Shi`a Pajoohi

Shi`a Pajoohi

The Abu Dulaf Dynasty: The First Imami Shi'a State

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Assistant Professor, Department of History, Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute, Qom, Iran
Abstract
The Abu Dulaf dynasty was an Arab lineage that originally resided in Ḥīra. With the spread of Islam, they settled in Kūfa and adopted Shi'a inclinations. The prominent figures of this family were steadfast and fearless in expressing their religious beliefs, showing no hesitation in eliminating the enemies of Amīr al-Mu'minīn (the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī [AS]). Seeking a stronghold to combat the Umayyads, they migrated to Iran, settling near present-day Arak (Central Iran), and raided caravans destined for the Umayyad court. When the Abbasid movement began, they initially joined it but later broke away, sometimes openly opposing the Abbasids and at other times feigning obedience when resistance was unfeasible — while secretly desiring their downfall. In 225 AH (839 CE), the Abu Dulaf dynasty established the first Imami Shi'a state. Five rulers of this dynasty governed parts of Iran for nearly six decades. Ultimately, internal family conflicts and Abbasid invasions led to their collapse. This research, based on library-derived data from diverse historical, biographical (Rijal-oriented), geographical, and genealogical sources, analyzes and examines the first Imami Shi'a state — a polity that has not yet been the subject of an independent scholarly study.
Keywords
Subjects

ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Ṣāʾib. 1424 AH. Muʿjam Muʾarrikhī al-Shīʿa: al-Imāmiyya - al-Zaydiyya - al-Ismāʿīliyya, Qom: Muʾassasat Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-Fiqh al-Islāmī.
Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. 1385 AH. Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn, ed. Kāẓim al-Muẓaffar, Qom: Muʾassasat Dār al-Kitāb.
Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. n.d. Al-Aghānī, Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī.
Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh al-Rāzī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. 1376 Sh. Tajārib al-Umam, trans. Abū al-Qāsim Imāmī & ʿAlī Naqī Munzawī, Tehran: Tūs.
Alvīrī, Muḥsin. 1391 Sh. "Typology of Critical Views on the History and Emergence of Shiʿism," Journal of Islamic History, Culture, and Civilization, No. 8, pp. 7–52.
Amīn, Sayyid Ḥasan. 1401 AH. Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-Islāmiyya al-Shīʿiyya, Beirut: Dār al-Taʿāruf.
Anonymous Author (3rd century AH). 1971. Akhbār al-Dawla al-ʿAbbāsiyya, ed. Dr. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dūrī & Dr. ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Muṭṭalibī, Beirut: Dār al-Ṭalīʿa.
Al-Ashʿarī al-Qummī, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd Allāh. 1963. Al-Maqālāt wa al-Firaq, ed. Muḥammad Jawād Mashkūr, Tehran: Muʾassasat-i Maṭbūʿātī-i ʿAṭāʾī.
Al-Ashʿarī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl. 1426 AH. Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa Ikhtilāf al-Muṣallīn, ed. Nuʿaym Zarzūr, n.p.: al-Maktaba al-ʿAṣriyya.
Al-Balādhurī, Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā. 1988. Futūḥ al-Buldān, Beirut: Dār wa Maktabat al-Hilāl.
Al-Barqī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. 1342 Sh. Al-Rijāl, Tehran: University of Tehran Press.
Burqi`ī, Ali Akbar. 1384. Rāhnamā-yi Dānishvarān dar Ḍabt-e Namhā, Nasab-hā va Nisbat-hā, Qum: Jāmi`a-yi Murarrisīn
Al-Dhahabī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. 1413 AH (a). Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, ed. Akram al-Būlūshī & Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla.
Al-Dhahabī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. 1413 AH (b), Tārīkh al-Islām wa Wafayāt al-Mashāhīr wa al-Aʿlām, ed. ʿUmar ʿAbd al-Salām Tadmurī, Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī.
Al-Ḥamawī, Yāqūt ibn ʿAbd Allāh. 1995. Muʿjam al-Buldān, Beirut: Dār Ṣādir.
Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih al-Andalusī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. 1407 AH. Al-ʿIqd al-Farīd, ed. ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Tarḥīnī & Mufīd Muḥammad Qumayḥa, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya.
Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, Aḥmad ibn Qāsim. 2001. ʿUyūn al-Anbāʾ fī Ṭabaqāt al-Aṭibbāʾ, ed. ʿĀmir al-Najjār, Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-Miṣriyya al-ʿĀmma lil-Kitāb.
Ibn al-Athīr, ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Karam. 1385 AH. Al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh, Beirut: Dār Ṣādir.
Ibn al-Faqīh, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Hamadhānī. 1416 AH. Kitāb al-Buldān, ed. Yūsuf al-Hādī, Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub.
Ibn al-Jawzī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī. 1412 AH. Al-Muntaẓam fī Tārīkh al-Umam wa al-Mulūk, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā & Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya.
Ibn al-Nadīm, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq. n.d. Al-Fihrist, Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa.
Ibn ʿAsākir, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan. 1415 AH. Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq, ed. ʿAlī al-Shīrī, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr.
Ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (Shaykh �adūq). 1405 AH. Kamāl al-Dīn wa Tamām al-Niʿma, ed. ʿAlī Akbar al-Ghaffārī, Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī.
Ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (Shaykh Ṣadūq). 1361 Sh. Maʿānī al-Akhbār, ed. ʿAlī Akbar al-Ghaffārī, Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī.
Ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (Shaykh Ṣadūq). 1403 AH. Al-Khiṣāl, ed. ʿAlī Akbar al-Ghaffārī, Qom: Manshūrāt Jamāʿat al-Mudarrisīn.
Ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (Shaykh Ṣadūq). 1404 AH. ʿUyūn Akhbār al-Riḍā (AS), Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Aʿlamī lil-Maṭbūʿāt.
Ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (Shaykh Ṣadūq). 1417 AH. Al-Amālī, Qom: Muʾassasat al-Biʿtha.
Ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī (Shaykh Ṣadūq). n.d. Al-Tawḥīd, ed. Sayyid Hāshim al-Ḥusaynī, Qom: Manshūrāt Jamāʿat al-Mudarrisīn.
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī. 1404 AH. Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, Vol. 8, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr.
Ibn Ḥazm, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad. 1418 AH. Jamharat Ansāb al-ʿArab, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya.
Ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī, Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar. 1407 AH. Al-Bidāya wa al-Nihāya, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr.
Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad. 1408 AH. Al-ʿIbar wa Dīwān al-Mubtadaʾ wa al-Khabar fī Tārīkh al-ʿArab wa al-Barbar wa man ʿĀṣarahum min Dhawī al-Shaʾn al-Akbar (Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn), Beirut: Dār al-Fikr.
Ibn Khallikān, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. n.d. Wafayāt al-Aʿyān wa Anbāʾ Abnāʾ al-Zamān, ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr.
Ibn Rusta, Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar. 1892. Al-Aʿlāq al-Nafīsa, Beirut: Dār Ṣādir.
Ibn Shahrāshūb, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī. n.d. Maʿālim al-ʿUlamāʾ, n.p.: n.p.
Jaʿfariyān, Rasūl. 1380 Sh. History of Shiʿism in Iran, Qom: Anṣārīyān.
Jaʿfariyān, Rasūl. 1388 Sh. Atlas of Shiʿism, Tehran: Geographical Organization of the Armed Forces.
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī. 1417 AH. Tārīkh Baghdād, ed. Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya.
Al-Khazzāz al-Qummī, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad. 1401 AH. Kifāyat al-Athar, ed. Sayyid ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Ḥusaynī Kūhkamarī, Qom: Khayyām.
Al-Kulaynī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb. 1363 Sh. Al-Kāfī, ed. ʿAlī Akbar al-Ghaffārī, Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya.
Le Strange, Guy. 1364 Sh. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate, trans. Maḥmūd ʿIrfān, Tehran: Scientific and Cultural Publications.
Al-Māfrūkhī al-Iṣfahānī, Mufaḍḍal ibn Saʿd. 1385 Sh. Translation of Maḥāsin Iṣfahān, trans. Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad Āwī, Isfahan: Municipal Cultural-Recreational Organization.
Al-Māmaqānī, ʿAbd Allāh. 1431 AH. Tanqīḥ al-Maqāl fī ʿIlm al-Rijāl, ed. Muḥyī al-Dīn Māmaqānī, Qom: Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt (AS).
