116 E. E. Oliver —Decline of the Sdmdnis and the Rise of the [N^o. 2, 
The Vlfch ’Amri5, great-grandson of the ’Amru the son of the 
Brazier attempted the sovereignty in 300 H. when again Ahmad 
Samani despatched a force under the above-mentioned nobles, but after 
a defence of 9 months ’Amrii. surrendered his capital, and the territory 
of Sijistan received a Samani governor ; who is not mentioned. 
The Governors of Sijistan. 300—393 H. 
1st. Shortly after the above events Ahmad said to have been the 
grandson of Tahir, (No. Ill above) who was living in distress at Hirat, 
attracted the notice of Nasr the II, Samani, and had bestowed upon him 
the government of his native country, Sijistan. From Ahmad there 
follows a period regarding which there appears little beyond numis¬ 
matic evidence, and that very scanty. How long Ahmad was governor 
was unknown, but from a coin in the British Museum, struck at Sijistan 
in 306 No. II Kasatyar bin Ahmad would appear to have been then 
governor.- Whether immediately after or no is not known but he must 
have been followed by 
No. Ill KhALAF. whose coinage both gold and copper shows him 
to have ruled at Sijistan from at least 325 to 334 H. and during the 
Khalifat of A1 Mustakfi and A1 Muti’. This of course may have extended 
either or both ways. The copper coin now figured as No. XXVII is 
very nearly identical with the one in the National Collection, with the 
exception that the date reads 334, as compared with 325. A Khalaf is 
mentioned as the son of ’Abu Ja’far bin Lais, but which Lais is un¬ 
certain, and this Khalaf as being the father of a Muhammad who again 
was the father of an Ahmad. Giving this genealogy for what it is 
worth the 
(? IVth) Ahmad bin Muhammad, would, from another British 
Museum coin, appear to have been the governor of Sijistan in 340 H. 
but as regards the length of his rule all dates are wanting. His suc¬ 
cessor was presumably 
(? Vth) Khalaf bin Ahmad, whose biography has been noticed at 
length by several contemporary writers. At times’ in direct subjection 
to the Samanis, making a pilgrimage in 353 to Makkah, leaving his 
son-in-law, Tahir bin Husain, to act as his deputy • obtaining aid from 
Mansur bin Nuh on his return to drive out the deputy, A1 Husain bin 
Tahir, who in the meantime had succeeded his father, and usurped. 
Again on the withdrawal of the Bukhara troops asserting supremacy 
and engaging in expeditions of his own. Rebelling. against Nuh bin 
