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Al-Qahir's ban on singing-girls and wine

تحريم القاهر القيان والخمر

c. 933 CE · 321 AH

In 321 al-Qahir banned singing-girls and wine, arrested the singers, exiled the mukhannathun, smashed the instruments and ordered the singing slave-girls sold as ordinary maids — while he himself was never sober nor ever off the song 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

In time

920930940950 c.
Abbasid Fragmentation · The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era

Summary

al-Suyuti, in Tarikh al-Khulafa, reports that in 321 AH the caliph al-Qahir Billah ordered singing-girls and wine to be prohibited. 1

The measures

Singers were arrested, effeminate men were exiled, instruments of entertainment were broken, and slave-girls who sang were ordered to be sold as "simple" women. 1

The author's remark

al-Suyuti adds that al-Qahir, despite all this, did not sober up from drink and never tired of listening to singing. This is the author's own remark. 1

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
Muhammad al-Qahir bi-llah

People and things also explored

Mu'nis's deposition of al-Muqtadir and the troops' restoration of him· The deposition of al-Qahir and the blinding of his eyes· Muhammad al-Qahir bi-llah

Sources

  1. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 597-598
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Al-Qahir's ban on singing-girls and wine”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/qahir-musicians-ban/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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Time

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Mu'nis's deposition of al-Muqtadir and the troops' restoration of him

In 317 Mu'nis al-Muzaffar rose on al-Muqtadir — the caliph meant to give the amirate to Harun ibn Gharib — marched the whole army to the palace, dragged the caliph out on the night of 14 Muharram, looted six hundred thousand dinars from his mother, made him witness his own deposition, and hailed Muhammad ibn al-Mu'tadid as al-Qahir with Ibn Muqla as vizier. Two days later the soldiers came demanding the accession bounty, killed the chamberlain, carried al-Muqtadir back on their necks, and brought al-Qahir weeping 'God, God, for my life' — al-Muqtadir kissed him: 'you have no sin'.