Abū Kālījār al-Marzubān

Abū Kālījār al-Marzubān (born May/June 1009, Basra, Iraq—died October 1048, Khannāb, near Kermān, Iran) was a ruler of the Buyid dynasty from 1024, who for a brief spell reunited the Buyid territories in Iraq and Iran.

When his father, Sulṭān al-Dawlah, died in December 1023/January 1024, Abū Kālījār’s succession to the sultan’s Iranian possessions of Fārs and Khuzistan was challenged by his uncle Abū al-Fawāris, the ruler of Kermān, to the west. By 1028 Abū Kālījār was victorious and added Kermān to his domains. In the meantime (1027) he had attacked the Iraqi lands of another uncle, Jalāl al-Dawlah, and had precipitated a civil war between the Iraqi and the Iranian branches of the Buyid family that lasted until 1037, when the two made peace. With the death of Jalāl al-Dawlah in March 1044, Abū Kālījār was recognized as the Buyid ruler in Iraq.

In the face of the growing challenge of the Seljuq Turks, Abū Kālījār fortified his capital Shīrāz, in Fārs (1044), and three years later he entered into a marriage alliance with the Seljuq ruler Toghrïl Beg. In 1048, however, Toghrïl broke the alliance and attacked. Abū Kālījār died leading a force against the Seljuqs, who by 1062 completed their occupation of Buyid territories.