Al-Maqdisī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad. 1411 AH. Aḥsan al-Taqāsīm fī Maʿrifat al-Aqālīm, Cairo: Maktabat Madbūlī.
Al-Maqdisī, Muṭahhar ibn Ṭāhir. n.d. al-Badʾ wa al-Tārīkh, ed. Būr Saʿīd, n.p.: Maktabat al-Thaqāfa al-Dīniyya.
Al-Marzbānī, Muḥammad ibn ʿImrān. 1425 AH. Muʿjam al-Shuʿarāʾ, ed. Fārūq Aslam, Beirut: Dār Ṣādir.
Al-Masʿūdī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. 1409 AH. Murūj al-Dhahab wa Maʿādin al-Jawhar, ed. Asʿad Dāghir, Qom: Dār al-Hijra.
Al-Mizzī, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf. 1406 AH. Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, ed. Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla.
Muntajab al-Dīn ibn Bābawayh al-Rāzī. 1366 Sh.  Fihrist Muntajab al-Dīn, ed. Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥaddith Armaʾī, Qom: Maktabat Āyat Allāh al-ʿUẓmā Marʿashī al-Najafī.
Mūsawī Bujnūrdī, Kāẓim. 1374 Sh. The Great Islamic Encyclopedia, Tehran: Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia.
Al-Najāshī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī. 1416 AH. Fihrist Asmāʾ Muṣannifī al-Shīʿa (Rijāl al-Najāshī), Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī.
Namāzī Shāhrūdī, ʿAlī. 1414 AH. Mustadrakāt ʿIlm Rijāl al-Ḥadīth, Tehran.
Al-Nawbakhtī, Ḥasan ibn Mūsā, Firaq al-Shīʿa, ed. Muḥammad Ṣādiq Āl Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, Najaf: Maṭbaʿat al-Ḥaydariyya.
Al-Nuwayrī, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. n.d. Nihāyat al-Arab fī Funūn al-Adab, Cairo: Ministry of Culture and National Guidance, Egyptian General Organization for Writing, Translation, and Publishing.
Al-Qummī, Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad. n.d. Tārīkh Qom, trans. Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Qummī, n.p.: Maṭbaʿat Majlis.
Al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. 1423 AH. Al-ʿIqd al-Naḍīd wa al-Durr al-Farīd, ed. ʿAlī Awsaṭ Nāṭiqī, Qom: Dār al-Ḥadīth.
Rāfiʿī al-Qazwīnī, ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Muḥammad. 1408 AH. Al-Tadwīn fī Akhbār Qazwīn, ed. ʿAzīz Allāh al-ʿAṭārdī al-Qūchānī, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya.
Al-Ṣafadī, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl ibn Aybak ibn ʿAbd Allāh. 1419 AH. Tuḥfat Dhawī al-Albāb fīman Ḥakama bi-Dimashq min al-Khulafāʾ wa al-Mulūk wa al-Nuwwāb, ed. Zuhayr Ḥamīdān & Iḥsān Khulūṣī, Syria: Dār al-Bashāʾir.
Al-Samʿānī, Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Muḥammad al-Tamīmī. 1382 AH. A-Ansāb, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yaḥyā al-Muʿallimī al-Yamānī, Hyderabad: Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya.
Al-Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr. 1387 AH. Tārīkh al-Umam wa al-Mulūk, ed. Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm, Beirut: Dār al-Turāth.
Ṭaqūsh, Muḥammad Suhayl. 1385 Sh. The Abbasid State, trans. Ḥujjat Allāh Jūdkī, Qom: Research Institute of Hawza and University.
Al-Ṭūsī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan. 1404 AH. Ikhtiyār Maʿrifat al-Rijāl, ed. Sayyid Mahdī Rajāʾī & Mīr Dāmād al-Astarābādī, Qom: Āl al-Bayt (AS).
Al-Tustarī, Muḥammad Taqī. 1419 AH. Qāmūs al-Rijāl, Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī.
Al-Ziriklī, Khayr al-Dīn. 1989. Al-Aʿlām: Qāmūs Tarājim li-Ashhar al-Rijāl wa al-Nisāʾ min al-ʿArab wa al-Mustaʿribīn wa al-Mustashriqīn, Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm lil-Malāyīn.