al-Qadir bi-llah Ahmad ibn Ishaq ibn al-Muqtadir
Abbasid caliph [381–422], Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ishaq ibn al-Muqtadir, born 336; hailed after al-Ta'i's deposition, arriving 10 Ramadan. Al-Khatib: famed for piety and night-prayer, he studied fiqh under Abu Bishr al-Harawi and wrote an usul book — Companions' virtues and takfir of the Mu'tazila — read every Friday at al-Mahdi's mosque; in Shawwal he and Baha' al-Dawla swore mutual fidelity, the caliph granting him all beyond his gate.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 37 in the chain · 991–1031 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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The Revolt of Abu Rakwa al-Umawi against al-Hakim
Abu Rakwa, an Umayyad of the line of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik named al-Walid, was given his kunya from a water-flask (rakwa) he carried on his travels in the manner of the Sufis. He called people to a claimant from Hisham's descendants and took oaths of allegiance. He settled at al-Hulla as a teacher, and Arab boys gathered around him; then he told them he was the imam, and styled himself al-Thair bi-amr Allah al-Muntasir min a'da' Allah. He entered Barqa, where its people collected 200,000 dinars for him, and he took 100,000 dinars from a Jewish man whom he accused of holding deposits for him. He struck coins with his name and titles, rode out on a Friday, gave the khutba and cursed al-Hakim. Al-Hakim assembled sixteen thousand men for him under al-Fadl ibn Abd Allah, and 500,000 dinars and 5,000 pieces of cloth were carried to al-Fadl. Abu Rakwa met al-Fadl, but al-Fadl outmanoeuvred him until his companions demanded that he be delivered to the land of Nubia, by a pledge and covenant between him and them. They took him there; al-Fadl sent after him, they handed him over, and he was brought to al-Hakim, who had him mounted on a camel, paraded him, and then killed him. Al-Hakim showed al-Fadl great honour, then killed him after he had recovered from an illness that had come upon him.
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The sack of al-Ahwaz, 421
Jalal al-Dawla entered al-Ahwaz and let his troops loose in it for sixteen days. His letter reached Baghdad on 11 Rabi' II 421 describing what had been taken: the letter claimed that the booty exceeded five million dinars and that two thousand slave-girls were taken captive, along with what the victorious king's own account gives of himself and of their number.
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The reading of the Qadiri Creed in the Dar al-Khilafa
On Thursday 17 Muharram 409 a book setting out the doctrines of Ahl al-Sunna was read in procession in the Dar al-Khilafa at Baghdad. It stated the creed of the Imam al-Qadir bi'llah, and it was said of it: 'whoever says the Qur'an is created is an unbeliever whose blood may be shed.' al-Qadir confirmed the doctrine of the people of hadith and required people to hold to it in his correspondence and assemblies. In 433 the Qadiri Creed was read in full in the diwan of the Dar al-Mulk, in the presence of the vizier, the shaykhs and the judges. In its margin is the hand of the scholar Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Umar al-Qazwini, attesting that he heard all of it in 433, that he concurred in it with the Imam of the Muslims al-Qa'im bi-amr Allah, that it is binding proof against whoever shares his faith, and that he holds to the creed it contains. It is the loftiest thing the state of al-Qa'im published in matters of creed.
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The death of al-Qadir and the accession of al-Qa'im bi-amr Allah, 422
The caliph al-Qadir bi'llah died on the night of Monday 11 Dhu'l-Hijja 422, aged eighty-six years, ten months and twenty-one days, having reigned forty-one years and three months, a span no caliph before him had reached. The doors were shut; then al-Qa'im bi-amr Allah came out at the time of 'asr, led the people in the maghrib prayer, prayed over his father with four takbirs, and sat in the Dar al-Shajara in a shirt and mantle. The people gave him bay'a, first among them al-Sharif al-Murtada, and on the next day Abu Ahmad al-Hasan ibn Isa ibn al-Muqtadir came and gave bay'a too. The Turks clamoured over the bay'a money; when a Hashimite killed a Turk, a signed decree of the caliph was issued on the matter, and it was settled that the bay'a be levied at three million dinars. Among his well-known displays of tact, he put up a caravanserai, a garden and a heap of goods for sale to meet it. He gave titles to the viziers and chamberlains and arranged the offices of state.
