BUWAYHIDS

Buwayhids: translation

(Buyids)

   The Buwayhids, or Buyids, are generally considered a Persian dynasty famous for having captured Baghdad and the Abbasid caliphate in 945 and remaining in power until 1055. Some Kurdish scholars argue, however, that the Buwayhids actually were descended from the Kurdish Dailamites, or Dilami, who had established a number of different kingdoms. Several other Buwayhid dynasties also ruled other parts of what are now Iraq and Iran.

   The name Buwayhid derives from Buwayh or Buyeh, the father of the three brothers who founded the dynasty. The Buwayhids were Twelve-Imam Shiites who practiced tolerance toward other Islamic groups. The dynasty ruled during the period between the ascendancy of the Arabs early in Islamic history and the subsequent Turkish conquest in the 11th century, a period termed by some the Iranian intermezzo.

   See also Annazids.