al-Mutawakkil ala Allah
Abbasid caliph, killed in 247; al-Tabari mentions some of his affairs and conduct. According to al-Suyuti he was known for enmity to Ali (nasb), immersed in pleasures and wine, had four thousand concubines and had relations with all of them. He was generous and much praised; it was said that no caliph gave a poet what he gave. Eight men, each the son of a caliph, greeted him as caliph: Mansur ibn al-Mahdi, al-Abbas ibn al-Hadi, Abu Ahmad ibn al-Rashid, Abd Allah ibn al-Amin, Musa ibn al-Ma'mun, Ahmad ibn al-Mu'tasim, Muhammad ibn al-Wathiq, and his son al-Muntasir. According to al-Suyuti he was the first caliph to adopt a madhhab, following that of al-Shafi'i. He said to al-Fath ibn Khaqan, when the latter described to him the finest life, a man with a spacious house, a righteous wife and a settled livelihood, who does not know us so that we might harm him, nor needs us so that we might despise him. He said to Yazid al-Muhallabi, 'The caliphs used to be harsh with the subjects so that they would obey; I am gentle with them so that they love and obey me'. According to al-Mas'udi, the days of Abu al-Wazir in the vizierate were few; he employed Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Jarjara'i, then 'Ubayd Allah ibn Yahya in 233, until the latter was killed. When someone informed on 'Ali ibn Muhammad al-'Alawi to him, he raided him at night, found him wearing a wool shirt and chanting verses of promise and threat, honoured him, seated him, and excused him from his cup. According to al-Mas'udi he took oaths of succession for his three sons, set down in documents and conditions: he made his heir al-Muntasir, then al-Mu'tazz, then Ibrahim al-Mu'ayyad. The oath was taken from the people accordingly, and he distributed money.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 22 in the chain · 847–861 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Abu Dawud in Khurasan: Qutayba and Ibn Rahwayh, before 240/854
Abu Dawud heard Qutayba ibn Sa'id, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh and a circle of others in Khurasan; and Abu 'Abdallah al-Hakim said he took down hadith in Khurasan before leaving for Iraq, in his own land and at Herat, and that he had written early at Nishapur, later travelling with his son to Khurasan. Since Qutayba died in 240 and Ibn Rahwayh in 238, these hearings fall in the 230s of the hijra.
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The Sunan composed and shown to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, before 241/855
It is said that Abu Dawud composed the Sunan and presented it to the Imam Ahmad, who admired and approved it, a report the Encyclopaedia of Islam confirms. Ibn Dasa heard him say: I wrote down five hundred thousand traditions from the Messenger of God and selected from them what I placed in the Sunan — four thousand eight hundred traditions — naming the sound ones and those resembling or approaching them. He read law with Ahmad ibn Hanbal, kept his company for a time and was among the elite of his pupils; as Ahmad died in 241, the presentation falls before that year.
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Armenian Revolt (850–55)
Draft card for the Armenian Revolt of 850–55, the princes' rising against the Abbasids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Albelda
Draft card for the Battle of Albelda in 851, the victory of Ordoño I and Musa ibn Musa over the emir's forces; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Chonarion (860)
Draft card for Battle of Chonarion (860); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Guadalacete
Draft card for the Battle of Guadalacete in 852, the Umayyad Andalusian victory over Asturias and Navarre; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Monte Laturce
Draft card for the Battle of Monte Laturce in 859, the Asturian-Navarrese victory over Musa ibn Musa of the Banu Qasi; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Syracuse (859)
Draft card for Battle of Syracuse (859); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Bugha al-Kabir's Pacification of the Armenian March
In al-Baladhuri: al-Mutawakkil gave Armenia to Bugha al-Kabir, who at Badhlis seized Musa ibn Zurara — one who had favoured Yusuf's killing and aided it in anger for Buqrat — warred on the Khwaythiyya, slaying a great slaughter and taking many captives, then besieged Ashut ibn Hamza ibn Jajiq, patrikios of Busfurrajan, at al-Baq, brought him down from his fortress and carried him to Samarra, marched on Jurzan where Ishaq ibn Isma'il was overcome and killed in cold blood, opened Jurzan, and carried off the people of Arran and the Armenian surface-dwellers in Sisajan — the rebellious and disobedient, Christians and others — till that march stood sounder than ever it had been; then he came to Samarra in the year 241.
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The death and funeral of Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ahmad ibn Hanbal died in Baghdad on a Friday in 241 AH; the reports that Ibn Asakir gathers differ on the month: twelve nights into Rabi' al-Awwal according to Hanbal ibn Ishaq, Abbas al-Duri and Mutayyan, twelve nights into Rabi' al-Akhir according to his son Abd Allah, al-Fadl ibn Ziyad and Ya'qub ibn Sufyan, thirteen nights before its end according to Nasr ibn al-Qasim, while Abu Umayya al-Tarsusi gave 242 and was not followed. The governor of Baghdad Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Tahir led the prayer, he was buried after the afternoon prayer, and estimates of those who prayed over him range from 800,000 men and 60,000 women to 1,700,000.
