Sa'id was a son of the
Hamdanid family's patriarch,
Hamdan ibn Hamdun. His family belonged to the
Banu Taghlib tribe, established in the
Jazira since before the
Muslim conquests. In a pattern repeated across the
Abbasid Caliphate, the Taghlibi leaders took advantage of the collapse of central caliphal authority during the decade-long
Anarchy at Samarra (861–870) to assert increasing control over their particular area, centred on
Mosul. Despite the subsequent re-assertion of caliphal authority under
al-Mu'tadid (), the family was able to retain and consolidate its influence in the area thanks to Sa'id's brother
Husayn ibn Hamdan, who became a distinguished general in Abbasid service. Husayn rebelled in after quarrelling with the vizier, and was executed in 918, but his brothers remained loyal to the Abbasid government and were entrusted with senior positions. In 927/8, Sa'id and his brothers served in the caliphal army
sent to stop the
Qarmatians of
Bahrayn from reaching
Baghdad. Along with his brother Abu'l-Sarja Nasr, Sa'id vied with his nephew Hasan, the future
Nasir al-Dawla, for control of Mosul. In 931, following the conquest of the
frontier emirate of
Melitene by the
Byzantines under
John Kourkouas, Caliph
al-Muqtadir () appointed him governor of Mosul, with the task of recovering the city. Setting out in October, Sa'id managed to break the Byzantine siege of
Samosata, before moving onto Melitene. The local Byzantine garrison, composed of followers of the Armenian general
Melias, panicked and massacred many of the inhabitants for fear of an uprising against them; they then destroyed as much of the city as they could and abandoned it. Sa'id took over control of the city, appointed one of his lieutenants as governor, and returned to Mosul. From there he launched a raid into Byzantine territory in November. Hasan regained Mosul in 934, but again Sa'id's intrigues at court caused him to lose it. As a result, Hasan had his uncle assassinated and fled to
Armenia, whence he returned in late 935 to become once more Mosul's governor. Consolidating his position, Hasan founded the practically independent Hamdanid emirate of Mosul, and ruled it until 967. Through a
Byzantine Greek slave concubine (an
umm walad, freed after giving birth to her master's child), Sa'id was the father of the distinguished general and poet
Abu Firas al-Hamdani. Another son,
Husayn, served as a general under Nasir al-Dawla and
Sayf al-Dawla, while his daughter Shakinah became the wife of Sayf al-Dawla and the mother of his successor,
Sa'd al-Dawla. ==References==