Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Furat

Eventually he came to lead one of the two major and rival court factions during al-Muqtadir's caliphate, the Banu'l-Furat, the other being the group of officials around the commander-in-chief Mu'nis al-Muzaffar and the vizier Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah.

Both were protégés of the fellow Shi'ite Isma'il ibn Bulbul, who, after becoming vizier to both al-Mu'tamid and al-Muwaffaq in 885, brought them into the administration as fiscal experts and entrusted them with the department of land revenue of the Sawad.

[1] Among the successes of the period were the recovery of Fars,[9][10] and the recognition of Abbasid suzerainty by the Sajid ruler of Adharbayjan, Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj, in exchange for a—rather modest—annual tribute of 120,000 dirhams.

[12] He was re-appointed to the vizierate on 3 June 917, succeeding his old rival Ali ibn Isa,[12] but his second tenure was troubled by the rebellion of Yusuf, who had begun withholding the tribute to Baghdad and has seized a number of Samanid-ruled provinces in north-western Iran.

[14] Ali remained imprisoned in the caliphal palace throughout the period, being released only after Ibn al-Abbas's dismissal in 923 and was re-appointed to the vizierate for a third and final time on 7 August.

Instead of treating his deposed rivals with clemency, as he had during his previous two tenures, Ali, assisted by his son al-Muhassin, seized the opportunity to avenge himself on anyone who had wronged him, and liberally employed violence to extort large sums from those appointed to office under Hamid.

[17] The government's authority was further undermined by the sudden and dramatic resurgence of the Qarmatian threat, with the Sack of Basra in 923 and the destruction of the returning caravan of Hajj pilgrims in April/May the next year.

He distinguished himself as an extremely able fiscal administrator, "committed to the reform of abuse and the raising of state revenues without oppression" (Hugh Kennedy) and able to "solve rapidly what appeared to be the most complicated problems" (Dominique Sourdel).

As a courtier, he exercised power in the style of a "grand seigneur" (Kennedy), having an affinity for luxury and dispensing extravagant largesse on his followers to enhance his own image.