Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Tahir

Abu Ahmad Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Tahir (Arabic: أبو أحمد عبيد الله بن عبد الله بن طاهر‎‎, ca. 838 – May 913) was a ninth century Tahirid official and military officer. He was the last major Tahirid to hold high office, having served as the governor of Baghdad at various points between 867 and 891.

Ubaydallah was the son of Abdallah ibn Tahir, the governor of Khurasan from 828 to 845. During the civil war of 865–866 he was present in Baghdad, and throughout the siege of the city he served in a military capacity under his brother Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tahir, who as governor commanded the overall defense against the besiegers. At the end of the war, he was responsible for transferring the signet, cloak and scepter of the defeated caliph al-Musta'in (r. 862–866) to the victor al-Mu'tazz (r. 866–869).

Upon Muhammad's death in November 867, Ubaydallah assumed the governorship of Baghdad as his brother's designated successor, and he quickly received formal confirmation from al-Mu'tazz. During his first term as governor, he was responsible for hunting down the sons of the Turkish officer Bugha al-Sharabi following the latter's execution in 868. Before long, however, he was beset by fiscal problems which made it difficult for him to pay the salaries of the troops in the city, and was eventually compelled to surrender the governorship to his brother Sulayman ibn Abdallah ibn Tahir in 869.

Following Sulayman's death in late 879, Ubaydallah was again appointed as head of security (shurtah) in Baghdad, this time as deputy to the Saffarid Amr ibn al-Layth, who had been granted that position by the central government. He probably held the governorship until 885, when a reversal in caliphal policy toward the Saffarids resulted in 'Amr being formally dismissed from office. In August 889 he was restored to the shurtah following a rapprochement between the central government and 'Amr, but in 891 the Abbasid prince Abu al-Abbas ibn al-Muwaffaq (the future caliph al-Mu'tadid, r. 892–902) appointed his own page Badr al-Mu'tadidi to that position instead.

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