Ispahsalar

Ispahsālār (Persian: اسپهسالار) or sipahsālār (سپهسالار; lit. 'army commander'), in Arabic rendered as isfahsalār (إسفهسلار) or iṣbahsalār (إصبهسلار), was a title used in much of the Islamic world during the 10th–15th centuries, to denote the senior-most military commanders, but also as a generic general officer rank.

Islamic East and Persia

The title derives from Middle Persian spāh-sālār (𐬯𐬞𐬁𐬵⸱𐬯𐬁𐬮𐬁𐬭), already attested in Pazend texts of the 9th century. It was the equivalent of the old Sasanian title of spahbed (New Persian ispahbadh), which during the Islamic era fell out of general use and became a regnal title among certain local dynasties in Tabaristan and Khurasan. The titles of ispahsalar and sipahsalar came into prominence in the Islamic world in the later 10th century, with the rise to power of Iranian dynasties during the so-called "Iranian Intermezzo". In its sense of 'commander-in-chief', the title was used in parallel to the usual Arabic titles hajib al-hujjab (حاجب الحجاب), hajib al-kabir (حاجب الكبير) or sahib al-jaysh (صاحب الجيش).

Among the Buyids, it was given as a sign of conciliation as well as of particular honour to two rebellious Turkish generals, Sebüktigin al-Mu'izzi in 971, and, after his death, Alptakin in 974/5. With the growing instability of the Buyid states towards the end of the century, the usage of ispahsalar became debased, and it came to mean simply 'commander' or just 'officer'. Among the later Saffarid dynasty under Khalaf ibn Ahmad (r. 963–1002), the title was applied to the commander-in-chief of the army, while the hajib al-hujjab was a separate office, possibly commanding the slave troops (mamalik or ghilman). Among the Turkic dynasties, the Arabic and Persian titles were supplemented by the Turkish title sübashi. The Ghaznavids employed sipahsalar and its Arabic equivalents in its original sense of "commander-in-chief", but also for commanders of specific contingents of their army, alongside the use of "plain" salar (and in Arabic, hajib) for less exalted generals.