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The investiture of al-Sharif al-Radi in black with the headship of the nuqaba'
On Friday 16 Muharram 403 al-Sharif Abu'l-Hasan al-Musawi, al-Radi, was entrusted with the headship of the nuqaba' of the Talibids in all the realms. A patent to that effect came to him from the court of Baha' al-Dawla. It was read in the house of Fakhr al-Mulk in his presence, after the notables among the sharifs, judges, scholars and soldiers had been assembled, and he was robed in a black robe of honour, the first Talibid in the history of the Abbasid state to be so robed.
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Al-Asayfar al-Muntafiqi intercepts the pilgrims and gives away their wealth
In the year ninety-four al-Asayfar al-Muntafiqi intercepted the pilgrims at al-Batina, besieged them and relied on plundering them. Abu al-Husayn ibn al-Raffa' and Abu Abdallah ibn al-Dajaji, the two reciters, entered his presence and recited before him. He asked them about their livelihood in Baghdad, and they said: «Robes of honour, stipends and gifts reach us». When they denied that the people of Baghdad had bestowed a million dinars on them, he said: «I have given you the pilgrims and their wealth, which exceeds a million dinars», and he fulfilled that for the pilgrims. The people of Mecca, Egypt and Syria said: «We have not heard of such extravagance from the people of Baghdad».
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Death of Sharaf al-Dawla and Anarchy in Baghdad
In 416 Sultan Sharaf al-Dawla died and his treasuries were looted; Jalal al-Dawla Abu Tahir b. Baha' al-Dawla succeeded from Basra, but the soldiery defected to al-Malik Abu Kalijar, heir of his father Sultan al-Dawla, who was proclaimed at Baghdad. The city broke down: night-roaming gangs robbed openly, broke into houses and tortured owners for their hoards, burned the house of al-Sharif al-Murtada, and no caravan left Baghdad.
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The Great Snowfall of Baghdad in 398
On Wednesday, 11 Rabi' I 398, snow fell on Baghdad and lay on the ground a cubit deep in one place and a cubit and a half in another. It stayed for a week without melting, and people shovelled it from their roofs into the streets and alleys, while remnants lingered in one spot for about twenty days. Its fall reached Tikrit, and reports came of its falling at Wasit and in the area between al-Batiha, Basra, Kufa, 'Ukbara and Mihrubān.
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The Great Hailstorm of Iraq
In 420 giant hailstones fell at al-Nu'maniyya in Iraq — each a pound or more, one said to exceed a qintar, punching half a cubit into the ground like a couched bull; a fall the annals had never heard the like of, uprooting great olive and apple trees.
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The Baghdad Attestation on Fatimid Lineage
In Rabi' II 402 a document was drawn up in the chancery of the caliphate at Baghdad, attested and signed by the sharifs, judges, jurists, the pious and the certifying witnesses. In it they testified to discrediting the lineage of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt and the basis of their call, stating that they are ascribed to Daysan b. Sa'id, that their claim to descent from the sons of Ali b. Abi Talib is false and fabricated, and that this denial is widespread in the two holy cities and well known in the West. Among those who wrote their signatures were a large number of 'Alids, headed by the two sharifs al-Radi and al-Murtada and Ibn al-Azraq al-Musawi; among the judges Ibn al-Akfani, al-Kharzi and al-Suri; and among the jurists Abu Hamid al-Isfara'ini, Abu al-Husayn al-Qaduri, Abu 'Abd Allah al-Saymari and al-Bayda'i. It was read out in Basra and across the other regions.
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Sunni-Rafida Strife in Baghdad in 422
In Rabi' I 422 the strife between the Sunnis and the Rafida in Baghdad broke out again. It began when al-Khazraji, a Sufi known as al-Madhkur, went to the city's main mosque to read a decree from the caliphal residence, and common people shouted the names of Abu Bakr and Umar before him, saying 'this is a day of raids.' The people of Karkh opposed them and pelted them, the fighting spread, prayer was halted, and the house of al-Murtada was breached until his Turkish neighbours rescued him. The Samsamiyya was burned, and the houses and khanqahs of the Jews were plundered, on the report that they had helped the people of Karkh. The next day the common Sunnis assembled, joined by many Turks, marched on Karkh and burned and demolished its markets. The caliph al-Qadir wrote to al-Malik and to the Isfahsalar condemning this in the strongest terms and ordering the legal penalty for the offenders. Burned in the strife were the Bride Market, the Carpet Market, the Coppersmiths' Market, the Cloth-Beaters' Market and the silk quarters; the Friday mosque of Baratha was raided at night, its mats and rugs taken and its iron windows torn out. Then the people of Nahr Tabaq, al-Qala'in, Karkh and Bab al-Basra fought one another, and on the eastern bank the people of the Arms Market, the Tuesday Market, Bab al-Taq and the cobblers, the market of Yahya, al-Rahadhira, al-Furda and Darb Sulayman. The bridge was cut to separate the two sides; 'ayyarun entered the city, and plunder by day and sacking by night increased.
