page_title: Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl
section_title: Lord of Dvin (1022–49)
hierarchical_section_title: Abu'l-Aswar Shavur ibn Fadl / Biography / Lord of Dvin (1022–49)
caption_attribution_description: English: The Byzantines are lured into a trap and defeated by Aplesphares (Abu'l-Aswar, the Kurdish emir of Dvin)
context_page_description: Abu'l-Aswar or Abu'l-Asvar Shavur ibn Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a member of the Shaddadid dynasty. Between 1049 and 1067 he was the eighth Shaddadid ruler of Arran from Ganja. Prior to that, he ruled the city of Dvin from 1022 as an autonomous lord. A capable warrior, and a wise and cunning ruler, Abu'l-Aswar was engaged in several conflicts with most of his neighbours. During his rule over Dvin, he was mostly involved in the affairs of the Armenian principalities. He collaborated with the Byzantine Empire in its conquest of the last remnants of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, but when the Byzantines later turned on him, he survived three successive offensives that sought to take Ganja. In 1049, a revolt in Ganja overthrew his infant great-great-nephew, Anurshirvan. The rebels invited him to take up the family's emirate, and he moved from Dvin to Ganja. Under his rule, the Shaddadid dynasty reached its zenith. He undertook successful campaigns into Georgia and Shirvan, although the limits of Shaddadid power were exposed by his failure to take over the Emirate of Tiflis and by devastating raids by the Alans.
context_section_description: Münejjim Bashi records that at the time of his death in 1067, Abu'l-Aswar's total reign, both in Ganja and before that "over some territories", had lasted 46 years. "Some territories" clearly refers to his rule over Dvin, known from other sources, meaning that he became ruler of the city in c. 1022. The city, although part of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia, had been left defenceless after the death of Gagik I of Armenia in 1020 and the dispute of his sons over their inheritance, and suffered a devastating Daylamite raid in 1021 which effectively cut it off from the remainder of the Armenian kingdom. In the aftermath, the city appears to have sought the protection of the Shaddadids, and Abu'l-Aswar became its ruler. From this base, he pursued a virtually independent course from his brother, and later his nephew, in Ganja, focused more on Armenia than Arran. Abu'l-Aswar was intimately connected with the Armenian princely houses, having married a sister of David I Anhoghin, King of Tashir. His second son even bore the typically Armenian name of Ashot. Due to his focus on the affairs of his domain, he is not mentioned by Münejjim Bashi until his takeover of the main family seat at Ganja in 1049. For his activities in the period 1022–49, the main sources derive from his opponents, the Armenians and the Byzantines.
  Abu'l-Aswar is first recorded by the history of Matthew of Edessa in 1040, when the Armenian nobleman Abirat, who had become embroiled in the dispute between Gagik I's sons Ashot IV and Hovhannes-Smbat III, came to Dvin. Fearful of the latter's displeasure, Abirat with 12,000 horsemen sought Abu'l-Aswar's protection. Abu'l-Aswar initially welcomed Abirat and gave him a high position, but soon came to mistrust him, and had him killed, whereupon Abirat's lieutenant Sare departed for Ani with Abirat's supporters. Despite their kinship, at about the same time Abu'l-Aswar attacked David of Tashir. The Shaddadid army, numbering an impossible 150,000 according to Matthew of Edessa, captured much of Tashir, but David was able to assemble a broad alliance against Abu'l-Aswar. David himself fielded 10,000 troops, Hovhannes-Smbat III of Ani sent 3,000 men, the King of Kapan sent 2,000, and even the King of Georgia sent 4,000, while David also secured the public backing of the Catholicos of Albania. As a result, Abu'l-Aswar was defeated and evicted from Tashir.
  Ashot IV and Hovhannes-Smbat III died at almost the same time (c. 1040/41), and Ashot's son Gagik II (r. 1042–1045) succeeded them both and began consolidating his position. The chief danger to his throne was the Byzantine Empire, which throughout the early 11th century had been encroaching on the Armenian principalities. Hovhannes-Smbat had even bequeathed his kingdom to the Empire, and after his death, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian (r. 1034–1041) sent troops to capture Ani. Gagik managed to repel the attack, and political turmoil in Constantinople gained him a couple of years of reprieve after that, but in 1042 a new emperor, Constantine IX Monomachos (r. 1042–1055), came to the throne determined to secure Byzantine claims in Armenia. 
  To this end, he contacted Abu'l-Aswar and called upon him to attack the Armenians from the rear. Abu'l-Aswar agreed, in exchange for guarantees that he would retain his conquests, a request granted in an imperial chrysobull. Faced with a two-pronged assault, Gagik was forced to visit Constantinople. There he was kept hostage and Ani was surrendered to the Byzantines in 1045. Notwithstanding his previous promises, immediately after taking possession of Ani, the emperor requested that Abu'l-Aswar vacate the fortresses he had conquered. When the latter refused, a large army under Michael Iasites and the magistros Constantine the Alan, containing numerous Armenians, marched against Dvin. Abu'l-Aswar let them approach, and then opened the irrigation canals and flooded the plain around the city. Stuck in the mud, the besiegers were easy prey for the Shaddadid archers, who inflicted huge casualties on the Byzantine force. Constantine IX 
caption: The defeat of the Byzantines before Dvin, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes
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