al-Muti li-llah al-Fadl ibn al-Muqtadir
Abbasid caliph [334–363], Abu'l-Qasim al-Fadl ibn al-Muqtadir, born 301 to the slave Mashghala, hailed on al-Mustakfi's deposition with a stipend of only a hundred dinars a day fixed by Mu'izz al-Dawla.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 35 in the chain · 946–974 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Adud al-Dawla's Arrival in Iraq
In 362 Bakhtiyar called in Adud al-Dawla against Sabuktagin's Turks; by embargo and bribery Baghdad was starved till the mob looted, then Adud routed the Turks between Diyala and Mada'in on 14 Jumada I — more drowned than slew — and entered Baghdad on 3 Rajab over a Tigris so covered with craft a man could cross from boat to boat.
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Al-Hakim's journey to Iraq and the Hijaz, 341/952
In 341/952-3 al-Hakim travelled to Iraq a few months after the death of his shaykh Isma'il al-Saffar; he performed the hajj and journeyed through the lands of Khurasan and beyond the Oxus. His shaykhs numbered about a thousand in Nishapur alone and about a thousand more in Iraq and the other lands.
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Byzantine Capture of Ayn Zarba
In 347 the Domesticos stormed Ayn Zarba — seventy thousand picked men ordering every householder found at dawn to the sword, the mosque-crowd expelled through the crush into the wilderness, the walls razed; in twenty-one days he reduced fifty-four Muslim forts and massacred four hundred prisoners when one side-clash broke his safe-conduct.
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The second sack of 'Ayn Zarba, 351
Muharram 351: the Byzantines entered 'Ayn Zarba with 160,000 men, granted aman, then ordered everyone into the congregational mosque by night and killed whoever was found at home; forty thousand palms were cut, the mosque razed and its minbar broken; those who crowded the gates died by crushing; twenty-one days inside the lands of Islam and fifty-four surrounding fortresses taken before Sayf al-Dawla rebuilt 'Ayn Zarba.
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Sunni-Shi'i Strife at Bab al-Taq in 348
In Jumada I 348 Sunni-Shii fighting broke out in Baghdad with many killed and a great fire at Bab al-Taq.
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Curses Inscribed on the Mosques of Baghdad
In Rabi II 351, by Mu'izz al-Dawla's order, the Shi'a of Baghdad wrote on the mosques the formula 'May God curse Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan' — his name alone singled out.
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Earthquakes and Locusts in Iraq in 347
In 347 earthquakes struck Baghdad, Hulwan, Badan al-Jabal, Qum and Kashan killing many; locusts devoured the summer crops and melons across Iraq and Diyar Mudar; the Byzantines took Amid and Mayyafariqin's forts killing 1,500, and ended the year by taking and ruining Samosata.
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Al-Baqillani serves as qadi outside Baghdad and visits Shiraz, c. 970-983
For a time al-Baqillani exercised the office of qadi outside the capital, Baghdad, and the sources mention visits to Shiraz and to the Byzantine court — years that fell within the amirate of Adud al-Dawla ibn Buwayh, whose power was then at its zenith in Iraq and Fars.
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Al-Baqillani takes kalam from Abu Abd Allah ibn Mujahid al-Ta'i, companion of al-Ash'ari
The qadi Abu Bakr al-Baqillani learned kalam from Abu Abd Allah ibn Mujahid al-Ta'i, one of al-Ash'ari's own companions, and transmitted hadith from Abu Bakr al-Qati'i; he had a large, well-attended lecture circle. McCarthy says he studied usul al-din under disciples of al-Ash'ari and drew many to his lectures, becoming proverbial in disputation.
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Battle of Alexandretta
Draft card for the Battle of Alexandretta in 971, the Hamdanid-Byzantine clash by the gulf of Alexandretta; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Amida (972)
Draft card for Battle of Amida (972); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The war of Nasir al-Dawla and Mu'izz al-Dawla for Baghdad (334-335 AH / 946)
The war between the Buyid Mu'izz al-Dawla, with the caliph al-Muti' in his camp, and the Hamdanid Nasir al-Dawla with Tuzun's Turks and Abu Ja'far ibn Shirzad, from late Sha'ban 334 around Ukbara and Samarra until the Daylamites crossed the Tigris to east Baghdad at dawn on Saturday, the last day of Dhu al-Hijja 334, by a ruse with pontoons; Nasir al-Dawla was routed, both banks were taken, and at the end of Muharram 335 he sued for peace and fled his own Turks for Mosul. Ibn al-Jawzi puts the rout on 1 Muharram 335 and tells of the looting of Bab al-Taq and Suq Yahya and of the many who died of heat and thirst on the road to Ukbara.
