[1] They first came to power in Diyar Bakr when they were granted land there by the Buwayhids, who hoped that they would serve as a buffer against the Kurd Bādh ibn Dustak.

The Uqaylid leader, Muhammad ibn al-Musayyab, then fought against Bādh, which eventually resulted in the death of the Kurdish rebel.

Eventually the Buwayhid amir Baha' al-Dawla came to terms with al-Muqallad, whereby the Uqaylid was invested by the Abbasid caliph with the rule of Mosul, Kufa and Jami'yan.

The treaty made al-Muqallad nominally subservient to the Buwayhids, but in effect he was independent, refusing to pay the tribute that he owed.

In 1002 Qirwash raided Buwayhid territory, prompting Baha' al-Dawla's governor of Baghdad to undertake an expedition against the Uqaylids.

Defeated at first, he eventually managed gain a victory over them near Kufa, but at this point was removed from his post as governor, preventing him from following up on this success.

Qirwash's major problem during the second half of his reign was finding a way to control the Oghuz Turks who were coming in from Iran.

He furthermore gained Aleppo from the Mirdasids in 1080 when its inhabitants offered to hand the city over to him in the hopes that he could protect from Seljuk raids, and he took Harran from the Numayrids in the following year.

[3] Following Sharaf al-Dawla's death, his brother Ibrahim, who had previously been imprisoned, was released and declared as his successor.

Ibrahim, meanwhile, had been released by Malik Shah's widow so he returned to Mosul, and eventually convinced Safiyya to give up the city to him.

Some of these lines were still extant after the overthrow of the Uqaylids in Mosul, with one branch in Raqqa and Qal'at Ja'bar lasting until 1169 when it was ended by the Zengids.