al-Muqtadir bi'llah
Abbasid caliph, hailed in 295 and deposed in 296, restored to the caliphate in 317 and killed in 320. According to al-Suyuti he was born in Ramadan 282 to a Byzantine mother named Shaghab, and no caliph before him had been younger, since he took office at thirteen. He was deposed twice: for a single day in 296, in favour of Ibn al-Mu'tazz, and in 317, when Mu'nis moved to put al-Qahir in his place until the troops restored him; command and prohibition then passed to his womenfolk because of his frailty. Al-Dhahabi says order was greatly disrupted in his days because of his youth. According to al-Mas'udi he was Ja'far ibn Ahmad al-Muktafi, known as Abu'l-Fadl, whose mother was an umm walad called Shaghab. He was hailed on the day his brother died, on the thirteenth night of Dhu'l-Qa'da 295, at thirteen years old, and was killed in Baghdad after the afternoon prayer on Wednesday, three nights before the end of Shawwal 320. His caliphate lasted twenty-four years, eleven months and sixteen days, and he was thirty-eight years old. Also according to al-Mas'udi, after al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan was killed he appointed Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Furat as vizier three times: first in 299, then in 304, and the third time when his son Muhsin was the dominant force in affairs. He also appointed as vizier Muhammad ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan; Ali ibn Isa ibn Dawud ibn al-Jarrah, twice; Hamid ibn al-Abbas; Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ubayd Allah al-Khaqani; Ahmad ibn Ubayd Allah al-Khusaybi; Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muqla; Sulayman ibn al-Hasan ibn Makhlad; Ubayd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Kalwadhani; al-Husayn ibn al-Qasim, who was killed at Raqqa; and last of them al-Fadl ibn Ja'far ibn al-Furat. According to Ibn al-Athir, in 317 they removed him from the palace, with his mother, his maternal aunt, his favourite concubines and his sons, to the house of Mu'nis. Ibn Hamdan came to rebuke him while he was weeping, and so did al-Muqtadir. They deposited the document of his deposition with Judge Abu Amr, who concealed it; this was approved of him after he returned, and he appointed him to the judgeship. According to Ibn al-Jawzi, in 302 he ordered that Jews and Christians not be employed; they were confined to their houses, obliged to wear caps and patches, and their stirrups were made of wood. According to Ibn al-Jawzi, the death of Ibn al-Mu'tazz became known in the sultan's house two nights into Rabi' II 296; Mu'nis took him out to his home wrapped up and handed him to his family, who buried him in a ruin facing their house. Al-Muqtadir ordered the ledgers thrown into the Tigris, and many gave thanks to him for it. No caliph is known to have been deposed and then restored except two: al-Amin and al-Muqtadir bi'llah.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 30 in the chain · 908–932 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Abu Tahir al-Qarmati Enters Kufa
In 312 Abu Tahir, refused Basra and Ahwaz, marched from Hajar, routed Ja'far ibn Warqa' al-Shaybani's thousand and held Kufa six days — entering by day, lodging in the mosque, sleeping in camp — then returned to Hajar with its wealth; Mu'nis arrived to find them gone and garrisoned it under Ya'qut.
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Al-Ash'ari composes Maqalat al-Islamiyyin and his refutations of the Mu'tazila
After his repentance al-Ash'ari set about refuting the Mu'tazila, and composed the many works he himself lists in al-Umd fi'l-Ru'ya, among them al-Fusul fi'l-Radd ala'l-Mulhidin in twelve books, Khalq al-A'mal, al-Sifat, al-Ru'ya bi'l-Absar, Idah al-Burhan, al-Luma' fi'l-Radd ala Ahl al-Bida', al-Naqd ala'l-Jubba'i, and a tafsir; Ibn al-Nadim names al-Luma', al-Mujaz, al-Tabyin an Usul al-Din and al-Sharh wa'l-Tafsil fi'l-Radd ala Ahl al-Ifk wa'l-Tadlil. Most famous is his Maqalat al-Islamiyyin wa-Ikhtilaf al-Musallin, the descriptive work presenting the doctrines of the sects which displays his intimate knowledge of Mu'tazilite views.