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Battle of Darb al-Kankarun
Draft card for Battle of Darb al-Kankarun; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Hadath (954)
Draft card for the Battle of Hadath in 954, of the Hamdanid–Byzantine frontier wars; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Lycus (950)
Draft card for Battle of the Lycus (950); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Marash
Draft card for the Battle of Marash in 953, the Hamdanid victory over the Byzantines; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Raban
Draft card for the Battle of Raban in 958, the Hamdanid victory over the Byzantines in the Syrian marches; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Birth of Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi at Basra, 364/974
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Habib al-Mawardi al-Basri al-Shafi'i was born at Basra in 364/974; his father was a maker and seller of rose-water, from which his nisba derives. He died aged eighty-six in Rabi' I 450.
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Mu'izz al-Dawla builds the Dar al-Saltana in Baghdad
In 350 Mu'izz al-Dawla built Baghdad's Dar al-Saltana at a cost of thirteen million dirhams; by c. 600 AH its traces had faded to a foxes' den, though parts of its thirty-three-cubit foundations still stood.
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The Buyids enter Baghdad and receive their titles, 334 AH
In 334 al-Mustakfi received Abu'l-Husayn Ahmad ibn Buwayh with oaths and robes, made him amir al-umara — the first Buyid sovereign — titled his brothers Imad al-Dawla and Rukn al-Dawla and had the three titles struck on the coinage; Daylamites and Turks were quartered in Baghdad's houses, a custom new to the city. Miskawayh dates the audience to Saturday 11 Jumada II 334, after Tuzun's death in Muharram and Ibn Shirzad's three months and twenty days in command.
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Byzantine capture of Antioch
In 358 the Byzantines took Antioch by the Luna stratagem — its Christian garrison was sent in as 'refugees' to open the way from the height above the wall; a forty-thousand host with the emperor's brother stormed the panic-stricken city, and over twenty thousand Muslims were carried off as captives in Dhu'l-Hijja.
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Byzantine capture of Aleppo
In 351 the Domesticos stormed Aleppo while Sayf al-Dawla lay unprepared — the sortie destroyed, the Darayin palace plundered of three hundred purses of dirhams, a breach opened, the city put to the sword till the killers wearied; fifteen hundred Muslim prisoners freed themselves and fought back, fifteen thousand youths were taken captive, mosques burned. Nine days on, the emperor's nephew dead at the citadel gate, the Byzantines withdrew slaughtering their Muslim prisoners.
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Capture of Ramla (970)
Draft card for Capture of Ramla (970); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Al-Daraqutni dictates the 'Ilal to al-Barqani at Ibn Hamdan's gatherings, about 360/971
Abu Mansur Ibrahim ibn al-Hasan ibn Hamdan al-Sayrafi, a widely-heard scholar who wished to compile a mu'allal musnad, held a weekly day on which al-Daraqutni attended him; al-Daraqutni would give the defects of the hadiths against his own notebooks while Abu Bakr al-Barqani transferred them and al-Daraqutni dictated the 'ilal to him, until a great deal had come out of it. Abu Mansur died before it was finished, so al-Barqani transmitted al-Daraqutni's words — that is the Kitab al-'Ilal which people narrate from al-Daraqutni. Al-Barqani said: al-Daraqutni dictated the 'Ilal to me from memory; whoever would know what that means, let him read the Kitab al-'Ilal to learn what the huffaz were.
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Al-Daraqutni journeys to al-Sham and Egypt and composes the Musnad for Ibn Hinzaba, about 350/961
In middle age al-Daraqutni journeyed to al-Sham and Egypt, hearing the qadi Abu al-Tahir al-Dhuhli and that generation. The vizier Ja'far ibn al-Furat Ibn Hinzaba was dictating hadith in Egypt; al-Daraqutni went out to him, stayed with him a while and composed for him the Musnad, gained much wealth from his side, and transmitted reports from him in Kitab al-Madih.
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Death of Mu'izz al-Dawla ibn Buwayh
On 11 Rabi II 356 Mu'izz al-Dawla died of dysentery contracted at Wasit marshalling the host against Umran ibn Shahin; on his deathbed he willed the amirate to his son Bakhtiyar, gave away most of his fortune, freed his mamluks and was buried at Bab al-Tibn in the Quraysh cemetery after twenty-one years' rule — the founder of the famous racing couriers, one sponsored by Sunnis and one by Shi'as.
