al-Mu'tasim
Draft card for al-Mu'tasim, eighth Abbasid caliph and founder of Samarra, named from an open reference description (Wikidata); his entries in Tarikh al-Khulafa and Ibn al-Athir's al-Kamil are not yet checked on the page, so no dates are given.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 20 in the chain · 833–842 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Abd al-Rahman II enlarges the mosque
Abd al-Rahman II greatly enlarged the mosque's court and aisles in the first half of the ninth century to take the growing city's congregation.
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Abu Dawud's first journey: Baghdad, Basra and Mecca, 220/835
In his own words, reported by Abu Ubayd al-Ajurri: he prayed over 'Affan at Baghdad in 220; he entered Basra as they were saying Uthman ibn al-Haytham the mu'adhdhin had died the day before — he had died in Rajab 220 — hearing Abu 'Amr al-Darir in a single session and following 'Umar ibn Hafs ibn Ghiyath home without hearing him; and at Mecca, in the pilgrimage days of 220, he heard al-Qa'nabi, Sulayman ibn Harb and others.
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Abu Dawud at Kufa, 221/836, and Damascus, 222/837
Abu 'Isa al-Azraq heard him say: I entered Kufa in the year twenty-one and went to 'Umar ibn Hafs's house but was not granted a hearing; and Abu Dawud said: I entered Damascus in the year twenty-two. At Kufa he heard al-Hasan ibn al-Rabi' al-Burani, Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Yarbu'i and a circle of others, and at Damascus Safwan ibn Salih, Hisham ibn 'Ammar and a circle of others.
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Battle of Anzen
Draft card for the Battle of Anzen in 838, al-Mu'tasim's victory over Theophilos on the road to Amorium; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Enna (835)
Draft card for Battle of Enna (835); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Rekha (842)
Draft card for Battle of Rekha (842); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Death of al-Mu'tasim
Al-Mu'tasim died Thursday, 11 Rabi' I 227; in his illness he kept saying 'the ruse is gone — there is no ruse'. He had resolved to march to the far west against the Umayyad of al-Andalus — 'the Umayyads ruled when none of us had rule; we rule and this Umayyad holds al-Andalus? Reckon what is needed to fight him' — when his illness grew heavy and he died.
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Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translation circle
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and the translators of his circle carried through the greatest rendering of Greek books into Arabic under al-Maʾmūn and after him, making the Bayt al-Ḥikma the head of the translation movement.
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Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj hears Ahmad ibn Hanbal and gathers his Questions, c. 220/835
On his entries into Baghdad Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855) and transmitted from him, and compiled a book of his own questions to Ahmad, the Masa'il Ahmad ibn Hanbal; the Encyclopaedia of Islam counts Ahmad among Muslim's masters whose works have survived into print.
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The Sack of Zibatra and al-Mu'tasim's Retaliation
In al-Baladhuri: Zibatra was an old Roman fortress taken with the old fortress of al-Hadath by Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri, standing until the Romans wrecked it in al-Walid ibn Yazid's days; rebuilt unsoundly, the Romans camped on it in Marwan ibn Muhammad's civil war and demolished it; al-Mansur rebuilt it, they damaged it, and al-Rashid rebuilt and garrisoned it through Muhammad ibn Ibrahim; in al-Ma'mun's caliphate the Romans raided it and its people's pasturage, driving off livestock, and al-Ma'mun ordered its repair and fortification; when the Byzantine tyrant's embassy came in year 210 seeking peace he refused and wrote to the frontier governors, who ranged Byzantine lands killing and subduing with handsome success, only Yaqzan ibn Abd al-A'la ibn Ahmad ibn Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami being hit; then in the caliphate of al-Mu'tasim — Abu Ishaq ibn al-Rashid — the Romans came to Zibatra, killed the men, captured the women and wrecked it, which grieved and angered him so that he raided them as far as Amorium — having destroyed forts before it — camped on it, took it, killed the fighters, captured the women and children, then demolished it and ordered Zibatra rebuilt, fortified and garrisoned, which the Romans afterwards attempted and failed to take.
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Siege of Arsamosata (837)
Draft card for Siege of Arsamosata (837); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Sozopetra (837)
Draft card for Siege of Sozopetra (837); its sources are not yet checked on the page.