Sa ' d al - Dawla Sa ' d al - Dawla Abu ' l - Ma ' ali Sharif , more commonly known by his " laqab " ( honorific epithet ) , Sa ' d al - Dawla ( ) , was the second ruler of the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo , encompassing most of northern Syria . The son of the emirate ' s founder , Sayf al - Dawla , he inherited the throne at a young age and in the midst of a major Byzantine offensive that within two years conquered the western portions of his realm and turned Aleppo into a tributary state . Facing a multitude of rebellions and desertions until 977 , Sa ' d was unable even to enter his own capital , which was in the hands of his father ' s chief minister , Qarquya . By maintaining close relations with the Buyids , he managed to re - establish his authority in parts of the Jazira , but his rule was soon challenged by the rebellion of his governor Bakjur , who was supported by the Fatimids of Egypt . In turn , Sa ' d came to rely increasingly on Byzantine assistance , although he continued to fluctuate in his allegiance between Byzantium , the Buyids , and the Fatimids . Biography . Early years . Sa ' d al - Dawla was the son of Sayf al - Dawla and the sister of Sayf al - Dawla ' s cousin and court poet , Abu Firas . At the time of his father ' s death , in February 967 , he was only fifteen , and resided at the emirate ' s Mesopotamian capital , Mayyafariqin . His accession to the emirate was unopposed , but the state his father had left him was crumbling : the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II had just conquered Cilicia and was raiding its northern and western provinces , while rebellions of his closest lieutenants had plagued Sayf al - Dawla ' s last years . Sa ' d al - Dawla reached Aleppo , which for years had been governed by Sayf al - Dawla ' s chief minister and chamberlain ( " hajib " ) , Qarquya , in June / July 967 . Almost immediately he was confronted by a rebellion of his uncle , Abu Firas , at the time governor of Homs , which lasted until the latter ' s death in battle in April 968 . At the same time , Aleppo itself was threatened by the Byzantines , and Sa ' d al - Dawla , on the advice of Qarquya , left the city . In the end , the Byzantines did not attack the city , but Qarquya and his fellow " ghilman " seized the moment to claim the city for themselves . Accompanied by 300 faithful followers , Sa ' d al - Dawla was thus reduced to wandering from city to city across the lands that were nominally his , but being refused entry : Saruj , Manbij and Harran refused to support him , while at Mayyafariqin his own mother refused to let him in . Finally , he found refuge at Homs . In the meantime , many of his father ' s old supporters left to join his cousin Abu Taghlib , emir of Mosul , who used the opportunity to recover al - Raqqah , and , by 971 , all of the Jaziran provinces once administered by Sayf al - Dawla . The year 969 was a crucial one in Syrian history . It marked the climax of the Byzantine advance as in October , the generals Michael Bourtzes and Peter Phokas captured Antioch , securing their control over the north Syrian littoral . Soon after , the Byzantines marched against Aleppo itself , and forced Qarquya to sign a treaty ( December 969 or January 970 ) making Aleppo a tributary Byzantine protectorate with Qarquya as emir and his deputy , Bakjur , as his designated successor . At the same time , the Fatimids defeated the Ikhshidids and conquered Egypt , from where they advanced into southern Syria . The competition between these two powers , Byzantium and the Fatimids , would shape the history of Syria and of Aleppo for the next fifty years . Recovery of Aleppo , conflicts with Bakjur , the Fatimids and Byzantium . It was not until 977 that Sa ' d al - Dawla managed to regain his capital , which by now was under the control of Bakjur , who in 975 had deposed and imprisoned Qarquya . Aided by some of his father ' s " ghilman " , and , crucially , the powerful Banu Kilab tribe living around Aleppo , Sa ' d al - Dawla besieged Aleppo and captured it . Qarquya was set free and again entrusted with the affairs of state until his death a few years later , while Bakjur was given the governorship of Homs . Soon after , in 979 , he was able to capitalize upon Abu Taghlib ' s conflict with the Buyids