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Battle of Sayf al-Dawla with the Domesticus in 343
In 343 word came of a great battle between the Byzantine Domesticus and Sayf al-Dawla in which many of the Domesticus's men and the chiefs of his patrikioi were killed.
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The first mourning for al-Husayn in Baghdad
On 'Ashura 352 Mu'izz al-Dawla obliged Baghdad to mourn al-Husayn: markets closed, sackcloth on the shops, cooks forbidden food, and the Rafida's women processing bare-haired and beating their faces — the first such mourning held at Baghdad per al-Dhahabi's 'Ibar; on 18 Dhu l-Hijja that year the Rafida also made Ghadir Khumm a festival with kettle-drums and an 'id prayer in the open.
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The first 'Ashura mourning and Ghadir festival in Baghdad
In 351 the Shi'a of Baghdad wrote on the mosque doors curses on Mu'awiya, on those who seized Fatima's Fadak, who kept al-Hasan from burial beside his grandfather, who exiled Abu Dharr; it was erased by night, and vizier al-Muhallabi advised Mu'izz al-Dawla to substitute 'God curse the wrongdoers of the Prophet's house' — only Mu'awiya's cursing stayed explicit. On Ashura 352 Mu'izz compelled the markets shut, forbade cooking, set up mourning domes hung with sackcloth, and brought out dishevelled women beating their cheeks — the first Husayn lamentation at Baghdad, a practice that lasted years, and on 18 Dhu'l-Hijja the Ghadir Khumm festival was made with drums.
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The Karkh strife between Sunnis and Shi'is, 338
In late Rabi' I 338 a fitna between Sunnis and Shi'is broke out in Karkh and it was looted; the chief qadi Abu'l-Sa'ib 'Utba ibn 'Ubaydallah al-Hamadhani was dismissed that Jumada II.
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Killing of Abu Firas al-Hamdani
In Rabi II 361 the poet Abu Firas al-Hamdani was run down at Sadda by his nephew Abu'l-Ma'ali's Bedouins; his men bought safety, he stayed among them disguised, and a ghulam of Qarghuya took his head on the prince's order.
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The killing of Ja'far ibn Fallah at the hands of the Qarmatian al-A'sam
In 360 the Fatimids' first governor of Damascus, Ja'far b. Fallah al-Kutami, camped sick at the dikka above the Yazid river outside the city; the Qarmati al-A'sam fell on him, captured and killed him with many of his men on Thursday 6 Dhu'l-Qa'da — Ja'far had taken Ramla in 358 and Damascus in 359.
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The killing of al-Mutanabbi (354 AH)
354: al-Mutanabbi, returning from Adud al-Dawla's court laden with gifts, was ambushed by Banu Dabba near al-Nu'maniyya on the Tigris. Three accounts of the motive — robbery, or the insult 'Sayf al-Dawla gave by nature; this was a strained gift'. An eyewitness: his son killed, he turned to flee until a servant quoted his own verse back at him — 'where is your line: the horses, the night and the desert know me?' — 'You have killed me', he said, 'by God I shall not be beaten today', wheeled back, slew their leader and died under the spears; his killer was Fatik ibn Abi al-Jahl al-Asadi.
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al-Muqaddasi's journey to Aleppo, c. 354–364/965–975
His own work shows al-Muqaddasi travelled to Aleppo, probably between 354 and 364 AH (965–975 CE).
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Mu'izz al-Dawla deposes and blinds al-Mustakfi
Ahmad ibn Buya entered Baghdad, stood before the caliph and was invested as Mu'izz al-Dawla — his brothers becoming Imad and Rukn al-Dawla, their titles struck on the coinage, while al-Mustakfi styled himself 'Imam al-Haqq'. Mu'izz al-Dawla, the first Daylamite to hold Iraq, sequestered the caliph on five thousand dirhams a day and made wrestling and swimming the city's craze — swimmers cooking meat in pots on their arms. In Jumada II 334 two Daylamites came to the caliph — he offered his hand for the kiss, they dragged him from the throne by his turban to the ground, the soldiery sacked the harem bare, and he was deposed and blinded that day, after sixteen months; they brought al-Fadl ibn al-Muqtadir, and the blinded Mustakfi saluted him as caliph.