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Al-Ash'ari moves to Baghdad late in life
Late in life Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari moved to Baghdad, where he lived and taught. A group of imams took from him, among them Abu al-Hasan al-Bahili, Abu al-Hasan al-Kirmani, Abu Zayd al-Marwazi, Abu Abd Allah ibn Mujahid al-Basri, Zahir ibn Ahmad al-Sarakhsi and Abu Sahl al-Su'luki; through these and their like his way in kalam spread until his followers came to be known as the Ash'ariyya. Al-Bayhaqi reports through Zahir ibn Ahmad al-Sarakhsi that al-Ash'ari called him to witness at his house in Baghdad near his death.
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Al-Ash'ari publicly renounces Mu'tazilism in the Great Mosque of Basra, 300/912-13
The historians of al-Ash'ari place his change from the Mu'tazilite doctrine to the party of the orthodox traditionists in 300/912-13. Ibn al-Nadim relates that he repented of the doctrines of divine justice and the createdness of the Qur'an in the Great Mosque of Basra on a Friday, mounting a chair and proclaiming at the top of his voice: 'Whoever knows me knows me; whoever does not, I tell him who I am: I am so-and-so; I used to say the Qur'an was created, that God cannot be seen with the eyes, and that I myself do evil deeds; I repent and renounce, resolved to refute the Mu'tazila and expose their scandals'. The books also relate that in Ramadan he saw a vision three times commanding him to hold fast to true tradition without abandoning kalam.
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Fires at Bab al-Sham and Karkh
In Rabi' I 309 fires swept Bab al-Sham, Nasr's small market and the shoemakers' quarter of Karkh between the New Bridge and Taq al-Harrani, killing many; a zindiq's corpse was thrown into a blaze at Bab al-Mukharrim that also killed many.
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Arrest of al-Ka'ki and Demolition of Baratha Mosque
In 313 the vizier al-Khaqani hunted the Qarmatian network: the Karkh rafidi chief al-Ka'ki escaped the wall-climbing arrest, his secretary was flogged three hundred lashes and paraded on a camel as the punishment of him who curses Abu Bakr and Umar; thirty men were seized at Baratha mosque with clay seals reading Ali ibn Ismail al-Imam al-Mahdi wali Allah; the jurists' fatwa declared it a Masjid Dirar and al-Muqtadir ordered it demolished.
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Battle of Baghdad (932)
Draft card for Battle of Baghdad (932); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Al-Daraqutni is born in Baghdad, Dhu al-Qa'da 306/918
'Ali ibn 'Umar ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi ibn Mas'ud ibn al-Nu'man ibn Dinar ibn 'Abdallah Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni was born in Baghdad on 5 Dhu al-Qa'da 306 — the year 305 is also given — his nisba pointing to Dar al-Qutn, a quarter of Baghdad.
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Collapse of the bridge's seating at Baghdad
On Wednesday 9 Ramadan 303 the pontoon seating on Baghdad's bridge gave way under the crowds and many drowned; on Friday 8 Ramadan a great star fell whose light lingered an hour like a lamp.
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Al-Daraqutni hears the last great shaykhs of Baghdad, about 315/927
In Baghdad al-Daraqutni heard from Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi, Ibn Abi Dawud, Ibn Sa'id, al-Husayn ibn al-Mahamili and many others — all of the generation of Baghdad's senior shaykhs who died about 316–318, so his hearing of them came before he was ten or thereabouts. It is told that in his youth he attended Isma'il al-Saffar's circle copying a fascicule while al-Saffar dictated; told that a hearer who copies has no valid sama', he answered that his grasp differed from his challenger's, then enumerated the eighteen hadiths dictated, with their isnads and texts in order, and the people marvelled.
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Al-Daraqutni reads the qira'at under Ibn Mujahid and al-Naqqash, about 320/932
Al-Daraqutni took the recitations from Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid by sama', and read upon Abu Bakr al-Naqqash, 'Ali ibn Sa'id al-Qazzaz, Ahmad ibn Bawiyan and Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Dibaji, excelling in the qira'at; he wrote on them a short treatise arranging the fundamentals in chapters at the head of the book, a method in which he was never preceded and which the readers after him adopted.
