Anushtakin al-Dizbari
An ethnic Turk, Anushtakin was enslaved in his homeland of Transoxiana and sold in Damascus in 1009 to Dizbar ibn Awnim, a Daylamite Fatimid officer.
After working as a guard for Dizbar's properties, Anushtakin became a ghulam (slave soldier) in Caliph al-Hakim's court in Cairo, and in 1014/15, was made an officer.
Between 1017 and 1023, Anushtakin grew wealthy, gained local renown, and developed a deep understanding of Syrian affairs during his governorship of Ba'albek and Caesarea.
Two years later, vizier Ali al-Jarjara'i dispatched him with an army against the Tayy and Kilab tribes in Syria, whom Anushtakin routed near Lake Tiberias in 1029.
Anushtakin consolidated his authority over Syria by forming alliances with the local nobility, particularly Rafi ibn Abi'l Layl of the Kalb tribe, reining in Bedouin depredations, reconciling with the Jarrahids and acquiring numerous ghilman.
Anushtakin's rule in Damascus came to an end after an army mutiny engineered by al-Jarjara'i forced him to flee for the Aleppo citadel; he died there amid accusations of betraying Caliph al-Mustansir.
[3] According to modern historian Yaacov Lev, the "richness of details" Ibn al-Qalanisi provided about Anushtakin was "unusual" at the time for biographies on military slaves.
[7] Afterward, he was moved to Fatimid-held Damascus in 1009/10,[6] where he was purchased and employed by Dizbiri ibn Awnim[7] (also known as Dizbar), a Fatimid officer of Daylamite descent who had previously served the Hamdanids.
[6] It was in Ba'albek that Anushtakin acquired his own ghilman, and through them, he gained the significant wealth and knowledge of regional affairs that proved critical to his future political career in Syria, according to historian Suhayl Zakkar.
[6] After his service in Ba'albek, Anushtakin was briefly made walī of Caesarea (Qaysariya), a port city in northern Palestine,[6][15] which contemporary sources stated he governed well.
[16] At the time of Anushtakin's appointment, inland Palestine was dominated by the Jarrahids, the ruling clan of the Bedouin tribe of Tayy, who often plundered the region's settlements.
[19][20][c] The Fatimids, meanwhile, could not fulfill Anushtakin's request for 2,000 cavalry and infantry reinforcements, and during the cover of night,[20] he fled Ramla for Caesarea with ten of his ghilman.
[6] Al-Rudhbari was replaced as vizier by Ali al-Jarjara'i in December 1027/January 1028 and in November 1028, he assigned Anushtakin to lead a military expedition against the Tayy in Palestine;[26] by then, the Kalb had defected to az-Zahir, weakening the Bedouin alliance and giving the Fatimids an opportunity to reassert their authority in Syria.
[6][26] The Bedouin alliance mobilized with Hassan leading the Tayy and Salih ibn Mirdas, the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo, commanding the Kilab.
[32] At the same time, Caliph al-Munstansir (r. 1036–1094) and Salih's son and Mirdasid emir of Aleppo, Shibl al-Dawla Nasr, reconciled their differences.
[33] As a result of these political conditions, the Fatimids transferred to Nasr the governorship of Homs,[32] then under the jurisdiction of Anushtakin's deputy, Ja'far ibn Kulayd al-Kutami.
[32] Al-Jarjara'i, meanwhile, believed that depriving Anushtakin of Homs would inevitably put him in conflict with Nasr, thus weakening both him and the Mirdasids and thereby strengthening the central government's leverage in Syria.
[36] After gaining the Byzantines' blessing, Anushtakin confirmed his alliance with the Bedouin tribes around Aleppo, namely the Kalb, Tayy and part of the Kilab.
[42] After a three-month stay, Anushtakin departed Aleppo for Damascus, leaving the citadel in the hands of his ghilman, Sabuktekin and Fatik, and the city under another ghulam named Banjutekin.
[41] Anushtakin also consolidated his military power by recruiting substantial Turkish ghilman and capturing the Euphrates River fortress of Qal'at Dawsar in 1040/41.
[41] Al-Jarjara'i told the troops of his disapproval of Anushtakin and instructed them to await notice on how to proceed while encouraging them to quietly gather support among their comrades in Syria.
[41] Soon after, al-Jarjara'i secretly ordered all Fatimid local and provincial governors in Syria to bypass Anushtakin's authority and report directly to Cairo.
[50][51] A state funeral procession was held for the occasion and Fatimid officials were directed to pay honors to Anushtakin as his coffin passed through their towns on the way to Jerusalem.
[14] Among them were his income-producing properties in Palestine and Damascus, tax farms in Egypt, business deals with rich Damascene merchants, involvement in the Syrian maritime trade with ships that he owned and war spoils from his conquest of Aleppo.
[47] He spent substantial sums, via the Bukhara-born Hanafi qadi of Aleppo, to fund the establishment of Islamic law colleges, mosques and bridges in the Muslim lands of Transoxiana.
[14] This indicated Anushtakin's interest in his ancestral homeland and, according to al-Maqrizi, was partly meant to publicly demonstrate his transition from a slave from Central Asia to a formidable governor in Syria.
[14] As a testament to his fortune, Ibn al-Qalanisi asserted that by the time of Anushtakin's death, he had left 600,000 gold dinars and 200,000 dinars-worth of grain in the citadel of Aleppo.
[14] Throughout his career, Anushtakin established close ties with the wulat al-atraf (chieftains of the fringes),[52] i.e. the numerous heterodox Muslim clans who lived in the highland regions west of Damascus, Tiberias and Aleppo.
[52][53] According to historian Kamal Salibi, it is probable that Anushtakin's good relations with the highland chieftains "paved the way for the spread of a special cult of al-Hakim among the tribal peasants of these areas", i.e. the Druze.