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Al-Mutanabbi joins Sayf al-Dawla at Aleppo, 337/948
At the beginning of 337/948 al-Mutanabbi established himself at the Hamdanid court in Aleppo as official poet of the amir Sayf al-Dawla, staying nine years. He was genuinely attached to this patron, in his eyes the ideal Arab chief — brave, magnanimous, generous — who in turn overwhelmed him with gifts and never treated him with arrogance. The poet accompanied his expeditions and sang his exploits against the Byzantines and the desert Bedouins; Eastern critics generally hold the poems of this period the summit of his art.
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Lectures on his Diwan at Baghdad, 353/964
In Baghdad al-Mutanabbi thought of attaching himself to the famous Buyid vizier al-Muhallabi, who had gathered a brilliant court, but abandoned hope in face of the hostility of the court's poets and scholars, among them Ibn al-Hajjaj and Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, author of the Kitab al-Aghani. He spent the year 353/964 giving lectures in which he expounded to a group of friends the work he had done to that date.
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Al-Mutanabbi's secret flight from Aleppo, c. 346/958
After nine years with Sayf al-Dawla, al-Mutanabbi's arrogance and fame had won him implacable enemies, led by the famous Abu Firas. When the amir tired of his poet's insolence and protection lapsed, Abu al-Tayyib no longer felt his life safe; he fled secretly from Aleppo with all he owned and took refuge in Damascus (c. 346/958, derived from the nine-year stay).
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The deposition of al-Muti' and the bay'a to al-Ta'i'
In 363 al-Muti' was struck by paralysis and his tongue grew heavy; Izz al-Dawla's chamberlain Subuktakin proposed he depose himself for his son al-Ta'i' — done on Wednesday 13 Dhu'l-Qa'da after twenty-nine years and months, recorded with qadi Ibn Umm Shayban, and he was called 'al-Shaykh al-Fadil' thereafter. Ibn Shahin says he abdicated unforced; he went to Wasit and died Muharram 364. Al-Dhahabi: al-Muti' and his son were helpless among the Buyids, the caliphs' weakness lasting till al-Muqtafi.
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The New Bridge strife between Sunnis and Shi'is in 349
On Thursday 3 Sha'ban 349 Sunni-Shii strife at the New Bridge shut down Friday prayer in every congregational mosque on both banks except Baratha; a group of the Banu Hashim were arrested as its cause and released next day.
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The Night Phantom on the Rooftops and the Tigris Flood of 337
In 337 Baghdadis panicked by night for days at an animal imagined on the rooftops — now a wolf, now something else — beginning in Suq al-Thalatha' and spreading to both sides; and on Monday two nights before Ramadan's end the Tigris crested at twenty-one and a third cubits, drowning estates and nearly the whole east bank.
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The fall of Nisibis and the Baghdad riot, 362
In 362 the Byzantine host entered Nisibis, sacked it and held it twenty-two days, overrunning all Diyar Rabi'a; refugees reaching Baghdad stormed the mosques, broke minbars, barred the khutba and attacked al-Muti''s palace, denouncing him for weakness — the people rose in their thousands, an army was sent, the Byzantines were routed and their amir and patricians taken, the heads sent to Baghdad with a victory letter.
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The fitna at the New Bridge and the suspension of Friday prayer
On Thursday 3 Sha'ban 349 a Sunni–Shi'i fitna at the New Bridge suspended Friday prayer in every congregational mosque on both sides — except Baratha, where prayer was held; a band of Banu Hashim blamed for the fitna was jailed in the vizier's house and released next day.
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Sack of Aleppo
Draft card for the Sack of Aleppo in 962, Nikephoros Phokas's storming of the Hamdanid city and its people's captivity; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Aleppo
Draft card for Siege of Aleppo; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Antioch (969–971)
Draft card for Siege of Antioch (969–971); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Tarsus falls to the Byzantines, 354
In 354 the Byzantine emperor took Sis with a great slaughter and marched on Tarsus; the city surrendered on aman, its people were moved out, the congregational mosque made a stable for his beasts, its candelabra carried off and the minbar burned; on rebuilding some of its people returned and some converted.
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The Sinking of the Pilgrim Boats from Wasit
In 348 seventeen boats of pilgrims coming from Wasit sank with six hundred men, women and children aboard; that Jumada I the Shi'i–Sunni fitnas killed people and a great fire took Bab al-Taq.