascus, but he was defeated again.

The defeat this time was not confined to the borders of Damascus, as the Ikhshidids marched towards Aleppo to attack the Hamdani in their own backyard, and succeeded in imposing their control on Aleppo, forcing Sayf al-Dawla to retreat with his army.

But the occupation of Aleppo did not last long for many reasons, as Egypt was threatened by the Fatimids at the time, and preserving Egypt was more important for the Ikhshidids than the occupation of northern Syria, in addition to that this occupation would cost them a lot of money, and in the end, the Hamdani rule of northern Syria was in their favour. Because it is the first bulwark to defend the country against Byzantine attacks.

Therefore, the Ikhshidids decided to declare a truce again with the Hamdani, through which they would recognize his control over northern Syria, but in return they stopped paying tribute to him.

Although Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani was unable to control Damascus as he had always dreamed of, his kingdom extended on a wide scale, including Aleppo and Homs and their environs, up to the borders of Tartous, Qinnasrin, most of Diyar Bakr and Diyar Mudar on the western side of the Euphrates island.

Sayf al-Dawla in the face of the Byzantines

Despite the hit and run battles between Sayf al-Dawla and the Ikhshidids, the Byzantines were the most prominent enemy of the Hamdanid state.

With Al-Hamdani's control of the borders of the Jazira and the Levant, his name emerged in the region as the Arab prince who spared no effort in confronting the Byzantine Empire. He called the tribes around him to jihad and opened endless wars with the Byzantines, and became their most prominent enemy in the East.

At that time, the encroachments of the Byzantines on their Muslim neighbors increased, and with the collapse of the Abbasid state, the authority of the Byzantines increased, who did not find anyone to deter them in light of the division of the Arabs and their preoccupation with their internal wars.

A drawing embodying the Emir of Aleppo, Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani, in his court full of writers and poets (Spanish National Library)

Therefore, the Hamdanids, being the force facing the Byzantines, received support from some tribes, and Sayf al-Dawla enjoyed wide popularity as a hero who defends belief and religion. Even the Ikhshidids, the enemies of Sayf al-Dawla, recognized the role of the Hamdanid state in the jihad against the Byzantines, so they recognized his authority in northern Syria.

The battles of Saif al-Dawla with the Byzantines began in 936 AD, after which the military campaigns that he launched against the Byzantines continued, the most prominent of which were the campaigns that took place between the years 939 AD and 940 AD when the Hamdani invaded the southwestern part of Armenia and extracted a pledge of loyalty and obedience from its leader, and he was also able to force the Byzantines to He gave up a number of forts, but his preoccupation with other side wars prevented him from preserving his gains.

In addition, despite the victories achieved by Al-Hamdani on the battlefields, his battles were of a defensive nature, as he did not attempt to launch an attack on Byzantine lands to control the strategic mountain passes, nor did he make any alliances with other Muslim rulers to raid the Byzantines, nor did he care building a naval fleet and did not pay attention to the Mediterranean region.

With the rise of the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II to power and his assumption of the leadership of the Byzantine army, the fortunes of the Hamdani changed in the battles, as Nikephoros worked to strengthen his army and follow new strategies to confront the Hamdanid state.

By the year 961 AD, the Byzantine campaigns in the east increased in abundance, and the Byzantine army was able to seize a number of cities such as Ain Zerba in Cilicia, Marash, Manbij, and Gaziantep (now located in southern Turkey), before reaching Aleppo in the year 962 AD, plundering and destroying a large part of it, except The castle that remained steadfast in front of the Byzantines.

After the looting, the Byzantines left with about 10,000 Muslim prisoners, and those were the biggest defeats of Sayf al-Dawla al-Hamdani.

Hamdani Court.. Meeting place of poets and philosophers

The reign of Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani was marked by the flourishing of literature and the activity of the cultural movement in the state. He was keen to bring poets closer and make gifts to them. Among the most prominent of them were al-Mutanabbi and Abu Firas al-Hamdani (Saif al-Dawla's cousin).

A number of scholars and philosophers, such as the preacher Ibn Nabata, the famous philosopher al-Farabi, and the poet and historian Abi al-Faraj al-Isfahani, also frequented the court of al-Hamdani.

Many historians mention that the peak of Al-Mutanabbi's poetic life was in the court of Sayf al-Dawla. During the nine years he spent in the Hamdanid court, he wrote 22 poems in praise of Sayf al-Dawla.

Al-Mutanabbi was not the only poet who weaved his most beautiful poems under the rule of Sayf al-Dawla, but rather Abu Firas al-Hamdani - cousin of Sayf al-Dawla - who was called the poet of "the sword and the pen" for his activity in fighting the Byzantines on the one hand and his eloquence and poetry on the other hand.

When Abu Firas was imprisoned, he composed his most famous poem, which begins with his saying, "As for the beautiful, you have a reward" during his years of imprisonment, to sympathize with his cousin Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani, hoping that he would have mercy on his condition and ransom him to get him out of prison.

Sayf al-Dawla al-Hamdani in the eyes of some historians

Many historians and orientalists look up to Saif al-Dawla al-Hamdani, for his courage in confronting the Byzantines, for his solitude in the arenas of jihad, and for his encouragement of literature, culture, and poetry by giving donations to poets and writers.

However, some historians, such as Ibn Hawqal, painted a bleak picture of the Emirate of Aleppo under the rule of Sayf al-Dawla al-Hamdani, describing the exploitation that the local population was subjected to by the Hamdanids, as the economic conditions in the country worsened and property confiscation and high taxes were common, which increased poverty. People versus the increasing wealth of Hamdanis.

Historian Ibn Miskawayh described the contradictory qualities that Saif al-Dawla carried by saying, “Saif al-Dawla was self-admiring and liked to tyrannize his opinion. People cried intensified for him and for him.”

While some historians criticized Sayf al-Dawla's military policies, which failed to stave off the threat of the Byzantines, who eventually managed to enter Antioch after his death and turn Aleppo into a state belonging to them, other historians defended Sayf al-Dawla, considering that he did not have sufficient capabilities to defeat the Byzantines. crushing defeat.

Historian Mark Wito described Sayf al-Dawla's authority as a "paper tiger". Despite the determination of the Arab prince, he lacked the money and soldiers who constituted the real force needed to defeat the Byzantines.

Death

With the advent of the year 963 AD, the wars between the Byzantines and the Hamdanids subsided. On the one hand, Nikephoros was preoccupied with plotting to ascend the throne of the empire, and on the other hand, Sayf al-Dawla began to suffer from paralysis, and he became unable to manage the affairs of his emirate by himself, so the state of Aleppo became the responsibility of his bailiff and his Turkish servant. Qarghouya

With the impotence of Hamdani, rebellions began to ravage the state, and the authority of the Hamdanids was shaken and divisions emerged in the court and the army. On top of this and that, the Byzantine campaigns against the Hamdanids were renewed, and Hamdani was forced to request a short truce from them in the year 966 AD, determined to confront all the rebellious movements that arose in the state, and indeed he was able to eliminate against the rebels, despite his poor health.

After that, the Byzantines returned to attack the Hamdanid state, but Saif al-Dawla did not live to witness its collapse. He died in 967 AD in Aleppo (and it was said in Mayyafariqin), and his body was embalmed and buried in a mausoleum in Mayyafariqin next to his mother and sister, and was succeeded by his only son, who lived after him, Abu al-Maali al-Sharif. , better known as Saad al-Dawla.