Bakjur

Bakjur was a Circassian military slave (mamluk or ghulam) who served the Hamdanids of Aleppo and later the Fatimids of Egypt.

Qarquya was set free and again entrusted with the affairs of state until his death a few years later, while Bakjur was given the governorship of Homs in compensation.

Sa'd al-Dawla was forced to appeal to the Byzantine emperor Basil II for help, and the Fatimid siege was raised by an army under Bardas Phokas the Younger.

This request produced a rift between the Caliph al-Aziz, who favoured expansion in Syria and saw in Bakjur a tool for capturing Aleppo, and his long-serving vizier, Yaqub ibn Killis, who was opposed to this policy and moreover wished to maintain the incumbent governor, Baltakin, a protégé of his.

[8][9] Bakjur's tenure in Damascus was troubled due to the opposition he faced, and the brutal measures with which he repressed it made him unpopular.

[8][9] Finally, in spring 988 Ibn Killis persuaded al-Aziz to depose Bakjur, and dispatched an army under Munis against Damascus.

Sa'd al-Dawla, again with Byzantine assistance, was able to defeat and capture Bakjur at Na'ura east of Aleppo in April 991, and later had him executed.