of Iraq to recover some of his father ' s domains in the Jazira : after acknowledging Buyid suzerainty , he received governorship of the Diyar Mudar , except for al - Raqqah and Rahba . At the same time , he also received from the Abbasid Caliph — who was a puppet of the Buyids — the honorific " laqab " by which he is known . Bakjur , in the meantime , had used his new post at Homs to open contacts with the Fatimids , who intended to use him as a pawn to subdue Aleppo and complete their conquest of the entirety of Syria . Sa ' d al - Dawla himself oscillated between the Fatimids and Byzantium : on the one hand he resented Byzantine overlordship and was willing to acknowledge the Fatimid Caliph , but on the other hand was did not want to see his domain become merely another Fatimid province like southern Syria . His first attempt to shake free of the Byzantine protectorate , in 981 , thus ended in failure due to lack of outside support , when a Byzantine army appeared before Aleppo ' s walls to enforce compliance . The Fatimids now induced Bakjur to act , and in September 983 , the latter launched an attack on Aleppo with the support of Fatimid troops . Sa ' d al - Dawla was forced to appeal to the Byzantine emperor Basil II for help , and the siege was raised by a force of 6 , 000 men under Bardas Phokas the Younger . The Byzantines then proceeded to sack Homs in October . The city was returned to Hamdanid control , while Bakjur fled to Fatimid territory , where he assumed the governorship of Damascus . It is an indication of the strained relations between Sa ' d al - Dawla and his " saviours " that after Bakjur ' s flight , there were clashes between Byzantine and Hamdanid troops , which were settled only when the Hamdanid emir agreed to pay twice the usual yearly amount of tribute of 20 , 000 gold dinar s . Hamdanid relations with Byzantium collapsed completely in 985 – 986 , after the Fatimids took the Byzantine fortress of Balanyas . Sa ' d al - Dawla refused to continue paying tribute . As a result , the Byzantines under Bardas Phokas invaded his territory and sacked Killis before retracing their steps and marching south to an unsuccessful siege of Apamea . In retaliation , Sa ' d al - Dawla sent his troops to raze the famous monastery of Qal ' at Sim ' an . However , soon after that , in May 986 , the prospect of an imminent conclusion of a peace between Byzantium and Egypt forced Sa ' d al - Dawla to return to his earlier allegiance , and he re - affirmed his tributary status on the same terms as before . This did not prevent Sa ' d al - Dawla from supporting the Byzantine general Bardas Skleros in his second rebellion against Basil II , once he was released from Buyid captivity in December 896 , nor of recognizing Fatimid suzerainty in the same month , especially as Byzantium now descended into a civil war that lasted until 989 . Warfare with the Fatimids once again threatened in 991 , again because of Bakjur . He had governed Damascus until 988 , when he was deposed , and then fled to Raqqah . From there , though with little support from the Fatimids , he tried to attack Aleppo . Sa ' d al - Dawla , with Byzantine assistance in the form of troops under the " doux " of Antioch , Michael Bourtzes , was able to defeat and capture Bakjur at Na ' ura east of Aleppo in April 991 , and later had him executed . Nevertheless , relations with the Fatimids soured over Sa ' d al - Dawla ' s arrest of Bakjur ' s children , and it was only his death of hemiplegia in December 991 that stopped him from attacking Fatimid possessions . Sa ' d al - Dawla was succeeded by his son , Sa ' id Abu ' l - Fada ' il Sa ' id al - Dawla , but real power rested in the hands of Sa ' d al - Dawla ' s former chamberlain , Lu ' lu ' . Several of the Hamdanid " ghilman " , resenting the influence of Lu ' lu ' , went over to the Fatimids , who now launched a sustained offensive against Aleppo under the Turkish general Manjutakin . Only the personal intervention of Basil II in 995 and again in 999 would save the emirate from Fatimid conquest . Warfare lasted until 1000 , when a peace treaty was concluded guaranteeing Aleppo ' s continued existence as a buffer state between the two powers . Finally , in 1003 / 1004 , Lu ' lu ' deposed the Hamdanids and assumed control of Aleppo in his own name .