Sunni-Rafida Strife in Baghdad in 422

فتنة سنة 422 بين السنة والرافضة ببغداد

c. March 1031 CE · Rabi' I 422 AH

In Rabi' I 422 the strife between the Sunnis and the Rafida in Baghdad broke out again. It began when al-Khazraji, a Sufi known as al-Madhkur, went to the city's main mosque to read a decree from the caliphal residence, and common people shouted the names of Abu Bakr and Umar before him, saying 'this is a day of raids.' The people of Karkh opposed them and pelted them, the fighting spread, prayer was halted, and the house of al-Murtada was breached until his Turkish neighbours rescued him. The Samsamiyya was burned, and the houses and khanqahs of the Jews were plundered, on the report that they had helped the people of Karkh. The next day the common Sunnis assembled, joined by many Turks, marched on Karkh and burned and demolished its markets. The caliph al-Qadir wrote to al-Malik and to the Isfahsalar condemning this in the strongest terms and ordering the legal penalty for the offenders. Burned in the strife were the Bride Market, the Carpet Market, the Coppersmiths' Market, the Cloth-Beaters' Market and the silk quarters; the Friday mosque of Baratha was raided at night, its mats and rugs taken and its iron windows torn out. Then the people of Nahr Tabaq, al-Qala'in, Karkh and Bab al-Basra fought one another, and on the eastern bank the people of the Arms Market, the Tuesday Market, Bab al-Taq and the cobblers, the market of Yahya, al-Rahadhira, al-Furda and Darb Sulayman. The bridge was cut to separate the two sides; 'ayyarun entered the city, and plunder by day and sacking by night increased ¹.