al-Mu'tadid bi'llah Abu'l-Fath Abu Bakr ibn al-Mustakfi
Cairo caliph [753–763], hailed by his brother's deed — 'good, humble, loving the people of knowledge'.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo · no. 6 in the chain · 1352–1362 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Abu Hammu's recovery of Tlemcen
When the sultan Abu Inan died in 759 AH, Abu Hammu Musa ibn Yusuf's resolve to reclaim his kingdom strengthened; the Dawawida and Zaghba carried him from Tunis to Tlemcen where the Marinid standing battalions lay, besieged it three days and stormed it at dawn of the fourth, Wednesday 8 Rabi I 760, took his palace and seat, received the caliphate's bay'a, and expelled the Marinids from his realm's cities.
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Al-Subki leaves Damascus for Egypt in a litter, 26 Rabi' II 756
On the morning of Sunday 26 Rabi' II 756, after his son Taj al-Din had taken over the chief judgeship and the shaykhhood of the Ashrafiyya hadith school, Taqi al-Din al-Subki set out for Egypt in a litter with a group of his household and kin. The people had already bidden him farewell, and he was frail; some feared for him the hardships of travel in old age.
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Battle of Araviana
Draft card for the Battle of Araviana in 1359, the Castilians' victory over Granada's campaign in the civil war; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Ihtiman
Draft card for the Battle of Ihtiman in 1355, the Ottoman-Bulgarian clash in the conquest of Thrace; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Linuesa
Draft card for the Battle of Linuesa in 1361 between Castilian forces and the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Oujda (1359)
Draft card for the Battle of Oujda in 1359, of the Marinid–Zayyanid wars; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Tekirdag
Draft card for the Battle of Tekirdag, the brothers Süleyman and Ibrahim's clash over the Ottoman succession; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Tunis (1357)
Draft card for Capture of Tunis (1357); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Death of Taqi al-Din al-Subki in Egypt, Jumada II 756/June 1355
Chief qadi Taqi al-Din al-Subki died in Egypt on the night of Monday in Jumada II 756/June 1355 and was buried that same morning. He had completed ninety-three years and entered his ninety-fourth, having held the bench at Damascus for about seventeen years before ceding it to his son Taj al-Din; on reaching Egypt he survived less than a month. A funeral prayer was held for him at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Friday 6 Jumada II. He authored some hundred and fifty works in law, fatwas, responsa and poetry.
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Fall of Gallipoli
Draft card for the Fall of Gallipoli in 1354, the first Ottoman foothold in Europe seized by Suleiman Pasha; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Genoese capture and recovery of Tripoli
Tripoli stood as a frontier town holding the state's rite while cut off from the capital in the 750s, Genoese merchants frequenting it and spying out its weaknesses; their herald cried war with arms already donned, the people woke in panic, and seeing them on the walls thought only of saving themselves — Thabit ibn Umar their captain escaping to the Hulla to join his brother — while the Christians held the town until the Muslims won it back.
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Ibn Battuta dictates his travels
Towards the end of 1353 Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco and, at the sultan's request, dictated his memories to the writer Ibn Juzayy; they became the Rihla.
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Ibn Habib at Tripoli in 758/1357
His Durar al-Kamina entry places him at Tripoli in 758 in the course of his audition tours among the shaykhs. He had heard from Ibrahim ibn Muslim, from his father 'Umar and from al-Fakhr ibn Khatib Birin, and heard at al-Hilla, Egypt and Alexandria; he travelled to Egypt and the Hijaz, moved about Syria and settled at Aleppo.
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Ibn Rajab's journey with his father to the Hijaz and Jerusalem, c. 755
Ibn Rajab's father travelled with him in his youth to the Hijaz and Jerusalem for the sake of hearing hadith, and he also heard hadith in Egypt; the editor lists Egypt, Nablus, the Hijaz, Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina among his journeys for knowledge.
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The Malian giraffe embassy to Fez (762 AH)
In Safar 762 AH the embassy of Mali's king Mansa Sulayman reached Fez bearing their sultan's gift — a giraffe, that strange-formed, huge-bodied creature — in return for Sultan Abu al-Hasan's own embassy; it was a celebrated day, the sultan seated at the Tower of Gold in review while crowds climbed over one another to behold the giraffe and poets declaimed praise, the envoys greeting the sultan by tossing dust on their heads and confirming the interpreter's words by twanging their bowstrings, excusing the gift's delay by the struggle for Mali's throne after Mansa Sulayman's death.
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Al-Safadi's lecture tour at Aleppo, 759/1358
Al-Safadi travelled widely in Syria on lecture tours that brought him to Aleppo in 759/1358, as a sama' note in his Tashih al-tashif records; most of his time was divided between Damascus and Cairo and between his government post and his scholarly work.
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Al-Safadi's pilgrimage, 755/1354
Al-Safadi made the pilgrimage in 755/1354 together with the poet Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Abd Allah al-Khayyat, as his own sama' note in A'yan al-'asr attests; one of his works, Hakikat al-mafaz ila al-Hijaz, appears to have centred on this journey.
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Al-Safadi's ijaza session in the Umayyad Mosque, Dhu al-Qa'da 756
In Dhu al-Qa'da 756 al-Safadi composed the reply of al-Malik al-Salih Isma'il ibn al-Nasir Muhammad to the letter of the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan, and granted ijaza for both risalas in his own hand after Izz al-Din Abu Ya'la Hamza read them back in a single session at the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus — a reading that, the record says, 'graced the ear with eloquence and swayed hearts with its weight'.
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Siege of Guardamar (1358)
Draft card for Siege of Guardamar (1358); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Jumilla (1357)
Draft card for Siege of Jumilla (1357); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Orihuela (1359)
Draft card for Siege of Orihuela (1359); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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First dismissal of Taj al-Din al-Subki, Sha'ban 759
In Sha'ban 759 Taj al-Din al-Subki was dismissed from the Shafi'i judgeship of Damascus, and his brother Baha' al-Din Abu al-Baqa' al-Subki was appointed in his place.
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Taj al-Din al-Subki appointed Shafi'i qadi in his father's lifetime, Safar 756
In Safar 756 the decree arrived appointing qadi Taj al-Din Abd al-Wahhab ibn Taqi al-Din al-Subki to the Shafi'i judgeship of Damascus and its districts, on his father's footing and in his father's lifetime, and the people went to congratulate him.
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Taj al-Din al-Subki restored to the judgeship, early Shawwal 759
Taj al-Din al-Subki was restored to the judgeship of Damascus at the beginning of Shawwal 759, after his dismissal in Sha'ban of the same year.
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Taj al-Din al-Subki holds the tawqi' al-dast, 754
In 754 Taj al-Din al-Subki held the tawqi' al-dast in Damascus; he had already been appointed by his father to the Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyya, held the preachership of the mosque, and deputised for his father in judgment.