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Al-Baqillani counted the mujaddid of the fourth century, turn of 400 AH
The biographers counted the qadi Abu Bakr al-Baqillani 'the sword of the Sunna' and, on the soundest view, the mujaddid of the fourth Hijri century — some said the renewal was shared with Abu Sahl al-Su'luki. He was scrupulous: no lapse or fault was recorded of him, and the Shadharat quotes Ibn Taymiyya calling him 'the best of the mutakallimun attached to al-Ash'ari, with no equal before or after him'.
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The Baratha Mosque Affair in 420
The caliphal court arrested the preacher of Baratha mosque for excessive praise of Ali ibn Abi Talib in his sermon. On Friday 19 Dhu al-Qa'da a substitute, Abu Mansur ibn Tamam, preached in his place, reducing the mention of Ali and closing with 'O God, forgive the Muslims and whoever claims that Ali is his master (mawla).' The common people pelted him with clods, breaking his shoulder and teeth and drawing blood. The caliph's decree came out angrily, calling it 'a mosque that gathers unbelievers and heretics' and likening it to the Mosque of Dirar; about thirty men attacked the preacher's house, and Friday prayer was suspended for weeks until the Feast of Sacrifice (Eid al-Nahr), when the muezzin garbled the takbir and panic broke out. Shaykhs of Karkh and al-Sharif al-Murtada intervened, and a preacher was reinstated by a written decree dated the first of Muharram, exempted from striking the pulpit with a sword and from mentioning 'his master'.
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The battle of al-Uqhuwana and the killing of Salih ibn Mirdas
In Jumada I 420 Salih b. Mirdas, the new Mirdasid amir of Aleppo, met Anushtakin al-Dizbiri, al-Zahir's commander-in-chief, at al-Uqhuwana near Tiberias; the battle ended with Salih dead.
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Battle of Apamea
Draft card for the Battle of Apamea in 998, the Fatimid victory over Basil II's armies in Syria; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Ascalon (997)
Draft card for Battle of Ascalon (997); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Azaz
In 421 the emperor of Rum marched on Aleppo with a host the account puts at three hundred thousand, and was routed near Azaz by the Aleppines and frontier Muslims; the emperor escaped by night in disguise while his camp was plundered — Ibn al-Jawzi's account with its victors' figures.
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Battle of the Orontes
Draft card for the Battle of the Orontes in 994, Basil II's victory over the Fatimid army at Aleppo; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Riot at the funeral of Bint Abi Nuh and the plunder of the Dar al-Rum church
In Shawwal 403 the funeral of the wife of al-Munasih's secretary, Abu'l-Haja', was carried out by day, with keening women, drums, horns, monks, crosses and candles. A Hashimite man stoned the procession, and a servant of al-Munasih struck him with a mace and wounded his head; the bier fled into the church of Dar al-Rum, the Muslims pursued it and plundered the church and the houses beside it. A great strife followed: mushafs were raised in the markets, the mosque doors were shut, the caliph's palace was attacked and people stopped Friday prayer. The caliph, in anger, resolved to leave the city, until the secretary of al-Munasih was brought and handed over to the caliphal palace; the common people desisted, and the dhimmis were obliged to wear distinguishing marks.
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The Crowd's Burning of the Church of Qati'at al-Daqiq
On Monday, 7 Rabi' II in the year two and ninety, the common people of Baghdad rose against the Christians, looted the church at Qati'at al-Daqiq and burned it; it fell on a group of Muslims, men, boys and women, who perished.
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The Great Star with a Ray, in the Year Six and Ninety
A great star resembling Venus in size and brightness rose to the left of the qibla, shimmering, with a ray on the ground like moonlight, on the night of Friday at the beginning of Sha'ban in the year six and ninety; it stayed until mid-Dhu al-Qa'da, then set.
