al-Mu'tazz bi-llah
Abbasid caliph, given the oath in Muharram 252 after al-Musta'in was deposed; he was deposed in Rajab 255 and died in Sha'ban. According to al-Suyuti he was second in succession after al-Muntasir and before al-Mu'ayyad; al-Mutawakkil wished to advance him, out of love for his mother Qabiha, without whom he could not be patient. According to al-Suyuti he was given the oath when al-Musta'in was deposed in 252, at nineteen; no caliph before him had come to the throne younger. In the first year of his reign Ashnas died leaving five hundred thousand dinars, which he took. He was the first caliph to ride with gold trappings; the caliphs before him had ridden with light silver trappings. He conferred the robe of rule on Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Tahir, then dismissed him; then on his brother Abu Ahmad, who was crowned with a crown, two sashes and two swords; then he dismissed him and exiled him to Wasit; then he conferred it on Baga al-Sharabi, who rose against him a year later and was killed. In Rajab he deposed his brother al-Mu'ayyad, beat him and shackled him, and he died. According to al-Mas'udi, al-Mutawakkil had made him second in succession after al-Muntasir, and al-Muntasir and his brother Ibrahim deposed him in 248. According to al-Mas'udi he is al-Zubayr ibn Ja'far al-Mutawakkil, and his mother was a slave-mother called Qabiha. He was given the oath on Thursday, two nights into Muharram 252, at eighteen; he deposed himself on Monday, three nights before the end of Rajab 255, and died six days later at twenty-four and was buried at Samarra. Al-Buhturi, on the deposition of al-Musta'in, composed a jibe sending him off to Wasit: 'Let claws grow in the flesh of chickens, as far as Wasit, behind the chicken'. According to al-Mas'udi, all the Turks came to him on four nights before the end of Rajab 255, led by Salih ibn Wasif, rebuking him for his sins and demanding money; he agreed to abdicate on terms of safe-conduct, and was killed in his confinement six days after his deposition. He was the first caliph to display riding with gold trappings, when the caliphs before him had ridden with light silver trappings.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 25 in the chain · 866–869 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Battle of the Barges (869)
Draft card for Battle of the Barges (869); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ahmad ibn Tulun enters Fustat as Bayakbak's lieutenant, 254/868
In 254/868 the caliph al-Mu'tazz granted Egypt as an apanage to the Turkish general Bayakbak, who had married the widow of Tulun, Ahmad's father. Ahmad was appointed his stepfather's lieutenant and entered Fustat on 23 Ramadan 254/15 September 868 — the first Muslim governor of Egypt who would go on to annex Syria.
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Kharijite Rebellion of 866–896
Draft card for the Kharijite rebellion of 866–896, the Kharijite rising against the Abbasids in the Jazira; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Al-Musta'in sent down to Wasit under Ahmad ibn Tulun's guard, 252/866
When al-Musta'in deposed himself at the opening of 252/866 he was sent down to Wasit and held for nine months. Asked whom he wanted in his company he chose Ahmad ibn Tulun, who served him well; al-Mutawakkil's ghilman wrote offering him Wasit itself if he would kill the ex-caliph, and he refused — 'by God, I will never let it be said of me that I killed a caliph I had sworn allegiance to' — and when al-Musta'in was murdered he washed, shrouded and buried the body.
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Siege of Baghdad in the strife of al-Musta'in and al-Mu'tazz
In 251 Bugha al-Saghir and Wasif were killed at the hands of Bagir the Turk, and the affairs of the clients in Samarra were thrown into turmoil. Al-Musta'in fled to Baghdad, to Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Tahir, who cut off supplies to the people of Samarra, forbidding anything to go up from Baghdad or down to it. Al-Musta'in ordered him to fortify Baghdad: a wall was raised from Bab al-Shammasiya to the Tuesday market and from Bab Qati'at Umm Ja'far to the palace of Humayd, trenches were dug round both walls on both sides, and shelters were built where horsemen could sit out heat and rain; the cost reached three hundred thousand dinars and thirty thousand dinars. At Bab al-Shammasiya five crushing engines were set across the road, plated with iron and tied with ropes, with a suspended gate released to crush whoever came beneath it; the inner gate had one catapult, the outer gate five large mangonels, the greatest called al-Ghadban, and six catapults faced toward Raqqat al-Shammasiya; at Bab al-Burdan there were eight catapults, four on each side, and four crushing engines; and the same was done at every gate of Baghdad on both the eastern and western sides. When the Turks and the Maghariba reached the gates of the City of Peace on the eastern side, the gates were shut in their faces and they were struck with arrows, mangonels and catapults; many fell on both sides and many were wounded, and this went on until the afternoon. The war between Baghdad's people and the Samarra army continued until al-Musta'in deposed himself; al-Mu'tazz was pledged allegiance on Friday, four days into Muharram 252. Al-Musta'in was moved to the palace of al-Hasan ibn Sahl at al-Mukharram, and his staff and ring were taken from him.
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al-Tabari enters Egypt and studies with its scholars
After years in Baghdad al-Tabari set out on his great study journey through Syria and Palestine to Egypt, passing through Beirut and such centres as Hims, al-Ramla and Askalan; his entry into Egypt can be fixed with some certainty at 253/867. There he met the leading Egyptian muhaddith and authority on the qira'at Yunus ibn Abd al-A'la, read Malik's fiqh with the Ibn Abd al-Hakam family, and took Shafi'i law from al-Rabi ibn Sulayman.
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The Zanj Rebellion
Draft card for the Zanj Rebellion, the slave rising under Ali ibn Muhammad 'Sahib al-Zanj' against the Abbasid state around Basra and the Sawad of Iraq from 869 to 883; its sources are not yet checked on the page.