Sa'd al-Dawla Abu 'l-Ma'ali Sharif, more commonly known by his laqab (honorific epithet), Sa'd al-Dawla (Arabic: سعد الدولة‎‎), was the second ruler of the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo, encompassing most of northern Syria. The son of the emirate's founder, Sayf al-Dawla, he inherited the throne at a young age and in the midst of a major Byzantine offensive that within two years conquered the western portions of his realm and turned Aleppo into a tributary state. Facing a multitude of rebellions and desertions until 977, Sa'd was unable even to enter his own capital, which was in the hands of his father's chief minister, Qarquya. By maintaining close relations with the Buyids, he managed to re-establish his authority in parts of the Jazira, but his rule was soon challenged by the rebellion of his governor Bakjur, who was supported by the Fatimids of Egypt. In turn, Sa'd came to rely increasingly on Byzantine assistance, although he continued to fluctuate in his allegiance between Byzantium, the Buyids, and the Fatimids.

Sa'd al-Dawla was the son of Sayf al-Dawla, the first Emir of Aleppo, and Sakhinah, the sister of Sayf al-Dawla's cousin and court poet, Abu Firas. At the time of his father's death, in February 967, he was only fifteen, and resided at the emirate's Jaziran capital, Mayyafariqin. His succession to the emirate was unopposed, but the state his father had left him was crumbling: the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II had just conquered Cilicia and was raiding its northern and western provinces, while rebellions of his closest lieutenants had plagued Sayf al-Dawla's last years.

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