Ibn az-Zayat

Ibn az-Zayat was the governor of Tarsus from ca. 956 until 962 for the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla.

Life
He was appointed to the post sometime before 956/7, when he is mentioned for the first time as going to meet Sayf al-Dawla at Adana, where he received a robe of honour. In late 961, with the support of the populace of Tarsus, he renounced his allegiance to the Hamdanid ruler, acknowledging the Abbasid caliph al-Muti instead. In early 962 however he was faced with the invasion of Cilicia by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, who seized the fortress of Ayn Zarba and pillaged the Cilician countryside. Ibn az-Zayat with an army of 4,000 Tarsians tried to oppose the Byzantine ruler, but he was defeated with heavy losses, including Ibn az-Zayat's own brother. Following this defeat, the people of Tarsus once again turned to Sayf al-Dawla for protection, whereupon Ibn az-Zayat killed himself by falling from the window of his house into the Berdan River (February 962), although at least one source (the 13th-century historian Yaqut) reports that he was present at the final surrender of Tarsus to Nikephoros II in 965. Sayf al-Dawla appointed as his successor Rashiq al-Namimi.