al-Mu'tadid bi-llah Dawud ibn al-Mutawakkil
Cairo caliph [815–845] — 'of the caliphs' elite: noble, bright, alert; scholars sat with him and he shared their pursuits; generous to a fault' — investing five sultans across thirty years; died Sunday 4 Rabi' I 845 near seventy.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo · no. 11 in the chain · 1414–1441 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Ajlan ibn Thabit's Sack of Medina
829: Medina's own governor Ajlan ibn Thabit, told he was being replaced by his cousin Hasan ibn Jammaz, plundered the city, demolished most of its houses and burned them, sparing only the Rafidi quarter and installing a Rafidi qadi named al-Sayqal.
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Death of al-Maqrizi's last child, 826/1423
The last of al-Maqrizi's children died in 826/1423, as his own chronicle al-Suluk records; he was survived not by a child but by a nephew, Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad (801-67/1399-1462), noticed by al-Sakhawi in al-Daw' al-lami'.
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Return to Egypt and full-time scholarship, c. 820/1418
After about ten years in Damascus, al-Maqrizi returned to Egypt around 820 and withdrew to his house, keeping to seclusion, worship and writing; he rarely called on anyone except from necessity, and his fame as a historian became proverbial in his lifetime. He also spent a number of years in Mecca, where he heard traditions from Ibn Sakr and others.
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Al-Sakhawi first hears hadith from Ibn Hajar, by night with his father, 838/1434
In his autobiographical entry al-Sakhawi says he heard much hadith by night, with his father, from his shaykh Ibn Hajar, the first of it in 838/1434 — 'God set love of this science in my heart and I kept to his circle'.
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Attack of Lalish (1415)
Draft card for Attack of Lalish (1415); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Archidona (1434)
Draft card for Battle of Archidona (1434); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Bolu (1423)
Draft card for Battle of Bolu (1423); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Castril (1438)
Draft card for Battle of Castril (1438); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Diyarbakır (1436)
Draft card for Battle of Diyarbakır (1436); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Gallipoli (1422)
Draft card for Battle of Gallipoli (1422); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of İznik (1423)
Draft card for Battle of İznik (1423); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Karaburun (1416)
Draft card for Battle of Karaburun (1416); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of La Higueruela
Draft card for the Battle of La Higueruela in 1431, the Castilian victory over Granada's army in the vega; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Manisa (1416)
Draft card for Battle of Manisa (1416); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Rudolfswerth (1429)
Draft card for Battle of Rudolfswerth (1429); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Tangier
Draft card for the Battle of Tangier in 1437, the Portuguese defeat by the Marinids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Thessalonica (1416)
Draft card for Battle of Thessalonica (1416); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Ulubad (1422)
Draft card for Battle of Ulubad (1422); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Byzantine–Ottoman War (1421-1424)
Draft card for Byzantine–Ottoman War (1421-1424); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Frankish storming of Ceuta, 817
7 Sha'ban 817 — the Franks stormed Ceuta, razed it and carried off its wealth and stores down to the scholars' books, leaving it an empty ruin that stayed in their hands; its besieged people had sent a ringing poem begging the Muslims of Egypt and beyond for rescue and were answered only with a poem by Ibn Hijja.
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Conquest of Ceuta
Draft card for the fall of Ceuta in 1415, Portugal's seizure of the Moroccan city that opened its overseas expansion; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Conquest of Cyprus and Capture of King Janus
Ramadan 829: the Mamluk conquest of Cyprus under Barsbay — Famagusta, then the rest of the island, King Janus taken captive with few Muslim dead; paraded in chains before the sultan, whose eyes welled as he released him under tribute.
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Conquest of Thessalonica
Thessalonica — after crushing the pretenders Manuel II had backed, Murad II moved on the city and stormed it in March 833/1431, making it permanently Ottoman in al-Sallabi's account.
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The Great Eastern Dearth of 835
835: 'the East lay ruined from Baghdad to Tabriz by the dearth's excess and universality — till they ate dogs and carrion'.
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The Loom and Village Census of 837
A stark demographic register for 837: Alexandria's weavers' looms counted 800 against 14,000 at the eighth century's close, and the army clerks' census found Egypt's villages, Upper and Lower, at 2,170 against 10,000 under the early Fatimids.
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Completion of Fath al-Bari, the commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, 842/1438
Ibn Hajar finished Fath al-Bari, his great commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, on 1 Rajab 842 (18 December 1438). Its introduction had been composed in 813/1410-11 and the work itself grew out of lecture courses he gave from 817/1414 until its completion. Its fame was such that in 833/1429-30 the Timurid ruler of Fars and Sijistan, Shah Rukh, asked Egypt's sultan Barsbay to send him copies of what had so far been published — a request echoed from the other end of the Muslim world by the Hafsid Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz.
