Sayf al-Daula

Infobox Monarch
name =Sayf al-Daula
title =Emir of Aleppo


caption =
reign =945–967
coronation =
full name =Sayf al-Daula Abu al-Hasan Ibn Hamdan
predecessor =
successor =Saad al-Daula
dynasty =Hamadanid
father =Abdullah ibn Hamdoun
date of birth =916
place of birth =
date of death =967
place of death =Aleppo, Syria
place of burial =Aleppo, Syria|

Sayf al-Daula (also transliterated Saif al-Dawlah, "Sword of the State", 916-967 in full Sayf ad-Daulah Abu al-Hasan Ibn Hamdan, _ar. سيف الدولة أبو الحسن ابن حمدان) was the ruler of northern Syria and the founder and the most prominent prince of the Arab Hamadanid dynasty of Aleppo. He was famous for his patronage of scholars and for his military struggles against the Byzantines.

Life

Sayf al-Daula began his career as lord of the city of Wasit in modern Iraq and became involved in the struggles of the Abbasid caliph, who ruled from nearby Baghdad. Sayf al-Daula realized that greater potential lay to the west, in Syria, then under the dominion of the Ikhshidid dynasty, which ruled Egypt. In 946, with the support of the local Banu Kilab tribe, he captured Aleppo, and in the following year, after two unsuccessful attempts, he took Damascus. He then marched his army toward Egypt and captured Ramla, but he was unable to make further progress. A peace treaty was negotiated between him and the Ikshidids, and thereafter his most important concern was with the Byzantine Empire. Every year from 950 to the time of his death saw some kind of armed conflict with the Byzantines, with Sayf usually leading his army to raids into Byzantine Asia Minor. He won a great victory in 953 near Germanikeia, killing the "patrikios" Leon Maleinos, severely wounding the Domestic of the Schools Bardas Phokas and capturing his son Constantine. This was followed by more victories during the next three years, during which several Byzantine commanders fell. In 960 however, as he was returning from another successful raid, his troops laden with booty, he was ambushed and heavily defeated by the Byzantines under Leon Phokas, the brother of Nikephoros Phokas, and Constantine Maleinos, the brother of Leo who had been killed in 953. Sayf managed to escape, but the Byzantines had gained the ascendancy. In 962, a Byzantine army under Nikephoros Phokas advanced into Cilicia and Syria. In mid-December, the Byzantines suddenly appeared before Aleppo. Sayf al-Daula fled his palace, which lay outside the city. The magnificent building was plundered, along with the city itself and its countryside, but the Byzantine forces retired after one week. Two years later they returned but were defeated.

Sayf al-Daula surrounded himself with prominent intellectual figures, notably the great poets al-Mutanabbi and Abu Firas and the noted philosopher al-Farabi. Sayf al-Daula himself was a poet; his delicate little poem on the rainbow shows high artistic ability.