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Death of Imam al-Nasa'i at al-Ramla from the after-effects of the Damascus assault, 13 Safar 303/915
Al-Nasa'i died on Monday, thirteen nights before the end of Safar, in 303/915 in Palestine — at al-Ramla on the preferred report, which al-Dhahabi judges correct — from the effects of what he suffered at Damascus when he was carried there; al-Daraqutni reports he had set out on hajj, was attacked at Damascus, and said 'carry me to Mecca', where he died and is buried between al-Safa and al-Marwa, in Sha'ban 303; scholars have counted him a martyr for dying of ill-treatment.
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Defeat of Yusuf ibn Abi l-Saj and the taking of al-Anbar
In Shawwal 315 Yusuf ibn Abi'l-Saj reached Kufa a day behind Abu Tahir, despised their fewness, drafted the victory despatch beforehand, and was defeated and taken at sunset; Baghdad panicked toward flight while the Qarmatians crossed from al-Haditha and took al-Anbar, rebuilding its bridge.
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The claimant to descent from al-Rida the Alid
In Dhu'l-Qa'da 302 a man was brought before al-Muqtadir claiming descent from al-Rida the Alid; unmasked as a son of al-Dab'i, he was paraded on both sides of the city and jailed.
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The first deposition of al-Muqtadir and the allegiance to Ibn al-Mu'tazz
On 20 Rabi' I 296, while al-Muqtadir played polo, the conspirators struck: the vizier al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan was killed and Ibn al-Mu'tazz was brought in, hailed caliph as 'al-Ghalib bi'llah', with Muhammad ibn Dawud ibn al-Jarrah as vizier and Abu al-Muthanna as qadi. The next day terror fell on them — they scattered without a fight; Ibn al-Mu'tazz fled, was imprisoned, then brought out dead.
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al-Kulayni moves to Baghdad, about the first decade of the fourth century
At an unknown date, perhaps in the first decade of the 4th century AH (913-923), al-Kulayni moved to Baghdad, where he lived and taught in Darb al-Silsila near the Bab al-Kufa on the west bank of the Tigris.
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The Maqam Mahmud Strife in Baghdad
In 319 a great fitna raged in Baghdad over 'asaa an yab'athaka rabbuka maqaaman mahmuudan' — the Hanbalis held it meant God seating him upon His throne; others held it was the intercession. The quarrel ran to fighting till many were killed.
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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'.
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Birth of al-Mutanabbi at Kufa, 303/915
Abu al-Tayyib Ahmad ibn al-Husayn was born in the Kinda quarter of Kufa in 303/915. His family, though in very humble circumstances, claimed descent from the Yamani clan of al-Ju'fi, and he grew up convinced of the superiority of the southern Arabs; schooled in his native town, he distinguished himself by his intelligence, prodigious memory and precocity as a poet.
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Al-Mutanabbi leaves Kufa as a wandering poet, 316/928
Al-Mutanabbi left Kufa towards the end of 316/928, probably after the town was again sacked by the Karmatians. He went to Baghdad and became panegyrist to his compatriot Muhammad ibn Ubayd Allah al-Alawi, then moved to Syria where for two years he led the life of a wandering troubadour, addressing Bedouin chiefs around Manbij and the educated circles of Tripoli and Latakia; the poems of this apprenticeship are hurried and mediocre, though his real genius already shows through.
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The family's flight to the Samawa, 312/924
Towards the end of 312/924, perhaps under pressure from the Karmatians who had just taken and sacked Kufa, Abu al-Tayyib and his family made a first stay of two years in the Samawa, the desert steppe between the Sawad of Kufa and the Palmyrene, among the nomadic Banu Kalb; there the boy gained the profound knowledge of Arabic of which he was later so proud, returning to Kufa at the beginning of 315/927.
