Marwanids

The Marwanids (990–1085) were a Kurdish dynasty in the Diyar Bakr region of Upper Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq/southeastern Turkey) and Armenia, centered on the city of Amid (Diyarbakır). Other cities under their rule were Arzan, Mayyāfāriqīn (today Silvan), Hisn Kayfa (Hasankeyf), Khilāṭ, Manzikart, Arjish.

According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, Kurdish and western historians, the Marwanids were a Kurdish dynasty, while the Encyclopaedia of Iran consider them as an Arab dynasty.

The founder of the dynasty was a shepherd, Abu Shujā Bādh ibn Dustak. He left his cattle, took up arms and became a valiant chief of war, obtaining celebrity. When a member of the Buyid dynasty, Adud al-Dawla, who ruled Iraq, died in 983, Badh took Mayyāfāriqīn. He also conquered Diyarbakır, as well as a variety of urban sites on the northern shores of Lake Van.

During the rebellion of Bardas Phokas the Younger in the Byzantine Empire, Bādh took advantage of the chaotic political situation to raid the plain of Mush in Taron, an Armenian princedom annexed by the Byzantine Empire in 966.

Elias of Nisibis, a Syriac chronicler, mentioned shortly the life of Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan. After the death of his uncle Badh, the elder son of Marwan came back to Hisn-Kayfa, married the widow of the old warrior chief. He fought the last Hamdanids, confused them and took again all the fortresses. Elias related the tragic end of this prince who was killed in Amid (Diyarbakır) in 997 by rebellious inhabitants. His brother Abu Mansur Sa’id succeeded to him, under the name of Mumahhid al-Dawla. In 992, after Bad's death and a series of Byzantine punitive raids around Lake Van, Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) was able to negotiate a lasting peace with the Kurdish emirate.

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