Al-Dawla

The Arabic title al-Dawla (الدولة, often rendered ad-Dawla, ad-Daulah, ud-Daulah, Dahola, etc., meaning "dynasty" or "state"), appears in many honorific and regnal titles in the Islamic world. Invented in the 10th century for senior statesmen of the Abbasid Caliphate, these titles soon spread throughout the Islamic world, and provided the model for a broad variety of similar titles with other elements such as al-Din ("Faith").

The term dawla originally meant "cycle, time, period of rule". It was particularly often used by the early Abbasid caliphs to signify their "time of success", i.e. reign, and soon came to be particularly associated with the reigning house and acquire the connotation of "dynasty". In modern usage, since the 19th century, it has come to mean "state", in particular a secular state of the Western type as opposed to the dynastic or religion-based state systems current until then in the Islamic world.

From the early 10th century, the form al-Dawla began appearing as a compound in honorific titles granted by the caliphs to their senior-most courtiers, beginning with the vizier al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Wahb, who was granted the title of Wali al-Dawla ("Friend of the Dynasty") by the caliph al-Muktafi (reigned 902–908), an epithet which also appeared on caliphal coinage. The same honour was also bestowed on al-Qasim's son, al-Husayn, who was named ʿAmid al-Dawla ("Support of the Dynasty") by al-Muqtadir in February 932.

The major turning point was the double award of the titles of Nasir al-Dawla ("Helper of the Dynasty") and Sayf al-Dawla ("Sword of the Dynasty") to the Hamdanid princes Hasan and Ali in April 942. After this time, "the bestowing of such titles on governors formally symbolised the handing over of political power to the 'princelings' of provincial dynasties" (G. Endress). In 946, with the victory of the Buyids in the contest for control of Iraq and the Caliphate's capital of Baghdad, the victorious Ahmad ibn Buya assumed the title of Mu'izz al-Dawla ("Fortifier of the Dynasty"), while his brothers assumed the titles of Imad al-Dawla and Rukn al-Dawla ("Support" and "Pillar of the Dynasty" respectively).

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