In the 4th and 5th centuries, when the Chief-Emirs dominated the Abbasid
Caliphate, some minor rules contemporary with the Buyids and Seljukians, were formed.
Bani Mazyad was one of these rules which relying on its Shi'i tendencies managed to
establish a rich and lasting theological center for the Shiites at a time when the Shi'i
scientific and cultural centers in Baghdad were destroyed and the Shi'i scholars had
emigrated to Najaf. This article deals with the political life of Sayf al-Dawla, the
celebrated Mazyadi Emir, and the relations and confrontations of this family with the
contemporaneous rules, as well as the background of establishment of Hilla and its
historical developments.
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