al-Dawla

[3] The same honour was also bestowed on al-Qasim's son, al-Husayn, who was named Amid al-Dawla ('Support of the Dynasty') by al-Muqtadir in February 932.

After this time, "the bestowing of such titles on governors formally symbolised the handing over of political power to the 'princelings' of provincial dynasties" (G.

[3][4] The example set by the Hamdanids and Buyids was soon imitated throughout the Islamic world, from the Samanids and Ghaznavids in the east to the Fatimids of Egypt and even some of the taifa kingdoms in Muslim Spain.

[3][5] Indeed, the proliferation of multiple and ever more lofty titles which began with the award of the al-Dawla forms was so swift and extensive, that already around the year 1000 the scholar al-Biruni lamented the practice, complaining that "the matter became utterly opposed to common sense, and clumsy to the highest degree, so that he who mentions them gets tired before he has scarcely commenced, and he who writes them loses his time and writing space, and he who addresses them risks missing the time of prayer".

[3] In India, they continued to be used by individual Muslim rulers, and in Iran, cabinet ministers until 1935 often received titles with the al-Dawla compound.