Abu'l-Husain Utbi

Jami' al-tawarikh illustration of Utbi being assassinated by representatives of Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri and Fa'iq.

Nothing is known about the early life of Utbi. He was a relative of Abu Ja'far Utbi, who had served as vizier of the Samanid Empire from 956 to 959. When the young Samanid prince Nuh II ascended the Samanid throne in 976, Utbi was one year later appointed as his vizier. Utbi, along with Nuh's mother, helped him in controlling the Samanid state.[1] Sometime around Nuh's ascension, the Karakhanids invaded and captured the upper Zarafshan Valley, where the Samanid silver mines were located. In 980 they struck again, seizing Isfijab. Utbi, however was focused on removing Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri, the Samanid governor of Khorasan. Utbi considered Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri to be too powerful; he managed to remove him from the post in 982. He replaced him with one of his own partisans, a Turkic general called Tash.[1] Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri fled to his appendage in Quhistan, to the south of Herat.

An expedition against the Buyids was mobilized in Khorasan, also in 982; it was initially successful, but the Samanid forces were subsequently crushed. A Buyid invasion of the Samanid state was prevented only by the death of 'Adud al-Daula. Utbi attempted to regroup the army, but was assassinated by representatives of Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri and Fa'iq. His death was mourned by many Samanid officers, and even sparked a revolt in the Samanid capital of Bukhara. Utbi was considered by his relatives and medieval historians, including the author of the Tarikh Yamini, Abu Nasr Muhammad Utbi, as the last great Samanid vizier.[2]

• Ashraf, Ahmad (2006). "Iranian identity iii. Medieval Islamic period". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5. pp. 507–522.
• Bosworth, C. E. (2010). "'Otbi". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Frye, R.N. (1975). "The Sāmānids". In Frye, R.N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–161. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.