al-Mutawakkil ala Allah II, Abd al-Aziz ibn Ya'qub

Al-Mutawakkil ala Allah II, Abu al-Izz Abd al-Aziz ibn Ya'qub ibn al-Mutawakkil, an Abbasid caliph in Cairo between 884 and 903 AH. ¹

He was born in 819 AH. His mother was the daughter of a Turkish pilgrim-chief. His father had not held the caliphate. Al-Suyuti says he grew up honoured and loved by the elite and the common people for his qualities, humility and good manners, and that he took up learning and read with al-Suyuti's father and others. His uncle al-Mustakfi married him to his daughter, who bore him a righteous son, so he was, in al-Suyuti's phrase, "a Hashimite between two Hashimites". ¹

He was given the allegiance on Monday, the twenty-sixth of Muharram 884 AH in the presence of the sultan and the judges, a day to be remembered. In his days Sultan Qaytbay made the pilgrimage, a thing not known for any king in more than a hundred years. He distributed six thousand dinars in Medina and five thousand in Mecca. ¹

He died on Wednesday at the end of Muharram 903 AH, and he appointed his son Ya'qub as successor, with the title al-Mustamsik billah. ¹