Ḥammawayh, Abū Jaʿfar Ḥammawayh b. ʿAlī, known as Ḥammawayh Kūsih (‘the Shark’), was a notable military commander of the Sāmānid dynasty (204–395/819–1005) and the military governor of Khurāsān during the reign of the Sāmānid Naṣr II (r. 301–31/913–42). While Ḥammawayh played a pivotal role in consolidating Naṣr II’s power, relatively little information survives concerning the details of his early life, other than the fact that he was originally from the village of Farīmān in Isfarāyin (see Khalīfa Nīsābūrī, 216; al-Thaʿālabī, 4/437).

Ḥammawayh first appears in the historica…