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Death of al-Wathiq
Al-Wathiq died at Sur man Ra'a on Wednesday, 6 Dhu'l-Hijja 232; when he died he was left alone while the people busied themselves with the bay'a to al-Mutawakkil, and a rat came and plucked out his eye and ate it.
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Demolition of the tomb of al-Husayn
In 236 al-Mutawakkil ordered al-Husayn's tomb demolished with the houses around it, the site ploughed into farmland and visits forbidden — he was known for nasb; the Muslims grieved, Baghdadis wrote curses on walls and mosques, and poets lampooned: 'by God, if Umayya did the killing of the Prophet's daughter's son wronged, his father's sons did the like — his tomb demolished'.
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Christians Bound to Wear the Honey-Coloured Dress
In 235 al-Mutawakkil bound the Christians to wear the honey-coloured distinguishing dress.
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Hemiplegia strikes al-Jahiz in his last years at Basra
In his last years al-Jahiz was struck by hemiplegia: he would anoint his right side with sandalwood and camphor for its burning heat, while his left side felt nothing even if cut with scissors, so numbed and cold it was; in his illness he said he had reconciled opposites upon his body. Ibn Khallikan relates from one of the Baramika that he sailed down to Basra, heard that al-Jahiz lay ill there with the palsy, and visited him before his death.
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al-Jahiz presented to al-Mutawakkil as tutor, then dismissed
In al-Mutawakkil's caliphate (232-247/847-861) al-Jahiz was mentioned to the caliph as a tutor for one of his sons; when the caliph saw him he was repelled by his looks, granted him ten thousand dirhams and dismissed him. Al-Jahiz himself records an interview he claims to have had with al-Mutawakkil, who was anxious to entrust him with the education of his children but finally dismissed him because of his ugliness.
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Fall of Ibn al-Zayyat nearly proves fatal to al-Jahiz
In Baghdad al-Jahiz attached himself to the vizier Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik al-Zayyat; when al-Zayyat fell from favour in 233/847 the fall almost proved fatal to both men. Al-Jahiz then attached himself successively to the chief qadi Ahmad ibn Abi Du'ad (d. 240/854) and his son Muhammad (d. 239/853), and finally to al-Fath ibn Khakan (d. 247/861).
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The Patrikioses' Killing of Yusuf al-Marwazi
In al-Baladhuri: al-Mu'tasim gave the march to al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Badhaghisi, known as al-Ma'muni, who neglected Armenia's patrikioses and freemen, going soft with them till they worsened in corruption against the sultan and in savaging the subjects beneath them; Ishaq ibn Isma'il ibn Shu'ayb, a mawla of Banu Umayya, mastered Jurzan, and Sahl ibn Sanbat the patrikios ambushed Haydar ibn Kawus al-Afshin's governor over Armenia, killed his scribe, and escaped by a hair; then governors came to Armenia who accepted pardon from its people and contented themselves with easy kharaj; then al-Mutawakkil gave Armenia for two years of his caliphate to Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Marwazi — who at Khilat seized its patrikios Buqrat ibn Ashut and carried him to Samarra, estranging the patrikioses, freemen and warlords; then his agent called al-Mala' ibn Ahmad made for a monastery in Sisajan known as Dayr al-Aqdah, which Armenia's Christians had ever venerated and gifted, took everything in it and brutalised its people — the patrikioses held that enormity unbearable, wrote to one another urging breach and rupture, and sent to the Khwaythiyya — the Aztan — to ambush Yusuf, inciting them over his carrying off their patrikios Buqrat, each man of them and of the warlords sending horse and foot to back it; they ambushed him at Batrun while his men were dispersed among the villages, killed him and seized all that was in his camp.
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Appearance of Majus ships in al-Andalus, 245
In 245 the Majus ships — the northern sea-raiders — appeared and ravaged in al-Andalus; the amir Muhammad's fleet met them, fought them, took two ships as prize, and a number of Muslims were martyred: the first recorded descent of the Vikings' ships on the Umayyad coast.
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Majus raid on Nekour, 244
In 244 AH the Majus (Norse seafarers) raided Nekour on the Maghreb's coast in their fleets, overran it and sacked it for eight days, until Sa'id ibn Salih of the Banu Salih gathered Berber succour, met them in battle, routed their host and killed their leader.
