al-Mustakfi bi'llah Sulayman ibn al-Hakim
Third Cairo caliph [701–740], hailed by his father's will; moved with the Abbasids from Kabsh to a citadel house, and rode out with the sultan to the Tatar victory of 702.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 34 in the chain · 944–946 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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The Baghdad famine of 334 AH (945-946)
The famine that followed the war of Mu'izz al-Dawla and Nasir al-Dawla for Baghdad in 334 AH. Miskawayh describes people without any bread eating the dead, grass and carrion, houses sold for loaves, dogs eating the unburied dead, and the weak setting out for Basra to eat dates and mostly dying on the road, until the fighting ended and the new harvest brought prices down.
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Rains, Collapsed Houses and Night Raids in Baghdad
In Jumada I 332 heavy rains brought houses down on their people; property values collapsed with the famine until cheap bread and dates returned — hammams, markets and mosques stood closed, men were paid to occupy houses just to guard them, and armed night-raiders forced the people to keep watch.
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The war of Nasir al-Dawla and Mu'izz al-Dawla for Baghdad (334-335 AH / 946)
The war between the Buyid Mu'izz al-Dawla, with the caliph al-Muti' in his camp, and the Hamdanid Nasir al-Dawla with Tuzun's Turks and Abu Ja'far ibn Shirzad, from late Sha'ban 334 around Ukbara and Samarra until the Daylamites crossed the Tigris to east Baghdad at dawn on Saturday, the last day of Dhu al-Hijja 334, by a ruse with pontoons; Nasir al-Dawla was routed, both banks were taken, and at the end of Muharram 335 he sued for peace and fled his own Turks for Mosul. Ibn al-Jawzi puts the rout on 1 Muharram 335 and tells of the looting of Bab al-Taq and Suq Yahya and of the many who died of heat and thirst on the road to Ukbara.
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The Buyids enter Baghdad and receive their titles, 334 AH
In 334 al-Mustakfi received Abu'l-Husayn Ahmad ibn Buwayh with oaths and robes, made him amir al-umara — the first Buyid sovereign — titled his brothers Imad al-Dawla and Rukn al-Dawla and had the three titles struck on the coinage; Daylamites and Turks were quartered in Baghdad's houses, a custom new to the city. Miskawayh dates the audience to Saturday 11 Jumada II 334, after Tuzun's death in Muharram and Ibn Shirzad's three months and twenty days in command.
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Mu'izz al-Dawla grants the Sawad as iqta' to his commanders and troops, 334 AH
After the Daylamites mutinied against Mu'izz al-Dawla in 334 AH over their pay, he granted his commanders, intimates and Turks the sultan's estates, the estates of those in hiding and the treasury's share in the subjects' estates. Most of the Sawad was closed to the tax officials and the bureaus were merged into one. Miskawayh devotes a chapter to the outcome: ruined land, defunct bureaus, a corrupted army and rivalry between Daylamites and Turks.
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Mu'izz al-Dawla deposes and blinds al-Mustakfi
Ahmad ibn Buya entered Baghdad, stood before the caliph and was invested as Mu'izz al-Dawla — his brothers becoming Imad and Rukn al-Dawla, their titles struck on the coinage, while al-Mustakfi styled himself 'Imam al-Haqq'. Mu'izz al-Dawla, the first Daylamite to hold Iraq, sequestered the caliph on five thousand dirhams a day and made wrestling and swimming the city's craze — swimmers cooking meat in pots on their arms. In Jumada II 334 two Daylamites came to the caliph — he offered his hand for the kiss, they dragged him from the throne by his turban to the ground, the soldiery sacked the harem bare, and he was deposed and blinded that day, after sixteen months; they brought al-Fadl ibn al-Muqtadir, and the blinded Mustakfi saluted him as caliph.
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Al-Muttaqi blinded by Tuzun
Al-Muttaqi summoned Ibn Hamdan, lost with him at Ukbara, fled to Mosul and Nisibis, then distrusted the Hamdanids and wrote Tuzun for peace — he swore mighty oaths. The Ikhshid of Egypt came to Raqqa: 'beware their treachery — come with me to Egypt, it is yours' — he refused. On 4 Muharram 333 Tuzun met him, kissed the ground and walked before him, then seized him, blinded him, took the seal, the Burda and the staff, and hailed Abd Allah ibn al-Muktafi as al-Mustakfi — whom the blinded Muttaqi himself acclaimed. Muttaqi was jailed opposite al-Sindiyya twenty-five years till his death in 357. When the blinded al-Qahir heard, he said 'we are two now — we need a third': and so it was, al-Mustakfi was blinded too.