Simjur al-Dawati was a 10th-century Turkic general who served the

Samanids People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownershi ...

. He was the founder of the Simjurid family which would play an important role in the Samanid Empire.

Biography

Simjur was a ''

ghulam Ghulam ( ar, غلام, ) is an Arabic word meaning ''servant'', ''assistant'', ''boy'', or ''youth''. It is used to describe young servants in paradise. It is also used to refer to slave-soldiers in the Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesser ...

'' of Turkic origin. During his early career he served as the tax collector of

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...

. In 911, the Samanid ruler

Ahmad Samani Ahmad ibn Ismail (died 24 January 914) was amir of the Samanids (907–914). He was the son of Ismail Samani. He was known as the "''Martyred Amir''". Biography Ahmad is first mentioned in the early 900s, when he was appointed as the governor o ...

, ordered an invasion of

Saffarid The Saffarid dynasty ( fa, صفاریان, safaryan) was a Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian origin that ruled over parts of Persia, Greater Khorasan, and eastern Makran from 861 to 1003. One of the first indigenous Persians, ...

Sistan Sistān ( fa, سیستان), known in ancient times as Sakastān ( fa, سَكاستان, "the land of the Saka"), is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran ( Sistan and Baluchestan Province) and Southern Afghanistan (N ...

; Simjur along with other Samanid generals quickly subdued parts of Sistan and then captured its capital,

Zarang Zaranj or Zarang (Persian/Pashto/ bal, زرنج) is a city in southwestern Afghanistan, near the border with Iran, which has a population of 160,902 people as of 2015. It is the capital of Nimruz Province and is linked by highways with Lashkargah ...

from the Saffarid ruler

Al-Mu'addal Al-Mu'addal ibn Ali ibn al-Layth was the Saffarid ruler of Zarang for a part of 911. In 890 al-Mu'addal and his brother al-Layth helped their father 'Ali escape from imprisonment at the hands of the latter's uncle, the Saffarid amir Amr ibn al-Lay ...

. During the conquest of Sistan, a Caliphal rebel of Turkic origin named Sebük-eri, was captured and sent to the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

'' in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, while

Abu Salih Mansur Abu Salih Mansur (died 915) was a Samanid prince, who served as governor during the reign of his uncle Isma'il ibn Ahmad, his cousin Ahmad Samani, and Nasr II. Biography Abu Salih governed several provinces during the reign of Isma'il ibn Ahmad a ...

, the cousin of Ahmad Samani, was appointed as governor of Sistan. However, this was not the end of the conflicts in Sistan; Mansur's oppressive taxation policies sparked a revolt in Sistan one year later in 912, led by the

Khariji The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the ...

Muhammad ibn Hurmuz Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

, who was a supporter of the Saffarid

Amr ibn Ya'qub Abu Hafs ‘Amr ibn Ya'qub ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Amr (born 902/903) was the Saffarid amir of Sistan for slightly over a year (912–913). He was the son of Ya'qub, the brother of Tahir ibn Muhammad ibn Amr. In 912, opposition to the Samanid gover ...

. Mansur was then taken prisoner until the rebellion was crushed by an Samanid army under Husain ibn 'Ali Marvarrudhi in 913.''ABŪ ṢĀLEḤ MANṢŪR'', C. E. Bosworth, Encyclopaedia Iranica
/ref> 'Amr was sent to

Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...

, while the other rebel leaders were killed. Simjur al-Dawati then replaced Mansur as governor of Sistan. Simjur seems to have later taken part in a ghulam conspiracy against Ahmad Samani which ended in a failure. During the reign of Ahmad's son

Nasr II Nasr ibn Ahmad or Nasr II ( fa, نصر دوم), nicknamed "the Fortunate", was the ruler (''amir'') of Transoxiana and Khurasan as the head of the Samanid dynasty from 914 to 943. His reign marked the high point of the Samanid dynasty's fortunes. ...

, the

Zaydids Alid dynasties of northern Iran or Alavids (). In the 9th–14th centuries, the northern Iranian regions of Tabaristan, Daylam and Gilan, sandwiched between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz range, came under the rule of a number of Arab Alid dynas ...

invaded

Greater Khorasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plate ...

, but were repulsed by Simjur. During the later life of Simjur, he served as governor of various provinces, including the newly captured province of Ray. He died at an unknown date during the reign of Nasr II and had a son named

Ibrahim ibn Simjur Ibrahim ibn Simjur (died 948) was a Samanid military officer from the Simjurid family. Biography Ibrahim was the son of Simjur al-Dawati, the founder of the Simjurid family. Ibrahim is first mentioned as a deputy of the Muhtajid ruler Abu 'Ali C ...

References

Sources

* Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. ''The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual.'' Great Britain: Columbia University Press, 1996. * *Treadwell, Luke.
Simjurids
" ''Encyclopaedia Iranica.'' Ed. Ehsan Yarshater. Columbia University. Retrieved 8 May 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Simjur al-Dawati Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 10th-century Turkic people Samanid generals Governors of Sistan Governors of Ray Samanid governors Simjurids Ghilman Slaves of the Samanid Empire