al-Mustazhir bi'llah Ahmad ibn al-Muqtadi
Abbasid caliph [487–512], Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Muqtadi, born Shawwal 470, hailed at sixteen; Ibn al-Athir praises his mildness, noble hand and fine rescripts — 'his caliphate never knew calm: his days were turbulent, full of wars'.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 3 in the chain · 1094–1118 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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al-Ghazali's arrival in Damascus as an ascetic, in 488
In 488 Imam al-Ghazali came to Damascus in zuhd, composed the Ihya' and had it read back to him there, stayed two years, then made hajj and returned home.
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al-Ghazali leaves Baghdad
In November 1095 al-Ghazali abandoned his post and left Baghdad, on the pretext of a pilgrimage to Mecca (Britannica).
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Baghdad Earthquake on the Day of Arafa, 511
In 511 Baghdad was shaken on the Day of Arafa until its walls swayed back and forth; the caliph al-Mustazhir's death followed soon after.
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The spread of the Batiniyya mission in Iraq and the Jibal in 494
In 494 the Batiniyya multiplied through Iraq and the Jibal under their leader Hasan b. Sabbah — they took the fortresses, cut the road, and became the people's pressing concern as Malikshah's sons stayed busy fighting one another.
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The Batiniyya turmoil in Iraq and the killing of al-Ruwayani
In 494 the Batiniyya's hand lay heavy on Iraq — such dread that the amirs wore mail beneath their clothes — and they killed many, among them the Shafi'i shaykh al-Ruwayni, author of al-Bahr.
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Battle of Akkum (1108)
Draft card for Battle of Akkum (1108); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of al-Bara
Draft card for Battle of al-Bara; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Ascalon
Draft card for the Battle of Ascalon in 1099, the Crusader victory over the Fatimid army weeks after the fall of Jerusalem; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Jaffa
Draft card for the Battle of Jaffa in 1102, Baldwin I's victory over the Fatimids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Mosul
Draft card for the Battle of Mosul in 1107, the Seljuks' contest for the Jazira; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Ramla
Draft card for the second Battle of Ramla in 1102, Baldwin I's second clash with the Fatimid Egyptian army; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Third Battle of Ramla
Draft card for the third Battle of Ramla in 1105, the last great Fatimid push against the kingdom of Jerusalem; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Bridge Gate (1098)
Draft card for Battle of the Bridge Gate (1098); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The earthquake that ruined al-Jazira, 508
In 508 an earthquake threw down thirteen towers of Edessa's wall and part of Harran's wall, swallowed ground at Samosata, and toppled some hundred houses at Balis with half its citadel.
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First Siege of Arsuf
Draft card for the First Siege of Arsuf in 1099, the First Crusade's failed attempt on the town; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Franks Take Antioch and the Massacre at Ma'arra, 491
In 491 the Franks marched out a hundred thousand strong, besieged Antioch seven months and took it by storm; the Muslim relief was broken, they followed to Ma'arra killing and slaughtering and slew a hundred thousand Muslims there, then after forty days moved to Homs whose people bought them off, and turned on Jerusalem.
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The Franks Take Beirut by the Sword and Sidon by Safe-Conduct, 504
In 504 the Franks took Beirut by the sword, then Sidon by safe-conduct.
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The Franks Seize Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem)
In 492 the Franks came — Nicaea first of their takings — pressing to Kafr Tab and ravaging the country, their first appearance in Syria, borne over Constantinople's sea in a great host; kings and people were shaken, and it is said Egypt's lord, watching Seljuk power swallow Syria, wrote the Franks inviting them. The same year they took Jerusalem after a siege of a month and a half, killing over seventy thousand including scholars, devotees and ascetics, razed the shrines, gathered the Jews in the synagogue and burnt it upon them. The refugees reached Baghdad with talk that made eyes weep; the sultans were divided, and the Franks took root in Syria. Ibn al-Imad fixes it: Friday morning, seven days short of Sha'ban's end, after a month and a half; Ibn al-Jawzi's Shudhur lists the plunder — forty-four silver candelabra of 3,600 dirhams each, a forty-ratl silver oven, and twenty-odd golden candelabra taken from the Rock.
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The Franks Take Tripoli of Syria
In 503 the Franks took Tripoli after a siege of years; the next year the Muslims' trial by them grew so great they knew most of Syria lost — they begged a truce, were refused, then bought one for countless thousands of dinars, and the Franks broke faith.
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The Death of Godfrey, Lord of Jerusalem, at Acre, 494
In 494 Godfrey, the taker of Jerusalem, besieged Acre; an arrow struck him and killed him — the Muslim-source account of his end.
