Abu'l-Aswar or Abu'l-Asvar Shavur ibn Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Shaddad was a member of the Shaddadid dynasty. Between 1049 and 1067 he was the eighth Shaddadid ruler of Arran (today in western Azerbaijan) from Ganja. Prior to that, he ruled the city of Dvin (in what is now Armenia and northeastern Turkey) from 1022 as an autonomous lord. A capable warrior, and a wise and cunning ruler, Abu'l-Aswar was engaged in several conflicts with most of his neighbours. During his rule over Dvin, he was mostly involved in the affairs of the Armenian principalities. He collaborated with the Byzantine Empire in its conquest of the last remnants of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, but when the Byzantines later turned on him, he survived three successive offensives that sought to take Ganja. In 1049, a revolt in Ganja overthrew his infant great-great-nephew, Anurshirvan. The rebels invited him to take up the family's emirate, and he moved from Dvin to Ganja. Under his rule, the Shaddadid dynasty reached its zenith. He undertook successful campaigns into Georgia and Shirvan, although the limits of Shaddadid power were exposed by his failure to take over the Emirate of Tiflis and by devastating raids by the Alans. At the same time, his reign witnessed the rapid rise of the Seljuk Empire and the extension of its control over the Transcaucasian principalities. Abu'l-Aswar became a Seljuk vassal in 1054/5. Although he gained control over the former Armenian capital of Ani through Seljuk patronage in 1065, this association also paved the way for the dynasty's decline after his death in November 1067. Biography Origin The main historical source on the Shaddadids is the work of the Ottoman historian Münejjim Bashi (died 1702). Münejjim Bashi considered the family to be of Kurdish origin, a view widely accepted by modern scholars. The family's founder, Muhammad ibn Shaddad, briefly seized control of Dvin in the early 950s. The family then moved to Ganja, the main Muslim town of Arran, which was seized by Muhammad's sons Lashkari (I), Marzuban, and Fadl (I) . The brothers successively ruled the city as emirs after that. Abu'l-Aswar Shavur was the second son of the youngest of the three brothers, and fourth Shaddadid ruler, Fadl. In his long reign (985–1031), Fadl expanded the family's control over much of Arran as well as parts of Armenia, capturing Syunik. Fadl was succeeded as emir at Ganja by his eldest