Al-Hasan ibn Abdallah is the eldest son…
935 CE
Al-Hasan ibn Abdallah is the eldest son of Abu'l-Hayja Abdallah ibn Hamdan (died 929), son of Hamdan ibn Hamdun ibn al-Harith, who gave his name to the Hamdanid dynasty.
Hasan's father Abdallah had served as emir (governor) of Mosul in 905/6–913/4, was repeatedly disgraced and rehabilitated as the political situation changed in Baghad, until resuming control of Mosul in 925/6.
Enjoying firm relations with the powerful commander of the caliphal army, Mu'nis al-Khadim, in 929 he had played a leading role in the short-lived usurpation of Al-Qahir (who would later reign as caliph in 932–934) against Al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932), and was killed during its suppression.
According to the researcher Marius Canard, Abdallah had established himself as the most prominent member of the first generation of the Hamdanid dynasty, and is essentially the founder of the Hamdanid Emirate of Mosul.
During his absence in Baghdad in his final years from 920/921 on, Abdallah had relegated authority over Mosul to Hasan.
After Abdallah's death, however, al-Muqtadir had taken the opportunity to avenge himself upon the Hamdanids, and appointed an unrelated governor over Mosul, while Abdallah's domains were divided among his surviving brothers.
Faced with the claims of his uncles, Hasan had been left in charge of a small portion, on the left bank of the Tigris.
In 930, after the caliph's governor died, Hasan had managed to regain control over Mosul, but his uncles Nasr and Sa'id soon removed him from power and confined him to the western parts of the Diyar Rabi'a.
In 934, Hasan again recovered Mosul, but Sa'id, residing in Baghdad and supported by the caliphal government, had evicted him again.
Hasan had fled to Armenia, from where he orchestrated Sa'id's murder.
Only then did his troops occupy Mosul and establish him permanently as its ruler.
Finally, after defeating caliphal forces under the wazir Ibn Muqla and the Banu Habib, his rivals among the Taghlib, in late 935 the Caliph al-Radi is forced to formally recognize him as governor of Mosul and the entire Jazira, in exchange for an annual tribute of seventy thousand gold dinars and supplies of flour for the two caliphal capitals of Baghdad and Samarra.