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First Siege of Ceuta
Draft card for the First Siege of Ceuta in 1419, the Marinid attempt to retake the city from Portugal; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Frog Rain at Amid, 833
833: al-Biqa'i reports from Badr al-Din al-Biri, who dwelt at Amid a while, that frogs rained on it in summer — 'not deemed strange in those parts but an accustomed thing'.
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The Hanbali-Ash'ari Fitna at Damascus, 835
835: a great fitna flared at Damascus between Hanbalis and Ash'aris — Ala' al-Din al-Bukhari openly declared takfir of Ibn Taymiyya; Damascenes rallied to him; Ibn Nasir al-Din composed a fascicle of his praisers which Cairo's scholars endorsed; and a sultanic decree forbade impugning another's madhhab until the matter subsided.
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Hungarian–Ottoman War (1415–19)
Draft card for Hungarian–Ottoman War (1415–19); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Hungarian–Ottoman War (1426–1428)
Draft card for Hungarian–Ottoman War (1426–1428); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Execution of the Hurufi leader Nasim al-Din al-Tabrizi at Aleppo, 820
820 — Nasim al-Din al-Tabrizi, head of Aleppo's Hurufis whose following had grown and whose doctrine had spread, was executed on the sultan's order: beheaded, flayed and crucified.
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Ibn Hajar appointed chief qadi of Egypt, 827/1423
Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay appointed Ibn Hajar chief qadi of the Shafi'is in Egypt in Muharram 827, after dismissing Ala al-Din al-Bulqini: Ibn al-Imad dates it 17 Muharram, while the Encyclopaedia of Islam gives 27 Muharram (31 December 1423). The office remained his through repeated dismissals and reinstatements for a combined total of about twenty-one years, until he lost it finally on 25 Jumada II 852 (26 August 1448).
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Ibn Qadi Shuhba dismissed, Ibn Hajji made judge of Damascus, Dhu al-Qa'da 842
On the third of Dhu al-Qa'da 842, Baha' al-Din Muhammad ibn Najm al-Din Umar ibn Hajji, the confidential secretary of Damascus, was robed and installed as chief Shafi'i judge of Damascus in place of Taqi al-Din Ibn Qadi Shuhba, keeping his secretariat as well. Ibn Hajji had been seized by the rebel governor Inal al-Hakimi in Damascus, who took money from him; he wrote to the sultan, distributed the royal presents among the amirs, fled to Cairo, and was rewarded with the judgeship through the patronage of al-Maqarr al-Kamali Muhammad ibn al-Barizi and the minister Zayn al-Din Abd al-Basit.
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Ibn Qadi Shuhba's final dismissal; al-Himsi returns to the judgeship, 12 Muharram 844
On Monday the twelfth of Muharram 844, Siraj al-Din Umar al-Himsi was robed and restored to the chief judgeship of Damascus in place of Ibn Qadi Shuhba; al-Himsi had come to Cairo, was taken up by men of the state, restored to the post and travelled back to Damascus. Ibn Qadi Shuhba remained unemployed thereafter; he devoted himself to fatwa, teaching and useful writing for many years, and most of Damascus's students profited from him until he died.
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The Umayyad Mosque preachership taken from Ibn Qadi Shuhba, 10 Dhu al-Qa'da 843
On Thursday the tenth of Dhu al-Qa'da 843, Burhan al-Din Ibrahim ibn Taba'uf was installed in the preachership (khitaba) of the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus in place of Ibn Qadi Shuhba; Ibn Qadi Shuhba had until then combined the chief judgeship, the mosque's preachership and its muftiship.
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Ibn Qadi Shuhba invokes al-Aziz Yusuf from the Umayyad Mosque minbar, 842
When the amir Inal al-Hakimi, governor of Damascus, broke into rebellion and openly restored the name of the deposed sultan al-Malik al-Aziz Yusuf ibn Barsbay in prayer and allegiance, the chief judge Taqi al-Din Abu Bakr Ibn Qadi Shuhba invoked al-Aziz from the minbar of the Umayyad Mosque on a Friday — while the khutba in the citadel remained for Sultan al-Zahir Jaqmaq. Jaqmaq held that sermon against him after the Jakami affair, and it was a cause of his later dismissal.
