Al-Dawla

The Arabic title "al-Dawla" appears in many names of leaders. It is not a personal name but the second part of a title that denoted official positions: "dynasty, rule, kingdom". Ibn Khaldun specifies that the honorific was betowed to non-Arabs by the caliphs "indicating their subservience and obedience and their good status as officials" [Franz Rosenthal, trans. "The Muquaddimah: An Introduction tyo History" (Princeton) 1958, I:469, noted in Beech 1993:8, note 23] The first element would vary: "Wali al-Dawla" means "friend of the dynasty", "Amid al-Dawla", ""support of the dynasty", "Imad al-Dawla" ("pillar of the dynasty"). [See the brief account of "dawla" in George T. Beech, "The Eleanor of Aquitaine Vase, William IX of Aquitaine, and Muslim Spain" "Gesta" 32.1 (1993), (pp. 3-10), p. 6.]

Rulers began to assume and bestow this title in the Near East in the tenth century, and in the eleventh century the styling spread throughout the Mediterranean. Such honorifics became widespread in the taifa kingdoms of Muslim Spain.

Today one house of the bicameral Council of State of Oman is the "Majlis al-Dawla". In Egypt the State Security Intelligence is the " Mabahith Amn al-Dawla al-'Ulya"

Examples of the honorific "al-Dawla"

*Sa'ad al-Dawla
*The Marwanids Mumahhid al-Dawla Sa’id (997-1011) and Nasr al-Dawla Ahmad ibn Marwan (1011-1061).
*The Buwayhid Sharaf al-Dawla
*Several leaders of the Hasanwayhids.

Notes

References

*(Franz Rosenthal) "Dawla", "Encyclopedia of Islam" (1965)