al-Musta'in bi'llah
Abbasid caliph. Al-Tabari reports that Ibn Tahir resolved to depose him in 251; he was then deposed and killed in 252. According to al-Suyuti he was Ahmad ibn al-Mu'tasim, brother of al-Mutawakkil, whose mother was Mukhariq. When al-Muntasir died the commanders gathered and said, 'If you make any of al-Mutawakkil's sons caliph, not one of us will be left', so they pledged allegiance to Ahmad, who was twenty-eight. In 251, when Wasif and Bugha Baghr the Turk were killed, the Turks turned against him; he was called 'a caliph in a cage, who says what the two of them tell him, as the parrot does'. Afraid, he went down to Baghdad. They brought out al-Mu'tazz, pledged allegiance to him, and deposed him. Al-Mu'tazz sent an army against him, and the people of Baghdad prepared to fight; the clashes went on for months, killing increased and prices rose. He deposed himself at the beginning of 252 and was sent down to Wasit, held in custody for nine months. He was the first to introduce wide sleeves, about three spans across, and to make caps smaller. According to al-Mas'udi he knew well the days and reports of people and loved the accounts of the past. One anecdote: he told his boon-companion that he craved food; when a loaf, vinegar and salt were brought, on the second night he said he was hungry, and explained to him the difference between the two statements. He asked him to describe food, drink, perfume, women and horses. The best food, he answered, is what meets hunger with a taste that suits desire, and the most desirable woman is the one you leave unwillingly and return to besotted; so the caliph gave him two hundred dinars. According to al-Mas'udi he was taken down to the house of al-Hasan ibn Wahb in Baghdad, then to Wasit; Sa'id al-Hajib killed him near al-Qatul on Wednesday, six nights into Shawwal 252, aged thirty-five. Nine months and a day lay between his deposition and his killing. According to al-Mas'udi he was the first to introduce wide sleeves.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 24 in the chain · 862–866 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Battle of Lalakaon
Draft card for the Battle of Lalakaon (Poson) in 863, the Byzantine victory that broke the army of Umar al-Aqta of Malatya; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Morcuera
Draft card for the Battle of the Morcuera in 865, Umayya ibn Khalifa of Córdoba's victory over the Asturians; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Al-Bukhari's ordeal at Nishapur and his departure for Bukhara, c. 250/864
Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli grew jealous of him as crowds gathered at his session, and proclaimed that whoever attended al-Bukhari's session should not attend his; al-Bukhari was attacked for saying that his own recitation of the Qur'an was created — though he held the Qur'an itself to be the uncreated word of God — and he left Nishapur for Bukhara.
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Capture of Farurriyah
Draft card for the Capture of Farurriyah in 862, Ja'far ibn Dinar's reduction of the Paulicians' stronghold in the Jazira; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Kharijite Rebellion of 866–896
Draft card for the Kharijite rebellion of 866–896, the Kharijite rising against the Abbasids in the Jazira; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj walks out of al-Dhuhli's circle over the lafz question, c. 250/864
When the breach over the lafz question opened between Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli and al-Bukhari, al-Dhuhli announced it in his circle and barred people from taking from al-Bukhari until he left Nishapur; the people shunned Muslim for not changing his position. Muslim attended al-Dhuhli's assembly where he declared that whoever said 'my utterance of the Qur'an is created' should not attend — so Muslim took up his cloak and turban, rose over the heads of the people and left, and from that the estrangement between them grew.
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Al-Musta'in sent down to Wasit under Ahmad ibn Tulun's guard, 252/866
When al-Musta'in deposed himself at the opening of 252/866 he was sent down to Wasit and held for nine months. Asked whom he wanted in his company he chose Ahmad ibn Tulun, who served him well; al-Mutawakkil's ghilman wrote offering him Wasit itself if he would kill the ex-caliph, and he refused — 'by God, I will never let it be said of me that I killed a caliph I had sworn allegiance to' — and when al-Musta'in was murdered he washed, shrouded and buried the body.
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Qumm's Revolt and Re-Conquest
In al-Baladhuri: when Qumm's people defied, withheld kharaj and rebelled, al-Ma'mun sent Ali ibn Hisham al-Marwazi with armies ordered to punish them — he killed their chief Yahya ibn Imran, demolished the city wall flat to the ground, and levied seven million dirhams plus increments, though they had earlier appealed against two million; this fell due in al-Mu'tazz's caliphate, when Musa ibn Bugha, his Jibal agent fighting the Tabaristan Talibis, was sent against them — the city was stormed, many of its people killed, and al-Mu'tazz ordered a group of its notables deported.
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Siege of Baghdad in the strife of al-Musta'in and al-Mu'tazz
In 251 Bugha al-Saghir and Wasif were killed at the hands of Bagir the Turk, and the affairs of the clients in Samarra were thrown into turmoil. Al-Musta'in fled to Baghdad, to Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Tahir, who cut off supplies to the people of Samarra, forbidding anything to go up from Baghdad or down to it. Al-Musta'in ordered him to fortify Baghdad: a wall was raised from Bab al-Shammasiya to the Tuesday market and from Bab Qati'at Umm Ja'far to the palace of Humayd, trenches were dug round both walls on both sides, and shelters were built where horsemen could sit out heat and rain; the cost reached three hundred thousand dinars and thirty thousand dinars. At Bab al-Shammasiya five crushing engines were set across the road, plated with iron and tied with ropes, with a suspended gate released to crush whoever came beneath it; the inner gate had one catapult, the outer gate five large mangonels, the greatest called al-Ghadban, and six catapults faced toward Raqqat al-Shammasiya; at Bab al-Burdan there were eight catapults, four on each side, and four crushing engines; and the same was done at every gate of Baghdad on both the eastern and western sides. When the Turks and the Maghariba reached the gates of the City of Peace on the eastern side, the gates were shut in their faces and they were struck with arrows, mangonels and catapults; many fell on both sides and many were wounded, and this went on until the afternoon. The war between Baghdad's people and the Samarra army continued until al-Musta'in deposed himself; al-Mu'tazz was pledged allegiance on Friday, four days into Muharram 252. Al-Musta'in was moved to the palace of al-Hasan ibn Sahl at al-Mukharram, and his staff and ring were taken from him.