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Ibn Qadi Shuhba appointed chief judge of Damascus, Jumada I 842
In Jumada I of 842 the investiture went out to Taqi al-Din Abu Bakr Ibn Qadi Shuhba as chief judge (qadi al-qudat) of Damascus, and the robe of honour and the rescript were prepared for him. The rescript had first gone to al-Burhan Ibrahim ibn al-Ba'uni to replace al-Maqarr al-Kamali Muhammad ibn al-Barizi, the chancery secretary; he refused to accept, and the governor Inal al-Hakimi went to his house to press him, but he persisted in his refusal, so the decree was written for Ibn Qadi Shuhba.
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Ibn Qadi Shuhba restored to the judgeship of Damascus, Ramadan 843
In Ramadan 843 the sultan decreed the dismissal of Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Wana'i and the installation of Ibn Qadi Shuhba in the judgeship of Damascus in his place.
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Deposition of al-Aziz and accession of Jaqmaq
In 842 the amirs deposed al-Aziz Yusuf ibn Barsbay after a sultanate of three months and installed al-Zahir Abu Sa'id Jaqmaq in his place.
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The Channeling of Mecca's Springs, 835
835: Mecca's springs were channeled into the city, filling the Bab al-Mu'alla pools and running past al-Safa and the Night Market — 'and the benefit spread'.
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Murad II founds the Muradiye at Edirne
Murad II founded Edirne's Muradiye in 1435, at first as a house for Mevlevi dervishes; a smaller mevlevihane was built beside it when the main building was turned into a mosque, distinguished by the tile revetments covering the mihrab and part of the walls.
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The Muradiye külliye at Bursa
Murad II built the Muradiye külliye in 1424-1426 CE, the last imperial mosque complex erected in Bursa; besides the mosque it included a medrese, an imaret, the founder's türbe and later tombs.
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Ottoman–Venetian War of 1423–1430
Draft card for Ottoman–Venetian War of 1423–1430; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Plague of 819 AH
819 opened with dearth and plague still mounting in Egypt and Tripoli — it was said ten thousand died at Tripoli in ten days, that of Isfahan's people only the rare survived, and that Fez counted thirty-six thousand dead in a single month, the lands nearly emptied of their people. That year the sultan ordered the khatibs, when they reached the prayer for him in the sermon, to step down one step of the minbar in courtesy, so God's name and His Messenger's would stand higher than the spot where the sultan is named — and the custom endured.
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The Plague of Syria and Damietta, 826
826: a wasting plague through Syria — over 50,000 dead, it was said, within a few days — and a great plague at Damietta.
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The Plague of 838
Shadharat registers for 838 a general plague through Muslim and non-Muslim lands, killing innumerable multitudes.
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The Plague of 839
839's plague wave: four months at Bursa, then Oman, Herat — where the dead were reckoned at 800,000 — all Yemen, the Berber lands and Abyssinia.
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The Plague of 841
841: winter plague through Hama, Aleppo and Homs, reaching Damascus by winter's end then passing on to Egypt.
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Second Siege of Ceuta (1419)
Draft card for Second Siege of Ceuta (1419); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Seventh Siege of Gibraltar
Draft card for the Seventh Siege of Gibraltar in 1436, the Marinid attempt to retake it from Castile; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Belgrade
Draft card for the Siege of Belgrade in 1440, Murad II's failed assault on the fortress defended for Hunyadi; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Constantinople (1422)
In 825/1422 Sultan Murad II began a siege of Constantinople. He had come to the throne after the death of his father Mehemmed I and had just overcome the pretender known in Turkish history as Düzme Mustafa, whom the emperor Manuel had supported. The siege was raised, either through Byzantine gold reaching the graecophile vizier Ibrahim Pasha, or because a new pretender appeared in Iznik in the person of Murad's younger brother Mustafa, who was later betrayed by his supporters and killed.
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Siege of Djerba (1432)
Draft card for the Siege of Djerba in 1432, Alfonso V of Aragon's attack on the island; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Golubac
Draft card for the Siege of Golubac in 1428, the Ottoman capture of the Danube fortress; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Malta
Draft card for the Siege of Malta in 1429, the Hafsid assault on the island; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Mukha (1423)
Draft card for Siege of Mukha (1423); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Patras (1429)
Draft card for Siege of Patras (1429); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Samsun (1420)
Draft card for Siege of Samsun (1420); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Great Solar Eclipse of 836
18 Shawwal 836: a great solar eclipse from mid-afternoon nearly to sunset; the eclipse prayer was held as people thought the sun would set still eclipsed.
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Ulugh Beg's observatory at Samarkand
Ulugh Beg, Timur's grandson, raised his great observatory at Samarkand about 823/1420, producing with Qadizada and Ali Qushji the Sultanic tables.
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War of the South Danube (1420–1432)
Draft card for War of the South Danube (1420–1432); its sources are not yet checked on the page.