Anushtakin al-Dizbari

Sharaf al-Maʿālī Abu Manṣūr Anūshtakīn al-Dizbarī (died January 1042) was a Fatimid statesman and general who became the most powerful Fatimid governor of Syria. Under his Damascus-based administration, all of Syria was united under a single Fatimid authority. Near-contemporary historians, including Ibn al-Qalanisi of Damascus and Ibn al-Adim of Aleppo, noted Anushtakin's wealth, just rule and fair treatment of the population, with whom he was popular.

An ethnic Turk, Anushtakin was enslaved in his homeland of Transoxiana and sold in Damascus in 1009 to Dizbar ibn Awnim, a Daylamite Fatimid officer. After working as a guard for Dizbar's properties, Anushtakin became a ghulam (slave soldier) in Caliph al-Hakim's court in Cairo, and in 1014/15, was made an officer. Between 1017 and 1023, Anushtakin grew wealthy, gained local renown, and developed a deep understanding of Syrian affairs during his governorship of Ba'albek and Caesarea. Afterward, he was assigned to Ramla as military governor of Palestine and confronted the powerful Jarrahids, a leading family of the Banu Tayy bedouins that often menaced Palestine's inhabitants. He was dealt with significant battlefield defeats and was recalled and imprisoned in Cairo in 1026, but was soon after freed. Two years later, vizier Ali al-Jarjara'i dispatched him with an army against the Tayy and Kilab tribes in Syria, whom Anushtakin routed near Lake Tiberias in 1029.

Anushtakin consolidated his authority over Syria by forming alliances with the local nobility, particularly Rafi ibn Abi'l Layl of the Kalb tribe, reining in Bedouin depredations, reconciling with the Jarrahids and acquiring numerous ghilman. In the mid-1030s, tensions developed between Anushtakin and al-Jarjara'i because the latter feared Anushtakin's growing political ambition. Al-Jarjara'i stoked conflict between Anushtakin and the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo, Shibl al-Dawla Nasr, which ended when Anushtakin defeated and killed Nasr in 1037. The following year, Anushtakin captured Aleppo with little resistance, marking the first and last time all of Syria was ruled by a single Fatimid governor. Anushtakin's rule in Damascus came to an end after an army mutiny engineered by al-Jarjara'i forced him to flee for the Aleppo citadel; he died there amid accusations of betraying Caliph al-Mustansir. Fifteen years later, the latter honored Anushtakin by relocating his grave to Jerusalem.