Under the year 224/838-39, al-Tabari relates the story of a conflict between the Bavandid ruler of Tabaristan, Mazyar b. Qaren, and the Tahirid governor of Khurasan `Abdallah b. Tahir. Mazyar did not want to send the kharaj from his domains to the Tahirids, instead preferring to send the money directly to the caliph al-Mu`tasim. The impression we receive is that Mazyar did not see himself as the Tahirid’s inferior and did not want an intermediary between himself and the caliph. He was encouraged in this attitude by the Afshin Haydar who had his own rivalries with `Abdallah b. Tahir over control of Transoxania. In the end, al-Mu`tasim supported the Tahirids. `Abdullah’s forces entered Tabaristan and captured Mayzar, who was then executed by the caliph. Most scholarly interest in the Tahirid dynasty, both as governors of Khurasan and the holders of high political office in Baghdad, focuses on questions of autonomy and their relationship to the `Abbasids. While the approach to the Tahirids has moved away from the image of the dynasty as proto-Persian nationalists, we have only begun to explore the role the Tahirids played as intermediaries between caliphal authority and local elites. This paper focuses on the exchange between the Tahirids as regional autonomous representatives of the `Abbasid caliphate and local elites throughout Khurasan and its neighbors. The interactions between the Tahirids and more localized authorities, especially in moments when Tahirid authority is contested locally or when Tahirid authority is explicitly reconfirmed through appointments or alliances, may be a window where we can see more clearly not only how the Tahirids saw their position as an intermediary between imperial and local authority but also how others conceived of Tahirid authority as well.