Ismāʿīl I ibn Aḥmad, (reigned 892–907), one of the Persian Sāmānid dynasty’s most famous sovereigns, who was generous, brave, just, and cultivated. Originally governor of Transoxiana at the age of 21, he extended his domains throughout Ṭabaristān and Khorāsān and, though nominally under the caliph of Baghdad, established independent rule throughout eastern Persia with his capital at Bukhara.