al-Musta'sim bi'llah Zakariya ibn Ibrahim
Twice-set Cairo caliph: fifteen days under Aynbak in 779 'without bay'a or consensus', then under Barquq till 791 when the repenting sultan restored al-Mutawakkil; died deposed at home.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo · no. 8 in the chain · 1377–1391 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Death of al-Maqrizi's father, 779/1378
Al-Maqrizi's father died in 779/1377-8 at the age of fifty, three years after the maternal grandfather, the philologist-jurist Ibn al-Sa'igh (d. 776/1375); the boy of about fourteen thus lost the two men in whose care he had grown up. His father had been a Shafi'i and his paternal grandfather a Hanbali; al-Maqrizi himself first studied law on the Hanafi rite of his maternal grandfather, then turned Shafi'i after a long interval and settled on it.
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The amirs' coup against al-Ashraf Sha'ban during the hajj
In 778 al-Ashraf Sha'ban left for the hajj with the caliph, qadis and amirs; the amirs turned on him, he fled back to Cairo, and when they offered the sultanate to the CALIPH he refused — so they raised al-Ashraf's son Ali al-Mansur and strangled the hidden Sha'ban when caught, in Dhu'l-Qa'da.
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Barquq's accession as the first Circassian sultan
In Ramadan 784 Barquq took the sultanate as al-Zahir — the FIRST of the Circassians. In Rajab 785 he seized, deposed and citadel-imprisoned al-Mutawakkil, hailing Umar al-Wathiq then Zakariya al-Musta'sim; repenting, he freed and restored al-Mutawakkil. Imprisoned again then freed in 792, he ruled till his death in Shawwal 801, when his son Faraj rose as al-Nasir.
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Ibn al-Mulaqqin's ordeal in the Baraka–Barquq affair, Rabi' II 780/1378
In 780 came Ibn al-Mulaqqin's ordeal. He was a companion of Barquq, and when the amirs discussed removing Badr al-Din Ibn Abi l-Baqa' from office and who might replace him, word reached Ibn al-Mulaqqin. An adviser told him: Barquq will not hold it against you, but secure Amir Baraka first. So he sought him out and wrote his own hand promising a sum, which Baraka accepted. When Baraka raised his appointment with Barquq, the latter denied it — 'he is my companion; had he wanted it he would have spoken to me' — and produced the letter. Furious, Barquq had him confined in the stable and bound for the promised sum, until Shaykh Akmal al-Din al-Babarti, Shaykh Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini and others interceded for his release. He never entered the judicial deputyship again.
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The introduction of blessings on the Prophet after the adhan
In Sha'ban the muezzins first instituted the salat and taslim on the Prophet after the adhan — the first time it was done, ordered by the muhtasib Najm al-Din al-Tanbudhi.