al-Muttaqi li-llah Ibrahim ibn al-Muqtadir
Abbasid caliph [329–333], Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn al-Muqtadir, hailed at thirty-four; he altered nothing, never touched a slave-girl or wine, fasted much — 'I want no companion but the Mushaf'. Tuzun blinded him in 333; jailed opposite al-Sindiyya twenty-five years, he died in Sha'ban 357.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 33 in the chain · 940–944 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Al-Farabi at Sayf al-Dawla's court
In 942 al-Farabi took up residence at the court of the Hamdanid prince Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo, remaining there until his death.
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The Great Famine in Baghdad, 330
In 330 a kurr of wheat reached 210 then 316 dinars, barley 120; the weak ate carrion, death multiplied, roads emptied, burials were left to charity and the people turned from all amusement.
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Rains, Collapsed Houses and Night Raids in Baghdad
In Jumada I 332 heavy rains brought houses down on their people; property values collapsed with the famine until cheap bread and dates returned — hammams, markets and mosques stood closed, men were paid to occupy houses just to guard them, and armed night-raiders forced the people to keep watch.
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Battle of al-Mada'in (942)
Draft card for the Battle of al-Mada'in in 942, the struggle for Baghdad among the contenders over the Abbasid caliphate; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Death of al-Kulayni at Baghdad, Sha'ban 329/May 941
al-Kulayni died at Baghdad in 328/939-40 or 329/940-41; the EI2 prefers the latter, since al-Tusi — having given 328 in his earlier Fihrist — specifies Sha'ban 329/May 941 in his later Rijal. The funeral prayer was led by the Imami Hasanid Abu Qirat Muhammad ibn Ja'far, and he was buried near the Bab al-Kufa. Tarikh al-Islam lists him under 329: 'he was at Baghdad and died there, and his tomb is visible with a tablet over it'; Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Saymari transmitted from him.
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The Edessa kerchief ransom
In 331 the Byzantines reached Arzan, Mayyafariqin and Nisibis, killing and taking captives, then asked for a kerchief kept in an Edessa church — said to bear the image the Messiah imprinted when he wiped his face — in exchange for releasing all their captives; it was sent and the prisoners freed.
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The Euphrates flood and the ruin of Bab al-Anbar
In 329 the Euphrates rose eleven cubits and burst from the Anbar side, sweeping villages, people, cattle and beasts; water poured down the Sarat into Baghdad's western quarters drowning Bab al-Anbar street to the last house, toppling the Sarat's iron bridge — while the Tigris rose eighteen cubits in May–June.
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The Fall of the Green Dome
In al-Muttaqi's days the Green Dome of al-Mansur's city fell — Baghdad's crown and the Abbasids' monument, eighty cubits high over a twenty-by-twenty-cubit iwan, topped by a mounted lancer whose facing direction foretold a rebel's rise. Its head fell on a night of rain and thunder.
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Al-Muttaqi blinded by Tuzun
Al-Muttaqi summoned Ibn Hamdan, lost with him at Ukbara, fled to Mosul and Nisibis, then distrusted the Hamdanids and wrote Tuzun for peace — he swore mighty oaths. The Ikhshid of Egypt came to Raqqa: 'beware their treachery — come with me to Egypt, it is yours' — he refused. On 4 Muharram 333 Tuzun met him, kissed the ground and walked before him, then seized him, blinded him, took the seal, the Burda and the staff, and hailed Abd Allah ibn al-Muktafi as al-Mustakfi — whom the blinded Muttaqi himself acclaimed. Muttaqi was jailed opposite al-Sindiyya twenty-five years till his death in 357. When the blinded al-Qahir heard, he said 'we are two now — we need a third': and so it was, al-Mustakfi was blinded too.
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The Byzantine entry into Ra's al-'Ayn
In Rabi' I 332 the Byzantines entered Ra's al-'Ayn, enslaved three thousand of its people and plundered the country — the Domesticos had come against it with eighty thousand.
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The Rus seize the city of Barda'a
In 332 a Rus fleet came up the Kur river to Barda'a, routed the garrison, proclaimed security, then trapped the townsmen who stayed past the three-day deadline — some fifteen thousand captives, the survivors penned in the mosque and slaughtered when a twenty-dirham ransom failed. Fruit-gluttony brought them plague, and Marzuban's ambush destroyed their prince and penned the rest in the citadel.