Portal:Iran/Selected biography/1

Abuʾl-Ḥasan al-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan Maymandī (died 31 December 1032), better known as Ahmad Maymandi also spelled Maimandi), and also known by his honorific title of Shams al-Kufat ("sun of the capable ones"), was a Persian vizier of the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni and the latter's son Mas'ud I of Ghazni. The son of the governor of Bust, Maymandi was raised as the foster brother of the Ghaznavid prince Mahmud, and would first start his administrative career as the head of the department of correspondences of Khorasan. He would thereafter rapidly rise to higher offices, finally becoming the vizier of the Ghaznavid dynasty in 1013, which would last until 1024, when he was arrested due to the great amount of wealth that he had gained, which the suspicious Mahmud disliked. However, after a brief civil war, which ended in 1030, Maymandi was freed by Mahmud's son Mas'ud I, who offered him the chance of becoming vizier again. He first rejected the offer, but later accepted in 1031. Maymandi's second vizierate would only last one year, when he died at Herat. He was succeeded by Ahmad Shirazi.