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The assault on al-Nasa'i in the mosque of Damascus over the virtues of Mu'awiya, c. Muharram 303/915
Al-Nasa'i entered Damascus having composed his Khasa'is on the virtues of Ali ibn Abi Talib, hoping God would guide by it those estranged from him, for dissenters from Ali were many there; asked about Mu'awiya and the reports of his virtues, he answered: 'Is he not content to come out head-to-head, without being preferred?' — and in another report: 'I know of no virtue of his save «may God never fill his belly»'; whereupon they kept kicking him in the groin until he was carried out of the mosque, then borne to al-Ramla.
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Al-Nasa'i leaves Egypt for Damascus, Dhu al-Qa'da 302/915
In the last year of his life al-Nasa'i left Egypt for Damascus in Dhu al-Qa'da 302/915, and al-Daraqutni says he set out on hajj; he left Egypt after having taught there, his learning and his narrator criticism celebrated.
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The Price Riot at the Gate of Hamid ibn al-Abbas
At the end of 308 prices spiked and the mob surged on Hamid ibn al-Abbas's gate — his ghilman killed people, the Imam was barred from Friday prayer, minbars demolished, police platforms wrecked and prisons burned; the Sultan ordered them fought, Hamid's tax-farm was cancelled and bread sold five dinars lower; that July the air turned so cold people left the rooftops and wrapped themselves in quilts.
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The Riot at the New Prison and the Breaking of the Prisons of Madinat al-Mansur
In 306 the New Prison's inmates rioted and scaled the wall; the police chief Nazad fought them, killed one and threw his head back at them. In 307 the mob broke the prisons of al-Madina — the escapees were all rounded up, the iron gates left hanging.
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Abu Tahir al-Janabi's entry into Basra, 311
In Rabi II 311 Abu Tahir al-Jannabi entered Basra before dawn with seventeen hundred men, raised ladders on the wall by night, opened the gates and wedged gravel between their leaves, put the city to the sword, burned the Mirbad and demolished the congregational mosque and Talha's tomb-mosque, staying seventeen days while his camels carried off goods, women and children.
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The Byzantine embassy and al-Muqtadir's great procession
In 305 a Byzantine embassy came with gifts seeking a truce; al-Muqtadir staged a great procession — a hundred and sixty thousand soldiers under arms from the Shammasiyya gate to the palace, seven thousand servants, seven hundred chamberlains, thirty-eight thousand brocade hangings on the walls, twenty-two thousand carpets, a hundred beasts in chains. That year Oman's lord sent gifts including a black bird that spoke Persian and Hindi better than a parrot.
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Fire at the Suq al-Tujjar and the Minaret of the Madina Mosque
In 303 fire took the merchants' market at Bab al-Sham with the people in it, and flying sparks burned the minaret of the congregational mosque of al-Madina.
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al-Tabari summoned to the vizier's house to face the Hanbalis
In Dhu al-Qa'da 309/April-May 922 al-Tabari was brought to the house of the vizier Ali ibn Isa for a disputation with the Hanbalis; he attended but they did not appear, so he returned home. They had taken offence at several things, above all his book on the disagreements of the jurists, which did not list Ahmad ibn Hanbal — asked why, he answered that Ibn Hanbal had been a muhaddith, not a faqih, whereupon some Hanbalis turned against him and harassed him.
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al-Tabari's History reaches the year 302 in dictation
The last portion of al-Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings that he dictated reached the year 302/914, as Ibn al-Nadim reports; scholars afterwards abridged it and stripped its isnads, while others appended continuations from where he stopped, among them his own student Abu Muhammad Abd Allah al-Farghani, whose supplement included a long obituary notice of his master.
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al-Muqtadir's Endowment for the Two Sanctuaries
In 303 al-Muqtadir endowed many crown revenues on the two Sanctuaries, summoning the judges and witnesses to record it against himself.
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Warqa's Raid on the Bedouin at al-Ajfar and the Mob's Killing of the Captives
In 303 Warqa' ibn Nawfal fell on the Arabs at al-Ajfar, killed and captured bands and brought them to Baghdad — where the mob fell on the prisoners and killed them, one man flogged at Bab al-'Amma, said to be the lord of Hisn al-Hajir whom pilgrims had sought protection with.