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The Endowment of Dar al-Ilm in al-Karkh
In 382 the vizier Abu Nasr Sabur ibn Ardashir bought a house in al-Karkh, rebuilt it as the Dar al-Ilm, endowed it upon the scholars and endowed with it many books.
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Al-Daraqutni takes the lead in iqra' at Baghdad in his last days, about 384/994
Al-Daraqutni excelled in the qira'at and in his last days took the lead in the public reading of the Qur'an. He said: al-Kattani and I used to hear hadith together, and people would say 'al-Kattani will come out the muhaddith of the town, al-Daraqutni its muqri' — and I came out the muhaddith and al-Kattani the muqri''. The qadi Abu al-Tayyib al-Tabari called him Commander of the Faithful in hadith, and al-Khatib said he was the singular one of his age and the imam of his time, to whom the science of transmitted reports, the defects of hadith and the names of its men came to an end, with truthfulness, reliability and sound belief.
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Death of the qadi Abu Bakr al-Baqillani in Baghdad, 23 Dhu'l-Qa'da 403/5 June 1013
The qadi Abu Bakr al-Baqillani died at the end of a Saturday, seven nights before the close of Dhu'l-Qa'da 403 — 23 Dhu'l-Qa'da 403, corresponding to 5 June 1013 — in Baghdad. His son al-Hasan led the funeral prayer; he was buried in his house in Darb al-Majus and later transferred to the Bab Harb cemetery, and poets of the age mourned him.
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Death of al-Shaykh al-Mufid and al-Sharif al-Murtada's succession, 413/1022
On the death of al-Shaykh al-Mufid in 413/1022 his pupil al-Sharif al-Murtada, 'Alam al-Huda — who had also studied under the Mu'tazili Abd al-Jabbar — took over the leadership of the capital's Imamis, and al-Tusi subsequently became his principal disciple.
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Al-Daraqutni dies and is buried at Maqbarat Ma'ruf, 7 Dhu al-Qa'da 385/995
Al-Daraqutni died at the end of Tuesday, 7 Dhu al-Qa'da 385, and was buried at Maqbarat Ma'ruf on the Wednesday; born on 5 Dhu al-Qa'da 306, he was seventy-nine years and two days old. The Shadharat has him buried near Ma'ruf al-Karkhi, aged eighty, with Ibn Shahin dying a month after him; al-Dhahabi gives the eighth of Dhu al-Qa'da.
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Qarwash al-Uqayli's khutba for al-Hakim at Mosul and Kufa
In Muharram 401 Abu'l-Mani' Qarwash ibn al-Muqallad gathered the people of Mosul, declared obedience to al-Hakim, ruler of Egypt, and established the da'wa for him at Mosul. He then went down to Kufa, al-Mada'in and al-Qasr, where the khutba was read for the Fatimid al-Hakim. The caliphal chancery at Baghdad alleged this, so al-Qadir sent to Amid al-Juyush and Baha al-Dawla, and dispatched to him the judge Abu Bakr al-Baqillani. Baha al-Dawla released a hundred thousand dinars for the army's expenses and wrote to Qarwash with a warning; Qarwash apologised, pledged to remove the matter, and restored the khutba to al-Qadir billah.
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The Massacre of the Hajj Caravan by Fulayta ibn al-Qarri
In 403 the Bedouin Fulayta b. al-Qarri' of Banu Khafaja spoiled the wells and blocked the Hajj caravan at the pass until they paid fifty thousand dinars; when they weakened with thirst he fell on them — some fifteen thousand pilgrims died. Fakhr al-Dawla's vizier Ali b. Mazid overtook the raiders near Basra, took Fulayta's father and fourteen men, and left them to die of thirst within sight of the Tigris.
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Ibn al-Haytham summoned to Cairo
The Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim summoned Ibn al-Haytham from Basra to Egypt to devise a regulation of the Nile flood; seeing the task impossible he feigned madness until al-Ḥākim's death in 1021.
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Ibn al-Wathhab's claim in Gilan to be al-Ta'i'
Abd Allah ibn Ja'far, known as Ibn al-Wathhab, escaped detention when al-Ta'i' was deposed. He moved about the lands; then al-Qadir sent for him, and he was brought in under arrest and imprisoned, but he escaped again and went to Gilan, claiming to be al-Ta'i' li-llah. He cited signs he knew from his familiarity with the caliphal palace, and they accepted and honoured him. Ibn al-Abbas, one of their amirs, married him to his daughter and proclaimed him in his town, and people of other regions obeyed him and paid him the tithe. Then some of them came to Baghdad, his true situation became clear to them, and they withdrew from him.
