The Narrations of the Murder of Mardawij-i-ZiariA Historical Investigation

Mardawij ibn Ziyar (Region: 316- 323 AH), was the famous Iranian General and the founder of Ziyarid dynasty, who claimed his family origins back to the pre-Islamic royal family of Gilan in Sasanid period. First off, Mardawij started his services for the Alawids of Gilan and then connected to the later defacto governor of Qazvin and Zanjan, Asfar ibn Shiruya with whose effective sincere helps, Asfar succeeded in consolidation his power over some key cities in central western of Iran, Qazvin and Zanjan. Mardawij, however, seeing the gradual decline of Asfar's authority, step by step parted his way from him and succeeded himself in using the power vacuum, caused by the weakness and finally defeat of Asfar and also the inability of the Samanid Generals to dominate the central and northern territories of Iran, at the beginning of the fourth century AH., to dominate some large areas of the Caspian Sea territories and mountainous north and southern regions of Iran. In Addition to western southern of Mazandaran and eastern, central southern parts of Gilan i.e. some former territories of Alawid dynasty, Mardawij authority reached the cities of Rey,Qum, Karaj e Abu Dulaf, Abhar Hamadan and finally Isfahan, his glorious capital. He even sent his army to the vicinity of Dinawar, a very closed city of Iraq, central territories of Abbasid Caliphate to show his military abilities to Abbasid Caliphate. Mardawij, who was desperate to revive the traditional royal customs of Sasanid court, with the real aim of expanding his political power, attacked to Arrajan (now Behbahan, in Khuzestan province, south western Iran) and suppressed Ali ibn Buya and at the same time, sought to invade Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, to overthrow the Abbasids. But just a few months before the fulfillment of this bold ambitious decision, he was killed in a sudden suspicious manner in Isfahan.By studying early sources as well as many recent researches, we could see that their authors have nearly completely introduce the Turkish slaves of Mardawij as the perpetrators of Mardawij's murder. With a special reference to  this incident and considering other evidence at hand and of course the historical context of the incident, it is possible for us to analyze the neglected angles of Mardawij's assassination and present the real role of the instigators of this event; also it is possible to reveal the incident behind of the scene. In this study, there are four effective and profitable elements of Mardawij's assassination, namely the Abbasid Caliphate, Buyawhids, Turkish slaves angers toward Mardawij behaviors and finally bad temper of Mardawij himself. Anyway, there is no doubt that among these four variable mentioned elements referred above, Buwayhids played the key role in the assassination of Mardawij and most likely carried it out in time with an unclear support and consent of the Caliphate of Baghdad, seriously feared by Mardawij growing power. An examination of historical sources shows that Buwayhids or their puppets had two excuses in acquainting themselves of this murder to change the direction of Mardawij sincere troops minds to two apparently important key factors in the incident, Mardawij's bad temperament and the prevalence of his Turkish troops dissatisfaction with his misbehavior. The findings of the research, which have been examined by historical sources of that time and according to all the evidences obtained also show that Mardawij, from the very beginning of Ali ibn Buya government over Karaj e Abu Dulaf province, realized the seriousness of Buwayhid threat to his rule and himself. Buwayhids  then to Mardawij, trying to remove Ali from the province of Karaj and removal of the predictable danger of Buwayhids, tried various ways in hitting Mardawij, of them the most importantly, encouraging and inciting Mardawij to be killed. In addition, the comparison of some other sudden assassinations, ordered Buwayhids, acquaints us with a similar and common model among the Buwayhids in defeating their enemies and shows that Buwayhids, in facing to the greater power of Mardawij, have taken advantage of this practice. Besides this, the role of Hasan ibn Buya, who was being held hostage by Mardawij, is counted to be very significant too.