The Banu al-Munajjim ( ar, بنو المنجم), was an
Iranian family of
Abbasid officials attested in the 9th and 10th centuries. They claimed descent from the
Sasanian dynasty
The Sasanian dynasty was the house that founded the Sasanian Empire, ruling this empire from 224 to 651 AD in Persia (modern-day Iran). It began with Ardashir I, who named the dynasty as ''Sasanian'' in honour of his grandfather (or father), Sasa ...
, and were closely related to the Abbasid
caliphs by marriage.
History
According to
Ibn al-Nadim, the Banu al-Munajjim were descended from Mihr-Gushnasp, a son of the last Sasanian king
Yazdegerd III (r. 632–651). The family is first mentioned in the 9th century, when the eponymous ancestor of the family, Abu Mansur al-Munajjim (originally named Aban-Gushnasp), worked at the court of the second Abbasid caliph,
al-Mansur (r. 754–775) as an astrologer (''al-munajjim''). His son,
Yahya, worked at the Abbasid court under
al-Ma'mun
Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'mu ...
(r. 813–833), and later converted from
Zoroastrianism to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. Yahya had four sons named
Ali,
Sa'id,
Abdallah
Abd Allah ( ar, عبدالله, translit=ʻAbd Allāh), also spelled Abdallah, Abdellah, Abdollah, Abdullah and many others, is an Arabic name meaning "Servant of God". It is built from the Arabic words '' abd'' () and '' Allāh'' (). Although the ...
, and
Hasan. These four sons would, like their father, work at the Abbasid court. Ali even befriended the caliph
al-Mutawakkil
Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi-ʾllāh ( ar, جعفر بن محمد المعتصم بالله; March 822 – 11 December 861), better known by his regnal name Al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh (, "He who relies on God") was t ...
(r. 847–861), and his son
Yahya did the same with
al-Muwaffaq, the ''de facto'' regent for his brother
al-Mu'tamid (r. 870–892). One of Ali's other sons,
Harun
Harun, also transliterated as Haroon or Haroun ( ar, هارون, ) is a common male given name of Arabic origin, related to the Hebrew name of the Prophet Aaron. Both are most likely of Ancient Egyptian origin, from ''aha rw'', meaning "warrior li ...
, also worked at the Abbasid court. Harun had a son named
Ali, who eventually served under the
Buyids when they became the new rulers of Baghdad. He is the last known member of the family.
Sources
*D. Pingree.
Banu Monajjem. ''Encyclopaedia Iranica.'' Ed. Ehsan Yarshater. Columbia University. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
*
{{Sasanian Empire
Iranian families
Officials of the Abbasid Caliphate