The Al-i Muhtaj () or Muhtajids (also known as the Chaghanids) was an

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

or Iranicized Arab ruling family of the small principality of

Chaghaniyan Chaghaniyan (Middle Persian: ''Chagīnīgān''; fa, چغانیان ''Chaghāniyān''), known as al-Saghaniyan in Arabic sources, was a medieval region and principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand. Histo ...

. They ruled during the 10th and early 11th centuries.

Early history

The origin of the Muhtajids is unknown; the name has been given by modern historians after their presumed forebear Muhtaj ( ar, محتاج ''Muḥtāj''). They may have been descended from the Chaghān Khudās who ruled Chaghaniyan during the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

; another possibility is that their ancestors were

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

who migrated to the region and were Iranicized.Clifford Edmund Bosworth, ''The New Islamic Dynasties'' (Columbia University Press, 1996: ), p. 177. In any case, by the early 10th century Chaghaniyan had become a vassal to the

Samanids People Samanid Samanid Samanid The Samanid Empire ( fa, سامانیان, Sāmāniyān) also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan orig ...

of Bukhara.

Abu Bakr Muhammad

The first ruler fully attested to by the sources was Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Muzaffar b. Muhtaj. Under the Samanids he was the governor of Ferghana. When in 929 the Samanid amir

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. ...

was temporarily expelled from power by his brothers, Muhammad remained loyal to him. As a result, when Nasr managed to restore himself he rewarded Muhammad with the governorship of Balkh, and then in 933 made him governor of Khurasan. During his time as governor of Khurasan, Muhammad battled various

Dailamite The Daylamites or Dailamites (Middle Persian: ''Daylamīgān''; fa, دیلمیان ''Deylamiyān'') were an Iranian people inhabiting the Daylam—the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, now comprising ...

bands in northern Iran. In 939 he fell ill and was removed from his post; he died in 941.

Abu 'Ali Chaghani

Abu 'Ali Ahmad Chaghani was the most prominent of the Muhtajid rulers. He succeeded his father in his posts in 939 and earnestly fought to maintain a Samanid presence in northern Iran, attempting to stem there the rise of the

Buyids The Buyid dynasty ( fa, آل بویه, Āl-e Būya), also spelled Buwayhid ( ar, البويهية, Al-Buwayhiyyah), was a Shia Iranian dynasty of Daylamite origin, which mainly ruled over Iraq and central and southern Iran from 934 to 1062. Coup ...

, Dailamite officers who had already taken over southwest Iran. He fell out of favor with the Samanid amir Nuh b. Nasr and was removed from the governorship of Khurasan. Refusing to accept this, he revolted and installed in Bukhara another Samanid, but eventually Nuh retook Bukhara. Despite this, he was unable to defeat Abu 'Ali, and in the end he allowed him to retain his rule of Chaghaniyan. In 952 Abu 'Ali was made governor of Khurasan a second time, but only a year later was again dismissed. He fled to the Buyids and died in 955.

Later history

The Muhtajid rulers succeeding Abu 'Ali are not well recorded. Abu'l Muzaffar (b.?) Muhammad was the ruler of Chaghaniyan toward the end of the 10th century. He was an ally of the Turkish general Fa'iq and together they fought against Abu'l Muzaffar's relative, Abu'l-Hasan Taher b. Fazl b. Muhammad, who had either been the previous ruler of Chaghaniyan or had usurped power there. Taher's army marched to Balkh in 991 but in the ensuing battle he was killed and Abu'l Muzaffar Muhammad established himself in Chaghaniyan. The alliance with Fa'iq meant that he was also an enemy of the Simjuris; he therefore took part in the conflicts that marked the end of the Samanids as a power (see Nuh II of Samanid for details). By the end of the century the Muhtajid rulers became vassals of the Ghaznavids, who had supplanted the Samanids in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and Khurasan. In 1025 an unnamed Chaghani ruler and other Ghaznavid vassals joined Sultan

Mahmud of Ghazna Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn ( fa, ; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi ( fa, ), was the founder of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030. At th ...

when he crossed the Oxus River to meet his ally, the Karakhanid ruler of Kashgar Qadir-khan Yusuf. During the reign of Mahmud's successor

Mas'ud Masoud (; ) is a given name and surname, with origins in Persian and Arabic. The name is found in the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Russia, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and China. Masoud has spelling varia ...

, the governor of Chaghaniyan was described as a son-in-law of Mas'ud's named Abu'l-Qasem, who may have been a Muhtajid. Abu'l-Qasem temporarily had to flee from the province in the face of an invasion by the

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

n Karakhanids. No more rulers of Chaghaniyan are mentioned after this, and only a few years later the

Seljuks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

took control of the region.

References

Sources