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Ibn Sina withdraws to Khuzistan
In January 1030, during the brief Ghaznavid occupation of Isfahan, Ibn Sina and Ala al-Dawla moved to Khuzistan, staying until the death of Mahmud of Ghazna two months later.
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The restoration of the khutba to Jalal al-Dawla in Baghdad
In 418 the Baghdad crowd pressed the caliph until Abu Kalijar was deposed and the khutba was restored to Jalal al-Dawla Abu Tahir.
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Building the fortified wall around the shrine of al-Ha'ir in Karbala
In Jumada I 400 construction began on a strong wall around the shrine at al-Ha'ir in Karbala. Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn al-Fadl ibn Sahlan had visited the shrine and vowed to build a stout wall protecting it against the many Bedouin raiders who came to the site. He fulfilled his vow: the wall was built, made firm, raised high and widened, and strong doors, some of iron, were set into it, so the shrine was fortified and the effect was good. The construction is also credited, under the year 403 in the biography of al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl ibn Sahlan, vizier of Sultan al-Dawla, to him; he was of the same house as Ibn Sahlan.
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Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi is born, 392/1002
The hafiz Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn Thabit, known as al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, was born in 392. His father Abu al-Hasan al-Khatib had heard al-Kattani and served as preacher of the village of Darzijan, one of the villages of Iraq below Baghdad on the west bank of the Tigris.
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Al-Khatib's first audition, aged eleven, c. 403/1012
Abu al-Hasan al-Khatib pressed his son Abu Bakr to attend hadith auditions while still a child, and he began hearing at eleven years old — about the year 403 — among the earliest beginners of his generation.
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Al-Khatib journeys to Nishapur and Isfahan at twenty-three, 415/1024
Al-Khatib travelled to Nishapur at twenty-three and then on to Isfahan. He had consulted al-Barqani whether to journey to Ibn al-Nahhas in Egypt or to the circle of al-Asamm's companions at Nishapur; al-Barqani told him that in Egypt there was one man and the journey would be lost if he missed him, while Nishapur held many — and wrote with him a letter of recommendation to Abu Nu'aym.
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Al-Khatib journeys to Basra at twenty, 412/1021
Al-Khatib travelled to Basra at twenty years old and heard there Abu 'Umar al-Qasimi ibn Ja'far al-Hashimi, the transmitter of the Sunan, 'Ali ibn al-Qasim al-Shahid, al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Saburi and a circle of others.
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Kitāb al-Manāẓir composed
In Cairo Ibn al-Haytham composed the Book of Optics, his greatest work — built on experiment rather than conjecture, and it remade the science of vision into the seventeenth century.
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Al-Mawardi as teacher, then qadi at Ustuwa and at Baghdad
After completing his studies at Basra and Baghdad, al-Mawardi became a teacher; the breadth of his learning drew the attention of the authorities, and he was appointed qadi in several towns — among them Ustuwa near Nishapur — before holding the office at Baghdad itself.
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The burning of a codex attributed to Ibn Mas'ud and the Karkh strife
In Rajab 398 a strife broke out at Qati'at al-Rabi' between the people of al-Karkh and the jurists, after an assault on Abu Abd Allah ibn al-Nu'man, known as Ibn al-Mu'allim, the Shi'i jurist. A codex was produced which was said to be Ibn Mas'ud's and which differed from the codices in use. The notables, judges and jurists gathered and it was presented to them; Abu Hamid al-Isfara'ini and the jurists advised burning it, and it was burned in their presence. Then a man who had cursed whoever burned it was killed, and fighting broke out between the people of al-Karkh and the people of Bab al-Basra, Bab al-Sha'ir and al-Qala'in, shouting 'Hakim, O Mansur'. Word reached the caliph, who was angered; he set guards at his gate to support the Sunnis, and what lay along the Nahr al-Dajaj was burned. Ibn al-Mu'allim left the city on the night of Sunday, seven days before the end of Ramadan.
