Abu l Fadl Balami

Abul Fadl Muhammad ibn Ubaidallah Balami ( Persian ابوالفضل محمد بن عبیدالله بلعمی ) (? - November 14, 940 ) - statesman of the Samanid era, father of Abu Ali Balami .

Mistakenly called as-Sam'ani the vizier of Ismail Samani . In historical news of the Samanids, he is mentioned as a vizier only under Nasr ibn Ahmad ( 914 - 943 ). Apparently, he was the successor to the first minister of this sovereign, Abu Abdallah Jayhani . In what year the Bal'ami took office, it is not said. According to Ibn al-Asir , Jayhani also achieved the release of the defeated in August - September 918 and shortly after the captured rebel of Hussein ibn Ali. On the contrary, Sa'alibi cites the poem of this Hussein, in which the poet thanks the Bal'ami for his release. In 937–938, the Bal'ami was removed from his post and died, according to Sam'ani, on November 14, 940.

Nizam al-Mulk among the famous, serving as an example of the eastern ministers, also calls the "family of Balami" ( Bal'amiyan ). The fame of the distinguished minister was apparently earned mainly by the elder Bal'ami, who, like his predecessor Jaikhani and his sovereign Nasr ibn Ahmad, was considered the representative of the best era of the Samanids. Sam'ani praises him as an enlightened patron of scholars and poets. He especially placed the poet Rudaki and preferred him to all other Arab and Persian poets. Istahri mentions its buildings in Merv and Bukhara , and calls it “a glorified sheikh” ( al-shaykh al-jalil ). His memory remained in Bukhara for a long time; his descendants lived in this city during Sam'ani (circa 1155 ). Probably, the name of the gate “Sheikh Jalal” in Bukhara dates back to this vizier.