ABU’L-FATḤ YŪSOF B. YAʿQŪB, ŠAMS-AL-WOZARĀʾ QOṬB-AL-DĪN NEẒĀM-AL-MOLK, Ghaznavid vizier of the early 6th/12th century. The dates of his birth and death are unknown; the biographical works on viziers by Nāṣer-al-dīn Kermānī, Sayf-al-dīn Fażlī, and others stop short at the viziers of the later Ghaznavids. It is possible that he was a brother of the Abu’l-ʿAlāʾ b. Yaʿqūb Nākūk (q.v.) who had served Sultan Ebrāhīm b. Masʿūd I in India. Abu’l-Fatḥ Yūsof acted as vizier to Sultan Malek Arslan or Arslan Shah (509-11/1116-17). Nothing is known of his administrative policy during this brief period, and he presumably shared in the downfall of his master; but for a time he was clearly a powerful figure in the state, since Malek Arslan’s panegyrist, ʿOṯmān Moḵtārī, addressed several odes to him (Dīvān, ed. J. Homāʾī, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962, pp. 85-90, 171-74, 282-84, 376-85, 475-76).
Bibliography:
Bosworth, Later Ghaznavids, pp. 91-92.
(C. E. Bosworth)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 21, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 3, p. 287
C. E. Bosworth, “ABU’L-FATḤ YŪSOF,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/3, p. 287; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abul-fath-yusof-b (accessed on 23 31 January 2014).