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Al-Qadir's order of repentance for the Mu'tazila in Baghdad and Khurasan
In 408 the Commander of the Faithful al-Qadir billah required repentance of the Hanafi jurists among the Mu'tazila in Baghdad; they professed their return and disavowed i'tizal. He forbade them to speak, teach or dispute in defence of i'tizal or rafd, or any doctrine contrary to the Sunna, and took their signed statements to that effect. Yamin al-Dawla Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin obeyed the caliph's order in his domains in Khurasan: he killed, imprisoned and exiled the Mu'tazila, the Rafida and the Isma'ilis, and ordered them cursed from the pulpits of the Muslims.
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Al-Ta'i' deposed, al-Qadir acclaimed, 381
In Ramadan 381 Baha' al-Dawla's men seized the caliph al-Ta'i' in his palace, wrapped him in a cloak and carried him to the treasury at Dar al-Mamlaka; the deed of self-deposition ceding the rule to al-Qadir was taken to him and he signed it, the khutba was held in al-Qadir's name, and the whole contents of the caliphal palace — vessels, robes, arms, servants and stores — were carried off while Baha' al-Dawla toured it hall by hall. Al-Qadir had himself been a fugitive in the Batiha with Muhdhib al-Dawla for nearly two years under al-Ta'i'.
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Al-Qadir's book on the fundamentals (al-usul)
Al-Khatib: al-Qadir was marked by piety, night-prayer, abundant alms and good conduct; he studied fiqh under the Shafi'i master Abu Bishr al-Harawi and authored a book of usul containing the Companions' virtues and the takfir of the Mu'tazila and the Quran-creators — read every Friday in the ahl al-hadith circle at al-Mahdi's mosque before the people.
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Al-Qadir's recantation decree against the innovators (408 AH)
408: al-Qadir bi'llah made the Hanafi Mu'tazili faqihs recant — they 'showed return and disavowed i'tizal' — and bound them in writing never to teach or debate i'tizal, rafd or 'doctrines contrary to Islam' on pain of exemplary punishment; Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna emulated the decree in Khurasan with killing, crucifixion, burning, minbar-curses and expulsion of Mu'tazilis, Rafidis, Ismailis, Qarmatis, Jahmis and Mushabbihas — 'and it became a sunna in Islam'.
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The public declaration of al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah as heir, 421
When rumours spread about the illness of the caliph al-Qadir, he convened a general assembly on Sunday 18 Jumada I 421. The Turkish administrator Abu al-Ghana'im spoke in praise of the choice of Prince Abu Ja'far, and al-Qadir said, 'If God has permitted it, then we too permit it'; Abu Ja'far sat on the throne. On Friday, with seven days of the month left, he was proclaimed with the title 'al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, heir to the Muslims', and it was struck on the coinage. On the 12th of Jumada I a letter from Jalal al-Dawla arrived asking permission to carry out the designation of the heir; it was read out to the people on Tuesday in the Hall of Audience, with a detailed preamble, followed by the caliph's endorsement.
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Revolt of Tyre
Draft card for the Revolt of Tyre in 996–998, the townspeople's rising under 'Allaqa against the Fatimids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Al-Shirazi's arrival in Baghdad, 415/1024
In 415/1024 Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi was in Baghdad, attending the classes of the jurist al-Qazwini (d. 440/1048), a proponent of the legal thinking developed by al-Baqillani, and — more significantly — becoming the leading disciple and accredited assistant (mu'id) of the qadi Abu al-Tayyib al-Tabari (d. 450/1058).
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Al-Shirazi's legal studies at Shiraz and Basra, 410-415/1019-1024
From 410/1019 to 415/1024 Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi — who had begun fiqh in his native Firuzabad — pursued his legal education at Shiraz and then at Basra under various Shafi'i masters, each of whom he later gave a biographical entry in his Tabaqat al-fuqaha.
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Siege of Aleppo
Draft card for the Siege of Aleppo in 994–95, the Fatimids' failed assault on the Hamdanids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Smallpox and epidemic deaths, 422–425
The deaths ran on for four years. In 422 rain came late, bodies dried out, coughing and sickness multiplied, to the point that the sale of broth boomed. In 423 the epidemic spread over India, Ghazna, Khurasan, Jurjan and al-Rayy; forty thousand were buried in Isfahan within a few days, and in the land of al-Jibal, while four thousand boys died of smallpox in Mosul, and smallpox swept Baghdad from April to October so that no house was spared. In 424 smallpox befell the caliph himself when he entered the bath, and he was lifted out of it. In 425 death multiplied, especially among women in al-Hawaniq, and it was said that in Dhu al-Hijjah seventy thousand died in Baghdad.
