In the following years he endeavoured, with only partial success, to reimpose his suzerainty on the Muslim principalities of Transcaucasia which had become progressively more independent. During the last years before his death in 373/983 his regime seems to have disintegrated and he was imprisoned. After him Azarbaljan fell into the hands of the Rawwadids except for a small part (Miyana ?) which was held by a grandson of Vahsudan, al-Marzuban b. Isma'il. A year later the latter was attacked and seized by the Rawwadid Abu'l-Haija'.
His son Ibrahim fled to Tarum, where he later was able to restore the Sallarid reign. A son of Ibrahim b. al-Marzuban b. Muhammad, Abu'l-Haija', is mentioned in an Armenian source as ruling in Dvin in 982-3 when he was incited by King Mushel of Kars to invade the territory of the Bagratid king Smbat II. Probably soon afterwards he attacked Abu Dulaf al-Shaibani, the first known member of a dynasty ruling in Golthn and Nakhchivan until after 45 8/1066, but was defeated and lost his domains to Abu Dulaf. Abu'l-Haija' later wandered with his family seeking help all over Georgia and Armenia and even visited the Byzantine emperor Basil II. In 989-90 Smbat II provided him with an Armenian army to reconquer Dvin, but then withdrew his support. Abu'l-Haija' eventually was strangled by his servants.
The Rawwadids who succeeded the Sallarids in the rule of Azarbaljan were descendants of the Azdl Arab family of al-Rawwad b. al-Muthanna which in the 2nd/8th and 3rd/9th centuries had dominated the town of Tabriz. With the rapid rise in strength of the Kurdish element in Azarbaljan in the 4th/ioth century, they came to associate closely with it, especially with part of the Hadhbani tribe, and were themselves generally considered as Kurds. During the captivity of the Sallarid al-Marzuban (337-41/949-53) Muhammad b. al-Husain al-Rawwadl is reported to have seized some parts of Azarbaljan, probably Ahar and Varzuqan, northeast of Tabriz, for which his son and successor Abu'l Haija' Husain in 344/955-6 paid tribute to al-Marzuban. A year later Abu'l-Haija' occupied Tabriz. After building a wall around the town he took it in 350/961 as his capital. Tabriz remained the seat of the Rawwadids even when they later held sway over all of Azarbaijan.
The history of Azarbaijan from about 370/980 until 420/1029 is obscured by a lack of source material. There are no reports about the circumstances of Abu'l-Haija"s rise to independence after the Sallarid Ibrahim b. al-Marzuban. Obviously he profited from the decline of the latter's power, and perhaps it was he who imprisoned the Sallarid for some time. After establishing his authority in Azarbaijan he ravaged in 377/987 the domains of Abu Dulaf al-Shaibani and took Dvin from him. The Bagratid king Smbat II on his demand paid the arrears of the Armenian tribute. In 378/988-9 he attacked Vaspurakan, but during the campaign he died.
The Sajids, Sallarids and Rawwadids
