At a glance
- Era
- The Early Abbasid Caliphate
- Region
- Levant & Iraq
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
In time
Summary
In 322 AH the soldiers rose against the caliph al-Qahir Billah, deposed him and blinded his eyes, and gave the pledge to al-Radi Billah. The sources differ in the details. 1
al-Suyuti's account
al-Suyuti reports that Ibn Muqla, while in hiding, was frightening the soldiers about al-Qahir, and telling them that he had built dungeons to imprison them. They gathered against him and entered with swords; he fled, but they caught him and seized him on the sixth of Jumada al-Akhira. They gave the pledge to Muhammad ibn al-Muqtadir and gave him the title al-Radi. 1
They sent to al-Qahir the vizier and the judges, and he said that they were bound by the pledge and he would not release them from it. Sima, commander of the Hujariyya, advised blinding him. He was blinded with a heated nail until his eyes ran down his cheeks. The author adds that al-Qahir had slaughtered Mu'nis and Ibn Muqla, and had walled up Ibn al-Muktafi between two walls. 1
al-Mas'udi's account
In al-Mas'udi, al-Qahir was deposed on Wednesday, the fifth of Jumada al-Ula 322 AH, his eyes were blinded, and his caliphate lasted one year, six months and six days. al-Radi kept him hidden; when al-Muttaqi Ibrahim was given the pledge, he was found detained in some of the palace chambers and was held in the house of Ibn Tahir. 2
Ibn al-Athir's account
Ibn al-Athir holds that the cause of the deposition was that Ibn Muqla and al-Hasan ibn Harun went into hiding, and wrote to the commanders of the Sajiyya and the Hujariyya, warning them against him. al-Qahir began to dig dungeons in the palace, and the commanders were told they were for them, which made them more hostile. They gathered at Sima's on Wednesday and swore an oath to seize him, then advanced on the palace and found him asleep after a night of drinking. They took him and, after blinding him, imprisoned him in the dungeon of Tarif al-Sabaki. 3
The disagreement among the sources about the day and the month is clear: al-Suyuti gives the sixth of Jumada al-Akhira, while al-Mas'udi gives the fifth of Jumada al-Ula.
Connections
People and things also explored
Ibn Ra'iq's ascendancy and the rise of the amir al-umara· Mu'nis's deposition of al-Muqtadir and the troops' restoration of him· Al-Qahir's ban on singing-girls and wine· Muhammad al-Qahir bi-llah· al-Radi bi-llah Abu al-Abbas Muhammad ibn al-Muqtadir· سيما مقدم الحجرية
Sources
- Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 597-599
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p. 667-668
- al-Kamil fi'l-Tarikh of Ibn al-Athir , p. 209-210
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “The deposition of al-Qahir and the blinding of his eyes”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/qahir-blinding-deposition/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.