Ispahsalar

Ispahsālār (Persian: اسپهسالار‎‎) or sipahsālār (سپهسالار; "army commander"), in Arabic rendered as isfahsalār (إسفهسلار) or iṣbahsalār (إصبهسلار), was a title used in much of the Islamic world during the 10th–15th centuries, to denote the senior-most military commanders but also as a generic general officer rank.

Islamic East and Persia

The title derives from Middle Persian spāh-sālār (𐬯𐬞𐬁𐬵⸱𐬯𐬁𐬮𐬁𐬭), already attested in Pazend texts of the 9th century. It was the equivalent of the old Sasanian title of Spahbed (Arabic ispahbadh), which during the Islamic era fell out of general use and became a regnal title among certain local dynasties in Tabaristan and Khurasan. The titles of Ispahsalar and Sipahsalar came into prominence in the Islamic world in the later 10th century, with the rise to power of Iranian dynasties during the so-called "Iranian Intermezzo". In its sense of "commander-in-chief", the title was used in parallel to the usual Arabic titles Ḥājib al-Ḥujjāb (حاجب الحجاب), Ḥājib al-Kabīr (حاجب الكبير) or Ṣāhib al-Jaysh (صاحب الجيش).