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Ibn 'Asakir is born in Damascus at the opening of 499/1105
The hafiz Abu al-Qasim 'Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Hibat Allah al-Dimashqi, known as Ibn 'Asakir, was born at the opening of 499 (September-October 1105) at Damascus, under the atabeg Zahir al-Din Tughtakin, into the Banu 'Asakir — a great Sunni house of scholars and qadis that led the city's learned society for almost two centuries.
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Ibn 'Asakir's first hadith hearings under his brother al-Sa'in at the Umayyad Mosque, c. 505/1111
His elder brother al-Sa'in Hibat Allah had him heard the texts in 505 and after, from al-Sharif Abu al-Qasim al-Nasib, Abu al-Qasim Qawwam ibn Zayd, Abu al-Wahsh Subay' ibn Qayrat and others. He had first learned grammar from his maternal grandfather, the qadi Abu al-Fadl Yahya ibn 'Ali al-Kurashi; then, about 505/1111, he began attending his brother's teaching at the Great Mosque, learning to recite and starting on hadith with its isnads.
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The Assassination of Mawdud, Lord of Mosul, in the Great Mosque of Damascus, 507
In 507 Mawdud lord of Mosul marched against the Frankish king and fought a great battle, then returned to Damascus where, at Friday prayer in the mosque, a Batini sprang on him, wounded him, and he died that day; the Frankish king wrote Damascus's lord wondering at a nation that killed its champion on its feast day in its house of worship.
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The Killing of Mawdud, Lord of Mosul, in the Mosque of Damascus
In 507 Mawdud, lord of Mosul, marched against the Frankish king of Jerusalem; after a great battle he returned to Damascus and was praying Jumu'a in the mosque when a Batini leapt on him — he died the same day. The Frankish king wrote Damascus's lord: 'a nation that kills its chief, on its feast-day, in its house of worship, deserves that God blot it out'.
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Siege of Ma'arra
Draft card for the fall of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in 1098, the First Crusade's notorious storming of the city and its atrocities; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Death of Sadaqa al-Mazyadidi fighting Sultan Muhammad (501 AH)
When Sadaqa ibn Mansur sheltered Sarkhab ibn Kaykhusraw and refused to yield him, Sultan Muhammad ibn Malikshah marched from Baghdad at the end of Rajab 501 AH; Ubada and Khafaja deserted Sadaqa and the Kurds took bribes, so he charged the Turks crying 'I am the king of the Arabs, I am Sadaqa' — an arrow transfixed him and a Turkish ghulam named Barghash pulled him down and killed him, his head borne to Baghdad; three thousand or more of his men were killed and his son Dubays captured.
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Siege of Acre
Draft card for the Siege of Acre in 1103, Baldwin I's failed siege of the Fatimid city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Acre
Draft card for the Siege of Acre in 1104, the Crusader capture of the city from the Fatimids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Arqa (1099)
Draft card for Siege of Arqa (1099); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Beirut
Draft card for the Siege of Beirut in 1110, Baldwin I's capture of the city from the Fatimids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Caesarea (1101)
Draft card for the Siege of Caesarea in 1101, Baldwin I's capture of the city with Genoese help; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Edessa (1104)
Draft card for Siege of Edessa (1104); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Haifa
Draft card for the Siege of Haifa in 1100, Tancred and the Venetian fleet taking the Fatimid port; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Mosul (1104)
Draft card for Siege of Mosul (1104); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Sidon
Draft card for the Siege of Sidon in 1110, the city's fall to the Crusaders and Norwegians in the First Crusade's aftermath; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tarsus (1097)
Draft card for Siege of Tarsus (1097); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tripoli
Draft card for the Siege of Tripoli of 1102–1109, Raymond IV's blockade that ended with the city's fall to the Crusaders; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tyre
Draft card for the Siege of Tyre in 1111, Baldwin I's attempt on the Fatimid city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The great flood of Sinjar, 511
In 511 a great flood burst upon Sinjar, razing its walls and drowning many; it carried the town gate half a day's journey and buried it for years, and swept away a baby on his bed until the bed snagged on an olive tree — the child lived and grew.
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Transfer of the Uthmanic Mushaf from Tiberias to Damascus
In 493 the Uthmanic mushaf was carried from Tiberias to Damascus for fear — the people went out to receive it and it was housed in a chest in the mosque's maqsura.
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War of Mosul (1106)
Draft card for War of Mosul (1106); its sources are not yet checked on the page.