In a paper published in 1920 the Swiss scholar Samuel Flury expressed a very positive view of fifth/eleventh-century Islamic inscriptions: ‘The Islamic inscription in the course of the eleventh century reached the apogee of its evolution. What later centuries produced is only variation and continuation of inherited types.’

Flury was a great admirer of Marwanid inscriptions in particular, and his drawings [Figure 11.1] highlight with great skill the highly ornamental calligraphy found in some of them. Marwanid inscriptions have also attracted the attention of other Western epigraphers and specialists in Islamic art. Those who have written on this subject include Max van Berchem and Jean Sauvaget and, much more recently, Sheila Blair and Michael Burgoyne. This chapter will not, however, focus on these inscriptions as specimens of Islamic art. As a historian, my interest in epigraphy, whether it is on the monumental scale appropriate to architecture or on a much smaller scale, as in coins, is in the content of inscriptions – the matter rather than the manner.

Who were the Marwanids?

The dissolution and fragmentation of ‘Abbasid power in the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries led to the appearance of a number of small dynasties across many areas of the Muslim world. One such dynasty was established by a Kurdish family, who came to be known as the Marwanids [Figure 11.2]. A fierce warrior known in the sources as Bādh the Kurd, having seized power briefly in the cities of Mayyafariqin (modern Silvan) and Amid (Diyarbakır) in 372/983, was murdered by a coalition of Hamdanid and ‘Uqaylid forces in 380/990. Bādh's nephew by marriage, Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥasan b. Marwān, having ousted the Hamdanids, then re-took possession of Mayyafariqin and Amid. He is regarded as the first Marwanid ruler.

The Marwanid dynasty (five rulers in all) lasted almost 100 years – from 380/990 to 478/1085. Abū ‘Alī ruled for seven years only. After his murder at Amid in 387/997, his brother Mumahhid al-Dawla Sa'īd ruled more successfully until 401/1011. These two rather precarious reigns paved the way for the accession of a third brother, Naßr al-Dawla Aḥmad, whose rule of an almost incredible fifty years marks the apogee of Marwanid power. On the death of Naṣr al Dawla (453/1061), the power and prestige of the dynasty declined markedly. His son Niẓām al-Dīn Naṣr succeeded him, at first only in Mayyafariqin and then two years later in Amid too.