Caliphate of al-Muntasir

خلافة المنتصر

247 AH

In Shawwal 247 Muhammad ibn Ja'far, al-Muntasir, was given the caliphate, and he moved from al-Ja'fariyya to Samarra ¹. Al-Tabari gives his death in 248 ². In al-Suyuti: he was given the bay'a in Shawwal 247 after his father was killed, deposed his brothers al-Mu'tazz and al-Mu'ayyad from the succession, showed justice, lifted fear and trial from the Family of Abu Talib, and returned Fadak to the family of al-Husayn. When he came to power he began to revile the Turks, calling them the killers of caliphs; they plotted against him, but could not overpower him, for he was formidable and shrewd, so they secretly paid his physician Ibn Tayfur thirty thousand dinars, and Ibn Tayfur bled him with a poisoned lancet. He died on the fifth of Rabi' II 248, aged twenty-six or less, having enjoyed the caliphate for less than six months. On his deathbed he said: 'O mother, the world and the hereafter have gone from me: I hastened my father's end, and was hastened in turn.' Al-Tha'alibi said that al-Muntasir was the caliph with the deepest roots in the caliphate: he and his five forebears were all caliphs ³.