[1] Ali was the eldest son of Abu Shuja Buya, a fisherman of modest origin from Daylam, a region in northern Iran.

He may have done so at Nasr's suggestion; in any case, he managed to occupy a high position under Makan and gained army commissions for his two younger brothers, Hasan and Ahmad.

In 930, however, Makan rebelled against the Samanids by seizing Khurasan; he was subsequently attacked by the Ziyarid prince Mardavij and forced to give up Tabaristan.

[6] Ali and his brothers managed to defect to Mardavij's side just as the Ziyarid was preparing to undertake the conquest to the south of the Alborz mountains as far as Qazvin.

Not long afterwards Mardavij granted Ali administrative rule over Karaj, a strategically important town probably situated near modern Bahramabad.

[8] In order to further secure his position, Ali decided to seize the nearby city of Isfahan, then under control of the Abbasid governor Yaqut.

[9] In order to prevent Mardavij from pressing claims on his territory, Ali sought the recognition of the Abbasid Caliph, who confirmed him as his viceroy in September or October 934.

[11] Bolstered by many of Mardavij's Turkish mercenaries that had joined him, as well as the collapse of Ziyarid control over central Iran, Ali decided that Isfahan should be taken.

[12] Ali next sent Ahmad to Khuzistan, where the Basrian clan of the Baridis had become the de facto rulers of the province but were trying to throw off caliphal rule.

Imad al-Dawla himself claimed the title of senior amir during his lifetime, and although he never officially held it, nor was entitled to do so, he was recognized as the de facto holder of that position.