Husayn ibn Hamdan

Husayn ibn Hamdan ibn Hamdun ibn al-Harith al-Taghlibi was an early member of the Hamdanid family, who distinguished himself as a general for the Abbasid Caliphate and played a major role in the Hamdanids' rise to power among the Arab tribes in the Jazira. Through his co-operation with the caliphal government, he established himself and his family as the leader of the Arabs and Kurds of the Jazira, leading his troops to successful campaigns against the Carmathians, Dulafids and Tulunids. Through his influence, the family rose to high offices, including the governorship of Mosul, beginning a long period during which the city and the entire Jazira were ruled by the Hamdanids.

Origin and early career
Husayn was a son of the Hamdanid family's patriarch, Hamdan ibn Hamdun. His family belonged to the Banu Taghlib tribe, established in the Jazira since before the Muslim conquests. In a pattern repeated across the Abbasid Caliphate, the Taghlibi leaders took advantage of the collapse of central caliphal authority of the during the decade-long Anarchy at Samarra  (861–870) to assert increasing control over their particular area, centred around Mosul. Hamdan established himself among the leading tribal leaders during this time, and led the resistance against caliphal attempts to restore direct control, even allying with the rebel Kharijites in the 880s. Finally, in 895 Caliph al-Mu'tadid launched a determined attack to recover the Jazira. Hamdan fled before the Caliph's advance and was captured after a long pursuit and thrown in prison.

Husayn, however, who had been entrusted with the fortress of Ardumusht on the left bank of the Tigris, chose to surrender it instead, and offered his services to the Caliph. He managed to capture the Kharijite leader Harun al-Shari, thereby bringing an end to the Kharijite revolt in the Jazira. In exchange he secured not only a pardon for his father, but also the right to form a regiment of 500 Taghlibi cavalry at government expense. This was a major success as it laid the groundwork for his own and his family's ascent to power. In the words of the Islamic scholar Hugh N. Kennedy, "to the caliph he offered a group of experienced warriors under his own skilled and loyal leadership; to the Taghlib, and other people in the Jazira, he offered the prospect of salaries and booty; and to his own family military command and the opportunity of acquiring wealth in government services. It was in fact not as an independent tribal leader, but rather as an intermediary between government and the Arabs and Kurds of the Jazira that al-Husayn made the family fortune".

In Abbasid service
Husayn led his Taghlibi regiment with distinction over the next few years. He fought against the Dulafids in the Jibal in 896; after 903 he played a decisive role in the campaigns of Muhammad ibn Sulayman against the Carmathians of the Syrian desert, where his experienced cavalry was crucial in countering the highly mobile Carmathians. Husayn also participated in Muhammad's 904–905 campaign that ended the Tulunid dynasty and restored Syria and Egypt to direct caliphal control, after which he reportedly refused the governorship of Egypt.

By 908, this distinguished service had established Husayn as "one of the leading generals" (Kennedy) in the Caliphate, and enabled him to advance his own brothers to positions of power: they received various offices, the most important of which was the award of the governorship of Mosul to Husayn's brother Abu'l-Hayja Abdallah in 905. In December 908, however, Husayn became involved in a palace plot to depose the new Caliph, al-Muqtadir, in favour of the older Ibn al-Mu'tazz. The coup failed due to the resistance of the palace servants and the plotters' indecision, and Husayn fled from Baghdad. Most of the other participants in the coup were executed or imprisoned, but through the mediation of his brothers, Husayn was able to secure a pardon, and was even appointed governor of Qumm and Kashan in the Jibal. Soon after, in 910/911, he was promoted to the governorship of the Diyar Rabi'a, the province encompassing the eastern Jazira, including Mosul.

In 914/915, however, Husayn rose up in revolt, opposing the financial policies of the vizier Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah. He was able to raise a force of 30,000 Arabs and Kurds in the Jazira, a testament to his influence there, but his revolt was suppressed by the Abbasid commander-in-chief, Mu'nis al-Khadim, and in 916 he was captured and brought to Baghdad. He remained in prison there until 918, when he was executed. The exact reason for his execution is unknown, but the historian of the Hamdanid dynasty, Marius Canard, suggested that it may have been due to his involvement in a Shi'a-inspired conspiracy.

Despite Husayn's rebellion and execution, the Hamdanid family continued to prosper: his brothers were soon released from captivity, and Abdallah rose to prominence by aligning himself with Munis and sharing in the ups and downs of the court politics in Baghdad. It was Abdallah's two sons, however, al-Hasan and Ali, better known by their honorific titles Nasir al-Dawla and Sayf al-Dawla, who established the family as the ruling dynasty in the semi-independent emirates of Mosul (until 978) and Aleppo (until 1002) respectively.