Uddat al-Dawla Abu Taghlib Fadl Allah al-Ghadanfar al-Hamdani (), usually known simply by his as Abu Taghlib, was the third Hamdanid ruler of the Emirate of Mosul, encompassing most of the Jazira.
His reign was troubled, being marked by conflicts with some of his brothers, antagonism with the various branches of the Buyids for influence in Baghdad, attacks by the Byzantine Empire under John I Tzimiskes, and his involvement in the rebellion of the Byzantine general Bardas Skleros. His relations with the Buyid emir of Iraq, Izz al-Dawla Bakhtiyar, alternated between friendly and confrontational, but the two later concluded an alliance, especially as Bakhtiyar faced challenges to his own rule. In 978, the Jazira was occupied by the Buyids of Shiraz under Bakhtiyar's cousin Adud al-Dawla, and Abu Taghlib fled to the Fatimid-controlled parts of Syria. There he tried to secure the governorship of Damascus, and became involved in local rivalries which resulted in his defeat in battle and execution on 29 August 979.
Life
Origin and background
Abu Taghlib was born in 940 as the eldest son of the Hamdanid al-Hasan, better known by his (honorific title) of Nasir al-Dawla His mother was a Kurdish woman, Fatima bint Ahmad, who reportedly exercised considerable influence over Nasir al-Dawla's affairs.
Nasir al-Dawla had established the Hamdanids as masters of a practically independent emirate encompassing the Jazira and centred on Mosul. Nasir al-Dawla engaged in repeated attempts to gain control over the Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad, but in the end was forced to concede defeat to the more powerful Buyid dynasty, recognize their suzerainty and pay them tribute. At the same time, Nasir al-Dawla's younger brother Ali, better known as Sayf al-Dawla, managed to establish his control over northern Syria from his two capitals Aleppo and Mayyafariqin, and through his clashes with the Byzantine Empire quickly overshadowed his brother. However, the last decade of Sayf al-Dawla's rule, until his death in February 967, was marked by heavy military defeats at the hands of the Byzantines, who occupied much of his domains, and internal turmoil.
It was in this context that Abu Taghlib is first mentioned in 964, when his father had once again been embroiled in a conflict with the Buyids. The army of the Buyid Mu'izz al-Dawla occupied Mosul and Nasir al-Dawla was once again forced to flee to the hill country of the northern Jazira. Abu Taghlib led the resistance against the Buyids, who, unable to maintain themselves there, evacuated Mosul and reached a new agreement with the Hamdanids. Abu Taghlib, with the tacit consent of almost all his brothers, deposed his elderly father in May 967 and imprisoned him in the fortress of Ardamusht, where he died in February 969.
Reign
Rebellion of Abu'l-Muzzafar Hamdan
Abu Taghlib, surnamed ('The Lion'), succeeded his father as emir and head of the Jaziran branch of the Hamdanid family, but almost immediately his authority was contested by his younger half-brother, Abu'l-Muzzafar Hamdan, who had not consented to their father's deposition. Nasir al-Dawla may have intended to make Ahmad his heir, and had given him governance of Nisibis, Maridin and Rahba, while Hamdan also seized control of Raqqa from the family's Syrian branch after the death of Sayf al-Dawla. Abu Taghlib thus turned to the new Buyid emir of Iraq, Izz al-Dawla Bakhtiyar, for assistance: unlike his father, Abu Taghlib had no prior claims on Iraq, and the Buyid ruler likewise was too preoccupied for the moment with securing his rule there to threaten Hamdanid rule over the Jazira.