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Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj compiles the Jami' al-Sahih over fifteen years, c. 246-261/860-875
Muhammad ibn al-Masirjisi heard Muslim say that he compiled this Sahih from three hundred thousand hadiths he had heard, and Ahmad ibn Salama says he worked with Muslim on the Sahih for fifteen years, the book running to about four thousand hadiths; it is the Jami' al-Sahih, which the traditionists agree stands with al-Bukhari's Sahih as the soundest of books, and its modern editor Muhammad Fu'ad Abd al-Baqi counts a little over three thousand distinct traditions.
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Al-Mutawakkil's resolve to reside in Damascus
In 243 al-Mutawakkil came to Damascus, admired it, built a palace at Darayya and resolved to reside — Yazid al-Muhallabi versified 'if the imam resolves to depart, forsaking Iraq, I think Syria will gloat; the lovely woman is worn out by divorce' — he changed his mind and returned after two or three months.
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Al-Nasa'i's hadith journeys through Khurasan, Iraq, al-Sham, Egypt, the Hijaz and the Jazira, after 240/854
After 240/854 al-Nasa'i heard from a host of shaykhs in Khurasan, Iraq, al-Sham, Egypt, the Hijaz and the Jazira, travelling to Marw, Nishapur and beyond; his best-known teachers were Qutayba ibn Sa'id, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh, Hisham ibn Ammar, Isa ibn Hammad, Muhammad ibn al-Nadr al-Marwazi, Abu Kurayb and Suwayd ibn Nasr; modern scholars describe extensive travels in quest of hadith before he settled in Egypt.
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Fatima al-Fihri founds al-Qarawiyyin
Fatima bint Muhammad al-Fihri endowed her fortune for the al-Qarawiyyin mosque at Fez, opened in 245/859 — the most famous mosque of learning in the Islamic West.
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The Byzantine raid on Damietta
In 238 the Byzantines raided Damietta, plundering and burning, carried off six hundred women and sped out to sea.
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Siege of Algeciras (859)
Draft card for Siege of Algeciras (859); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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al-Tabari studies in Baghdad and southern Iraq
Al-Tabari went from Rayy to Baghdad, the intellectual centre of the Islamic world, before he was seventeen, hoping to study with Ahmad ibn Hanbal — a hope cut short by Ibn Hanbal's death. By 242/856-7 he had moved on to southern Iraq, studying with the leading scholars of Wasit, Basra and Kufa, among them Muhammad ibn Abd al-A'la al-San'ani and Muhammad ibn Bashshar (Bundar) at Basra and Abu Kurayb Muhammad ibn al-Ala at Kufa, before returning to Baghdad within two years.
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al-Tabari leaves Amul for Rayy in search of knowledge
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari left his father's house at Amul for the quest of knowledge aged twelve, about 236/850, and settled at Rayy, the metropolis of northern Persia, where he studied for some five years; his most important teacher there was Abd Allah ibn Humayd al-Razi, through whom he received Ibn Ishaq's Maghazi material transmitted by Salama ibn al-Fadl.
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Al-Bukhari's testimony to al-Tirmidhi: 'I benefited from you more than you benefited from me', c. 245/860
Al-Tirmidhi apprenticed himself to al-Bukhari, who trained him and from whom he took the principles of hadith criticism and fiqh until he stood out among his peers; al-Bukhari himself testified to him, saying 'I benefited from you more than you benefited from me', and he was counted al-Bukhari's successor in Khurasan for knowledge, memory and scrupulosity, numbering among his pupils.
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Al-Tirmidhi hears the masters of Marw: Mahmud ibn Ghaylan, Ali ibn Hujr and Abd ibn Humayd, c. 240/854
Three of Marw's traditionists rank among the eight shaykhs al-Tirmidhi drew on most heavily in his Sunan: Mahmud ibn Ghaylan al-Adawi, Abu Ahmad al-Marwazi (d. 239), Ali ibn Hujr ibn Iyas al-Sa'di, Abu al-Hasan al-Marwazi (d. 244), from whom the two Shaykhs and al-Nasa'i also narrated, and Abd ibn Humayd ibn Nasr al-Kissi, Abu Muhammad al-Marwazi, from whom he narrated most profusely in the Tafsir book of his Sunan.
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Al-Tirmidhi hears Qutayba ibn Sa'id, before 240/854
Qutayba ibn Sa'id ibn Jamil, Abu Raja' al-Baghlani — shaykh of the two shaykhs al-Bukhari and Muslim — was one of the eight masters from whom al-Tirmidhi narrated most heavily in his Sunan, his intake from them amounting to three quarters of the book; the hearing falls before Qutayba's death in 240/854 and forms a stop of his Khurasan journey.
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The Battle of Wadi Salit (c. 240 AH)
The Wadi Salit (Guazalete) massacre: when rebel Toledo sought the kings of Galicia and the Basques against the emir Muhammad I, he ambushed their host on the river south of Toledo and left twenty thousand dead.