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Deposition of al-Ta'i' and Accession of al-Qadir
In 381 al-Ta'i' was seized — for jailing one of Baha' al-Dawla's intimates: the Daylamites dragged him from his throne, wrapped him in a cloak and bore him off while the city shook; they wrote on him his self-deposition for al-Qadir, witnessed by the grandees on 19 Sha'ban. He lived honoured in al-Qadir's house — once complaining when brought a half-burnt candle — till he died on Fitr night 393, al-Qadir praying over him and al-Sharif al-Radi elegising him; he was fiercely set against the Alids, and awe fell so low in his days the poets satirised him.
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Low Water and Dredging of the Tigris in 400 AH
In Rabi' I 400 the Tigris fell to an extraordinary low, such as had never been known: islands appeared in it that had not been there before, and boats were stopped from sailing from Anah and al-Rashidiyya on the upper Tigris, so dredging was carried out at this spot. The dredging of the Tigris was remarked and marvelled at, for the river had never been dredged before except in this year.
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The Flooding of Baghdad as the Tigris Rises Twenty-One Cubits
In Rajab 401 the Tigris rose, and the rise continued until Ramadan, reaching twenty-one cubits. Water entered most of the riverside houses and reached Qati'at al-Daqiq, Bab al-Tibn, Bab al-Sha'ir and Bab al-Taq; at Qati'at al-Daqiq it overflowed onto the Mosque of al-Kaff, wrecking it and carrying away its upper parts and roofs. Breaches burst open in the banks, and villages and fortresses were drowned.
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Al-Tusi's arrival in Baghdad, 408/1017
After completing his preliminary studies at Tus, Abu Ja'far al-Tusi left a basically Shafi'i Khurasan, increasingly under Ghaznavid control, for Baghdad where the Shi'i Buyids were dominant, in 408/1017; there he studied under leading Imami masters — Ibn Abi Jid, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Musa al-Ahwazi, al-Ghada'iri and Ibn Abdun — and above all al-Shaykh al-Mufid, of whom despite his youth he quickly became one of the favourite pupils.
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The Waqisa Disaster and the Khafaja Interception of the Pilgrims
In Safar of the year 403 Abu Fulayta ibn al-Qawi of the Banu Khafaja forestalled the pilgrims at Waqisa with six hundred men. They drained the water in the reservoirs of al-Barmaki and al-Rayyan, silted them up, and threw colocynth into the wells. When the pilgrims reached the Aqaba he held them back, barred their passage and demanded fifty thousand dinars. When thirst reached them he attacked, seized their loads and money, and about fifteen thousand people perished; the amir of the pilgrims, Abu al-Harith al-Alawi, escaped on foot. He then wrote to Fakhr al-Mulk Ali ibn Mazyad al-Asadi, who fell on the Khafaja in the desert near Basra, killed some of them, captured Abu Fulayta and fourteen men, and recovered what he could.
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The Shi'i–Sunni war at Wasit (406–407 AH)
406–407: Wasit's confessional war burned out the Shi'i and Zaydi quarters and drove their notables and Alawids into exile — they fled to Banu Mazyad begging his aid, an early sign of the Mazyadids' rise as patrons of the Alawids.
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The Establishment of the Day of the Cave in Baghdad as a Counterpart to the Day of Ghadir
The custom of the Shi'a of al-Karkh and Bab al-Taq was to raise domes, hang cloths and display decorations on the day of Ghadir, kindle fire on its eve and slaughter a camel on its morning. The other group wanted to do something in response, so it claimed that the eighth day of that month was the day on which the Prophet and Abu Bakr were in the cave, and it did with that day what the Shi'a had done. Opposite the day of Ashura it set a day eight days later, attributing it to the killing of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, and its people visited his grave at Maskin as the grave of al-Husayn is visited. The Day of the Cave began on Friday, four days before the end of Dhu al-Hijja in the year eighty-nine.
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The discovery of al-Zubayr's grave at Basra, 386
In Muharram 386 the people of Basra reported uncovering an old grave containing a fresh corpse in its clothes and sword, said to be al-Zubayr b. al-'Awwam; they re-shrouded and reburied it at al-Mirbad between the two lanes, the amir built over it and made the spot a mosque, moving in candelabra, vessels, mats and pillars, appointing wardens and settling waqfs on it.