Abu'l-Husain Utbi

Abu'l-Husain Abd-Allah ibn Ahmad Utbi, better known as Abu'l-Husain Utbi (died November 982), was an Iranian statesman from the Utbi family, who served as the vizier of the Samanid ruler Nuh II from 977 to 982.

Biography

Nothing is known about the early life of Utbi. When the young Samanid prince Nuh II ascended the Samanid throne in 976, Utbi was one year later appointed as his vizier. Utbi, along with Nuh's mother, helped him in controlling the Samanid state.^[1] Sometime around Nuh's ascension, the Karakhanids invaded and captured the upper Zarafshan Valley, where the Samanid silver mines were located. In 980 they struck again, seizing Isfijab. Utbi, however was focused on removing Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri, the Samanid governor of Khurasan. Utbi considered Abu'l-Hasan to be too powerful; he managed to remove him from the post in 982. He replaced him with one of his own partisans, a Turkic general called Tash.^[1] Abu'l-Hasan fled to his appendage in Quhistan, to the south of Herat.

An expedition against the Buyids was mobilized in Khurasan, also in 982; it was initially successful, but the Samanid forces were subsequently crushed. A Buyid invasion of the Samanid state was prevented only by the death of 'Adud al-Daula. Utbi attempted to regroup the army, but was assassinated by supporters of Abu'l-Hasan and Fa'iq. His death was mourned by many Samanid officers, and even sparked a revolt in the Samanid capital of Bukhara. Utbi was considered by his relatives and medieval historians as the last great Samanid vizier.

References

1. Frye 1975, p. 156.

Sources

• Bosworth, C. E. (2010). "ʿOTBI". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Ashraf, Ahmad (2006). "IRANIAN IDENTITY iii. MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PERIOD". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5. pp. 507–522.
• Frye, R.N. (1975). "The Sāmānids". In Frye, R.N. The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–161. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.