al-Rashid bi-llah Mansur ibn al-Mustarshid
Abbasid caliph [529–530], hailed on his father's murder; deposed by Mas'ud's judicial instrument in 530, he ravaged Azerbaijan till his own attendants killed him in 532 — 'Joseph's beauty and Hatim's bounty'.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 5 in the chain · 1135–1136 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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The deposition of the caliph al-Rashid and the bay'a to al-Muqtafi, 530
In 530 conflict broke out between Sultan Mas'ud and caliph al-Rashid bi'llah; armies were mustered, the caliph left for Mosul, and Mas'ud entered Baghdad, seized the palace, and produced al-Mustarshid's letter — whoever leaves Baghdad to fight the Sultan has deposed himself — so the jurists who were asked ruled for deposition, and he was deposed on Monday 16 Dhu al-Qa'da by the hakim's ruling and the fuqaha's fatwa, while his uncle al-Muqtafi was summoned and given the caliphate's bay'a.
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Battle of Qinnasrin (1135)
Draft card for the Battle of Qinnasrin in 1135, a clash between Zengi and Antioch; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ibn al-Jawzi begins his career under the caliph al-Muktafi
Ibn al-Jawzi began his scholarly and preaching career in the caliphate of al-Muktafi (530–555/1136–1160), thanks to the patronage of the Hanbali vizier Ibn Hubayra, holding a waʿẓ session every Friday in Ibn Hubayra's own house.
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Mas'ud's seizure of the caliphal property and al-Muqtafi's reply
Mas'ud stripped the caliphal palace — four mares and eight mules left in the stable — then in 531 seized all the caliph's estates and demanded a hundred thousand dinars. Al-Muqtafi's answer: 'What wonder — you know what befell al-Mustarshid's wealth at your hands, what al-Rashid took, and that you seized the furniture, the mint, the estates and the tolls. From what shall we raise it? Nothing remains but to hand you the palace itself — I have sworn to God not to take a grain wrongfully from the Muslims'. The sultan desisted, and in Jumada I the caliph's lands were restored.
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The deposition of al-Rashid billah by a jurists' attestation
On sultan Mas'ud's return, al-Rashid went out to Mosul; the judges, notables and scholars wrote an instrument of testimony — injustice, seizure of wealth, bloodshed, wine — and asked the jurists whether such a one's imamate holds and whether the sultan of the day may depose him. They fatwa'd the deposition lawful; Ibn al-Karkhi, judge of the city, ruled it, and his uncle Muhammad ibn al-Mustazhir was hailed al-Muqtafi on 16 Dhu'l-Qa'da 530. Ibn al-Jawzi cites al-Suli: people say every sixth caliph is deposed.
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Al-Sam'ani's first great hadith journey, 529-538/1135-1143
Al-Sam'ani travelled before and after thirty to Khurasan, Isfahan, Iraq, the Hijaz, al-Sham, Tabaristan and Transoxiana. On this first great journey (529-538/1135-1143) he went via Isfahan and Hamadan to Baghdad and its environs, to Mecca and Medina, to Damascus and Jerusalem — which at his visit in 536/1141 had been in Crusader hands for forty-two years — and north and east to Khwarazm, Samarqand, Bukhara, Balkh and Herat.
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Siege of Baghdad
Draft card for the Siege of Baghdad in 1136, Mas'ud the Seljuk's entry into the Abbasid capital; its sources are not yet checked on the page.